What Is Search Engine Reputation Management

What do you do when you first hear about a brand or person that you’re not super-familiar with? You probably Google them. Your customers and followers do the same.

If someone searches your name or business and finds negative press, bad reviews, or outdated information, it can immediately create doubt. For a personal brand, this could result in losing credibility as a thought leader. If you’re a business, you may lose customers or, worse, push them towards competitors.


Search engine reputation management helps keep a positive online presence through digital PR and positive reviews. It can translate to more customers and revenue.

Speaking of revenue, search engine reputation management helps you keep an eye on what’s being said about your brand online. It also ensures the presence of a Google Business Profile, especially if you’re a local business.


Google itself reports that customers are 2.7 times more likely to think of your brand as reputable if it has a complete Google Business Profile. If you’re on top of your search engine reputation management game, you’re likely to earn trust and get conversions.

Your search engine reputation doesn’t only affect current interactions but also shapes future possibilities. As an individual, it can impact the ventures that come your way.


Employers, partners, or collaborators often perform online research before making decisions. Negative content or press about you could lead to being overlooked for job offers, promotions, or partnerships.


Similarly, customers and investors search for businesses on the web before committing to a purchase or investment. Even your future employees may base their decision to join your company on what they find online.


If you have a poor search engine reputation, you could lose not only clients but also top talent and investment opportunities. On the other hand, a positive online presence opens doors to new ventures and scaled revenue generation.

Search engines don’t just display content; they rank it. Unfortunately, negative content often gets clicks, which can push it higher in search rankings. That makes it more likely to get attention from searchers.

However, if you’re doing search engine reputation management right, you can promote positive and SEO-optimized content. As this content outranks the negative one, you get to show your audience what you want them to see, i.e., credible information about your business.

The frequency of how often you or your business are mentioned online will depend on your popularity and size. If you’re a big business or a popular professional, you can expect a new mention to pop up almost every day. Smaller businesses are mentioned less frequently.

It can be hard to keep track of these mentions manually. You can use an online reputation management tool or social media monitoring software like Brandwatch to do the job for you.

These tools send you email alerts when your brand or name is mentioned online. You can track online mentions across both social media and search engines. Many of these tools, such as Semrush Brand Monitoring, also let you track competitor mentions to see if they’re up to something new that you should be aware of.

A big part of creating a positive search engine reputation is creating high-authority content. After all, content is what will make you rank on search engines.

The kind of content you create will depend on your niche and audience. For example, as a retail business, you could create buying guides, comparison articles, blogs, infographics, and how-to videos. Similarly, SaaS startups can create webinars, case studies, whitepapers, and eBooks.

If you’re a professional, you can establish your authority and thought leadership through a number of avenues, such as:


LinkedIn: 
The social media platform is perfect for sharing your industry insights and knowledge. Publish articles or your opinions here.


Forums: 
You can also publish content on Medium or industry-relevant forums that are ranked by search engines.


Personal Blog: 
Many professionals create their personal blogs or websites where they show their expertise through content.


Podcasts: 
Hosting or being a guest on podcasts can also be an effective way of creating high-quality content.

The search for a brand usually shows reviews from the following sources:


• Google Business Profile: For a local business.

• Third-Party Review Sites: For larger businesses with multiple branches.


If there are no customer reviews for your brand or they’re largely negative, you’re going to lose potential customers. You need to prompt customers to leave reviews. For example, you can send an email after a purchase, asking them to share their experience on your Google Business profile or third-party review sites.

Social media presence also impacts your reputation on search engines. Google has started showing social media posts on SERPs now. For example, you’ll come across short videos, X posts, Instagram content, and other social media content from brands when you search for them or their product or service.


So, you must have a solid reputation on social media platforms. Be active on the platforms where you have an account and respond to followers’ comments and messages promptly.


Also, share helpful content that people engage with. Posts with a large number of likes or engagements are also likely to show up in SERPs.

Brands and individuals often struggle to appear on SERPs, especially when they’re not as big as their competitors. If you’re a new business, there won’t be much for anyone to say about you. How would you then make a place for yourself on the first page?


The best approach in this regard is digital PR. Basically, large publications and notable industry figures write positively about your brand. They can mention you in their articles or blogs and backlink to your website. Due to their high domain authority, you benefit from their exposure.


At Maximatic Media, we do exactly this for businesses and individuals. We help your business get featured in top publications like Forbes so that when someone searches for you, a positive mention is right up there on the first page. Backlinks from sites like Forbes and the NY Times also give your website the link juice it needs to climb up the ranks on SERPs.

Negative comments are inevitable. You can’t avoid them since there will always be someone who’s unhappy with your product or service. However, ignoring them is a mistake you shouldn’t make.

Respond to these reviews to let your customers and clients know that you care about their feedback. Offer them a solution and try to turn the negative review into a positive one.

However, if a review is in bad taste or has been left with malicious intent, simply responding to it professionally won’t be enough. As the first resort, you can report it if it has been left on your Google Business Profile.