The team at Reputation Changer knows that online, content is king. But to go one step further, sharing content online is queen, or at least closely connected to creating the content in the first place.

And effectively sharing the content you create is also a useful tool for reputation management. When you create and share your own content, you are able to control your brand’s image and perception.

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The more you read, the more content you will have to share. Remember, it’s not just content you make that you need to share online. Sharing content that’s relevant to your industry or niche but that wasn’t created by your or doesn’t promote you in someway is part and parcel of online reputation management.

Today, Google and its competitors have made changes to their algorithms that weed out SEO tactics that once ruled the day. Although most people know that some SEO tactics no longer work, others still make use of them. Outdated SEO won’t help your site rank highly and will actually harm its ranking in the long run. Update your SEO tactics by avoiding these old tactics.

Just Putting Anything Out There

Pretty much everyone who’s ever used the web has come upon a site that seemed to have the MO of just putting anything up on the page, whether the content had any relevance to anyone. You can still find traces of content for the sake of content online, but Google’s starting to come down pretty hard on it. If the search engine deems that the content on your page is weak or not very useful, it will block you.

Think hard about the content you produce. The folks at Reputation Changer recommend reading it over or having someone else read it over before you post it. Does the content answer a concrete question? Does it provide information beyond the obvious? If the answer to both of those questions is no, the content has no purpose beyond being content.

Crazy Ads

Many websites make money through Ads. While you do want to make money online, putting up too many ads on a single page does more harm than good. From a human viewpoint, it makes your page look unprofessional and spammy. From a search engine viewpoint, Google dings sites that have too many ads.

How many ads are too many? If it seems that more page space is covered by ads than actual content, there are too many ads. Positioning your ads matters, too. It’s best to put them below the fold, in the margins, or near the bottom of the page. Think of it this way, when someone visits your website, do you want them to see you or your ads?

Too Many Keywords

Keyword stuffing is one of the easiest SEO tactics to make use of. It’s also not very effective anymore. While sticking a keyword any and everywhere used to work, it’s now frowned upon by Google.

For one thing, having more keywords doesn’t make your website more relevant. For another, the search engine’s Penguin update implemented a penalty for using too many keywords in a single page. When creating your content and website, remember to only use keywords in a way that sounds natural, suggests the team at Reputation Changer.

Posting Balance

One mistake a lot of people make when it comes to posting information on Facebook is only posting information about themselves or about their company. It’s great that so many people or companies have a lot info to share about themselves. But, posting exclusively about yourself makes you come off as too promotional.

Obviously, you’re on Facebook to promote your business or whatever your project is. But, you need to strike a balance with your posts to appeal to the greatest number of people. People who post only about themselves tend to lose fans or followers.

The trick to posting is to remember the 50-30-20 rule. Half of your Facebook posts should focus on your industry, but not on your company specifically. The goal of these posts is to give your followers useful information about what it is going on. The team at Reputation Changer notes that newsworthy posts and how-to posts are both effective for gaining attention.

Twenty percent of the things you post can focus on you or your company exclusively. That includes exciting company news, information about new products, or changes to your service. The remaining 30 percent of your posts can be “fun” items that are still relevant to your audience.

You can post a survey for your followers to take to gauge their interests or find out what’s on their minds. You can post inspiring thoughts or photos or pictures of your staff at work or play. One way to remember the posting rule is to keep in mind that for every 10 posts, two can focus on you, three can be “fun,” and five should be useful and relevant but not exclusively about you.

Stay Upbeat and Simple

When you’re writing a Facebook post, it’s not a good time to break out the thesaurus. You will not impress anyone on Facebook with a clever or not often used synonym for a word. Instead, focus on making each post readable by the greatest number of people.

It’s also imperative that you stay upbeat and positive on Facebook. People like to read and share good things on social media, they’re very much turned off by negativity. They don’t want to see posts in which you slam the competition or say mean things about others. Even if you’re deeply bothered by a sad piece of news, don’t dwell on the negative aspects of it. Instead, share positive thoughts about a news piece, recommends the team at Reputation Changer.

Try to Remove the Embarrassing Details

Embarrassing posts and photos online can do a number on your reputation, especially if you’re trying to launch a new business or trying to reboot your career. You don’t want potential customers or a prospective employer to find that awkward photo of you with a lampshade on your head, do you? Luckily, you do have the ability to remove anything embarrassing that you’ve put on the internet yourself.

If you’re trying to clean up your reputation, your first step is to clear away anything embarrassing on your social media profiles or websites. Ideally, you’ll delete the embarrassing stuff before someone else finds them and decides to download them or copy them. The sooner you delete the dirty details from your life online, the better off your reputation will be.

Prepare for the Future

Going forward, set up limits for your online posts. Think carefully before posting anything online, even if you’re posting to your private social network. Remember, your “friends” or followers  can easily take a screenshot of your posts or copy and paste what you’ve written.

Social media isn’t the place for your divisive opinions on politics, religion or society.  Save your thoughts for your private, handwritten diary or for awkward family gatherings. It’s also not the place for profanity, inappropriate pictures and bullying.

Avoid the TMI

You might have a cold or stomach cramps and be miserable. But, the internet doesn’t want the gory details. Keep your private details private and don’t turn to social media to vent.

Along with avoiding potential embarrassment, there’s another good reason to avoid sharing too much personal data online. It’s pretty easy for thieves to steal your identity if you just hand them the information. Even something as innocent as a birthday and birth year can lead to theft.

Getting Help

Sometimes, your embarrassing posts online can be more than you can handle. By the time you take action, the cat might already be out of the bag. For example, someone might have gotten a hold of your nasty blog rant from five years ago and spread it around, with your name attached.

