Author: Sophia Deluz

For those digital marketers who want to improve their SEO performance, having the right SEO toolkit is essential. Specific SEO strategies like keyword research and content optimization are much easier with the help of the right software tools. 

Here are the types of SEO tools and digital marketing tools that your brand or agency should consider investing in to make your SEO campaigns easier and more effective.

SEO Starter Toolkit

1. Keyword Research Tool

The goal of SEO is to increase your site’s keyword rankings in major search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Keywords are essentially the industry-specific words and phrases that a user will enter in a search engine to find products and services like yours. 

However, your brand doesn’t need to rank for every keyword phrase in your industry. Some keywords will be more competitive to rank for than others. Some will have higher search intent, meaning more conversion potential.

Keyword research tools allow you to explore thousands of keywords to identify those that will be best for your brand to aim for. These tools often have features like “Related Keywords,” “Autocomplete,” or “Subtopics,” so you can easily find keyword alternatives or create keyword lists or keyword clusters.

Some keyword tools you should try out.

• LinkGraph’s Keyword Researcher
• Google’s Keyword Planner
• Search Atlas software suite

2. Content Optimization Software

Optimizing your content for the keywords you hope to rank for is a vital part of any digital marketing campaign. Content tools use natural language processing and machine learning technology to help you create content with more ranking potential.

You can use these tools to create blog posts, landing pages, ebooks, infographics, or anything else that builds trust between your brand and your target audience.  

Content tools can work in different ways, but the majority will offer suggested terms and phrases to add in your content to make it more semantically rich. Others will help you write SEO-friendly meta tags like page titles and meta descriptions.

Tools like the SEO Content Assistant combine on-page optimization with AI-content generation to help you produce more content that ranks. If you want to scale of your content production, no other tool can compete. 

Here is a tutorial on how to utilize the tool to optimize content for SEO. 

https://youtube.com/watch?v=lIYYhrFIlo0%3Ffeature%3Doembed

Some other content tools that will help you with on-page SEO include:

• Search Atlas Chrome Extension
• Clearscope 
• If you need high-volume meta descriptions and page titles, try Headlime

3. Rank Tracking Platform

If you want to accurately track your keyword rankings, you’ll need a rank tracking platform. Not only does this kind of SEO tool help you keep up with your own rankings, but you can also monitor how your direct competitors are keeping up with high-value industry keywords.

Tracking your keyword rankings is essential to knowing whether or not your SEO efforts are proving successful. Look for improvements in impressions, average keyword positions, total keywords, and organic clicks to measure SEO success.

Try out these rank tracking platforms to get a more granular picture of your brand and your competitors’ keyword rankings.

• Get comprehensive keyword rankings data from GSC Insights
• See limited competitor rankings in Ahrefs
• Set up your own Google Search Console Account

Advanced Tools for your SEO Toolkit

4. Backlink Checker

Link building is an essential off-site SEO strategy for any SEO campaign but it is more advanced to implement correctly. A backlink is created any time an outside site links to your own website. Assuming that the site providing the backlink has a high domain authority, you’ll receive an SEO boost from it. 

A backlink checker allows you to see what sites are linking to yours, the anchor text they are using, and to identify any toxic or spammy links.

Backlink checkers also allow you to review your competitors backlink profiles and benchmark your off-site strategy. Understanding how many backlinks and referring domains your competitors have gives you an idea of whether you can outrank them for high-value keywords in your industry.

Backlink Analyzer or link building tools:

• LinkGraph’s Backlink Analyzer
• Search Atlas Software Suite
• Moz Link Explorer

5. Schema Generator

Schema markup refers to a structured data vocabulary that helps search engines understand the information on your site when you include it in your HTML code. Search engines rely on schema markup to define people, places, and things online. By adding schema.org markup to your site, your web pages can appear in Google’s rich results, which are more desirable and clickable to users.

Schema is considered a more advanced optimization because it requires knowledge of programming languages such as JSON-LD, RDFa, and microdata. A schema generator tool will do the hard part of adding schema for you. All you have to do is copy and paste the code into the backend of your website.

Here are some schema generators that you can try out.

• Search Atlas schema generator tool
• Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper
• Make sure you check your schema with Google’s rich results test

6. Log Analyzer

A log analyzer is a tool that timestamps all of your software transactions and makes them easily searchable. In the context of a website, a reliable log analyzer will help you find events that share predetermined commonalities. 

These commonalities may involve a software issue that you’ll search for in order to get an understanding of the frequency of the problem and how to fix it.

