Do you feel like your online reputation has suffered a blow? If someone has left you a negative review, don’t panic! It isn’t the end of the world.

Understandably, someone slandering your business online can be frustrating. But before you stress out over it, it’s important to assess the situation and take a proactive approach!

Make an Assessment of the Damage to Your Reputation Online: Is It Even that Bad?

So, is your reputation really damaged? A snide, negative comment left by an unhappy customer or jealous competitor is a bummer, but is it really that big of a deal?

Think about the review that was left. Does it look like it could be spam? Google tries to filter out these types of comments as they don’t find them relevant. Does the reviewer have any credibility? Do they mention your specific market specialties in these comments? Without an actual history of leaving reviews, Google won’t take their word for it. Plus, a negative comment can be a bummer, but if they don’t mention specifics, the review won’t hold much weight with potential clients.

Once you have a good grasp of the situation, you’ll not only be less stressed, but you’ll be able to come up with a plan of action. Try applying a combination of the following strategies where you see fit.

Emphasize the Positive with Local Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a marketing tool used to help your business rank higher on Google and increase traffic to your web pages. It can also become an effective strategy to bring the positive and trustworthy information about your company upfront and centre. As a result, this will push everything else back, making it negligible and difficult find.

Encourage Your Clients to Leave You Reviews and Carefully Manage Them

Having good review management tactics in place can help you promote the reviews you actually want people to see all while properly dealing with the ones you don’t. Always encourage clients to leave you amazing reviews, especially if you’ve visibly impressed them. Before you know it, those negative, spammy-looking ones will seem irrelevant.

Create High-Quality, SEO-Optimized Content

One of the easiest ways to dramatically boost your online reputation is to have high-quality, professional content on your website. You can build amazing credibility like this in no time! Not only will people now find positive reviews when they search for you. They’ll also find engaging, well-written content from you that will overshadow any doubt that may have been cast by one measly bad review.

Hire a Trusted Online Reputation Management Service like LinkNow Media

In the end, it might not be the bad review that’s causing your reputation to suffer, but the lack of professional online presence. By enlisting a company like LinkNow Media to do the work for you, you’ll be allowing your business to flourish and keeping those untrustworthy reviews in the dark.

Do you need our help implementing online reputation management strategies? Want to learn more about Local SEO? For general inquiries, email website@linknowmedia.com. For more information on Local SEO, email mylocalseo@linknowmedia.com. Don’t forget to leave a comment!