Organic SEO Masterlist – 16-Point Checklist For Total Organic SEO Management



Goal: To have multiple listings on Google page one for each keyword/keyword phrase (one out of 10/25, (10 or 25 keywords/keyword phrases))

1. Site analytics, how can you know what time it is if you never look at a clock? Install Google Analytics, minimally. Consider hitslink.com or visistat.com for more comprehensive analytics and lead generation from your traffic.

2. Keywords, analysis, identification of your top 10/25. Use free Google AdWords keyword tool, Wordtracker if you want to go deeper. Keep in mind searcher intent when choosing keywords.

3. On-page optimization of website, spider friendly (see ‘b’ below), alt tags, search function on all pages, keyword optimized page titles, meta description on main pages, keyword optimized/organized, H1, H2 tags, bold text blocks, internal linkage, multiple forms, best practices; fast load time, sufficient content (quality AND quantity (75 ppgs., w/keyword optimized navigation)

a. Make sure site is optimized for mobile, use mobify.me/. Over 30% of all searches are done on mobile phones, and statistics show that this number will continue to rise, with most searches being done via mobile devices within a few years.

b. Google “Search Engine Spider Simulator” and run site through simulator.

4. Press releases, content development, writing, distribution, prweb.com, marketwire.com; target of 1 release per month, keyword optimized headlines.

5. Write articles, w/text links, optimized titles. Use EzineArticles.com, articlesbase.com and/or isnare.com for distribution.

6. Videos, content development, creation, distribution, w/text links, optimized titles. Distributed via tubemogul.com.

7. Podcasts, content development, creation, distribution. Record on computer, convert written articles and/or press releases to podcasts.

8. Directories, manual, automated, submission, confirmation. Google competitors, see what directories they are listed in and submit your site. Be careful with directory submission services, automated directory submission is not recommended.

9. Forum/Blog Participation. Registration/regular participation in major industry relevant blogs/forums; avoid ‘nofollow’ links. (get SEO Moz toolbar to highlight nofollows)

10. Dominate Local Search [http://www.walkerseo.com/local-search-advertising.html] (unless you need traffic nationally or globally), list site on Yahoo! Directory ($300.00 yr.) local.com, ibegin.com, ultimatebusinesslisting.org, merchantcircle, localeze.com. Google maps, Bing and Yahoo! (Site Explorer)

11. Social media/Viral, AddThis button (www.addthis.com) to all articles/blog posts/pages on website.

Blog w/RSS feed, submit to Yahoo blogs, technorati, stumbleupon, etc.

12. Content cross-posting: press release goes to blog on site, on MerchantCircle.com on Facebook page,etc.

13. Client reviews and/or testimonials in multiple locations, duplication OK, feature clients on website. Cross-post reviews, redundancy OK. Client writes once, you repost.

14.”Projects”, “Featured Clients”, “Testimonials” or “Case Studies” pages on website, updated regularly. This SEO technique can be applied to almost any business. Designed to showcase whatever product you sell

15. Emulate written releases with video releases when possible, distribute via tubemogul.com

16. Regular update of sitemap.

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SEO Tools – How to Get Number One On Google



Ranking on top of the results on Google is every SEO’s dream. With the advent of various SEO tools and Internet marketing techniques, SEO has grown leaps and bounds from pageranks and keyword density. Apart from analyzing your own website with the number of SEO tools online, you need to analyze your competition also.

SEO Tools to Evaluate and Help Your Website

It is extremely important to submit your website to the major search engines especially Google, Yahoo and Bing. You can use the Website Grader to find out how well your website scores at no cost at all. A sample report contains information and tips on how to create content, optimize and promote your website and conversion forms.

W3C validations are the norms to ensure that your website loads faster, has lesser page errors which assure better SEO. W3C CSS validation also helps your website.

SEO Digger is a free keyword research and rank checker tool which provides you details about top keywords and combination used for your website.

Xinu Returns is an excellent site stats checker which will give you a report of link backs, indexed pages and ranking.