Log data is frequently used to replicate technical issues, so web developers have an easier time correcting them. Once corrections have been made in the fixed app, they’ll attempt to recreate the problem again to test if it’s truly fixed.

These analyzers save web developers from the incredibly time-consuming process of having to search logs page by page, and a log analyzer is a must-have for your SEO toolkit.

Some popular log analyzers include:

• Screaming Frog 
• Sumo Logic

Free tools for SEO Toolkits on a Budget

7. Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a free site analysis tool that should be a part of any SEO professional’s toolkit. This free platform allows you to better connect with Google and understand your site’s SEO performance.

Search analytics will tell you your position in rankings, as well as which queries are most popular with your target audience and most relevant to your existing content. You’ll also be able to submit your sitemap and individual webpages for Google crawlers, to ensure that Google has the most recent versions of all your webpages. 

Get started with Google Search Console now.

8. Google’s PageSpeed Insights

Google PageSpeed Insights (PSI) provides reports on your page speeds on both desktop and mobile devices. It also provides suggestions for how your page experience and Core Web Vitals can be improved.

Page load speed is a significant ranking factor for Google, and you need to make sure that your site is mobile-friendly, or you’ll risk losing a huge percentage of your web traffic. In fact, roughly half of all web traffic comes from mobile devices, so you really can’t afford to fail on this front.

While this tool is incredibly useful, it shouldn’t totally replace your own web testing. PSI won’t take into account how your pages load under unusually high server strain, for example, so you’ll still need to conduct your own tests for unusual situations.

9. Meta Tag Generators

Google relies on meta tags to understand the relevance of your content to keyword searches. Creating optimized, SEO-friendly meta tags can help your pages rank in search engines more often. Meta tag generators can create those tags for you based on a few simple inputs.

Depending on the types of tags that you need will determine which tool that you use. There are meta tag generators for all types of SEO HTML tags including meta descriptions, page titles, hreflang tags, rel canonicals, robots tags, open graph meta tags, and more.

If you want to see meta tags on other web pages, consider downloading a chrome extension that lets you examine what meta tags your competitors are using.

Here are some helpful meta tag tools to help you create meta tags for your own site or review them on other webmaster’s pages:

• LinkGraph Chrome Extension
• Metatags.io
• SEO META in 1 Click

For Those Looking for an All-in-One SEO Toolkit

10. Search Atlas SEO Software

Having all of the tools that you need in one centralized platform is ideal for those digital marketers who are deploying a full-scale SEO campaign. 

If you are in the position of needing multiple tools, investing in a single SEO software platform can prevent you from having to jump around from website to website to patch together your SEO toolkit. 

Search Atlas is an award-winning platform from LinkGraph that provides on-page, off-site, and content strategy tools to help you take your SEO strategy to the next level. Start your 7-day free Search Atlas trial, or download the Search Atlas SEO mobile app, and start crushing your SEO goals from a single platform. 

Google has gotten better at understanding content, so your keyword strategy also needs to get more advanced. Using a keyword cluster model can bolster your search engine results and help you outrank competitors.

We all know that keywords are essential when it comes to optimizing your website for better rankings in search engines. It was once common practice to choose one keyword to optimize each piece of content for. But with newer, more complex search engine technology, optimizing for keywords clusters is a more standard SEO practice.

Google has gotten better at understanding content, so your keyword strategy also needs to get more advanced. Using a keyword cluster model to drive your overall content strategy can help bolster your search engine results and help you outrank competitors.

Here is a guide on everything you should know about keyword clustering.

What is a Keyword Cluster?

In short, keyword clusters are keywords that represent searches with similar consumer intent.

Also known as keyword groupings, these “bunches” of keywords are paired together because they represent the same, overarching intention.

Users don’t always search for products, services, or answers to their questions in the same way. For example, say your business is an e-commerce brand that sells women’s athletic shoes. An example of a possible ways that users might search for your products include:

All of the above search queries display the same intent, which is to purchase athletic shoes for women. If you only optimize your content for one of these terms, you’ll miss out on thousands of users who are looking for products and services likes yours.

The reality is, Google usually ends up ranking our web pages for multiple keyword phrases. With a keyword clusters model, you can be more strategic in making sure Google ranks your web pages for the similar terms that your target audience is using.

How to Create a Keyword Cluster

Creating a keyword cluster involves being more thorough with your research and more strategic about keyword targeting. It requires a strong understanding of your audience and the types of terms they use to find products, services, or content like yours.

1. Do Your Keyword Research

Any SEO professional understands that before you start with any type of keyword targeting, you must do your research.

