Ideally, when customers search for your San Diego business online, they should come across your website and social media channels. Positive reviews and mentions are also welcome.

Your brand’s reputation is important, and for small businesses, building this online can make a big difference as to whether people trust you enough to buy from you.

Not all businesses pay full attention to their online reputation. For emerging small San Diego businesses, with so much else to do, keeping an eye on what is being said about you online can fall down the list of priorities. How can you manage your reputation online to build a positive and attractive one?

#1 Optimize your website

From making sure your company name is used in the content of your website to optimizing pages in the ‘background’ with meta tags and descriptions, the more you do to make your website ‘findable’ by search engines, the better.

Use a mix of the first person such as “we bake cakes” as well as your company name, “at Cake Empire, we bake cakes”.

#2 Build on your web presence all of the time

Whilst you cannot control everything about your brand online, being proactive in getting your website onto page 1 of the rankings is time better spent than chasing negative reviews.

Keywords are part of SEO but rather than seeing it as a paper exercise, establishing your small business in San Diego or wherever you’re based as an emerging authority of key areas is critical to diversifying your web presence.

For example, if you’re a small business baking cakes, your blog, for example, might include topics on types of icing, what kind of cake flavors are popular, traditions associated with wedding cakes and so on.

#3 Harness social media

Social media is incredibly powerful when it comes to marketing and small business reputation in San Diego and across the globe. It can also be powerful when people have complaints when they have been treated poorly by a brand and so on.

Essentially, just like your website, you need to capture, control and direct social media around your business. When you have decided which platforms are best for bridging the gap between you and your customers, make sure you maintain a vibrant approach with consistent posts of high quality and value. And stick with it.

#4 Collaborate

For too long, we saw the business world as cut-throat. A business stood alone in a sea of nasty competitors.

As a small business, you do have competitors and clearly, partnering with them is not the right move. But working with a collaborator is.

What other business or social media influencers could you link with that gives mutual benefits online? A cake baker, for example, might want to collaborate with a local party venue or a newly established delivery company might want to partner with a packaging firm, and so on.

By connecting and collaborating online, you are creating a stronger impression and reputation.

#5 Monitor what is being said

From setting up Google Alerts for certain keywords to googling your small business name every month, keep an eye o what is being said online. As well as positive comments, keep an eye out for those negative ones and if necessary or appropriate, you may want to deal with them.

#6 To respond or not? Negative comments…

Negative comments can be hurtful, damning and for some brands, a PR disaster. The first rule of responding to negative comments is to respond within proportion. For example, if ONE customer said they had a rubbish experience, apologise and offer to put it right.

If you are receiving a steady string of negative comments or feedback, there may be bigger issues at stake. As well as telling your side of the story to give some balance to the whole thing, you should also act on the signals your customers are giving you. For example, are their customer service gripes justified? What can you change?

#7 Offline reputation is also important (and linked to your online reputation)

If customers receive shabby service in person from your brand, then you may find that ends up online too, as most things do these days. By making sure all customers, online and offline, get a great service and product, you look after your small business reputation as a whole.

#8 Send out press releases

Press releases are all about PR and by sending them out to new San Diego outlets and popular websites, bloggers and influencers for a mention, you are supporting your growing online reputation. Optimize the press release, making sure your company name is mentioned and you use keywords associated with the content of your website.

#9 Keep an eye on Wikipedia

Whether you hold weight with Wikipedia or not, it seems that Google does. You may have noticed yourself that when searching for products or information, Wikipedia results are common on page 1.

Therefore, consider starting and editing your own Wikipedia brand page. However, anyone can edit and this may mean that erroneous information is put out there as well as commenting on negativities within the guidelines of the Wikipedia community.

#10 It takes times

Negative comments and other issues online can take a long, long time to resolve. It seems the internet never forgets. Even you have moved on, just when you least need it, the string of negative reviews pops up. Again.

There is no quick fix, even with an online management company working with you. Prevention of negative comments etc. online is key to reputation management. Most businesses, especially new ones, will take great strides in doing the best they can for their customers.

But there are occasions when things go wrong. Someone is left with a gripe and they take to social media to let the world now. How you respond is important. It needs to be proportionate and an attempt to resolve the situation.

When it looks likes there is a bigger issue, as a business, you need to listen and put it right. If you do reach this point, you may find that to banish the negativity online, you will need a consistent effort to counter it with positive stuff. But it can be done.