Managing online reputation is a vital factor for all digital businesses. The success of a business depends on the business reputation that the customer carries in their minds.
A positive reputation has a positive impact on sales and revenues and hence businesses need to establish a unique and positive online presence by standing out against their competitors.
Trust is another major factor for digital business owners and hence businesses must aim at establishing a trustworthy reputation for their customers.
Google is an influential and dynamic search engine tool that can not only help in gaining new customers but also in establishing and enhancing reputation. However, many ignorant web owners are unaware of how to use Google for their best benefits.
This blog is all about how Google can help enhance your business reputation and gain customer trust.
Google’s Tips for Enhancing Business Reputation & Trust:
- Establishing Business Legitimacy:
The foremost step for increasing customer reputation is to manifest your business as a legitimate entity and prove its authenticity. This can be done by highlighting your business site, its registrations, domain names, etc.
Your business site should look professional and should have an “About Us” page for customers to reach out to you for their resolving their issues.
Correct information on the products and prices, encrypted and secured payment gateways, social media profiles and links, etc. all help in establishing a positive and legit business identity.
- Secure your Site with an SSL Certificate:
Website security is the topmost factor to gain user trust and as stated in the above article, SSL certificates are digital certificates that secure the web with encryption security, i.e., these certificates secure all client-server communications with encryption.
Encryption converts the plain text into a cipher form which cannot be read or misused by hackers. Installing an SSL certificate enables https (hypertext transfer protocol secure) in the address bar and a tiny padlock in the URL.
For Google, https sites are secured ones. This reassures site visitors about the security of their data and transactions when they approach SSL-secured sites.
It is recommended to go with budget or cheap SSL certificate of global brand available from a reliable SSL certificate provider and secure your site to enhance your business reputation.
- Be Clear & Transparent:
The digital world is a mix of genuine and fake sites/people. Customers are confused as to whom to trust and hence staying transparent by providing clarity on the company’s policies, business operations, payment systems, return policies, goals, product pricing as well as on privacy policies is essential for gaining a solid business reputation and growth.
When you are clear on the above-stated aspects, customers tend to trust your business and this in turn helps in gaining their loyalty.
- Manage your Online Status:
The position and recognition of your business in the online world have a huge impact on your online status. Monitoring your online presence to ensure its positive image is vital for your business growth.
Tips:
- Highlight your product’s positive testimonials and their uniqueness against your competitor’s products.
- Update your customers regarding new launches, badges, or trust seals to win their confidence in your company as well as your product.
- Optimise GMB (Google My Business Listing) by updating your business location, contact details, email ID, etc. This will help customers locate your online presence and garner their trust.
Google Business Profiles (GBP) will help your site gain a strong SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) rank against your competitors since your updated business information is visible on Google Maps, searches, and other Google services.
- Highlight Professionalism:
Your website should give a professional vibe to your customers.
Tips:
- The site design and architecture should be precise.
- The site should be user-friendly and easily accessible to customers.
- The marketing content, advertisements, etc. all need to be polished enough to highlight the business and its products.
- Apart from highlighting brand values, goals, achievements, etc., your site should be excellent in content and grammar.
- Refrain from adding extra links and redirects to prevent unwanted errors.
- Lastly, add a digital security (SSL/TLS (Secure Socket Layers/Transport Layer Security) certificate to secure your site data with encryption.
Implementing these professional practices will have a positive impact on your target audience and help in maintaining your brand image.
- Provide Excellent Customer Service:
Customer is the king and hence your main motto should be to serve your clients apart from making profits.
- Respond and reply to customer reviews.
- Guide customers about how to use your products and show them their best features.
- Resolve customer queries instantly.
- Ensure that your customer support team is available round the clock for resolving customer queries.
- Ensure that customers have varied options to approach your company for their doubts, like sending emails, live chat, social media platforms, etc.
Listen to your customers, engage in communications, be accessible, stay positive, and keep your word by addressing their needs and demands on a timely basis to enhance your business reputation.
- Involvement in the Community:
Involvement with the community helps in garnering customer trust and in creating a positive impact of your business on their minds.
Donating in the community, sponsoring events, and other charitable measures taken for the benefit of the community go a long way in gaining loyal customers.
- Share Positive Reviews & Testimonials:
One of the best ways to gather customer attention and gain their trust is to share positive reviews of other customers on your site. This will help in positive publicity of your company’s products and help increase the company’s reputation.
Google reviews are based on star rating as well as customer reviews and their experience with your business. This helps other potential customers to decide on which businesses are genuine amongst the whole lot stationed on the internet.
For Google, a blend of positive and negative reviews holds better weight than other marketing strategies and recommendations.
- Implement Social Media Marketing Strategies:
Social media displays the online presence of your digital business.
Social media platforms are direct communication channels for customers where they can voice their views, and opinions, and share their experiences about your products and services.
This helps in building trust, credibility, and loyalty, which indirectly enhances business reputation.
- 10.Implement a Mobile-Friendly Website:
Create responsive web designs so that your site is visible on varied devices like mobiles and tablets. One of the criteria to enhance Google’s SEO ranks is to create a responsive (mobile-friendly) site, which is user-friendly and easy to navigate. This indirectly enhances business reputation as well as site reachability.
- 11.Display Licenses, Awards & Achievements:
If your business has received awards or any other major achievements, do not forget to showcase the same on your site. Highlight the same on varied social media platforms to increase trust of visitors as well the credibility and reputation of your business.
- 12.Implement SEO Best Practices:
SEO is vital for site visibility, online presence, and brand reputation. Always use appropriate keywords that can be picked up by search engines to attract organic traffic to your site.
Optimize your site, for content, tags, links, and descriptions, and add relevant videos and images, for gaining displays in Google’s search results.
The higher the SEO rank, the better the user trust.
Wrapping Up:
“Trust is Built with Consistency”
Each business needs to earn customer trust. Creating strong customer bonds needs continual time and efforts of the entire business team.
Varied factors play multiple roles in enhancing the trust and reputation of your digital business. Site owners need to showcase a multi-faceted view to Google which includes managing the site’s online presence, positive customer engagement/customer relationships, site responsiveness for viewing on multiple devices, offering valuable and true content, highlighting a professional site view, security of the site/data, and lastly, following SEO best practices.
Implement Google’s best practices to build a reputable and trustworthy brand. Best Wishes!!
