For a business owner, protecting your name, brand and reputation is one of the most important things you can do for your company. With the advent of the Internet and the ease with which many unscrupulous people wreak havoc on unsuspecting businesses, having protection is essential. That’s where Search Engine Reputation Management comes in.

Search Engine Reputation Management is actually the combination of two entities: search engine optimization (SEO) and online reputation management (ORM). SEO is a process by which web pages are sorted by rank in search engine results. Search engine results are based on specific keywords. ORM is a process by which search engine results are monitored to check what is written about a company. If ORM discovers links to harmful sites that are ranked within the first ten pages on a search engine result, it works to push those harmful links down until they disappear into the billions of available pages on the Internet.

The combination of SEO and ORM creates Search Engine Reputation Management, which is a formidable weapon businesses use to combat negative publicity.

If you are a business owner who has some SEO experience, you can work to knock those offending links farther down on the search engine result pages by injecting effective keyword phrases into your website content. If you don’t have the SEO know-how, you can hire a company that specializes in Search Engine Reputation Management and have it do it for you.

Reputation is the real ID you show people. If you want entry into businesses, relationships, or conversations, you need to have a good reputation. The same applies online. On the internet, everything is amplified. The smallest rumor becomes a celebration or tragedy. And, if unchecked, your reputation can swerve into directions that don’t accurately reflect your character.

How do you get an online reputation?

Reputation is fueled primarily by gossip. Whether positive or negative, gossip spreads through a community like a virus. Its carriers pass it via whispers and scandal.

Reputations are most effected when something of value is at stake, like money, power, or love. If you say or do something online that effects the income, stature, or relationships of others, you can find your reputation under attack.

How do you improve your online reputation?

It’s more difficult to improve a reputation if it is online. You can’t call your critics. You can’t confront your accusers in person. It’s hard for your humanity to show through a computer screen. To the people on the other end, you are nothing more than a login name.

The internet is comprised mostly of words. Choose them carefully. Know what you are talking about before you talk about it. If you say something in a bar, it can be forgotten. If you say something online, it is stored forever. At any time, someone can locate it and exploit you.

Post videos and pictures that reflect your character. If you consider yourself a classy person, post only classy videos and pictures. Over time, people will come to understand your personality, and your reputation of choice will begin to grow.

Your reputation is like an odor: if you want a nice one, then you have to constantly check yourself.