Among the keyword research tools, Google AdWords Keyword Tool remains an invaluable resource for SEOs as it helps generate keyword suggestions based on the seed keywords or even the content on your website. Google Analytics also lets you garner insights about the search terms people are using to find your site.

So how do you use these SEO tools for your benefit? Use them for productive keyword research and help to uncover opportunities to tap into which you have not used before.

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Internet Marketing – What You Need To Know



Search engine marketing, email marketing, publicity, business partnership building are few tactics of Internet marketing. Advertising also plays a very important aspect, when it comes to expanding your business in the field of internet marketing and the advertising should be an aggressive one. Though it cost a bomb, it helps in business expansion but it will prove fatal if you’re not careful.

Diversification is the key to protecting your business from the resulting impacts of change in the marketplace. Increasing the number of products and services you offer is one way to diversify your business. Another easy way is to use a variety of different marketing methods. By diversifying you can decrease the impact on your business if sales of one product decline or if a marketing method flops.

Remember that customers are also prospects. Keep in touch with them, and anticipate their needs by finding or developing other products or services to assist them. It is easier to sell to a returning customer than to a new one. Refrain from making exaggerated claims, even if they are true. A presumptuous claim instills doubt in your potential customer’s mind and puts the sale in jeopardy. Scale down bold claims so they’re more believable.

For an offer that can’t be resisted, consider combining special discount prices with special valuable bonuses in the same offer. Develop up to five different special offers, and then use them one at a time, each with a deadline. Once the first offer expires, replace it with the next one on a new deadline, when you reach the end cycle back through the offers with new deadlines. Using this pattern helps you generate sales through the use of the special offers, without having to constantly come up with something new.

Do you attract numerous potential customers for your product or service, only to find out that time and time again these promising leads don’t possess sufficient capital to follow through on an investment? Perhaps you should consider new markets. Focus on markets that have an encouraging need for what you provide, and the dollars to follow through. A wise idea would be to broaden the appeal of your product or service by promising unique benefits that cannot or will not be mimicked by your competitors.

Advertising copy produces the biggest response when each reader can believe the message was written specifically for him or her. As you write any sales message, visualize you’re writing to one person instead of to a large group of people. This will help you write in a less formal and more personal style.

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SEO – Internal Link Optimization



All search engine optimizers know the importance of optimizing the anchor text of external links pointing to your Web pages. It makes for good SEO off page optimization. But it is also very important that as an SEO, that you optimize the internal link structure of your Web site pages. The home/index page of your Web site is the most important page of your site. And so it is very important that *all* of your internal pages have a link pointing back to your Web site’s home page. Another very important SEO internal link optimization tip is to have your main keywords and keyword phrases in the url’s of your site’s internal pages.

The anchor text of a link, according to Wikipedia, is “The anchor text or link label is the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink.” Search engines use the anchor text to help determine what a given Web page is about. It’s very important to note here that if you link to a Web page calling it “Red Widgets”, then that page had better be all about “Red Widgets.” There is no way to know how much weight or importance is placed on internal links by the major search engines. But it is obviously important.

Since it is important to use keyword rich anchor text in the internal link structure of your Web site, you need to make sure that all of your sidebar links, menus and also links within the main body content of your Web pages contain keywords in the anchor text of your internal links. Always make sure that the actual content of any given Web page matches what the anchor text is calling that page. Using our “Red Widgets” example from above, if you link to a page on your site using “Red Widgets” as the anchor text, then the keyword phrase “Red Widgets” should be in the Title of that page, in the Meta keywords and Meta description tags, in header tags, in your image alt tags, in the main body text area and so on.

It is also important that you include a Site Map page with your Web site. And of course you will want to include *all* of the pages to your Web site on this page. It is very important that you don’t have any orphan pages, that is pages to your site; but that are not linked to from any other site page. Use descriptive keywords to describe your pages. Instead of linking back to “Home”, instead use something like “Widgets Home.” Also, everytime that you come to a keyword or key phrase in your pages, turn those keywords into clickable anchor text that link to the relevant pages in question.

