Is Google’s “People Also Ask,” Helping or Hurting Your Business?

Over the years, Google has not only dominated the search engine market but has also continually refined its search algorithms and user interface to provide users with the most relevant and informative results. One such feature that has gained significant prominence is the “People Also Ask” (PAA) feature.

While researching for this article I did a review of the “People Also Ask” results for 20 of the top direct selling companies. I was concerned to learn that over 50% of the questions listed could be considered negative, and have a bad effect on the companies’ reputations. Here are some of the negative questions for direct selling businesses that show just under each company websites in the first page Google results:

• Is [company] a pyramid company?
• Can you actually make money from [company]?
• Why is [company] not FDA approved?
• Why did the US ban [company]?
• Is selling [company] legit?
• What happened to [company]?
• Is [company] a reputable company?
• What is going on with [company]?

In my twenty years working with direct selling businesses, I’ve seen multiple changes to Google’s algorithms. Today I’ll take a comprehensive look at Google’s “People Also Ask” feature, its significance, and its impact on the reputations of direct selling companies. I’ll conclude by offering 10 tips for influencing “People Also Ask” to improve your business reputation.

The Genesis of “People Also Ask”

Google’s journey to becoming the world’s most popular search engine began with a simple goal: to organize the vast sea of information on the internet and make it easily accessible to users. Over time, Google’s algorithms became increasingly sophisticated, and its search results more precise. However, the development of the “People Also Ask” feature marked a significant shift in how Google presents search results.

The “People Also Ask” feature made its debut in 2015. Initially, it appeared as a small set of related questions that popped up below the first search result. These questions were generated algorithmically and aimed to provide users with additional queries that might be relevant to their original search. Google’s goal was to anticipate user intent and offer a more interactive and engaging search experience.

How Does “People Also Ask” Work?

At its core, the “People Also Ask” feature is powered by Google’s machine learning algorithms. These algorithms analyze user behavior, search patterns, and the content of web pages to generate a list of related questions. When a user clicks on one of these questions, it expands to reveal a brief answer or snippet from a relevant webpage. Users can click on the source link to access the full content of the webpage.

Google’s algorithms constantly refine the questions and answers displayed in the “People Also Ask” box based on user interactions and the latest web content. This dynamic nature ensures that the feature remains relevant and adapts to evolving user needs and search trends.

The Significance of “People Also Ask”

“People Also Ask” makes searches more engaging, helps websites get noticed, and shows Google’s commitment to smarter searches. PAA provides quick answers for factual questions and inspires content creation.

• Enhanced User Experience: The “People Also Ask” feature enhances the user experience by providing a more interactive and exploratory search process. It encourages users to delve deeper into a topic, discover related information, and refine their search queries.

• Content Discovery: For content creators and website owners, PAA offers an opportunity to have their content featured prominently in Google’s search results. Appearing in the “People Also Ask” box can significantly increase the visibility of a webpage.

• Semantic Search: PAA is a testament to Google’s commitment to semantic search. It goes beyond traditional keyword matching and aims to understand the user’s intent and context, providing answers that are more relevant and meaningful.

• Content Inspiration: Content creators can use the questions in the “People Also Ask” box as inspiration for creating new content or optimizing existing content to address common user queries.

“People Also Ask” and Your Business Reputation

“People Also Ask” can have both positive and negative impacts on a business’s reputation, depending on various factors, including the content that appears in the PAA box and how the business manages its online presence.

Here’s a closer look at how the PAA feature can affect a business’s reputation:

Positive Effects

• Increased Visibility: If a business’s content is featured in the PAA box for relevant queries, it can significantly increase the company’s visibility and brand recognition. Being prominently displayed as a source of authoritative information can enhance a business’s reputation as an industry leader.

• Credibility and Trustworthiness: Having content featured in the PAA box can enhance a business’s credibility and trustworthiness. Users often perceive content within the PAA box as reliable, and this association can reflect positively on the business.

• Expertise and Authority: Being featured in the PAA box can position a business as an expert in its field. This can attract a larger audience and potential customers who view the business as a reliable source of information.

Negative Effects

• Misleading or Inaccurate Information: If incorrect or misleading information from a business’s website is featured in the PAA box, it can harm the company’s reputation. Users may associate the business with unreliable or even false information.

• Negative User Feedback: Users who encounter unsatisfactory or incorrect information in the PAA box may leave negative feedback or reviews, which can damage the business’s online reputation. Negative reviews can deter potential customers.