You not only need to see what keywords users are searching for surrounding your search term/ topic. You also need to know which of those terms are more valuable and display the greatest conversion potential.

And when we say research, we don’t just mean finding a few keywords. Done correctly, extensive keyword research involves putting together a list of hundreds to even thousands of keywords that might bring potential customers to your website.

When thinking about what kinds of keywords to add to your list, ask yourself the following questions:

• What products and services do I offer?
• What problems can I solve for my customers?
• Why would a consumer choose my company over my competitors?
• If I was brand new to the industry, what words would I be searching to learn more?
• What type of customers do I usually get?
• Do I have any content currently that can answer users’ most common questions?

Once you have some ideas about what primary keywords and overarching topics you want to target, take your time to identify all the variations of the keyword and topic as possible.

This means all long-tail keyword phrases, pillar topics, synonyms, and related subtopics. While there is no perfect number to shoot for, when you finish your keyword research you should have a couple hundred keywords to work from. This will give you a good number to help you build out multiple keyword clusters.

2. Use a Keyword Tool

To find essential keyword metrics for the many keywords you’ll need in your list, you will want to use a tool like LinkGraph’s keyword researcher. (If you haven’t created your free account yet, set up your Search Atlas dashboard).

Features like “Suggested Keywords,” will help you find similar keywords quickly and then easily add them to a list that you can eventually export to a CSV file.

Our Keyword Researcher tool simplifies your keyword strategy by giving you all the data and insights you will need to create keyword clusters to improve your website’s content.

Our tool will provide the data for:

• Monthly Search Volume: The average number of users who are enter the keyword into the Google search bar every month.
• Keyword Difficulty: The competitive landscape of the keyword on a 0-100 scale. Higher Keyword Difficulty scores mean more competition.
• Search Volume by Country: If you need the search metrics for specific country or region, the tool can be filtered by country.
• Cost-per-click: This is the price that digital advertisers are paying in Google Adwords to rank their website on the top of the SERPs. The higher the CPC, the higher the chances that this keyword will bring qualified traffic your way.

3. Identify Themes and Groupings

Once your list of keywords is complete, you’ll want to take your list and identify similar themes. Chances are, you may have already noticed some themes pop up while you were collecting your research.

The various patterns you might see will guide your keyword clusters. Some examples to look for are:

Relevance

This goes back to natural language processing. Are there certain groups of words that are synonyms and share the same search intent? The more similar the keywords, the easier it is for Google to crawl your landing page and gain insight on its subject matter.

Search Volume

The core keywords in your clusters need to have a reasonable search volume. This shows that users are actually searching for those terms.

While long-tail phrases will naturally have lower search volume due to their specificity, make sure any long-tail terms you include in your cluster still display strong conversion potential in their cost-per-click metrics.

Keyword Difficulty

For newer sites, it will be difficult to rank for keywords that have a Keyword Difficulty score higher than your Domain Authority. There are many ranking factors in play when it comes to organic difficulty, including your site authority, your backlink profile, and how established your website is in your niche.

Having a combination of lower competition and high competition keywords can mean securing some keyword rankings in the short term. As your site authority grows, your pages can rank for those more competitive queries in the cluster over the long-term..

Marketing Funnel

You an also group keywords together based on where the user is located in the marketing funnel.

• Top of the Funnel – awareness and lead generation keywords.
• Middle of the Funnel – consideration, and lead nurturing keywords.
• Bottom of the Funnel – purchase and conversion keywords.

Keywords that are at the top and middle of the funnel are better options for resources like blogs and ebooks on your website. Your primary landing pages that are conversion-optimized should target keyword groupings at the bottom of the funnel.

4. Assign your Keywords to Groups

Once you identify the themes and commonalities, it’s time to organize keywords into clusters. Aim for about 3-5 keywords in each cluster, as anything higher will be more difficult to optimize for.

The number of keyword clusters that you identify will be determined by how many landing pages you have on your website and whether or not you are optimizing existing content or starting from scratch.

When it’s time to optimize, do the following.

For Existing Content

1. Take every landing page you currently have on your website and write them all down in a spreadsheet.
2. Categorize the landing page based on a theme, whether it matches the marketing funnel themes from above, or it is a different type of content.
3. Match your keyword clusters to the pages, and refresh the content accordingly. This can mean adding a sentence or two to the existing marketing copy, updating the SEO HTML tags like page titles and meta descriptions, or updating the content copy with more relevant statistics, links, or information.
4. Use the SEO Content Assistant to optimize the content. You can optimize for up to five keywords, meaning all of the terms in your cluster
5. If any of your keyword clusters don’t match a content theme on your website or vice versa, then make note of these content gaps. You will use these content gaps to inspire new content.

