In the digital age, your online reputation is your most valuable asset. And nowhere is that reputation more prominently on display than in search engine results.
When someone Googles your name or business, the first page of results they see will largely determine their impression of you. A recent study found that 75% of people never scroll past the first page of search results.
So if those top results are filled with negative reviews, damaging news articles, or other unflattering content, it can spell disaster for your brand. Conversely, a first page populated with positive, on-brand content can be an unrivaled boost for your reputation.
This is why Search Engine Reputation Management (SERM) has become a non-negotiable for businesses and individuals alike. SERM refers to the systematic practice of monitoring, influencing, and controlling the search engine results for branded keywords in order to maintain a positive online reputation.
The Business Impact and ROI of SERM
Why should you care about SERM? Because your customers and stakeholders certainly do. Consider these telling statistics:
- 97% of consumers use the internet to find and research local businesses (BIA Kelsey)
- 93% of all online experiences begin with a search engine (Forrester)
- 87% of potential customers won‘t consider businesses with low ratings (Podium)
- 45% of people have found something in an online search that made them decide not to do business with someone (AdWeek)
The financial impact of your search reputation is just as striking. One study found that businesses risk losing up to 22% of their revenue from a single negative article on the first page of Google. Meanwhile, improving your Google star rating by just 1.5 points can increase conversions by over 120%.
But SERM isn‘t just about mitigating reputational damage and risk. When done right, it can also drive immense positive results and ROI by:
- Increasing positive brand visibility and awareness in search
- Attracting more high-intent organic search traffic
- Generating more high-quality leads and customers
- Establishing thought leadership and authority in your industry
- Providing a competitive advantage over brands neglecting SERM
All of this adds up to stronger digital presence, increased trust and credibility, and quantifiable business growth. Neglecting SERM in today‘s search-centric world simply isn‘t an option.
The SERM Process: 6 Critical Steps
So how can you harness the power of SERM to bolster your online reputation and reap the benefits? Follow this step-by-step process:
1. Audit Your Search Landscape
Begin by comprehensively auditing your existing branded search results and overall presence. Some key questions to investigate:
- What appears on the first page of results for your brand name and other essential keywords?
- How many of those results do you own or control?
- Is there any negative or critical content ranking prominently?
- How do your search results compare to your top competitors?
Tools like Google Search Console, SEMrush, and Moz Pro can help you efficiently assess your SERM status and spot improvement opportunities.
2. Secure Your Digital Properties
One of the simplest and highest-impact SERM strategies is to claim and fully build out all of your key branded web properties, including:
- Company website(s) and blogs
- Social media profiles
- Google My Business listing
- Wikipedia page
- Online review site profiles
- Press releases and earned media placements
- Industry directory and niche site listings
Go through your audit and make a complete list of the properties you need to secure. Aim to control and optimize at least the top 5-10 pages in your branded SERPs.
3. Optimize Your Web Properties for Search
Simply claiming your web properties isn‘t enough to guarantee great SERM results. You also need to comprehensively optimize them to rank well for your target keywords. This includes:
- Using your primary keywords strategically in page titles, headings, body copy, etc.
- Filling out all content fields completely with engaging, search-friendly info
- Adding relevant, high-quality images and videos
- Implementing technical SEO best practices like fast page speeds, clean URL structures, and mobile friendliness
The goal is to give search engines as many signals as possible that these properties are highly relevant for your branded queries.
4. Create and Promote Positive, Relevant Content
Perhaps the most powerful SERM tactic is to proactively create and amplify positive content that will rank highly for your brand keywords. Types of content to prioritize include:
- Blog posts and contributed articles
- Press releases and earned media coverage
- Robust "About" and team biography pages
- Customer case studies and testimonials
- Keynote speeches and conference presentations
- Visual content like infographics and videos
Promote this content extensively through your website, social media, email marketing, paid ads, and influencer/PR outreach. The more engagement and backlinks your content earns, the higher it will climb in search results.
5. Monitor and Manage Reviews
Monitoring and managing online reviews across sites like Google, Facebook, Yelp, and industry-specific platforms is another essential piece of SERM. Reviews can be one of the first things potential customers see when searching for your brand.
Some review management best practices:
- Claiming all relevant review site profiles
- Actively monitoring reviews and responding to all thoughtfully
- Routing positive reviews to your website and promoting them on social
- Reporting spam or inappropriate reviews for removal
- Analyzing review insights to continuously improve CX
Tools like ReviewTrackers, Yext, and Podium can help you streamline and scale your review management efforts as part of your SERM strategy.
