A reputation crisis leaves a company in shambles. There is an impact, and there is a need to rebuild the reputation of the company. It is a must to recover and move ahead. It allows you to restore the brand image.
5 steps on how to Recover after a reputation Crisis
Online reputation requires an understanding of disciplines. Fixing your reputation may or may not be effective. Besides, the time investment and the bandwidth go much beyond the business. Partnering with an expert online reputation management company is helpful. It allows you to work on a crisis recovery plan and focus on your business to restore your image.
#1 Assess reputation damage
The first step is to determine the extent of reputational damage. It is a must to map your search landscape and to look beyond the page. It appears insignificant to consider the negative content that is lurking in Google. However, it may leap with the right SEO signals to page one.
Ask a few questions to determine the risk and find ways to recover from a reputation crisis.
- What are the content types of the ranking?
- The number of different search results
- How and which departments are affected?
Finding these may help assess risk and build a matrix to determine the potential damage.
#2 Set realistic goals
Most people wish to find a solution immediately to resolve a reputation crisis. Regrettably, though there are outlandish claims, reputation recovery does not work accordingly.
The volume of content is available online, and it is from highly qualified executives and visible brands. They also inform us that reputation rebuilding cannot be done overnight and takes time. Publishing relevant content helps shift the narrative and rebalance the index on Google. Thus, using SEO, the preferred content can be at the top of the search results.
Here are a few ways to set goals to ensure success:
- Do you want to establish and maintain an online media presence?
- How many content pieces will you require?
- Do you want to optimize additional websites?
- Is negative content authoritative? If so, how many URLs need repositioning?
- How many links do you want to build?
Asking questions helps set reasonable expectations and restore reputation. It helps in determining the scale and in tackling issues quickly.
#3 Shift the narrative by publishing positive content
The best crisis recovery plan is to boost positive content. It is much more important than considering ways to push the negative results down. As per a survey, just 7% of people look beyond the Google first page. It means you have to recover your reputation and the right way is to promote positive content so that you rank in the SERPs.
You can have enough fresh content to flood the Google index and thus push down the bad stuff. You can produce new content that the search engines will favor, and slowly the density of the negative topics will dilute.
#4 Craft a roadmap for reputation recovery
One of the ways to recover after a reputation crisis is to craft a reputation recovery roadmap. The management of online reputation is huge. It requires crisis management, public relations, SEO expertise, content creation, and analytics. Depending on the recovery strategy, include various tactics, such as:
- Expand blog content
- Manage and optimize social media profiles
- Publish content focusing on branded leadership.
- Establish programs on online reviews across several platforms.
- Execute public relations campaigns
SEO analysts, content developers, PR specialists, and project managers all must work together to ensure lasting results.
#5 Employ tactical SEO to crush negative results
SEO can do a lot of things. It can remove or diminish the effect of negative results from Google. As a way to resolve the reputation crisis, fix your online reputation. Once honored and you maintain your position on Google for the long term, it is easy to push the negative results down. However, there is a need to always be attentive and careful.
