Protecting Your Online Reputation: How to Defend Your Brand When Competitors Attack

Search engine optimization or SEO has become increasingly important, as more business is now conducted through the Internet. Whether you're just marketing your brand or actually selling a product or service online, SEO is needed to get your page higher in search results and in front of more relevant browsers. However, with companies like JCPenney, Overstock.com, and Forbes recently in the news for using black hat SEO techniques, it begs the question of how far your competitors will go to keep you at a lower rank.

SEO Wheel

As you may have heard, the three companies mentioned above were having great success until they were reported for using unethical SEO tactics such as buying links. When Google gets word of companies using these types of methods, they can and will penalize sites by adding positions or even pages to their previous ranks.

The problem with this known process of punishment is that competitors may be tempted to buy unnatural links to your site and then report you to the webmaster forums, resulting in a lower rank for you but moving them up a spot or two or more. So, how do you protect your brand in these unethical SEO wars? There are a few simple ways to start at least monitoring your brand so you can take appropriate action if you notice any significant changes.

1.  Track Your Brand
When it comes to preserving your online reputation, one of the most important steps to incorporate into your daily routine is tracking your brand. To do this, begin by determining the sites you want to monitor, e.g. Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, discussion forums and relevant blogs to name a few.

2.  Set Up Alerts
Once you've established a somewhat comprehensive list of sites to monitor, do some research to find out what alerts are available. Subscribing to Google Alerts is a simple first step that will allow you to receive notification whenever your brand is brought up. Additionally, you may be able to set up other alerts specific to sites such as Twitter and blog search engines that will catch mentions of your name that Google may not.

Receive notifications through Google Alerts

3.  Monitor Links
The fastest way to a lower rank is being involved with link building schemes, and your competitors likely know this. Although not all companies become involved with unethical SEO behavior, it's something that should be monitored. Several link monitoring services exist that will give you daily updates on new links so that you can track drastic changes and take action as quickly as possible.

With the constant changes in technology and the Internet, protecting your brand is a difficult but necessary task. It will require daily efforts, but in the end, your reputation will suffer less, and you'll be more likely to thrive in your professional online community.