How Can I Handle My Own Reputation Management?

By Christian Heftel

For those who find the need for a little correction of their online image but can't afford to hire a reputation management company to fix the problem, there are a few steps that you can take to minimize the effects of a negative search engine image.

First, you can attempt to contact those who have libeled your name and have them remove the content--if it's untrue. Sometimes, people do have a legitimate reason to post a negative review of you or your company, and there's not much you can do about it.

Next, try registering for all of the domain names you can think of that are related to you or your company. This is an easy process, though it does require some money. Use any domain-registering website such as GoDaddy.com, BuyDomains.com, or Register.com and start searching for all related domain names you can think of, and buy up all of the open ones.

This will usually cost you about $10 but can really help with your reputation management.

You can take two approaches to this: you should start by buying up all the potentially negative domains that an angry customer/former employee could attempt to use. Get creative here. If your company is called XY, buy domains like XYsucks or XYisstupid. Well, be a little more creative than that, too. This is a proactive approach that could prevent future reputation damage.

Also, you can start buying positive domain names. Then, if you have the time, or if you have dedicated friends or employees, you can attempt to create your own micro sites, or mini-websites that link to your website but don't look like direct offshoots.

This can be tricky, though, because if people searching for you or your company realize that you have created this page yourself, it can have the opposite effect, and your reputation management plan has gone awry.

Perhaps one of the biggest proactive steps you can take to improve your online image is to actually read those bad reviews. Some of them might be valid, and you can use their negative feedback to improve your service.

For example, if someone raged on his or her blog about how rude one of your employees were, you might consider holding an extra training meeting in which you stress the importance of good, friendly customer service. In the long run, this is one of the best things you can do to improve your company image. Sounds simple enough.

As a company or individual, you can take these steps on your own to help improve your online reputation and also prevent it to some degree from being smeared in the future. However, if these small steps don't seem to improve your condition, you might look into hiring a reputation management company to really sort things out.

Christian Heftel is a staff writer at http://www.reputationmanagementkings.com. For more information on Christian and Reputation Management, please visit http://www.reputationmanagementkings.com.