To have good internal link optimization for your Web site, you should:

•Link all site pages back to your home page.
•When you have keywords in your text that pertain to another page on your Web site, then make that be a link to the other relevant page.
•Use your main keywords in the anchor text of your internal links.
•Make sure that the pages you link to are 100% about that topic.
•Include a Site Map page to your site and use keyword descriptive anchor text.
•Don’t have any orphan pages to your site.
•Use your *main* keyword to link to your home/index page, such as “Main Keyword Home.”
Remember that the links within your Website count just as much as external links to your pages do.

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SEO Optimization Services



Website owners use SEO optimization services to increase targeted traffic to their website. E-Commerce has opened up a host of services for business owners who want to establish an online presence and make their names known. If you are one such business owner, you will be interested in the information in this article. There are many techniques designed to help drive traffic to your site and ultimately encourage customers to buy whatever it is you are selling. Articles, press releases, classified ads, and video marketing are among the different ways SEO optimization services can market your website.

SEO optimization services make use of article marketing. SEO articles are a great way to get the word out and allow you to showcase your knowledge in your field of expertise. Since you do not have the advantage of face-to-face contact with your potential customers over the Internet, you need a way to let them know you are well-informed, competent, and that they really should buy from you. Articles provide a great avenue for doing just that. When you write, keep the content informative and factual. Don’t be afraid to impart your knowledge to others as it may just send them to your site. It will also show them you have a vested interest in your business and in your customers.

Press releases are also another great way SEO optimization services promote your business. There are many places to post optimized press releases, which should be eye-catching and interesting. Remember, optimized press releases are most often used to advertise an event or newsworthy business event, so you will probably need fewer press releases than SEO articles.

Classified ads are another effective way SEO optimization services can advertise your products and services. While they are not all free, there are many places on the Internet where you can post classified ads for free. The ad just needs to be written and the time spent to post. Take advantage of this and post ads that were designed with selling in mind. Remember to be persuasive without being pushy so as to gently urge others to go to your site and take advantage of what you have to offer right away. If you need help writing classified ads, you can hire an SEO copywriting service.

Create your own YouTube video. YouTube has become a wildly popular medium for posting videos of all sorts in a variety of categories. It’s free to post and free for others to access. SEO optimization services can create and post optimized YouTube videos, which advertise your business. Put together a video that advertises your business as a whole. Tutorials in your industry work well because people actively search videos to learn something new. Either before, during, or after the video, you can mention your business. Make sure the content is engaging. This means taking full advantage of the opportunity to use informative audio along with stimulating visuals to grab the attention of others and hold it. Post it on YouTube along with a direct link to your site and see what a difference it can make.

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SEO Strategy for Social Media Management



Amazing is the power and beauty of integrating search engine optimization strategy with social media management. Optimizing social sites with specific key phrases and proper linking can dramatically increase online exposure and brand awareness. Google is increasingly listing social media sources on search results pages and plans to do more. Therein lies the opportunity. By capturing multiple page one listings with multiple messages from differing sources and catching consumers in the act of looking for a solution, you become the solution.

The power positions in this game are the first three organic listings on Google. These spots receive clicks from almost seventy percent of all search traffic, as opposed to PPC ads, whose combined ten, page one, paid spots, acquire less than twenty percent. Clearly, this is where we want your business to be. Careful keyword research for higher consumer centric search phrases can get you there. Being there, can increase your online ROI by migrating advertising dollars from pay per click to organic search engine and social media efforts.

Consumers who search online have a need, they need answers. Search results are not an interruption, as with traditional advertising, so your message comes with trust and authority. This is the beauty of it; no other media works that way. By tailoring your message, based on keywords, the obvious relevance shows the consumer that they are in the right place. This keeps customers on the page longer, reducing bounce rates and increasing sales opportunities.