For New Content

• If you are starting completely fresh, you will want to create at least one landing page per keyword cluster.
• Look to the keywords in your cluster to guide you on what information you share, and how you can help your customers.
• Like with existing content, use the SEO Content Assistant to optimize your content and improve its ranking potential
• After you create your initial pages, you’ll want to expand your content to reinforce your keyword clustering efforts. You shouldn’t just think about the content you produce today, rather you’ll want to focus on creating a sustainable content strategy that works on bolstering your website’s long-term SEO.

Tracking your Keyword Clusters in GSC Insights

After you publish your optimized content on your website, LinkGraph’s GSC Insights tool can give you an inside look at whether or not your pages are ranking for the keywords in your cluster.

Here are some things to look for to confirm whether or not your keyword clustering strategy is working:

• Impressions: If Google starts showing your SERP result to more users, it shows that their crawlers find the page relevant. Even if your page isn’t ranking on page one, impressions are a sign that Google sees your pages as related to the keyword query.
• Total Keywords: If the total number of keywords your page is ranking for improves, it shows that Google is understanding the content on the page and seeing its relevance to multiple keyword searches

GSC Insights can be used for organizing, tracking, and optimizing your keyword cluster strategy and to see what content needs more optimizing or what kind of additional content you should produce going forward.

Final Thoughts

With a bit of time, dedication, and research, deploying keyword clustering model will enhance your overall digital marketing strategy.

Knowing what content and keywords resonate with your potential and returning customers is crucial to staying topically relevant within your industry. It’s also essential to earning the organic traffic and conversions you need to grow your business.

Our SEO specialists at LinkGraph are here for all of your keyword and content strategy needs. Get in touch today to learn more about how our team and software can help you with keyword clustering and on-page optimization.

Long-tail keywords can help your brand see faster SEO wins. Learn how to use long-tail and low competition keywords in your SEO strategy.

Most likely, your business has very specific keywords in mind when it comes to reaching your target audience. But the reality is, certain keywords can be highly competitive, particularly if they bring qualified, converting clicks. For newer brands or websites with lower domain authority, long-tail keywords and low-competition keywords can help you unlock amazing SEO potential.

Keywords play an essential role in your overall search engine optimization strategy. If you only target highly competitive keywords when you’re creating landing pages and blog posts, it’s unlikely you’ll see those pages rank on page one. That is, unless your Domain Authority is equal to or higher than your competitors.

In this blog, we’re going to go over the concept of long-tail keywords and low-competition keywords. Rather than targeting highly competitive keywords that many other people may have optimized for, low competition keywords and long-trail keywords can help you get on to page one and see SEO wins earlier and faster.

What are long-tail keywords?

First, it helps to understand exactly what long-tail keywords are. These are longer keyword phrases of three words or more that are more specific and direct for your niche. 

For example, maybe you want your web design company to rank for the competitive keyword web design services. Here are some examples of some long-tail keywords that show similar search intent and relevance:

• web design services for small businesses
• web design services pricing
• development and web design services
• landing page web design services
• custom website design services
• web and graphic design services

If your brand or website is just starting out, the best keywords may be lengthier phrases that exactly describe what you’re selling rather than the basic keyword that your competition is targeting.

The more specific you can get with your keywords, the better. In fact, a majority of Google Searches (about 70%) are long-tail queries. People tend to search for their specific needs using at least three words.

So, if you can rank for these specific searches, you’ll be able to draw in more customers.

What are low-competition keywords?

The internet is a huge space full of literally millions of different websites vying for buyer‘s attention. That’s a lot of competition you are trying to beat out with high-volume keywords. In the keyword competition game, it can help to maximize your SEO strategy when you stay away from the keyword ideas that everyone is utilizing. This is where low-competition keywords come in.

Metrics like Keyword Difficulty estimate the competitive landscape of certain keywords. If the keywords your brand wants to rank for have high search volume, higher CPC (which represents conversion potential), and are already dominated by websites with lots of site authority, those keywords are considered higher competition. 

But to be successful in SEO, your brand should target and utilize keywords that you actually have the capability to rank for. Your potential customers will be more likely to find you if you are ranking in the top three positions on page one. Aiming for keywords where you can get to those top spots is a much more practical way of ranking, especially for newer websites.

Low-competition keywords should still be relevant to your products and services and will represent buyers somewhere in the marketing funnel. As you’re starting out or building your website from the ground up, lower competition keywords are great to gain some traction.