• Competitor Influence: If a business’s competitors consistently outrank it in the PAA feature, it can impact the perception of the business’s authority and expertise within the industry. Users may be more inclined to trust competitors’ content.

• Loss of Control: Businesses have limited control over what content appears in the PAA box. If third-party sources with differing viewpoints or negative information about the business are featured, it can negatively impact the company’s reputation.

10 Tips for Influencing “People Also Ask” to Improve Your Business Reputation

Influencing “People Also Ask” involves optimizing your website to increase the likelihood of being featured in the PAA box for relevant search queries.

Here are ten tips that you can employ to influence the PAA feature:

1. Use FAQ Pages: Create dedicated Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) pages on your website. These pages should address common user questions comprehensively. Google may draw content from these pages for PAA results. Locate this FAQ in the “About Us” section of your website, and ensure that answers are approximately 40 words in length. I’ve also found it very useful to add dates to some of the answers.
2. Engage in Content Refresh: Keep your content up-to-date and relevant. Google tends to favor fresh and current information. Periodically review and update your content to maintain its relevance.
3. Answer User Questions Clearly and Concisely: Craft content that directly answers user questions in a clear and concise manner. Use headings, bullet points, and structured content to make it easy for both users and search engines to understand your answers.
4. Optimize for Featured Snippets: Featured snippets, which often appear in the PAA box, are typically brief, well-structured answers. Optimize your content to appear as a featured snippet by providing concise answers at the beginning of your articles or pages.
5. Implement Structured Data Markup: Structured data markup (e.g., schema.org) helps search engines understand the content of your website better. Implement structured data relevant to your content to increase the chances of being featured in the PAA box.
6. Identify Common User Queries: Conduct thorough keyword research to identify the most common questions and queries related to your business, products, or services. Tools like Google’s Keyword Planner can help identify popular search terms.
7. Optimize for Mobile: Given the increasing prevalence of mobile search, ensure that your website is mobile-friendly. Google often features PAA results prominently on mobile devices.
8. Leverage Multimedia Content: Include multimedia elements like videos, images, and infographics in your content. These can make your content more engaging and appealing to users, increasing the likelihood of it being featured in the PAA box.
9. Promote Social Sharing: Encourage social sharing of your content. Content that gains traction on social media and generates engagement signals may be more likely to appear in PAA results.
10. Build Backlinks and Authority: One of the methods we use most often is capturing high-quality backlinks. A strong backlink profile can improve your website’s authority, which can influence PAA rankings.

In conclusion, influencing Google’s “People Also Ask” feature can significantly impact a company’s online visibility, authority, and reputation. By implementing the strategies mentioned above and focusing on creating valuable, user-centric content, businesses can position themselves as reliable sources of information.

However, it’s crucial to remember that PAA results are determined by complex algorithms, and there are no guarantees of inclusion. Hence, businesses should approach PAA optimization as part of a broader search engine optimization (SEO) and content strategy. As search engines continue to evolve and user behavior changes, adapting and staying ahead in the digital landscape is paramount. Ultimately, the goal is to provide valuable answers to user queries, enhance the user experience, and build trust and credibility, all of which can positively influence your company’s reputation and online presence.

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Simple SEO Steps to Protect Your Online Reputation in 2023

Over the last few years, there’s been a lot of talk around owned media, earned media and paid media. Paid media is associated with all types of advertising. Earned media is exposure to your company and its products through word-of-mouth methods, like reviews, shares, reposts, recommendations and other references in third-party content. Owned media is the content you directly have control over, like websites, social media profiles, public relations, podcasts and other forms of content produced in-house.

Online reputation management is how your company is presented on the first page of a Google search. Paid media can have some impact since Google Ads can be purchased. Earned media may be shown by review sites, but the most control companies have to influence the Google search results is through owned media. These are the corporate website (and potentially other owned websites) and strong social media profiles on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.

Here are three areas of owned media that you can work on to improve your company’s online reputation:

Corporate Website

Basic search engine optimization is critical for your corporate website. While Google’s algorithms are always improving, there are a number of things you can do to help Google “see” your site.

• Use your company name as the meta title and description tag
• Use various header tags
• Internally link to other pages on your website within the content
• Provide links to social media profiles
• Do frequent content updates
• Be sure your site works on mobile devices

Google doesn’t like stagnant websites, because they tend to be less relevant to users than sites that are kept up to date with the latest information and news. Key pages on your website should be updated at least on a monthly basis. Content updates can include videos, blog posts, press releases, company news or channel-related events. In fact, you should have a plan to constantly create content so you have something to post on a regular basis.