Optimizing multiple social sites like Twitter and Facebook will raise ranking potential. Having multiple listings on the first page of searches make you look like the only game in town and gives the advantage of delivering multiple benefits of your product in Meta descriptions to appeal to several targets within the market.

The increased market share and online visibility worldwide will enhance corporate image with involvement in the social community. Consumers know they now have a voice. Social media can often satisfy and create loyal customers, by knowing they are being heard, even if the circumstances cannot be changed.

SMM and SEO often require a significant investment up front, in your time or your money. However, the strategy can work well within most marketing plans, and often small changes will incur large gains. Search engine optimization in a social media management strategy will deliver long term ROI. You can take that to the bank.

There are billions of searches done every month, and every impression offers an opportunity for increased brand awareness and trust. The power of integrating SEO with a Social Media Management strategy, and optimizing with targeted keywords, increases the beautiful occurrence of catching customers in the act.

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SEO – Search Engine Optimization



Search engine optimization consists of a set of methods designed to make the website more accessible with the help of search engines, meaning identify the keywords and underline them ore use them more frequently.

We all know that the search services provided by the internet are nowadays very used by people all over the world. The different sites that offer data from various domains can be improved in the sense that they need to be actualised all the time, in order to provide people with the latest news.

The optimisation of the search services on the internet is possible by means of various actions. First of all, the site and its target must be deeply analised. In order to do this, discussion with the customer will take place. It is very important to specify to whom the site must address. In addition to this, the state of the site must also be analysed at the very moment when it is taken over by the SEO services.

On the other hand, the analysis of improvement posibilities is important for the optimisation. First of all, the architecture of the site must be taken into consideration, the problems and wrong links that might appear on the respective site must be identified, and also the navigation within the site must be made easy to access for everyone. Validating HTML code also represents one important measure for the optimisation of SEO services.

Key words study SEO is another action which could allow the search engine optimisation. This consists in finding words for which the optimisation of the site will be performed. Another type of action may be the change of the text for the web (web copywriting). This means that the text presented on the respective site must be improved, so that it corresponds to the specific web conditions.

Effective optimisation of the pages can be achieved by various means. For example, setting the title for each page and the meta tags, using headings in order to show the structure of the pages or creating specific error pages could be good actions for an effective improvement of the search engine.

In order to perform search engine optimisation, the exchange of links could be a good action. For this reason, tracking down sites which allow link- exchange is important, as well as entering by hand international directories. Still, this should not be done at random, but in accordance with the specific of the site.

Search engine optimisation is necessary because it leads to a maximal targeting, which means a maximum sales per cent, if reported to the number of the visitors. A very valuable thing for this would be a bigger number of visitors from search engines, because they present as an essential feature the maximal targeting that can be reached in this way.

At the end of every action of optimisation a final report about the results of the action must be presented. Such a report should include key words for which it is obtained a position among the first ten. As a consequence of the search engine optimisation actions, the number of visitors coming from engines/ directories must grow. It is indicated that the final report also present such traffic growth.

The difference between the on- page and off- page optimisation must be noticed. When we speak about an on- page optimisation, we speak about exchanges realised within the respective site, that can be visible for visitors or for spiders. On the other hand, off- page optimisation means that the exchanges occur between links from other sites and the respective page and vice versa.
In conclusion, search services optimisation offer a favorable position in the search engine.

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Organic SEO Versus PPC Management



Any web aficionado will not be able to take it anymore. The supremacy has been debated time and again and to be a little earnest, very few formidable, logical and comprehensible conclusions have been derived. Organic SEO and PPC management have their own places in different scheme of things and both cannot compete with each other. They both are essential towards the growth of a website and both have to be incorporated into processes to ensure that the website is armored well. The question still remains, which is better and why is it better? The only answer to that, something that has been tried many a times before, is to highlight the pros of both and then do an analysis. It might help. Another attempt towards pursuing a suitable conclusion!