Avoid the high-competition keywords at first. Instead, draw more people to your landing page with low-volume keywords you can rank for more easily.

Pros and Cons of Long-Tail Keyword Targets

As with any marketing strategy, you need to make sure you’re using the best tools to help your company succeed. When it comes to long-tail and low-competition keywords, there are some pros and cons to consider. 

Let’s go over a few of those in detail now.

Pro: You have a better chance of ranking.

Playing the SEO game is all about your search rankings. The biggest pro of utilizing low-competition keywords is that you have a better chance of ranking with a fast turnaround. 

This is especially true for newer websites and young businesses. As you’re starting out, you may not have a strong domain rating or meaningful presence on the internet. Therefore, you won’t be competitive against big-name websites when trying to rank for general keywords. 

Focus on getting your numbers up on long-tail searches as a way to see results more immediately.

Pro: Your conversion rates can be higher.

When a potential customer searches with short-tail keywords, chances are they’re just looking around and browsing the internet. A long-tail search is more specific and direct. That means they represent searchers who know exactly what they’re looking for and are ready to buy it. 

When you rank for long-tail keywords, it greatly increases your conversion rates. Customers in these instances are poised and ready to purchase the exact product they need, and you want to be the site that gives it to them. 

Getting specific about your offerings is that sweet spot where you draw in potential customers and a target audience that is ready to finalize their purchase.

Pro: This is a great stepping stone to better SEO practices overall.

The world of SEO can seem intimidating at first, but it doesn’t have to be. Another pro of long-tail keywords is that they can help spark better SEO practices overall. 

Think of this as a stepping stone for beginners or new websites that eventually want to rank among those high-competition keyword suggestions. The key to a good long-tail keyword campaign is to always connect things back to the head concept or pillar page. 

As you work to rank with low-competition phrases, you’ll also be able to beef up your main content. This helps you create a more strategic site and homepage overall.

Con: Long-tail keywords have a much lower search volume.

The biggest con of long-tail keywords is that they have a lower search volume. If you don’t choose your keyphrases carefully, you may be ranking for concepts that no one ever searches for. 

All that hard work to create and optimize content wouldn’t actually result in higher site visits. This may also mean that your site traffic isn’t as high as you’d like. 

While this is a downside, it can still be a good strategy. That’s because the business and search inquiries you are generating are more specific to what your site offers.

Con: It can be trickier to find the right long-tail queries.

Another tricky part of utilizing long-tail keywords is finding the perfect keywords in the first place. 

You want to rank for an incredibly specific query while still creating relevant content. It’s easy to find the Google trends for main keywords and primary topics, but low-competition searches may be harder to pin down. 

You may find yourself going through a lot of keywords to find the perfect low-competition options for you. Luckily, here at LinkGraph, we have excellent tools to help you find long-tail keywords that will be perfect for your particular niche.

Finding Long-Tail Keywords with LinkGraph’s Keyword Researcher

Here at LinkGraph, we have a number of software services we can provide you. One of these is our custom keyword research tool. Get understandable, beneficial metrics for your SEO so you can get the best organic search traffic. 

There are a few reasons why this tool is a great way to do competitive analysis to find those long-tail keywords that will benefit your business.

1. Search Volume: See how much traffic certain phrases get on Google. Remember, with low-competition keywords, you may actually want a smaller search volume number than with generic terms.
2. Keyword Difficulty: See how hard it may be to rank on the first page of the Google SERP with Keyword Difficulty. On a scale of 1-100, the lower the number, the more likely you are to rank. 
3. Cost-per-click (CPC): Get cost-per-click metrics for each specific term to getter a better understanding of their conversion potential.
4. Search Volume by Country: Narrow down your search by country so you are appealing to new customers in your target market. 

You can also explore our keyword suggestion feature for a quick way to get inspiration for your keyword research. This feature will take the exact keyword you had in mind and help you come up with keyword target alternatives.

It shows you subtopics, related ideas, autocomplete suggestions, and more. It’s a good idea to do this research so you can find a low-competition phrase to bring in quality searchers to your service pages, product pages, or blog posts. Check out these solutions for keyword suggestions in a seven-day free trial of our Search Atlas software suite.

Other Ways to Brainstorm Low-Competition Keywords

Beyond our terrific resources, there are ways to do some keyword brainstorming on your own. Start by searching competitor keywords and find what is actually ranking. Google can offer some free tools for you to see likely rank and PPC information for certain keyword opportunities. 

