25 Free Online Reputation Management Tips and Tools

Online Reputation Management: 25 Free Tips

See Related Article: Calculating the Value of Online Reputation Management

Here are some of the top 25 free online reputation management tips from Recover Reputation available to help build, boost or repair a web presence for professionals such as lawyers, financial advisors, or those in the art world.

The tips range from content creation, social media, search engine optimization (SEO), monitoring, and off-site suggestions, and are roughly in order of importance.

Most can be accomplished by dedicating time and a varying degree of effort, but some might require a little help or research such as defining effective key search terms and adding them to Title meta data of your web site.

Remember, however, that online reputation management is usually a long term process, and could take about six months or more to complete, requiring about two or four hundred hours of consistent work or two to three hours per day.

1. Create A Website

Making a website or updating a site with quality content and using your name or business as the domain name is very helpful. Be sure to add legitimate information reader or client will truly find valuable. Also, the site should be updated with new content frequently. I highly recommend WordPress and it’s thousands of free or low-cost templates.

2. Write a Blog

Writing a blog is probably one of the best solutions. Posting instructive and engaging articles weekly or very frequently is crucial. It is best to use a catchy title, have good images (don’t swipe it: purchase it or use a Creative Commons image), use headings to break the piece down into easy-to-read sections, and insert one or two links back to your site.

3. Be Active On LinkedIn

 For business connections, nothing beats LinkedIn. As with any social media site, completely fill out the profile and make sure you include web site links in your contact information. An additional online reputation management tip: customize your URL with your name or business.

4. Attempt to Remove Negative Links

Removing the negative post, link, image or blog post is possible but frankly, however, it’s usually extremely difficult to delete content once something has been published. Politely contact the author or webmaster and professionally state your case and request the item to be removed. Be sensitive that you don’t want to open a “hornet’s nest” by reaching out to the author, however. There might be options that an online reputation management specialist might have, such as reaching out to Google too.

5. Create a Wikipedia Entry

A Wikipedia article is extremely useful and since it is highly valued by search engines, it will usually rank on the top of the first page of Google and thus is a powerful online reputation management tip.

Creating one can be problematic, however. The entry must be truly noteworthy backed-up with verifiable sources. One approach is to focus on major recognizable accomplishments that can be documented, such as lectures giving, awards won and articles published. Also note that your article could be taken down by administrators or other editors/readers if your achievements are not substantiated. Be aware that if negative articles just came out, you could be “adding fuel to the fire” by creating additional unwanted attention.

6. Create a YouTube Video

YouTube and videos are extremely powerful ways to repair an online reputation. Create one that focuses on you and the positive things you do. Keep it brief and as professional as possible, and offer useful information. Using your smartphone could be fine so long as your are authentic or provide great content.

7. Stay Clear of Negative Comments

Don’t comment on negative content such as a review on RipoffReports.com because it will only push its ranking higher. Tempting as it might be to tell your side of the story, this will only make things worse so avoid it.

8. Make a Presence on Industry Platforms

Follow and identify good, interesting and useful platforms specific for your industry, and add your online presence there. Be sure fill out all the profile information, including links to your site and blog, your photo, and links for key articles.

9. Write a Whitepaper

You are an expert in your field—whether it be mortgage backed securities, rental properties in the Hamptons, or contemporary emerging art galleries in Chelsea. Create a detailed whitepaper or thoroughly written informative document on a topic of your choosing, and then post it to a well regarded site.

10. Get on Relevant Blogs

Follow and good, interesting and useful blogs and online sites for your industry, and add your online presence there.

11. Join Alumni Groups

Add yourself to undergraduate or graduate schools alumni sites. Usually, sites with “.edu” domain extensions are ranked highly by Google.

12. Update Your Web Site with Meta Tags Title and Descriptions

 Be sure your web site is optimized, ideally for the negative term. This could be complicated and might involve an SEO or ORM expert but make sure your name or your company is included in the title metatags of some of your pages. The page’s Title is the link that Google displays when searching for you, and without it set up properly, the good information about you won’t be found.

