Search Engine Optimization Strategies for Protecting Your Brand

Protecting your brand isn’t easy on the Internet. Disgruntled employees can create blogs that vilify your company name. Angry consumers can complain on forums, opinion boards and other online social communities. Negative press can creep up in the search engine rankings and out rank your site for its brand and products. Sometimes it seems like no brand is immune from their online critics.

For example, in the current Top 10 Google rankings for “best buy,” there are two results that the corporate executives at Best Buy might raise an eye to. Best Buy at the Improv Everywhere listing talks about a prank that the New York group mischief makers pulled on a local Best Buy Store. Die.net features a customer’s recounting of how he was “harassed” by employees at Best Buy.

Is there anything you can do to protect your online brand?

Yes! There are plenty of ways to protect your online brand using a little bit of search engine optimization know-how and internet marketing strategy. First, make sure you know what others are saying about your company. Sign up for Google Alerts and get the latest news about your company sent to your email. Second, use a variety of search engine optimization tactics to protect your online brand:

1. Optimize your own website.
2. Spread positive news with online press releases.
3. Create a blog and post interesting news on your industry. (Just make sure to moderate comments to keep spammers from posting on your company blog.)
4. Create a forum to answer customer questions about your products.
5. Write helpful industry tips and syndicate the content.

And don’t stop there. Join an affiliate program and get some of the best search engine marketers promoting your brand. Offer special “internet only” coupons that can be spread across the coupon sites on the World Wide Web.

Lastly, and really this shouldn’t need to be said, creating a positive online brand starts at your company and its website. Make sure it’s user-friendly, and address customer complaints in a timely matter. The above search engine optimization tactics work at keeping the extremists at bay but if your brand really deserves a negative image, then take some time to listen to what your online critics have to say and make some changes in your organization.