More and more businesses are starting to understand the importance of managing their online reputation. At the same time, they are coming to understand that they are not equipped to do this themselves. It takes very specific skills, as well as a lot of time. Luckily, however, it is possible to hire a reputation management company to do the work. But you cannot trust anyone with something as precious as your reputation, so how do you find the right company?

What Is the Reputation of the Company Itself?

Since the role of a reputation management company is to build a positive online image of their clients, it stands to reason that they should be able to do the same for themselves. If you look into reviews for such a company (the same way your customers will do for you), and you find a wealth of negative opinions, it is clearly time to look elsewhere.

What Is the Ranking of the Reputation Management Company?

A key factor of online reputation management is search engine optimization (SEO) and reverse SEO. Essentially, what they will do for you is push back negative posts to the third page of Google, where they are pretty much invisible. At the same time, they will make sure that the positive content you post is sent to the first page of Google, which is SEO. SEO is very complex, and, as with the online reputation, they should have applied those skills to themselves. If the company is not on the first page of Google, therefore, you should go elsewhere because they won’t be able to get you there either.

Is it a Real Company?

Online reputation management is now a multimillion dollar industry. As a result, there have been a number of cookie-cutter sites that simply hope to build on this popularity. They tend to offer one size fits all solutions that are fully automated, meaning that you are not actually dealing with people. These must be avoided at all costs. Unfortunately, it can be quite difficult to determine whether you are dealing with a real person or not, particularly if there is no phone number.

What Experience Do They Have?

Last but not least, you need to look into the company’s experience. Although everyone needs to be given a chance, you should be weary of companies that have only been around for a few weeks or months. There is simply no telling if they have been able to keep up to date with online developments, whether they are good at what they do, and whether they deliver on their promises. Preferably, therefore, you should choose a company that has been around for a few years, has gone through a number of Google updates, and clearly knows what it is doing.

These are the key things to look into if you are hoping to hire a reputation management company. Don’t underestimate the importance of these key things, because your reputation truly is your most important asset.

Photo courtesy Nick Youngson on http://www.picserver.org