Social Media

One of the best ways to protect your online reputation is the proper development and constant updating of social media profiles. Your company should be active on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. Link all of your social media profiles together. For example, your YouTube “About” page should link back to all of your social media sites and to your main website. Be sure to flesh out your social media profiles and pages with complete descriptions about what your company does, and with relevant keywords to help the search engines find you. The more information you put on social media, the better chance you have of getting them to rank high in the Google results.

Here are ideas to improve social media frequency:

• A link to a subpage from your corporate website each week
• Pictures of team members in corporate offices
• Pictures of company representatives at meetings and events
• Company representative testimonials
• Executive videos
• Short videos from recent events
• Short testimonial videos from events (very important)
• Interviews about business success
• The latest news about your company
• Statistics about your company (growth, expansion, etc.)
• Corrected misconceptions about the direct selling channel
• Company milestones
• Answers to commonly asked questions about the business
• Answers about the product lines
• Introductions of the executive team
• Introductions of the marketing teams
• Facebook Live events
• Polls for your followers

Public Relations

Good public relations are critical to a positive online reputation. Sometimes companies feel that, because of the internet, they don’t need to be as active developing their brand in traditional media spaces. Nothing could be further from the truth. The reality is that the best traditional media (newspapers, magazines) all have great websites. When your company is featured in an article, there’s a good chance that article will show up high in the Google results. I have a client that secured great articles in Forbes and Entrepreneur. Now each of those articles sits high in the Google results.

Press releases can often rank high in Google for your company name, so it’s worthwhile to report on anything newsworthy from your company. Include information about your company in the press release, mentioning your company and brand names while also linking to your social media sites. You can then publish the release through websites like BusinessWire or PR Newswire. Your releases should contain legitimate news and paint a progressive story of your company’s ongoing success. These releases will comprise much of the “digital footprints” your prospective customers will see over time. Aim for a release every month or two, but only do so if the release contains legitimate news that will continue to be meaningful for the long term, as the Google results may remain for years to come.

All of this may sound like a fair amount of work, but the process is straightforward and much can be accomplished by an in-house team. For specific areas like off-site search engine optimization, you’ll definitely want to work with an outside company that has a depth of experience. By following these guidelines, you’ll be well on your way toward creating and strengthening your company’s owned media, and in turn improving your online reputation.

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This week’s article is a compilation of 2022’s significant direct selling industry news from all over the world. It was most certainly a difficult year for all players. Yet we know there were positives alongside all the negatives. Also included, you will find selected articles we published last year that stood out according to readers’ responses.

> CEO Ryan Napierski Shares Nu Skin’s 2022 Strategy
> Mary Kay Celebrates 2021 Year-End Highlights
> How Albania Became a Pyramid Scheme
> IDShield Named Among Best Identity Theft Protection Services of 2022
> Kannaway Opens Office and Warehouse in Poland
> COVID-19 Behaviors and the Impact on Beauty
> Sunrider International Celebrates 40 Years
> Betterware to Acquire JAFRA’s Operations in Mexico and the U.S.
> 2021: Another Record Year for PM-International
> Beautycounter Appoints Marc Ray as New CEO

Most-Read Article in January on The World of Direct Selling:
The Case for an LMS – McKinley Oswald

> Amway Co-Chair Doug DeVos Building Up His Own Family Office
> Nu Skin Reports $2.7 Billion Sales in 2021
> FTC Takes Action to Combat Bogus Money-Making Claims in the U.S.
> Primerica Reports Fourth Quarter 2021 Results
> Regal Ware Expands Leadership Team With Three Executive Hires
> Herbalife’s Net Sales $5.8 Billion in 2021
> Mary Kay Names Nathan Moore President, Global Sales and Marketing
> Tupperware Announces $1.6 Billion Sales in 2021
> Oriflame’s 2021 Revenue Down 12%
> Medifast Reports $1.5 Billion Revenue in 2021, an Increase of 63%

Most-Read Article in February on The World of Direct Selling:
6 Common Reasons Behind Direct Sales Start-Up Failures – Hakki Ozmorali