Organic SEO Services in India have their own range of benefits. An SEO Campaign that is performed on a website results in increased targeted traffic. The traffic influx increases as a result of all the optimization work that gets put in. The rank of the website on Google increases and all the audience who are regulars on the website get to know about it. Naturally their inquisitiveness increases and so do the visits. The increase in influx of traffic also leads to an increase in sales.

The better the SEO Service India, the more the traffic. The more the traffic is, the more the word-of-mouth publicity. The more of that happens, the higher the force is with which the sales registers start ringing. The results that come in are all long term. The Return on Income too is very high. Brands have been successfully built because of these services, as the optimization lends the website a lot of visibility. These are some of the benefits that come with Organic SEO Services.

PPC Management is by no stretch of imagination any far behind either. When PPC Campaigns are done, the best of keywords get selected. Special insights are put in so that the keywords strike a rapport with the search engines and go the distance. The landing pages that are created solely because of PPC management are again very conducive. Web users find it effortlessly to click on those hyperlinks on display and land on these pages. This saves time, effort, averts mental brain drain as well as frustration to a great extent! The campaigns are very cost effective and available tailor made. For every individual website, there is a distinct campaign which suits the budget and suffices for all the needs. Consistent measurements are done and things get constantly monitored.

Both are good in their own respect and both do well within their given limitations. Both of them are bankable concepts on whom money can be invested unabashedly. All one ought to do is trust the concept and use it well so that maximum returns can be derived from the ordeal along with resounding success, virtues that only keep cementing your faith in such processes.

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Content Management Systems & SEO Revisited



Two years ago, I wrote an article entitled “Content Management Systems Equal Business Suicide.” The basic premise was that at that time, CMS applications were inherently devoid of basic SEO functionality. Building a new site, or converting an existing site to the existing CMS versions of 2 years ago was rapid way of consigning those sites to the oblivion of Google’s supplementary index. Lacking inbuilt search engine friendly URL’s, outputting duplicate titles, descriptions and keywords, no ability to have customised Titles that differed from Headings – all those things were extraordinarily bad elements.

Since then, things have changed markedly. These days, there are still deficiencies in evidence, but for the CMS applications that have survived the intervening 2 years, and those that have evolved since, most have addressed the basic SEO issues.

My personal favourite CMS is WordPress. Especially since version 2.5 there’s been a wealth of feature expansion in the core application, the availability of plugins that expand on the core functionality, and the advent of professionally designed Themes that have taken WordPress to new heights. All of this has allowed WordPress to blossom into a fully-matured CMS with exceptional Search Engine Optimisation features.

Lets take a closer look at the SEO functionality. As Google et al are attempting to analyse and categorise a web site, there are an estimated 200 individual elements that are calculated in the SE relevancy ranking algorithms. Every one of these you can get right improves your chances of attaining your full ranking potential. Individually, each element offers incremental albeit small gains, but collectively, they can add up to the winning difference in the ranking stakes for competitive search terms. Duplicate content is Google’s pet hate, and its vital to every site’s standing that every single page be accurately described and categorised. Here are 10 of the most prominent among the many opportunities to achieve this individualisation of pages are;

1: SEF URLS: Search engine friendly URL’s are important, because inclusion of keywords in page URL’s are taken into account, and have a bearing on rankings – particularly on Yahoo. Being able to exercise total control over page URL’s is important, and WordPress allows this with Permalink mod_rewrite functionality, coupled with manual URL control on every page or post!

Meta-Tags: There are several WordPress plugin tools to provide total control of title, descriptions and keywords, and these are easily installed and configured.

2: Titles: Being able to control the off-page Title separately from the on-page heading is very important. The title’s 70 character limitation needs to be exploited to maximum effect, its the single most important on-site page SEO element! Page Headings are usually space-constrained, and in systems where the Heading automatically become the Title, you are deprived of a significant advantage.