If that’s the case, a professional reputation management company, such as Reputation Changer, can help you out. The company can’t delete assets on other websites, but they can work to suppress those assets in the search engine results. They can also closely monitor your reputation online and take action to protect it. Your embarrassment won’t vanish, but it will be pushed far enough down that no one will notice.

Purpose of a Press Release

In an effort to optimize everything, the purpose of a press release seems to have been lost. A press release’s main goal shouldn’t be to boost your client’s reputation on its own. The release itself shouldn’t be what you use to build backlinks. Search engine algorithms are well aware of attempts to use press releases to build links and don’t credit those links very highly.

The goal of your press releases should be to draw the attention of the press. You want a reporter or news outlet to see the release and decide to write a story around it. To do that, your press release needs to cover something newsworthy, such as a new event or a new, exciting development at your client’s company. Once the media picks up the story, any links that are posted in the news story are what the search engines zero in on, and that help you boost your SEO.

Getting Attention

When writing a press release, you need to keep a few things in mind. Remember that you want to get someone’s attention and convince them that this is a pieces of information or news worth covering. A press release isn’t the same as an advertisement. You shouldn’t make a hard sell when you write a release. If you come on too strongly or seem like you’re selling something, your release will end up deleted or discarded.

Know Who You are Addressing

Press releases are aimed at reporters and journalists. Reporters and journalists also happen to have a lot of people trying to get their attention every day. They’re able to see when a release isn’t worth their time or attention pretty quickly.

When writing your press release, speak to your audience. Write in a way that will capture their attention and make them want to keep reading, instead of automatically moving on to the next item in their inbox. To write something engaging, it helps to have something useful to say. Only send out a press release for something that is actually news, such as your company opening a new store, or your client winning an important award.

The Value of Press Releases

A well-timed, well-written press release can do a lot to enhance and improve your client’s online reputation, note the team at ReputationChanger.com. Reviews of your strategy will help you identify things that need to be fixed and things that are working. Remember, there is no reason to hang on to a strategy that isn’t helping you or your clients.

Pick People to Post

Your social media pages are a direct line to your business for many people. They are also the first impression many potential customers see of your business. It’s essential that your profiles and pages reflect who your company is and that they portray the proper image to the world.

Too many cooks ruin the soup, and too many posters can destroy your social media presence. Pick just one or two people to handle the updates to the social media profiles and to respond to any comments or questions from customers. You don’t want to let any and all employees of your company have the opportunity to post. Doing so can create confusion and a fractured imaged. Plus, if everyone has access to social media, it is harder to reign in responses and keep track if someone posts something inappropriate.

Write the Policy Out

An effective policy needs to be written out and signed by each member of your company’s staff. If necessary, you can hold a meeting when the policy is first introduced to go over it with your team. The meeting will give people the opportunity to ask any questions or to express any thoughts they have. Asking your employees to sign the policy lets you know that they have not only read it, but that they agree with what it says.

The policy should cover all the bases. It should designate who is able to post, the ideal posting schedule if applicable and who needs to be consulted if there is an issue on a profile. The policy should also include some information about employee’s behavior on their own social media pages.

Lay out what information can and can’t be shared by your employees on their own pages. For example, be clear about what company information is confidential and proprietary. Fully explain the consequences of violating the policy so that everyone is on the same page.

Password Protection

Just to be clear, “password” is not a password. Neither is your company’s name or street address. Creating a strong password for each profile is imperative. You don’t want to run the risk of having an outside entity hack into your profile pages, posting inappropriate material.

You also don’t want to run the risk of having a disgruntled former employee figure out the password and attack your pages, point out the team at Reputation Changer. Reviews of your passwords from time to time are a good idea. Change the passwords often enough to stay in front of hackers or others with ill intentions.

The Role of Restaurant Reviews

Unfortunately for any restaurant that may have been slammed by unhappy customers, online reviews directly impact the bottom line. Even tiny differences in star rating, such as a half star difference, have negative effects on a restaurant’s business. Restaurants with 3-star reviews are less likely to be fully booked than those with 3 1/2-star reviews. You can only imagine the difference in business between a restaurant with an average of 4 stars and a restaurant that averages 1 or 2 stars.

Setting Up Your Online Reputation

Reviews aren’t the only thing people look for when they research restaurants. A restaurant that has an active online presence is likely to win favor in the eyes of potential diners. There are a lot of ways you can build up your restaurant’s reputation on the web:

• Build a website. Your website might be the first place people try to find information about you. Your site absolutely needs to contain relevant, up-to-date information, including your hours of operation, your reservation policy and your location. A lot of restaurants also include  a menu on their website, which can help diners a lot.
• Get social. Some people will turn to social media to find out more about a restaurant before visiting a site. The same information that’s on your website should be on your social media profiles: hours, location, contact information. Social media also gives you the opportunity to be a bit more personable with your customers. Use your profile as a way to interact. For example, ask what people’s favorite dishes are or what they’d like to see on the menu.
• Blogging about the restaurant. The way people look at chefs and cooking has changed considerably over the years. Twenty years ago, there was no such thing as a “celebrity chef.” Your chef might not be famous, but odds are, he or she is taking an interesting approach to a cuisine. Use blog posts to share insights from the chef and other employees at the restaurant with the world.

The goal of online reputation management for restaurants and other businesses is to pull attention away from negative reviews. You can’t ask the review sites to remove the negative information, but you can do your best to attract people’s attention elsewhere.

Taking Your Online Reputation’s Pulse

Maintaining your restaurant’s reputation isn’t a one-and-done deal, notes the team at ReputationChanger.com. Reviews can crop up at anytime. Check your online reputation’s pulse frequently to make sure the image you want to show is the image people are seeing in the search results.