Your online brand reputation is everything!

Ann Smarty‘s @seosmarty fabulous article about building a stronger online brand inspired this short overview. She offers her expert insight in detail in her article published on Search Engine Watch. Her article inspired us to post the highlights here along with some of our own expert insights.

Brand reputation is everything!

This six-step how-to article is all about creating a stronger online brand. It addresses how to monitor mentions of your brand and how you can prevent brand crisis by taking these steps to build a stronger brand in advance.

Here’s a quick highlight with our insights. To get additional details on this topic, head over to Search Engine Watch to get the details.

1. Setup brand monitoring systems

One of the best tools Google Alerts is easy and free. It has many, many applications. A few others you might like to try:

• Brand Mentions
• Buzzsumo
• Hooks

2. Research your brand’s keywords

For the Apple brand, these would be keywords like Apple Watch, iPhone 7, iPad Pro… you get the picture. Ann even provides a detailed guide on how to research your keywords.

3. Monitor your competitors

This is such an important practice for so many reasons. Ann recommends SE Ranking. Twitter sentiment research will help you keep an eye on what your competitors are up to and how well they are performing.

One of my favorite tools is SEMrush.com.   They have a pretty powerful tool and you can set up email notifications. Once you set it up,  you can easily monitor your competitors without much time or effort. Here’s what SEMrush recommends you look for:

• Identify key performance metrics – these are usually revenue generating metrics like:
  • traffic to the site or specific page
  • PPC traffic
  • total page views
  • bounce rate
  • exit rate, etc…
• Use Segmentation – This increases relevancy and reduces cost. Divide your target into smaller segments based on demographic or localization. You’ll be able to drive more targeted revenue for less money. Once you’ve identified your target market, indentify  competitors who have a stronghold in that targeted area.
• Set your strategy, constantly analyze data, refine your approach, repeat – Your competitors, not to mention those new to the market, will always be taking their strategies to the next level. Stay on your toes, be nimble and ready to pivot.

4. Negative feedback is an opportunity

Handle it that way. You can handle negative feedback with authenticity and respectfulness. If appropriate, use respectful humor. Never, ever delete the post or mention. Never block the messenger, either.

5. Ensure brand consistency

Your visual and culture identity must remain consistent whether in the online or offline world. From print to web page and office environment to email and social channels, keep it consistent. Ann’s article provides additional details and some great branding tools to help you here.

6. Always monitor website security

This is an often an after thought… like after you have an issue that compromises your presence, your brand and even your brand integrity. Website security is a full-time job. Hackers have created a lot of jobs for a lot of people – from developers who do nothing more than write code to block the various hacks that are issued nearly daily to specialists in server-level security, to security plugins and more.

Here’s a great How-to WordPress Security article (written by our web hosting security experts) that lays out 7 easy steps for WordPress do-it-yourselfers to keep their sites secure.

Your brand reputation is directly connected to increasing your lead generation and customer conversion results.

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