6. Suppress Negative Content
Even the most proactive SERM program may not be able to completely eliminate negative content from your search results. But there are tactics you can use to minimize its impact and push it further down the page:
- Publishing a steady stream of fresh, optimized content to push down negative results
- Leveraging advanced SEO techniques to elevate positive/neutral content in rankings
- Getting unfavorable content updated or removed at the source through outreach
- Targeted link building to strengthen the authority of your owned/positive results
- Developing and promoting positive content on the same topics as the negative content
The faster you identify and take action against damaging content, the less harm it will likely do to your reputation in the long run. Investing in 24/7 SERM monitoring and responsiveness is key.
The AI Tech and Tools Powering SERM
As the field of SERM has evolved and matured, so too has the technology that enables brands to efficiently execute it. In particular, artificial intelligence and machine learning have emerged as game-changers in the SERM space.
AI-powered SERM tools and platforms can help by:
- Automatically monitoring all mentions of your brand across search, social, news, and web
- Identifying and alerting you to new reputational threats and negative content in real-time
- Intelligently analyzing the sentiment, impact, and priority level of online brand mentions
- Tracking and benchmarking your SERM performance against competitors over time
- Providing data-driven insights and recommendations to optimize your SERM strategy
Some of the top AI-enabled SERM tools on the market today include:
| Tool | Key AI/ML Capabilities |
|---|---|
| Yext | Natural language processing for analyzing and managing reviews, Knowledge Graph optimization |
| Thrive | Automated sentiment analysis and priority alert system for online brand mentions |
| Birdeye | Machine learning-based insights and benchmarking for online reputation |
| Reputation | Predictive analytics for identifying emerging reputational risks and trends |
| Chatmeter | Deep learning for analyzing complex search data and online conversations |
Of course, while great AI tech is incredibly valuable for SERM, it‘s ultimately just a tool. The strategic expertise and judgement of experienced SERM professionals is still essential for using these tools to maximum impact and advantage.
SERM Success Stories
What does effective SERM look like in practice? Let‘s examine a few real-world case studies:
Mint Mobile
The budget wireless carrier was facing an onslaught of negative reviews and ratings dragging down their online reputation. By implementing a comprehensive SERM strategy—including outreach, optimizing their website, and publishing viral brand content to drown out bad results—Mint Mobile was able to push their review rating from 2 to over 4 stars and achieve a high-ranking Featured Snippet for their brand name.
Kinsta
The WordPress hosting company had a major online controversy and criticism ranking in their top search results. Through a blend of SEO, PR, and organic social amplification of positive content, they were able to successfully suppress the unfavorable content off page 1 within 3 months.
Flatirons Health
The regional healthcare provider wasn‘t showing up at all in searches for their major service keywords. By combining local SEO and content marketing tactics with patient review generation, Flatirons increased their organic search traffic by 130% and local patient volume by 95% in 1 year.
The Future of SERM
As the importance of search visibility and digital reputation continues to grow, SERM will only become more essential for brands across all industries. Here are some of the top SERM trends and innovations to watch in the coming years:
1. Expanded scope and impact of SERM
No longer a niche practice, SERM will be fully integrated into the core digital marketing and communications operations of leading brands. Companies will invest in building dedicated in-house SERM teams and making SERM a C-suite priority.
2. More sophisticated AI and automation
SERM tools will leverage advancing AI, machine learning, and natural language processing to deliver ever-more intelligent insights and actions. Automation will enable the real-time speed and scale needed to keep up with the 24/7 demands of online reputation.
3. Proactive, strategic SERM planning
Rather than just reacting to reputational threats, brands will increasingly use SERM offensively – strategically planning and creating content/web properties expressly for the purpose of dominating target SERPs.
4. Seamless integration with other channels
SERM data, insights, and tactics will be more cohesively integrated with other key marketing channels and disciplines like content strategy, SEO, paid advertising, social media, and customer service.
5. Focus on building reputational resilience
The end goal of SERM will shift from just "cleaning up" search results to strengthening brands‘ long-term reputational resilience – the ability to consistently maintain a positive online presence in the face of digital disruption.
By staying ahead of these trends and committing to SERM as an ongoing, ever-evolving practice, you‘ll be well positioned to build an enduring online reputation that drives your brand forward.
Getting Started with SERM
Ready to put the power of SERM to work for your brand? Follow this quick-start guide to hit the ground running:
- Audit your existing search landscape to identify reputational risks and opportunities
- Define your top SERM goals and KPIs based on your unique brand needs
- Secure and optimize your essential branded web properties
- Develop and execute a proactive content creation and promotion strategy
- Monitor and manage online reviews and brand mentions
- Measure, refine, and scale your SERM program over time
SERM isn‘t a one-time project, but an ongoing process that requires consistent attention and action to yield results. But when you make it a priority, the benefits—for your online reputation, search visibility, and bottom line—can be truly game-changing.
So what are you waiting for? Your search results are one of the most critical drivers of your digital success. Take control of them with SERM, starting today.
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