An Online Reputation Management Campaign is a plan to target, isolate, move, and suppress negative content on search engines that might be causing damage to an individual or business. It involves creating positive content on a number of sites that, over time (key words: “over time,” it cannot be done all at once) comes to supplant negative listings as the most relevant information for that particular search as it rises in the search engine rankings. Say for example, that you had a hardware store named “Jane’s Pine Village Hardware”; then that would be in general the specific search term that you would wish to target. If you are an individual, then generally you would target the search rankings of your full name.
All ORM Campaigns take several months (or in some cases more), that is their nature; there is no way to accomplish all the objectives of one overnight. Therefore, it’s important to have a good plan about how you will approach it. What sites will I use? What type(s) of content will I create? What order will I roll out my new sites in? What type(s) of content are search engines most likely to be interested in? How much content will go on my own sites that I own or create (if any), versus sites that others hold the proprietary rights to (like blogs, social media, etc., which usually make up the bulk of 95% of all campaigns)? How will I update these sites periodically, and with what? These are all important questions to ask when it comes to ORM, and making a good plan is surely important. But the reality is, these campaigns can be very effective, and can drive negative listings far down in search engine rankings, so they can no longer cause any more problems. That’s why if you need help with internet results, an ORM campaign should certainly be considered.