> Kendra Scott Launches Direct-Selling Platform For Women Entrepreneurs
> doTERRA and University of Mississippi Partner to Advance Essential Oil Research
> Melaleuca Announces New President
> SeneGence Taps Anita Krpata as New Chief Commercial Officer
> Natura &Co Q4 2021: Income More Than Triples, Despite Sales Dip
> Young Living Names Ben Riley as New Acting President
> DSSRC Recommends Mary Kay Discontinue Certain Earnings Claims
> India to Be Herbalife Nutrition’s Largest Market Globally: CEO
> Young Living Appoints Lyndi Smith as Chief Marketing Officer
> Natura &Co Opens Joint Offices in Chile for Its Natura, Avon and The Body Shop Brands

Most-Read Article in March on The World of Direct Selling:
2021 Results: Brakes on Growth in the Fourth Quarter – Hakki Ozmorali

> Arbonne Appoints Jorden Bell as new Chief Marketing Officer
> Betterware Completes Acquisition of JAFRA’s Operations in Mexico and the U.S.
> Fitch Downgrades Oriflame to ‘B’; Outlook Negative
> Nature’s Sunshine Celebrates 50^th Anniversary
> Fitch Affirms Natura &Co’s Rating at ‘BB’; Outlook Remains Positive
> IDLife Announces Josh Paine as New CEO
> Amway’s Global Sales Reach $8.9 Billion in 2021, Up 4%  
> Nu Skin’s Ryan Napierski on Taking the Company Into the Digital Age
> LR Group Sales in 2021 Increased by 4.0% to EUR 296.2 Million
> Amway: “We Stand Behind Our Business in India”

Most-Read Article in April on The World of Direct Selling:
How To Start Thinking Differently About Compensation Plans in 2022 – Brett Duncan

> FTC Sends $149 Million in Refunds to People Harmed in Alleged AdvoCare Scheme
> Herbalife Nutrition Announces First Quarter 2022 Results
> Natura Resumes Growth in Brazil and Further Improvement in Avon Fundamentals in Q1
> Tupperware Reports First Quarter 2022 Financial Results
> Medifast Announces Q1 2022 Financial Results
> Kyäni Makes Announcements About Leadership
> Tupperware’s Party of One: Direct Selling Brand Seeking Turnaround
> Vorwerk Group Reports Record Sales of 3.4 Billion Euros in 2021
> Management Today Awards CEO Angela Cretu Trailblazer of the Year
> New doTERRA Product Center to Serve Thousands in Hawaii

Most-Read Article in May on The World of Direct Selling:
Power Skills for Powerful Onboarding – Lauren Mason Carris

> US Direct Selling Association Releases 2021 Industry Statistics
> Tupperware Enters into Definitive Agreement to Sell its Nutrimetics Business
> NewAge Announces Review of Strategic Alternatives
> Hinode Seeks to Increase Global Footprint and to Sell in 30 Countries by 2030
> Brazil’s Natura Announces Restructuring Plan and New CEO
> Melaleuca Promotes Frank VanderSloot to Executive Chairman, Jerry Felton to CEO
> WFDSA Shares 2021 Global Industry Statistics
> doTERRA Commences Operations in Chile
> Direct Seller Nu Skin Pivoting to ‘Social Commerce’
> Beautycounter CEO: “Even in a Recession, We Have a Lot of Growth Opportunities”

Most-Read Article in June on The World of Direct Selling:
Increase Sales by Improving Your Company’s Google Results – Don Sorensen

> Direct Selling in Europe: 2021 Industry Statistics
> New Image Acquires Nutrimetics From Tupperware Brands
> doTERRA Continues Growth with Expansion into India
> Avon CMO: “You Need a Unique Value Proposition to Transform as a Brand”
> Ryan Napierski of Nu Skin on The Future of Retail Over the Next Few Years
> Nature’s Sunshine’s US Manufacturing Facility Now Using 100% Renewable Energy
> The Beauty Metaverse: We Are at the Beginning of Something That Is Huge
> AVEDISCO (Italy DSA) Releases Sales Force Statistics by Regions
> Canada DSA Announces 2022 Award Winners
> In Its 108th Year, Kirby Rolls Out Direct Selling to Consumer on Its Website

Most-Read Article in July on The World of Direct Selling:
15 Principles for Developing Your Independent Salesforce – Brett Duncan

> Herbalife Exceeds Q2 2022 Expectations and Reaffirms Full Year 2022 Guidance
> Nu Skin Reports Second Quarter Financial Results
> Tupperware’s Q2 Revenue Decreases 18%
> Oriflame Reports 14% Sales Decline in the Second Quarter
> Herbalife to Invest $400 Million in Key Digital Transformation Growth Initiative
> Natura &Co’s Sales Stabilized in Q2, Profitability Is Impacted by Cost Pressure
> Young Living Launches Strategic Restructuring, Suspends Operations in Brazil
> Juice Plus+ Announces Biggest Rebrand Since It Was Launched in 1993
> Direct Selling and the Big Impact It Has on the Utah Economy
> NewAge Files for Bankruptcy