3: Description: The off-page Description (meta-tag) is a vital element in accurately describing the page contents. If each page has accurate, custom-written Description content, its used verbatim in the search engine results pages (SERPs). In contrast, if you are forced to use a generic Description, then Google will helpfully do its level best to generate an ‘ad lib’ Description of the page based on content. The result of that ca neither be not so bad, or truly awful. Regardless, its essential that YOU have control of the Description, and that you use it to maximum effect!

4: Keywords: Erroneously dismissed by some people as of no account these days, the Keyword (meta-tag) still has a part to play. Stuff it full of vaguely relevant garbage unrelated to page content and it will be ignored. Use it wisely, with specific / relevant long-tailed keyword search phrases and it can give you a little bit of SE traction – even on Google!

5: Image File Names: Accurately name your image files, and include keywords relevant to the page. WordPress allows you to upload media and retain the original files names even when auto-generating thumbnail images etc.

6: Image ALT Tags: Accurately describe your images using the Image ALT tag, and include keywords/phrases relevant to the page. WordPress Add Media tools allow you to add ALT text and captions, enabling inclusion of additional relevant text content. Used wisely, without spamming, its another useful element.

7: Anchor Text: The words you use to link to other pages / sections of the site. WordPress Link Editor allows full control of anchor Text links, including the ability to specify “Hyperlink Title” which essentially work like Image ALT text – the title of the link pops up when the mouse pointer hovers over the link… Again, used wisely, its another useful SEO element.

8: CSS Dropdown Menus: Many of the new, highly professional WordPress CMS Themes utilise CSS dropdown menus, which is extremely important in aiding search engines to locate and index internal pages. This also facilitates Google’s ability to pass Page Rank throughout the internal page structure!

9: Google SiteMaps: Another delightful WordPress plugin is the automatic Google Sitemap Generator! Once installed and configured, every new page, post or edit of a page or post automatically updates the sitemap.xml page!

10: RSS Feeds: WordPress RSS feeds are easily extended by installation of an onsite Feedburner email subscription service, where your posts and pages are automatically distributed to subscribers by email. Moreover, your Feedburner account and site feed gives your site a pipeline directly into the Google index! I regularly see WordPress posts that make it into Google Alerts distribution in less than 4 hours!

So, on that basis I’m happy to accord WordPress 10 out of 10 for SEO functionality. Couple that with more than 3000 available plugins to extend the core functionality, the thousands of available design templates or themes, the ease-of-use factor, robust software, ease of installation etc, and I think we’ve got a winning CMS formula.

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SEO Strategies for 2011: Online Reputation Management



When it comes to creating SEO strategies for 2011, online reputation management should be a critical concern. Because any well-founded SEO strategy reaches out to consumers across a wide variety of mediums and demographics, it can be relatively easy to gain formidable website traffic virtually overnight. However, if your SEM or SMO strategy isn’t planned accordingly, a great deal of that new traffic could end up being an online reputation disaster. If you’re setting SEO goals for 2011, this should be a central focus.

Conducting business behind a computer screen causes people to behave in ways they would never consider doing when in the flesh. In this modern world of scathing online critiques and hastily written consumer reviews, your online reputation can ruin your business in a matter of weeks. This is because today’s consumers are afforded easy options to quickly inform thousands of other people about their experiences with your company. In the past, it was simply too much effort for unhappy customers to write complaint letters or file cases with consumer reviews and reporting agencies for trivial issues. Today, a consumer can blast your company with a damaging review in a matter of seconds- even if they are incorrect, unreasonable, or fabricating information about their experience.

