Don’t Be A Victim To A Negative Online Review

There are still many businesses that believe that they are able to maintain full control over how their brand is portrayed online, however the fact of the matter is that in this highly interactive world of social media, anyone anywhere has the ability to say whatever they want and hide in anonymity. This has effectively changed the way the branding landscape into something much more delicate and which requires a lot more attention as your online reputation is at the mercy of other people. One of the most delicate of channels that your brand is susceptible to is via online reviews.

There are multiple ways in which a business, brand or even a professional name can fall victim to an online review that paints a negative image. There are plenty of scam boards and review sites that are more than willing to publish misleading, unfounded and erroneous reviews without doing any prior fact checking. It’s even possible for a disgruntled employee or your competition to post a damaging review that’s fictitious and that these sites are more than willing to make public. Once a negative review is out there, it can easily be blown out of proportion and get published on other sites that will surely taint your online reputation.

If you take a look at the infographic above from 540seo.com, you’ll see a nicely laid out graphic that shows the results from several studies of the US market. In this study, it was determined that 87% of those consumers surveyed stated a positive online review strengthened their resolve to make a purchase of a service or product that had been brought to their attention. On the other hand, a negative review was able to change the mind of 80% of those surveyed about whether they should go ahead with making a purchase of the product or service in question.

While it may not be possible to remove a negative, unsubstantiated review about you, your business or brand, it is possible to bury the negative content down to the later pages of Google and other search engines by working on promoting the positive content that’s out there. With the use of proper online reputation management, you are able to control what people see when they first search for your business. By highlighting material that’s true and positive about your business or brand, you’ll ensure that you are not losing potential customers who could otherwise be turned off to your business if they were to see the negative content.