Most-Read Article in August on The World of Direct Selling:
Direct Selling in Q2: Confronted With Challenges – Hakki Ozmorali

> Market America Co-Founder J.R. Ridinger Dead at 63
> Natura Not Considering a Spin-off of Aesop or the Sale of The Body Shop
> Saladmaster Announces European Expansion, Opens Warehouse in Netherlands
> Avon Survey: Cost-of-Living Crisis Leads 80% of Women to Seek Side Hustle
> Amare Global Announces Acquisition of Kyäni, Inc.
> Is Livestream Commerce About to Break Through?
> Redefining Anti-Aging Skincare: Interview with Lori Bush, Founder of Solvasa
> Tupperware Announces Settlement of SEC Investigation for House of Fuller Business
> Shaklee Enters New Category with Launch of Anti-Aging Body Care Line
> 10 Top Retail Trends to Watch

Most-Read Article in September on The World of Direct Selling:
3 Ways Integrated Data Fuels Direct Selling Success – Daryl Wurzbacher

> Tupperware, the 76-Year-Old Staple of Door-to-Door Sales Is Now Selling at Target
> Plexus Worldwide Announces the Appointment of Gene Tipps as Chief Executive Officer
> Natura & Co. Considers IPO for Aesop, Its Beauty & Wellness Brand
> Thirty-One Gifts Founder Cindy Monroe Releases Her First Book, “More Than a Bag”
> The Body Shop CEO: “They Say Retail Is Dead. But We’re Social Creatures”
> Modere Named to Newsweek’s Top 100 Most Loved Workplaces for 2022
> 15,000 Participants Attend QNET’s Annual Convention
> Metaverse, a Year After the Hype: To Jump in or to Wait and See
> Herbalife Nutrition Announces Leadership Change
> TikTok Set to Launch Live Shopping in the U.S.

Most-Read Article in October on The World of Direct Selling:
The Pillars of Success in Direct Selling – Hakki Ozmorali

> Third Generation to Lead Mary Kay as Ryan Rogers Named Next CEO
> Karalee Mora Appointed as JAFRA USA’s New CEO
> Avon to Build New Research & Development Operations in Brazil and Poland
> Medifast Named to the 2022 FORTUNE 100 Fastest-Growing Companies List
> Natura &Co Results Show The Body Shop Challenges Remain
> Tupperware Reports 20% Decline in Sales in Q3
> WFDSA Launches Website for 2023 World Congress in Dubai
> Monat Expands Into Color Cosmetics
> US Direct Selling Association Announces DSA Digital Marketing Awards
> Oriflame Launches Operations in Germany

Most-Read Article in November on The World of Direct Selling:
The Table Stakes for Success as a Direct Selling Company – Jeff Dahl

> Amway Launches Singapore Business Innovation Hub
> Natura &Co Could Sell Stake in Aesop to CVC Capital, L’Occitane or Shiseido
> Infinitus Celebrates 30^th Anniversary, Launches New Brand ‘Oriherb’
> DSA Canada’s 2022 Year in Review
> Avon Hit With $52.1M Verdict for Asbestos-Contaminated Talc
> Utah Companies Are Trying to Pull Out of China
> US DSA: Proposed Rulemaking Creates Confusing Standards for Millions of Direct Sellers
> Amway Announces Peter Strydom as New Chief Marketing Officer
> Herbalife CEO Michael O. Johnson Agrees to “$1” Salary and Removing “Interim” Title
> Mary Kay Announces Awards, Milestones, and Accomplishments From Full-Year 2022

Most-Read Article in December on The World of Direct Selling:
Canada Remains Steady in a Sea of Uncertainty – Peter Maddox

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The post Industry News Roundup: 2022 appeared first on The World of Direct Selling.

Simple SEO Steps to Protect Your Online Reputation in 2023

Over the last few years, there’s been a lot of talk around owned media, earned media and paid media. Paid media is associated with all types of advertising. Earned media is exposure to your company and its products through word-of-mouth methods, like reviews, shares, reposts, recommendations and other references in third-party content. Owned media is the content you directly have control over, like websites, social media profiles, public relations, podcasts and other forms of content produced in-house.

