Content is the most important tool in online Reputation Management (ORM). It has remained so since Google’s major algorithm changes in 2012…and all the ones since. That affects how Google evaluates the importance, credibility and relevancy of online content.

Google is constantly refining and updating its algorithm, the system it uses to establish the credibility and value of a site over others. One reason is because so many efforts are continually made to game the system: to trick Google and other search engines into erroneously believing that fake content, fake websites and meaningless links (a search engine optimization, or SEO, tool) are credible and thus worth a high ranking.  A high ranking means a site is given more precedence over others. Many factors factor into it – some of which Google identifies and more it doesn’t.

Proactive Content, Strategically Placed, is a Key Strategy

Many damaged reputations result from not having erected a wall of proactive content that serves as a buffer to offset consumer-generated media (CGM). CGM includes the anonymous blog and forum comments that often form the most damaging threat to reputations. Proactive content counterbalance such sentiment, as well as negative online information that may be factual and from respected sources. When there is little content about an individual or organization online, on appropriate platforms and with the SEO that enriches it, anything that anyone posts online about that topic goes straight to the top of the list of results in a Google search—and can stay there.

Strategy Determines Best Type of Image for You or Your Organization

Effective content is information-rich text as well as videos, photographs, podcasts and any other form of information that can be placed online. Ineffective content has a junky or low-quality aspect. When you see meaningless text about an individual or organization plastered on numerous generic websites that lack a clear organizational unity or credible hosting site, you are seeing a generic ORM campaign that is mass-produced for hundreds or thousands of people and organizations. If you care about your or your organization’s image, it might not be an appropriate approach for you.

To learn more, read: The Essentials: Online Reputation Management FAQs.

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