What Your Reputation Means

Whether you are a huge corporation, a small business owner or an individual with a promising career, your reputation can make or break you. Today’s technology has created an environment where we are all in the limelight for everyone to see; for good or for bad. As a business person, the quality of your product and dedication to your customers is crucial in building a solid reputation that will be the catalyst for sustaining and growing your company.

Today’s consumers are more demanding than ever before. Thanks to the internet, they have an enormous range of options when it comes to researching and purchasing products and services they need. Successful businesses understand the need to protect both their reputation and their brand. When the average consumer is in the market for new kitchen appliances, a quality pair of running shoes or TV, they automatically seek out specific companies because they have proven to be the best and most reliable over time. It is not uncommon to hear of large corporations pulling the endorsement of a famous celebrity from their products due to negative publicity over an unpopular incident or point of view. They will go to any lengths to disassociate themselves from anything that can tarnish their reputation and are ever vigilant about what is being said about them in public and specifically over the internet. They understand how one slanderous comment (whether true or not) can take hold and very quickly become viral. Even a well established and solid reputation can change overnight and have a huge effect on one’s bottom line.

Web Designers and SEO Professionals

Understanding what the goal of your website is and ensuring that goal (or goals) is met takes a dedicated team of professionals who are able to work together. A website developer may have mastery over the layout and imagery that must be present in order to attract customers and convince them to buy your product/service but without close consultation with an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) specialist, a sufficient number of the right people may never even get to see your site. Three of the most critical elements that must go into any website in order for it to be successful include:

1. Users (people conducting a search) must be able to find your site quickly and easily using commonly known words and phrases
2. Once they are directed to your site, it must be directly relevant to their search with meaningful content
3. The site must be easy to navigate and take as few steps as possible to complete a transaction

Does Your Website Conform?

When experts in the field talk about web design in terms of SEO marketing strategies, they are referring to much more than an aesthetically pleasing website. It must also have what they call “usability” as it pertains to search engines, the user (the general public) and of course the owner or the company the site is for. Making sure that the content and layout of a website conforms to all these areas (and more), is a complex undertaking. Trusted SEO service providers will work closely with your own web designers to tweak or re-design a site in order to meet predetermined goals and give you the best possible ROI.

As if these elements were not challenging enough, advances in technology have introduced an array of devices and interfaces that must now also be part of an already complex equation. Since the fundamental reason behind having a website is to increase traffic and subsequently your revenue, a user (potential customer) must be able to access your business’s website easily and get the information, product or service you provide quickly regardless of which device they are using.

SEO or Website Usability

The term Website Usability is a popular phrase but seems to have a different meaning, depending on who one is talking to.

For the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) professional or web developer, usability generally refers to the ease by which search engines understand, recognize and rank a website. Of course when you speak with the average lay person looking for products, information or services, they take this term to mean that the site they are directed to will be easy to navigate and quickly find what they are looking for. On the other hand, the owners of websites are looking for dual purposes. They have come to expect that Website Usability will make it easier for search engines to find them as well as creating a site that is convenient and simple to navigate for potential clients.

In order for professionals to measure success both the terms SEO and Website Usability are dependant on certain core aspects that can be built upon step by step in a methodical fashion. A successful SEO campaign must be efficient, effective and easy to learn and use by all parties concerned. It must provide the client with Reputation Management/Brand Protection protocols and recovery plans if misuse is detected. Equally as important is how user satisfaction is rated.