One of the most important things to online success is how consumers and surfers see your business. Believe it or not, many have began to turn to online review sites such as Yelp to get the scoop on a businesses service or products and weather or they should spend their hard earned money with your company. These review sites allow people to leave comments (good or bad) on how they felt about your business from the service to the product to the attitude of the person or persons who assisted you. The traditional method of online reputation management is to hire a person or firm to combat any negative comments or reviews left by customer by leaving a positive and up beat comment to try and totally discredit any negative or hindering feedback. But what other steps can you take to enhance your online reputation management?

Properly Crafted FAQ Pages

Most web sites you visit will always have a F.A.Q. (Frequently Asked Questions) page to answer all the questions they feel their customers often ask. The problem with most F.A.Q. pages is that they are thrown together and almost never answer the true questions consumers may have. To resolve this issue, you can encourage your customers or visitors to your web site to ask any questions they may have or ask how you can better improve their experience online or even in their physical location. After you’ve gathered enough data, you can then construct a more accurate F.A.Q. page and gain a reputation of knowing what your customers are looking for and offer immediate solutions to their issues.

But your F.A.Q. page does not stop their. You can also make it a bit easier for your customer by having staff answer your F.A.Q.’s with a video response. This helps in two ways: Customers don’t have to read a whole drawn out answer, and when search engine users look for answers that are related to your industry, service or product, your video(s) will pop up at the top of search results. The best way to ensure your videos get the proper exposure is to submit them to YouTube and other online video web sites.  This will also help lead to new customers who are satisfied with your videos. You’ll also want to make a page for each answer you have for your frequently asked questions. This part is good for optimization purposes and quality traffic from the search engines.

What Else Can I Do?

So we’ve covered the traditional efforts of online reputation management, and given you a great way to beef up your F.A.Q. pages. This next step involves more videos. Let’s just use an auto mechanic for an example. We all know how annoying and expensive a trip to your mechanic can be. Sometimes the repairs you need can actually be done at home if you only knew the proper steps. So let’s say you need to change the oil in your car and you searched for the term “do it yourself oil change.” This can be in the form of an article or even another video. Since so many turn to the search engines these days for answers, it’s a good idea to make sure that you cater to more than just selling your product and/or service. You also want to cater to your customers trust.

Can Social Media Help?

It sure can! Write ups like press releases really go a long way when it comes to online reputation management. It gives consumers and investors an insight to the function of your business and allows them to find out more specific information about future and present events that may improve the service and/or product your business offers. They are also capable of announcing business ventures that may convince potential investors it’s a good idea to place their money in your company’s hands.

Last, But Certainly Not Least

Make sure you bring attention to customer testimonials on your web site. When visitors to your web site see that you have positive feedback from satisfied customers, they tend to lean towards trusting your product of service and feel less nervous about spending money to purchase what you offer. These testimonials can come from review web sites, customers leaving feedback via an email or even filling out a form right there on your web site.

All and all, these steps will help to create a positive feedback for your online company and begin to make you an expert and go-to person in your field. I will write more posts in the future about online reputation management and its benefits. So stay tuned!