The importance of online reputation management

Online reputation management is the practice of monitoring the reputation of a person, brand, or company on the Internet.

There are two different kinds of online reputation management: proactive and reactive.

• A proactive campaign is for businesses that are just beginning to grow or for those companies that want to maintain a good reputation.
• A reactive campaign is implemented when a company has encountered a problem and wants it “cleaned up”.

In the online world, your reputation is one of your most valuable assets, for both personal and corporate brands. Whether you are a businessperson, consultant, corporation, or job seeker, your online reputation can make or break you.  Your business’s online reputation may be one of the most important things affecting your long-term success.  The more trust consumers and search engines have in your brand and your company, the better you are going to rank, the more traffic you should see and the higher your conversion rate will be.

It is often mistaken that online reputation management is something that happens after something negative has been written about your business in the online space. 

Building a strong online reputation is no easy task and it cannot happen overnight.  Everything you do for your SEO; link building, article marketing, blog commenting, social networking and more, all affect your online reputation.  That is why it is important to take a proactive approach to online reputation management.  Companies should strive to build an online reputation that is capable of withstanding any bad press long before they go into crisis-management mode. One misstep could send your carefully managed reputation crashing down.

Businesses no longer have the luxury of sticking their heads in the sand and waiting for the storm to pass.  In the age of WikiLeaks, no secret is safe for long and problems can’t be swept under the rug. The increased use of social media allows news to travel around the world in a matter of seconds. There is no more hoping that a scandal will disappear quietly.

Once something is published online, there really is no way to remove it entirely.  Even if they original page is deleted, you do not know how many thousands of other pages have referenced the original. The advent of social media means that news, good and bad, travels around the world and back in a matter of moments.  One complaint or pieces of negative press can snowball and turn into a disastrous, reputation-destroying avalanche.  Everybody is online these days, looking for information about products and services. Therefore, managing your reputation online is extremely important.




A strong SEO campaign can help with your online reputation management. Start building your good reputation online as soon as possible.  Therefore, if something negative is said, it might not even be noticed since there is so much positive content already out there.  Without positive content, a bad image can form quickly.  Do not wait until you start losing money to improve your reputation in the search engines.  One of the ways this is done is by producing a steady stream of quality, positive content around your brand. The more positive associations there are with your brand, the less power the negative ones have. While you can’t destroy bad press, you can push it out of the top spot so it isn’t the first thing someone sees when they search for your brand. Start building your positive image today!


Wasp Marketing assigns a team of specialists to collaborate with clients to ensure the highest degree of care and ethics.  Each client project receives the full attention of our assigned team of specialists.  An initial understanding of the client's business, target market, and objectives are important to ensuring proper results.

Contact us and talk to one of our Online Reputation Management specialists.