15 Ways to Build and Protect Your Online Reputation

Your online identity in the real world is just as important as your popularity. Make no mistake, the online visibility you and your family have is a big deal. It is a rising part of modern life and how to handle secure online.

Here are 15 ways to protect your reputation online.

Now, the checklist as promised:

1. Provide a great service
2. Go beyond what's required of you. Trust me, the competition is very serious!!!
3. If you notice even the slightest sign that a customer is unhappy, try to resolve the issue ASAP.
4. If you can't solve the problem swiftly, at least offer a free service or refunds to make up for the customer's problems.
5. Review sites to bookmark (so you can contact and offer refunds, coupons etc): Yelp, Google Maps, and Ripoff Report.
6. Ask your best customers for reviews. This will at least help subdue negative reviews.
7. When asking customers for a review, use a different person to follow up then whoever served the customer. In this way, you have a better chance of finding any negative review of your service.
8. Verbal (never written) requests offering review incentives 'could' be helpful. Sites such as Yelp aren't excited about review opportunities.
9. Using review generation platforms (Birdeye, ReviewInc, ShoutAboutUs, GatherUp), which operate on a monthly (typically $30/month) fee basis.
10. Change your business processes if more people are getting to post negative reviews in the way you do business. For example – Drop shipping companies can see plenty of complaints about delays in delivery.
11. Make this your SEO Goal: Make sure the top 10 of Google search results have positive content related to your business, which may be helpful in keeping out the negative content.
12. Be successful on social media sites on which your target consumer base would probably be on.
13. Twitter activity helps with Google search results for your brand.
14. YouTube videos of your service / products will get a healthy ranking for your brand on their own.
15. A regularly updated blog helps with search results for your brand. To keep the 'mental bandwidth' to a manageable basis, at least update once every 7-10 days, or 3-4 articles / months. They do not necessarily have to be 1000+ word word walls no one will ever read.