WHEW! The summer solstice was just last month and we’ve had a few heat waves here in the Boston area already. It’s a brutal transition after a long, cold, wet spring. I love warm weather, but this is just plain hot. I am up at 6AM writing with all windows and doors open, hoping to bring some fresh air into my house before we shut things up and turn on the AC. And, even this early in the day, it is WICKED HOT! Some days are gentle and some days just aren’t. It’s not gentle today and there’s not much we can do about it. Some things humans just can’t control, right? It’s a good thing that we can grab hold of some things, like our online reputation, and steer them when we need to.
Reviewing your online reputation in five steps
In my last post, I recommended doing a health check for your online reputation. I harkened back to a stat on consumer buying behavior from the textbook I’m using in my Marketing Analytics class. Zahay et al. (2024) tell us that over 75% of all customer journeys begin with search. Does that surprise you? So how healthy is your organization’s search engine results page (SERP)? If your brand reputation is important to you (and it should be!), it’s time to run a check. First, select a search engine (Semrush tells us that Google holds 91% market share as of July 2024 and has over 130B monthly visits). Next, enter the keywords for your organization. Then investigate your search engine results page (SERP) by area:
- The “AI Overview”
Start by taking a look at the top of the SERP – in Google this is the “AI Overview”, which provides AI-generated answers to questions.
- The first linked result
Does the meta description for this result (the sentence underneath the link) succinctly explain who you are and what you do? Does this sentence include the major problem you are solving for your target audience?
- The tabs
When you click across the tabs at the top of your SERP, do the images and videos align with what you hope people will see and hear about you and your organization?
- The “Knowledge Panel”, which includes reviews
When you look at the “Knowledge Panel” as Google calls it, for your organization, are the location and contact information correct? What about reviews? Are they visible here? If so, how do they look in terms of scores?
- The “Socials”
Finally, how about your socials? Are they showing up on your SERP and are they linked correctly in your Knowledge Panel and in the main results?
The steps above complete my Five Point Health Check. I recommend following the steps to begin reviewing your organization’s brand reputation. In my next post, I’ll begin advising you, kind reader, on how to optimize. A hint of what’s to come – harnessing customer advocacy can boost your reputation and foster organizational growth!
Until then – stay cool!
Hester