Some people are “glass half full” types.
Others believe the glass is always half empty.
Whatever your disposition in life, you have to be prepared for the fact that some customers may not trust your business right away.
In fact, some people might wonder if your company is a scam.
How do we know? We see it in search results.
Your Business + Scam
Customers are searching business names together with “scam” every day to see if they can find third-party information, reviews, etc. about your company or business.
You can ignore it and hope for the best.
Or, you can get in front of it with positive content to address the concerns. In other words, protect your online reputation.
For example…
Trinity Home Advisors offers affordable home warranties to homeowners across the United States. But when people first hear about home warranties or Trinity for the first time, they often wonder if home warranties or their company is legitimate.
They also found out via keyword research that people often search other home warranty companies with phrases like “XYZ Home Warranty + scam”.
So what are you going to do? Let that search space go blank and hope for the best? Or be proactive and help fill that space with accurate information?
Reputation Management Hacks
To address these questions and build trust with potential customers, here’s what we recommend:
- Claim your business profile is as many relevant directories as possible
- Register your business with important sites like Google, Bing, Yelp & Facebook
- Work to build legitimate customer reviews using sites like Google
- Address customer concerns with website content, blog posts & social media posts
The more information you provide about your business, the better your search results will look.
In other words, transparency = trust.
It’s a formula that has always worked, it just needs to be applied to the digital world.
Perform research to see what your potential customers are searching for, and answer their questions. Give them what they’re looking for. You’ll love the results!