You can also take a page from your competitor’s book, literally. Search through the top SERP-ranked pages and dissect that content marketing strategy. Who knows? You may find a new keyword or get inspiration from these high-competition sources. 

Doing a quick Google search with our LinkGraph Chrome extension can also help you identify what related searches people are using to find products and services like yours.

Overall, these are just a few jumping-off points and ideas to help you improve your keyword inquiries and understand searcher intent in new ways. Once you’ve taken the first step, you can benefit from professional on-page SEO assistance to find the best keyword terms for better results.

When should I target long-tail keyword queries?

There are a few different reasons you should target long-tail queries and some great opportunities to do so.

Brand New Website

If you are just starting out as a new domain or fresh website, utilizing long-tail keywords can be the best place to start ranking and making a name for yourself on the internet.

Without as much competition up front, you’ll be able to gain some traction and build toward more short-tail queries. When creating your new primary landing pages, aim for creating keyword clusters that include both short-tail and long-tail queries.

Blog Content Strategy

Starting a blog is another perfect opportunity to explore these ideal keywords. Creating blog content on a regular basis gives you opportunities to create content that specifically targets these long-tail and low competition queries. Optimize blog posts based on search phrases to help your web page grow a following in the best way. Get specific about certain concepts and key phrases so your ranked page can work its way up the SERPs.

Overall, long-tail, low-competition queries are the perfect solution for newer websites or pages trying to convert new customers into profitable sales. If you’re launching a new product or searching for more business, explore the benefits of long-tail keywords and low-competition searches. Here is a video explaining how to move from a keyword to a blog topic for your content strategy.

Start your long-tail keyword strategy today.

Now that you understand the importance and benefit of long-tail, low-competition keywords, it’s time to implement your strategy! A pro tip as you’re starting out is to officially identify your mission. 

Your SEO strategy is specific to your company and the goals you’ve set in your business plan. When you know your mission, you can do better keyword research. You also can be confident in exactly what you want to promote. This will inform all your next steps as you do research on Google metrics and start utilizing keyword idea searches.

Remember, the more specific you can get with your low competition keywords, the higher the chance you’ll rank in those niche areas. Overall, your long-tail keyword strategy is just the first step toward helping you utilize keywords in a deliberate way. Work smarter, not harder with these tactics and techniques that can take your company to the next level of your SEO journey.

In a world that thrives on living and working behind a screen, it is very important for companies of all sizes to work on their online reputation. 94% of Americans have avoided certain businesses due to a negative online review. That means brands have an uphill climb ahead of them in gaining trust with their consumers.

This is where corporate reputation management comes in. Simply put, a brand’s corporate reputation is defined as the quality of your brand’s footprint and how it is consumed by your target audience.

Everything your brand does and says relates back to its reputation in multiple different ways. When looked at over time, a company’s reputation is the sum of how people, both internal and external stakeholders, feel about your brand as a whole.

It goes without saying that every brand needs to manage its online reputation, but many brands tend not to see their own weaknesses until it is too late. Working on your brand’s reputation sooner rather than later is extremely important for controlling how consumers view your brand both now and in the future, no matter where they come across it in the digital landscape.

Here is a guide on everything an enterprise brand needs to know about both improving and maintaining their corporate reputation for continued success.

What is Corporate Reputation Management?

Corporate reputation management is the process of monitoring and managing your online presence. A positive reputation can be the biggest asset to any business, but if not regulated correctly, it can be their biggest downfall.

It is important to note that business reputation management is targeted towards all the key stakeholders in your business’s success; from customers to investors and even your employees.

The logic behind this is simple: A good brand creates a great following, hires the best employees, and works hard to stand out in a sea of competition.

Why is Corporate Reputation Management Important?

Search engines are the primary way that users get information to make purchase decisions. This makes it essential to work on your brand reputation in as many digital spaces that you can.

Since our digital world makes it so easy for consumers to provide their unsolicited opinions on social media platforms and review websites, reputation management is a crucial business expense any business owner should invest in.

Here’s why:

• The impact of online reviews can make or break for a business; 90% of consumers will read a review before they even click on a website, and 73% say that they will trust a website even more after reading a positive review.
• 46% of companies have been damaged or are worried by negative press. This is up 29% from 2014 and represents the threat just one negative news article can do to a business.
• One-third of businesses report that negative content has already hurt their company, and these owners are worried about how this can affect their brand perception in the future.

What are Examples of Reputation Management?

