Search reputation management (SRM) is becoming more and more crucial for brands. This is largely because navigational search is on the rise. Navigational search is the practice that people type your brand into a search query box instead of trying to remember the URL. Hitwise data suggests that as many as 2 in 5 visits are using navigational search to find your website.
While it is relatively easy for brands to appear number 1 for their brand search SRM is about managing all 10 results and not just the 1. It is ensuring that the positive press about your brand outranks the negative. This in turn helps build your credibility and positively influences conversion rates.
The desired outcomes of an SRM project could be any one of the following:
Increase consumer trust
The negative listings may be a barrier for raising investment
Increase conversion rates
Improve brand perception
In extreme cases the negative listings will affect a share price
This is a highly specialist form of SEO and should be undertaken by a specialist SRM agency.
Brighthouse - corporate search reputation management
Brighthouse approached MediaVision to address the outdated negative press that continued to hamper their brand's credibility in the search engine results pages (SERPs) predominantly Google UK. The negative press was largely limited to forums where the most recent comment was 2 years old. These issues were inherited by the current management team as the customer service levels have improved dramatically over their tenure.
The negative pieces dominated 40% of all the front page search results for the "Brighthouse" brand search. This was clearly not ideal.
Fig 1: "Brighthouse" Google.co.uk search at the start of the project
On further analysis, MediaVision discovered that many and more recent positive news pieces were not getting any front page coverage. MediaVision worked closely with Brighthouse and Financial Dynamics, Brighthouse's PR Agency, to map out a strategy and timetable that would not only reduce the presence of the negative articles, but also replace them with positive pieces.
Fig 3: "Brighthouse" Google.co.uk search result at the end of the project
This resulted in an increase in the positive results in positions 3 to 8, as well as a reduction of negative results from 4 items to only 1 item. Brighthouse was thrilled at the outcome of the project. The only negative item that remained was the consumer forums which are notoriously difficult to dislodge. Progress was being made to dislodge this listing as the project ended.
For further information please contact Louis Venter on +44 (0)845 006 0709 or louis@mvi.uk.com
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