Online reputation management is how your company is presented on the first page of a Google search. Paid media can have some impact since Google Ads can be purchased. Earned media may be shown by review sites, but the most control companies have to influence the Google search results is through owned media. These are the corporate website (and potentially other owned websites) and strong social media profiles on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.

Here are three areas of owned media that you can work on to improve your company’s online reputation:

Corporate Website

Basic search engine optimization is critical for your corporate website. While Google’s algorithms are always improving, there are a number of things you can do to help Google “see” your site.

• Use your company name as the meta title and description tag
• Use various header tags
• Internally link to other pages on your website within the content
• Provide links to social media profiles
• Do frequent content updates
• Be sure your site works on mobile devices

Google doesn’t like stagnant websites, because they tend to be less relevant to users than sites that are kept up to date with the latest information and news. Key pages on your website should be updated at least on a monthly basis. Content updates can include videos, blog posts, press releases, company news or channel-related events. In fact, you should have a plan to constantly create content so you have something to post on a regular basis.

Social Media

One of the best ways to protect your online reputation is the proper development and constant updating of social media profiles. Your company should be active on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. Link all of your social media profiles together. For example, your YouTube “About” page should link back to all of your social media sites and to your main website. Be sure to flesh out your social media profiles and pages with complete descriptions about what your company does, and with relevant keywords to help the search engines find you. The more information you put on social media, the better chance you have of getting them to rank high in the Google results.

Here are ideas to improve social media frequency:

• A link to a subpage from your corporate website each week
• Pictures of team members in corporate offices
• Pictures of company representatives at meetings and events
• Company representative testimonials
• Executive videos
• Short videos from recent events
• Short testimonial videos from events (very important)
• Interviews about business success
• The latest news about your company
• Statistics about your company (growth, expansion, etc.)
• Corrected misconceptions about the direct selling channel
• Company milestones
• Answers to commonly asked questions about the business
• Answers about the product lines
• Introductions of the executive team
• Introductions of the marketing teams
• Facebook Live events
• Polls for your followers

Public Relations

Good public relations are critical to a positive online reputation. Sometimes companies feel that, because of the internet, they don’t need to be as active developing their brand in traditional media spaces. Nothing could be further from the truth. The reality is that the best traditional media (newspapers, magazines) all have great websites. When your company is featured in an article, there’s a good chance that article will show up high in the Google results. I have a client that secured great articles in Forbes and Entrepreneur. Now each of those articles sits high in the Google results.

Press releases can often rank high in Google for your company name, so it’s worthwhile to report on anything newsworthy from your company. Include information about your company in the press release, mentioning your company and brand names while also linking to your social media sites. You can then publish the release through websites like BusinessWire or PR Newswire. Your releases should contain legitimate news and paint a progressive story of your company’s ongoing success. These releases will comprise much of the “digital footprints” your prospective customers will see over time. Aim for a release every month or two, but only do so if the release contains legitimate news that will continue to be meaningful for the long term, as the Google results may remain for years to come.

All of this may sound like a fair amount of work, but the process is straightforward and much can be accomplished by an in-house team. For specific areas like off-site search engine optimization, you’ll definitely want to work with an outside company that has a depth of experience. By following these guidelines, you’ll be well on your way toward creating and strengthening your company’s owned media, and in turn improving your online reputation.

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The post Simple SEO Steps to Protect Your Online Reputation in 2023 appeared first on The World of Direct Selling.

Increase Sales by Improving Your Company’s Google Results

Does this issue come up in your company meetings? “When I search our company’s name in Google, I see negative websites. What can we do about this?”

Everyone should be aware of your company’s online reputation and understand that you can take steps to manage it. Your online reputation can have a dramatic effect on not only your brand perception, but also your company’s revenues.

Years ago, I met with a company that had a severe online reputation problem. When potential customers searched their company name, seven out of the top 10 Google rankings were negative. After a careful review of their rankings, and prior-year revenues, I determined that they were probably losing more than $2 million a year in sales due to negative search engine results. The company confirmed the fact that my estimates were indeed accurate—but low.

Direct selling companies face a unique challenge in protecting their online reputation. It’s something I’ve written about here before. And because your success or failure depends on not only how potential customers perceive you, but also how confidently your salesforce can share your brand with those customers, I want to cover the basics of managing and improving your online reputation.

What We Mean by “Online Reputation”

Your online reputation is determined by the top Google rankings a prospect sees when they do a search on your company name. If a lot of those websites have negative content and complaints about your company, it will automatically diminish your company’s reputation. For instance, if a prospect is excited about joining your company after talking with one of your Distributors, but then is exposed to negative results near the top of the rankings for your company name, even the best of Distributors has a hard time overcoming the reputational hit. But if they see a list of websites with positive comments and testimonials, they’re more likely to sign up without further hesitation.