13. Be Active On Facebook

Be very active on social media sites such as Facebook by posting good content. These should not be purely promotional but should be geared to engage with your friends. Add images, ask questions, and comment on other’s post at least once a day.

14. Tweet Daily

Google is using cues from social media engagement more and more so after Facebook, Twitter is an excellent online reputation management tip. Gain good followers, put out helpful information, and link back to your site. Tweet consistently several times a day.

15. Add Images to Pinterest

Adding visual information to Pinterest can also be very powerful. Comment on others, “like” and “Pin” compelling images. The best times to post images are after 8pm or the weekends. Look to gain Followers too and develop Boards that are clear, colorful and have a specific niche.

16. Post Images to Instagram

Although slightly depending on your industry, activity on Instagram can vary, but minimally make an account and add your website in the Profile section. Comment on others, “like” and add your own images you take ranging from cityscapes, vacation photos, meetings locations, etc.

17. Complete Image Information

As mentioned above, images are more important than ever to Google, and having a properly named image file is crucial. Be sure when adding images to blogs to make sure all additional fields are completed.

18. Write a Guest Blog

Writing an article or blog post as a guest can be a very helpful but not as much as in the past—be sure to work only with blogs and ones focused on your industry . Start by following blogs and topics that are appealing or relate to your business and eventually pitch them an idea for a blog topic. This is a great way to get links back to your site.

19. Build Links to Your Site

Links pointing to your web site help drive traffic and shows search engines such as Google that you are a noteworthy, good site, thus helping your ranking. Developing a good linking strategy can be extremely time consuming but is worth it. Never buy links: as Google continues to weed out bad links, you’ll quickly get blacklisted and ruin your reputation further.

20. Make Comments on Online Communities, Forums

Follow and good, interesting and online sites, forums and communities specific for your industry. Check them frequently and commit to making one comment daily to show that you are a “thought leader.” Also be engaging. Don’t just say, “Good article,” which sounds “spamy,” but put some thought into the comment.

21. Monitor Google Alerts

Monitor your online reputation by signing up for free Google Alerts. Note that you need a Google account, but you should have one already—if you don’t, get one immediately. Here you simply enter the word or phrase you want to monitor and when it shows up online, you’ll get an email notification. Usually, enter your name or your business name. If it’s a common name, you can include an attribute about your name, such as, “Jane Smith Finance”. You can also select how often you want alerts (select immediately) as well as other options.

22. Give a Talk or Speak at Conferences

Being visible in public is a way to generate positive news about you and build an excellent reputation, so pick some topics that you are an expert in and contact a local library, club or business organization and offer to give a talk.

23. Create a Reddit Account and be Active

Reddit is an extremely popular site that aggregates news and comments on various topics. It can sometimes be hard to add a comment or link because it is geared to block spam or frequent additions.

24. Google+

Although Google Plus is on it’s way out, it still can be helpful since it’s a Google property and post and comment daily. Follow influencers in your field and engage with them. Since it’s a Google platform, it will be indexed very quickly making it a great online reputation management tip.

25. Create Yelp Reviews for Others

Yelp is a very popular review site, and having a presence there is a way to boost your online reputation. Create somelegitimate reviews for places you genuinely like, and avoid the temptation to write a glowing review for yourself posing as someone else—it’s illegal and if you get caught, this could damage things further.

Bonus: Be Active in Meetups

A Meetup is a great online and “offline” reputation management tip. It is free to participate in a Meetup group, so join several in your area and post comments after attending a meeting. If you’d like to create a Meetup, it costs about $79 to start a group for six months. Managing a group can be time consuming to create frequent group meetings but focus them around your expertise. Remember to announce the Meetups on your social media platforms.

Bonus: Create Infographics

An Infographic is a clear, graphic representation of an idea, and is a very popular way to share information. Generate an infographic based on a blog post using a tool such as Visual.ly.

Questions?

Again, some of these tips can be time consuming and can require special help.

Feel free to reach out to me, Steven W. Giovinco, with any questions.