In order to survive and thrive in the intensely competitive world of search engine optimization, your SEO strategies for 2011 must include a carefully designed online reputation management plan. The following are vital factors to consider in an effort to maintain excellent customer service while still having strategies in place to mitigate the inevitable disgruntled customer:

*Know where and how to look for information. Information that can affect your online reputation can be found in many different locations, and unfortunately you must monitor as many of these as possible. However, you can automate this task by setting up alerts in search engines for keywords related to your company or brand. Yahoo, Google, and Bing all have alert systems that can filter data and keywords and deliver related messages right to your inbox. Additionally, you can setup RSS readers to link to sites and blogs of importance. You can even have one RSS reader that filters all the other RSS feeds information in order to streamline this process. Where feeds and alerts are not possible, manual monitoring of websites and blogs may be required. You should be seeking information in the following areas:

Blogs
Discussion Forums
Collaborative Sites
Consumer Review Websites
Traditional Websites
Social Media Networks
Social Bookmarking Sites
Article & Press Release Directories
Consumer Generated Media
Message Boards

*Damage control is essential. When you find instances of poor reviews or complaints about your company or brand on the web, part of your SEO strategy in 2011 should be to immediately take action. It doesn’t matter whether the customer is right or wrong; what does matter is your response or lack thereof. Once an unhappy customer has voiced their dissatisfaction publicly, all of your attempts to mitigate this bad publicity will be under intense scrutiny. Your responses will tell other customers and your competitors a great deal about you and your company. Therefore, responses that are rude, arrogant, dismissive, or those that argue with the complaining party are only going to serve to further damage your online reputation.

Your response to consumer complaints or negative reviews should always be honest. In fact, one of the best strategies to deal with unhappy customers is to admit when you are wrong. Even if you’re only wrong a little and the customer is wrong a LOT, you still need to take responsibility. One of the best statements you can ever make to defuse an angry customer and tell people watching that you’re genuinely concerned with addressing the issue is:

“You’re absolutely right- we made a mistake. That’s not how we normally conduct business, and we apologize. What can we do to correct the situation?”

This statement- or one similar to it- accomplishes many things at once. It tells the customer they are right, it features you publicly taking responsibility for the mistake, it distances the mistake from your customary practices, it publicly and genuinely apologizes, and it lets everyone know that you’re ready to do what it takes to right the situation. This is exactly the type of online reputation that you should be creating. When looked at correctly, it’s easy to see that in reality unhappy customers are really just opportunities for you to show off how much you really do care about the relationship you share with your consumers.

SEO strategies and online reputation management has a much more sinister side than just customers who are unhappy about typically minor issues. Some of the most damaging effects from your online reputation can come from your former employees and your competition. Both of these groups may engage in vicious practices in order to smear your brand or company. Often, the complaints and allegations are entirely fabricated, but this still does not stop nasty rumors and negative posts from quickly going viral and being accepted as truth by your targeted markets and niches. When this occurs, managing your online reputation can suddenly become quite tricky. Effective techniques to combat malicious attacks such as these include:

*Ask for the information to be removed or retracted
*Request that your responses be published and linked to the offending posts
*Create a blog, website, or forum of your own to add your responses and generate support
*Communicate correct information and your responses to websites or blogs that may have linked to the original offending negative reviews or complaints
*Consult an attorney/Litigation

Because of the likelihood that negative information about your brand, products, or services will go viral, it is critical to monitor your online reputation and enact damage control tactics as soon as there is a problem. Otherwise, things can get out of control, and your good reputation can be buried in the search engines under mountains of bad reviews- whether they’re accurate or not.

*Be the best in your business. This sounds like a lame motivational slogan, but it’s probably the most important part of an SEO strategy that includes an online reputation management plan. By only offering the highest quality products or services and backing them up with excellent customer service, you be accomplishing two important steps at the same time:

1.) You’ll be generating scores of positive reviews, comments, and meaningful links across the web and on the ground. Consumers who are quick to write bad reviews are also just as quick to write about their positive experiences with you.
2.) You’ll be burying any negative reviews deep down in the search engine’s results pages. Because most consumers never look beyond the first page or two of results, if you get ten to fifteen positive reviews for every negative one, most people will never be able to see the negative results- at least not without first wading through numerous positive results.

Businesses and consumers alike understand that having an occasional unhappy customer is practically inevitable. Some people are just impossible to please, no matter how well you do your job. But if you intend to stay viable and create success with your SEO strategies in 2011, you’ll need to immediately implement an online reputation management plan.

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