SERM: Search Engine Reputation Management Tips
SERM, or Search Engine Reputation Management is the management of both negative and positive search engine results both proactively and reactively. Fixing negative SERM issues is a matter of helping search engines like Google recognize positive search results for certain key phrases as more relevant than negative ones, and therefore moving the positive search results to the top of the search results page and the negative down in search results.
Type in your name or company name on any one of the major search engines. Is one or more of the first results negative? Search Engine Reputation Management, also known as SERM, is ensuring the rank of your positive identity online and often ‘burying the bad news’. Having a spotless online reputation is important for job interviews, corporate investment, or just doing business in today’s world. Making sure that you rank, in a positive way, for your name online can be a daunting task. Follow these proactive and reactive tactics to make sure that you control what shows up the next time someone types your name in a search engine. There are two different tactics, proactive and reactive:
Proactive Tactics
Proactive SERM tactics include search engine optimization, profile management, and using the assistance of monitoring services. These tactics will aid in maintaining a positive internet reputation:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO can be an arduous process, but executing the basics can be simple. Using your name in signatures, buying your name as a domain, and hyperlinking your name to reputable sites are all proactive SERM tactics. Using hyperlinks (web addresses) that link to reputable sites about you is important, as Google and other search engines rank incoming links very highly, especially those that include the search term in the text that describes the link. Another form of SEO is to frequently update content on sites that your name ranks for or to add content. Frequently updated sites often rank more highly than static ones. Getting friends to link to your site from their site can also be very helpful.
Profile Management
Make certain that you register your name on any social networking sites on top of owning your own domain URL. Your name as a domain name will generally rank higher than any other sites, so include important information on those sites, as well as links to positive comments and articles about yourself. Some sites will naturally rank higher than others, so make sure that you are comfortable ranking for any of the information you include online.
Monitoring Services
Making use of SERM services that track your name, profiles and comments is a passive yet valuable way of ensuring that your reputation remains positive online and that negative mentions are immediately caught. When your name does appear online, assure that the information is accurate and current. A free service you can use in your SERM strategy is Google Alerts (Just Google ‘google alerts’ to find it). You can enter your name as a search term and provide Google with your email address. They will automatically send you an email every time they find your name online – free!
Reactive Tactics
When negative information does show up high on the search engines, reactive measures are necessary. Reactive SERM tactics include erasing the negative information and a very sophisticated method of search engine optimization often called internet reputation management:
Erase the negative
If possible, reach out to owners or posters of the site to have your name removed. Hiring internet reputation management services that can contact site owners and remove negative information can be a time saver as well as speed up this process.
• It should be noted that many sites will not remove negative information, nor will they allow the people that originally posted the information to remove it! In this case, you’ll most likely need the professional services of an internet reputation management firm.
Search Engine Optimization
After identifying negative information, work on pushing that information down the ranks via traditional SEO tactics. Remember that search engines are in the business of providing the most relevant results to their customers. Your objective is to get sites other than the negative one to rank higher. To do so, you must increase the relevance the other sites around it in the search results. This is where massive incoming links from other sites comes in handy. Build as many links as possible with the problem key phrase in the link name – with the link itself pointing to beneficial sites that use that key phrase.
Time is of the essence – so as soon as you find out about the negative result, update personal sites with new content that includes the problem key phrase a number of times, have a web master optimize image text and code on your site with positive keywords, and take every step to link to and from credible sites that rank positively for your name.
While being proactive when it comes to your SERM can reduce the problem before it becomes a problem, knowing the reactive steps to take to protect your reputation are just as important. The main goal of SERM tactics is to ensure that the positive listings of your name or brand are showing up high and often while any negative mentions are showing up few and far between.