Because most people rarely look past the first page or two of search engine results, your online reputation is determined by the top 10 or 20 search results.

How a Few Complaints Can Hurt Your Online Reputation

You might think that if you have thousands of happy customers, a few online complaints shouldn’t matter. But the math doesn’t work out that way.

Consider that a Google search returns 10 results on the first page. If just three of those are websites with complaints or criticisms, it means nearly a third of the search results are for negative websites. They may still be in the minority, but when a curious prospect sees a link that promises to reveal the “dirt” on a company, it’s hard to resist clicking through.

I know this sounds dire, but basic human psychology is at work here. All it takes is one negative review to give them a reason to say no to the opportunity.

What It Takes to Have a Good Online Reputation

Fortunately, there are steps you can take to manage your online reputation so you are not at the mercy of your company’s critics. Start out right by following these three steps:

Step No. 1: Accept the Fact of Online Reviews.

Short of outright slander or libel by the reviewers online, you really don’t have much legal recourse to make the negative postings go away. People have a right to complain, and these days it’s all too easy for unhappy customers to vent their frustrations and share their opinions with the whole world (regardless of how accurate you believe those opinions may or may not be).

When you see a negative review about your company, the instinctive reaction is to post a response to set the record straight. I understand the human need to respond, but you have to consider Google’s point of view. Here’s why:

Search engines rank various websites high for a few reasons, one of which is relevant content, especially when that content is updated on a regular basis.

When you post a comment on a website, you are in effect giving it new content. And if you get into a back-and-forth discussion with someone on a review website about your company, Google thinks “Ah, there’s a lot about this company here, so we’ll rank this website high for searches on their company name.”

Now when someone does a search on your company, they are even more likely to see the negative review. You want to avoid that. In fact, you want the websites with negative comments to slip further down the Google rankings so they don’t appear on the first page or two of a search. The next two steps help you with that.

Step No. 2: Focus on Getting Positive Content.

A major part of online reputation management involves pushing the negative websites off of the first page or two of a Google search. How? By posting positive content and getting those pages to rank higher than the negative websites.

You need to direct your marketing or PR department to make online reputation management part of their regular duties. That means they should always be looking for, gathering or creating positive content that can be used to continually update your websites. Don’t put everything onto one corporate website. Instead, set up different websites for different purposes.

For example, you can have a website for new distributors, a website about your charitable giving, a website about conferences and meetings, a website for photos and perhaps individual product line websites. This gives you a nice stable of websites that you have control over.

Step No. 3: Push Positive Websites Higher.

In the online world, your reputation is all about who owns the top-ranking results in a search for your company name. You want that space to belong to you—or at least be shared only with websites that have good things to say about you.

If you can do that, then the negative websites will be pushed off the first page of a Google search. And since very few people look past the first page of a search, those negative websites may as well not exist.

The best way to accomplish this is by performing search engine optimization on the positive websites to make them rank higher. Carefully review your websites’ content and the meta title tags to be sure they contain your company name. The magic of ranking higher in Google is relevant content and gathering a substantial number of links from other websites that point to your websites. These links are anchored by your company name.

There’s a lot to optimizing a website for search engines, and the algorithms change often. No single article can cover it all. It’s not always difficult to understand, but optimizing a website can be very tedious work. For this reason, my experience has been that it makes sense to offload that responsibility to an experienced third party. That said, there are definitely some basics you can manage in-house. Most companies don’t even properly address these most basics components, and doing so can help you make great strides relatively quickly.

The goal of getting all the positive websites to rank higher than the negative websites can be a hard one to reach. But considering how important your online reputation is, and how quickly sales can deteriorate due to negative reviews, achieving this goal is well worth the effort. In an online world, you could make a strong argument that it should be a primary focus of the corporate office. This is not always easy, and it can take many months of steady effort to achieve. Still, consider that the alternative is to let the complaints and negative reviews dominate the search results and trash your online reputation.

Managing your online reputation is just as important as keeping your books in order or delivering excellent support. It’s something you need to set aside time for, and assign a team to handle. By following these guidelines, you’ll be well on your way toward developing a positive online reputation that will improve your company’s bottom line.

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Don has helped numerous direct selling companies improve their online branding efforts. He is an associate with Strategic Choice Partners.