Depending on your needs, there are a lot of different reputation management techniques that will remove bad news and unsightly press from your brand, while enhancing your influence in the online world. This can be done via:

• Crisis management
• Media relations
• Increasing positive reviews on multiple different review sites
• Creating and optimizing a new and improved website
• Developing blogs and thought leadership pieces that showcase your brand’s voice
• Distributing press releases
• Social media management of all your social networks, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and more

Why Enterprise Brands Need a Corporate Reputation Management Strategy

As with any other digital marketing technique, your brand will need to put a comprehensive strategy behind your corporate reputation management output.

When you have a clear, defined strategy in place, you will be able to appeal to a whole group of stakeholders, while creating a competitive advantage for you. Not many brands have invested in reputation management, and a clear strategy will only work wonders in propelling your brand forward.

Here are some benefits to investing in a reputation management strategy.

• Increased sales. The bottom line is that when a consumer feels that they can trust the company they are working with, they will convert. They also might recommend your company to those in their network, which can lead to more sales. What’s there not to love about that?
• Enhanced customer loyalty. Customers who trust your reputation and have worked with you before will likely return to your services again in the future when needed.
• Attract top talent. Your reputation management strategy’s goal shouldn’t be just to create a strong reputation in the eyes of your consumers. Instead, you need to appeal to different stakeholders of all kinds, including potential employees. After all, your company wouldn’t be anything without them, and they deserve to work at a company they can be proud of.
• Improve your company’s market value. When you have all of the above, your brand reputation will become an intangible asset for your growth.

With these benefits in mind, why wouldn’t you invest in improving your corporate reputation as much as you can?

3 Example Failures of Corporate Reputation Management

In order to succeed at reputation management, you’ll want to look at examples of other enterprise brands that have had reputation management crises in the past. From bad reviews, to negative past actions, take a note of these brand’s failures when creating your own strategy.

1. United Airlines – Crossing Boundaries with Passengers

United Airlines has been dealing with negative stories about their brand since early 2017. Back in 2017, news of United denying two teenage girls from boarding an airplane quickly spread like wildfire over social media.

2) She's forcing them to change or put dresses on over leggings or they can't board. Since when does @united police women's clothing?

— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) March 26, 2017

The airline agents reported that they didn’t allow the girls on the plane because their leggings were too sheer and inappropriate. Once consumers heard about this incident, they demanded an apology on behalf of the girls, but this never happened.

Instead, United’s social media team released a series of tweets where they defended the airline agent’s logic, and claiming that this was normal procedure for passengers.

The passengers this morning were United pass riders who were not in compliance with our dress code policy for company benefit travel.

— United Airlines (@united) March 26, 2017

But things just got worse a few weeks later, when a video went viral showing a bloody and bruised United passenger being dragged from a flight. Initially, United explained that this passenger had just gotten into a fight because the flight was overbooked, but it soon came out that his flight was given up to accommodate extra United Airlines employees.

My team and i have arranged new personal flights home outside of using @united tonight. Horrible Company.

— Taylor Caniff (@taylorcaniff) April 10, 2017

The victim of the fight lost his two front teeth, suffered from a broken nose, and required facial reconstruction surgery. As a response, United’s CEO released a statement that again defended the actions of the gate agents, and said a lackluster apology to the passengers who witnessed the fight and needed to be re-accomodated.

United CEO response to United Express Flight 3411. pic.twitter.com/rF5gNIvVd0

— United Airlines (@united) April 10, 2017

The CEO’s statement didn’t do much for United’s reputation; within 24 hours of the incident, the United Airlines brand lost about $800 million in total value. Even though this happened 4 years ago, experts still say that this incident could call for irreparable brand damage to United as a whole.

2. Uber – A Temperamental CEO + Political Affiliations

Uber went from being one of the most celebrated brands in the world to one of the least in a matter of months. Starting in 2017, they experienced a whole host of reputation damaging events, such as:

• The CEO Travis Kalanick serving on an advisory council to then-President Donald Trump. Uber customers believed that any CEO should not make their political affiliations known in such a manner.
• Uber continued to serve JFK airport in New York City during a taxi strike against Donald Trump’s immigration policies. This caused a crisis internally with their employers who did not agree with this. And also with customers, as Uber surged prices as they were the only ride-share opportunity available.
• Ex-employees reporting on massive, wide-spread sexual harassment and HR misconduct all throughout the company.
• CEO Kalanick being captured on video arguing with an Uber driver over the sudden decrease in pay the company provided.

How did Uber respond to these indcidents? Not very well, in eyes of both their investors and their consumers.

