Web Listings, Inc. Could Use Reputation Management

I just got back from a nice week of skiing in Colorado, and came back to my all-time favorite letter in the mail. Yes, it was from my friends at Web Listings, Inc., hoping to (again) help me out in 'submitting' my site to the search engines. I've been over this before. And judging from the comments on my previous blog about Web Listings, Inc., so have others...

Here is the best part: search for [Web Listings, Inc.] in Google. I notice a familiar site as the top result :)

This cracks me up, but helps to solidify something many people and business owners do not know much about: managing your reputation in the search engine results pages.

There will be more to come about managing your reputation online, but in general, everyone needs to be aware that in this open forum - especially with the emergence of user generated content and social media - any good SEO can possibly rank something for their personal or business name.

Especially with businesses.

All it takes is one disgruntled customer with a half of a brain to start a web site that can rank and possibly scare away other future potential customers.

The best way to stop that disgruntled customer is to build up your brand and manage your search results. There are many ways to do this, and as I said earlier, there is more to come on this topic, as I have dealt a great deal with managing search results and clients' reputations.

I already said that Web Listings, Inc. should not waste their paper, and I'm sticking to that - hopefully I have even deterred some people that might not know about how search engines and 'services' such as these work, and hopefully I've helped some new, unaware aspiring webmasters to NOT get taken. (Side note: If you are interested in SEO services, let me know by emailing matt@mattkluemper.com - I know a lot of smart SEO folks!)

Just wanted to get it out there - manage your business' brand online or have someone manage it for you - or you might end up with some web site like mattkluemper.com ranking for your brand name :)

More to come....