In which the Uber CEO argues with an Uber employee about Uber prices while on a ride. https://t.co/ETJXGdVLZT pic.twitter.com/kUC2x7wdhF

— Taniel (@Taniel) February 28, 2017

The CEO has consistently made public apologies and have written letters to his employees and customers. But not many people were pacified. The general consensus is that when a senior executive like himself makes all these public statements, without much change, it is hard to believe the apologies.

Overall, this is a perfect example of how much your brand reputation matters.

Chipotle – Underplaying Health & Safety

Back in 2015, Burrito giant Chipotle experienced a wave of E-Coli outbreaks nationwide. As a result, the company experienced an 82% decrease in profit over a year. They also had a 15% dip in their stock’s value.

In the middle of the E-Coli outbreak, instead of mentioning how safe their food is to consume, a company leader made a public statement that denounced the Centers for Disease Control and basically implied that whenever someone sneezes, they now will believe Chipotle is the reason for them being sick.

This attempt at a joke was futile. It just went to further convince consumers that Chipotle was not taking their health and safety concerns seriously. Even though the company leader stepped down a year later, many consumers believe their response to the bacteria outbreak was not authentic and did little to quell health fears.

Best Practices of Corporate Online Reputation Management

Managing your brand’s image online isn’t always a simple thing. Depending on your needs, there are a lot of different techniques you can do to boost your corporate reputation. Here are some best practices of corporate online reputation management to add to your strategy.

Listen, Listen, Listen

Above anything else, you need to listen to the stakeholders in your business. This means your consumers, both returning and prospective customers, your investors, and your employees.

Every person that touches your company in any way needs to be heard. Make it a habit to listen to them as often as possible.

Host employee forums where employees can openly speak to senior management. Have a feedback option on your website for customers to submit anonymously. Then take what you hear from your consumers and build your strategy off of that.

Invest in SEO

Building an online presence takes time, and enterprise SEO can bring your corporate reputation to the next level.

Search engine optimization is the digital marketing technique aimed at improving your brand’s visibility within major search engines like Google. Ultimately, SEO works so your website is populated within the first page of Google for any search result. Focusing on SEO not only increases the chances that consumers find your website over your competitor’s, but it helps to improve brand awareness and authority. In short, consumers trust Google, and tend to trust whatever website shows up within the first search results, over those on the second page.

Because SEO relies so heavily on search engine algorithms, you may not see updates to your crisis management SEO strategy right away. That is fine, do not worry! At the bare minimum, give your website and search engine optimization efforts about three months before they gain traction. After that, you will start seeing regular, consistent results. Being patient is worth it, trust us!

Review Your Reviews

93% of people say that online reviews impact their buying decisions. This is the exact reason why checking your reviews is so important!

Just one, one-star review has the potential to upend your entire business. It will dramatically decrease your average star rating. Most consumers only look at your overall rating, rather than each specific review. So you’ll need to make sure you do everything in your power to keep those ratings as high as possible.

Unfortunately, online bots do exist with the sole purpose of creating fake reviews for businesses. So to mitigate any potential fake reviews, review your online reviews on a weekly basis. Not only that, but you’ll want to respond to each and every review. Not only does this show your customers that you are a face behind a screen that is willing to fix their problem, prospective customers will notice that you are active in your customer’s buying experience.

Build Brand Identity

Above anything else, you need to know who you are and what your brand stands for! Developing an unique brand voice will only work to help establish your reputation management strategy as you begin to become more active on the Internet.

Because almost all brands are reachable on social media and within search engines, you’ll need to stand out among the crowd. An unique voice can do that for you; set you apart while making yourself approachable online.

When brainstorming ideas for your brand identity, ask yourself the following questions:

• How would I like my brand to be portrayed to a new consumer?
• How can I let a returning consumer know I value their business?
• What are some words and phrases I can use to really make my brand’s personality shine?
• What type of content is my target audience most likely to consume? How can I create this content and promote it in a way that will make my customers care?
• If I was a new customer, what kind of impression does my brand gve off?

The answers to these questions will work to guide your strategy and give you the answers you’re looking for. Remember, your identity is yours and yours alone, so feel free to get creative and really let your personality show.

Final Thoughts on Corporate Reputation Management

If you’ve learned anything from this post, it’s that corporate reputation management matters. Without a positive online reputation, your brand is not living up to its full potential. You may even be pushing away prospective clients.

To avoid this, put the above corporate reputation management tactics to work so your brand will be in the right place to grow and succeed online.

Make sure your brand is promoted online in the best way possible by showcasing its strengths. Our team at LinkGraph can help with crisis management and corporate reputation management. We’ll paint your brand in a positive light and let it shine online.