Don Sorensen
Why Reputation Management Must Be in Your 2020 Budget

Direct selling companies by their very nature are all about marketing. Beyond the internal marketing department there are thousands of associates each trying to market the business in their own unique way. And each one of these efforts builds “the reputation” of the business. But there are a number of factors that can easily erode a company’s good reputation. Here are issues to watch out for this year and what you should be doing to insure your company retains its good name.

FTC Investigations

The recent FTC investigations into direct selling companies are a great reason to closely manage your company’s reputation. Not only are formal compensation plans being looked at, but even simple social media posts are reviewed for accuracy and compliance. Too much internal compensation talk on a forum or even within Facebook comments can easily cause a problem.

If your business deals with health and wellness you may see changes in the Google results due to changes in their algorithm. Google’s John Mueller recently said that the new algorithms are trained to find health-related sites that lack authority. He went on to say, “Perhaps over the last ten years or so, you had a really good run, so that’s another area where I’d say maybe from an algorithmic point of view, you might see bigger changes.”

Social Media Mobs

According to Statista, in 2019 global web users spent 2 hours and 23 minutes on social media per day. That can be great time for people to learn about your brand, but also poses some risk. If your communications team makes a misstep, watch out for the social media mob. Sad to say there’s an audience just waiting for inaccurate news, executive gaffes, product recalls or anything else to complain about. And worse, information that is untrue spreads much faster than true information.

Now that you know what to worry about, here’s what you can be doing to bolster a positive online reputation.

Proactively monitor both social media and the web. You can use a readily available tool like Google Alerts, which is a free platform for monitoring the web. But the only issue with Google Alerts is that it only monitors mentions on the web, overlooking social media, where most of the talk is happening. There are plenty of other tools that help you both monitor social media and even can help gain sales prospects. Here are some you should check out:

• Social Mention is a Google Alerts substitute. This is a free service which, unlike Google Alerts, tracks social media.
• Awario gathers mentions of your brand, industry, and can even bring you new influencers and sales prospects.
• Social Sprout can see the performance of your topic in terms of engagement, impressions, and sentiment and check out the demographics for your keywords.
• Agorapulse is actually two platforms — one that does social listening and the other for social media scheduling.
• Brandwatch is a service with 3 separate products: Analytics for online conversations analysis, Vizia for data visualization, and Audiences for better understanding your audience.

Embrace External Publicity

Sometimes it feels like the direct selling industry is its own echo chamber. There’s a lot of internal press about who’s working where, who’s expanding to what country, and who’s launching new products, but not very much external public relations happening, even with the larger public companies. There’s a much larger audience to speak to, especially with so much interest in supplementing a families income in simple ways. Why not create a series of human-interest pieces? Tell the world how your company is helping families pay off debt, or pay for a child’s education. There are lots of stories to share.

And the great thing about stories that get picked up in publications is that you’ve just created another story that can help with your Google results — and it’s a third-party endorsement which is generally a much better reference of your company.

Get Organized

Reputation management requires organization. You’ll need to evaluate each area of your business to determine what else can be done to improve your brand. Here are a few ideas to get you moving in the right direction:

• Google your company and product names on a regular basis.
• If there are negative sites in the Google results work with a professional to clean them up.
• Look for publicity opportunities to attract a larger audience for your brand.
• Develop a simple crisis management plan.
• At each conference gather testimonials on video.
• Develop an active social media plan.
• Create an online reputation management session for your company conferences.

When you develop your reputation management strategy, define what you want the outcome to be and set goals to reach it. Then stick to your plan. Remember what the Cheshire Cat said to Alice: If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there. With so much at stake, make this the year you create an effective reputation management strategy.

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Note: Don Sorensen is giving a free webinar about improving a company’s online branding and reputation. You can register here for this webinar that will take place on February 5, 2020 at 12:00 noon MST.

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From the very beginning, we have been featuring articles from renowned personalities from the global direct sales industry. You will find their insightful articles below.

Jeff Babener (1948-2020)
Jeff Babener was the principal attorney in the law firm of Babener & Associates. For more than 30 years, he advised leading U.S. and international companies in the direct selling industry. Read from Jeff Babener

Meredith Berkich
Meredith Berkich is the President of LifeWave. She was the Chief Growth Officer at Jenkon, working with corporate leadership seeking solutions to digital transformation and business evolution. Read from Meredith Berkich

Jeff Dahl
Jeff Dahl is recognized as an industry leader and innovator, with over 35 years of experience working with global consumer brands and direct selling companies. Read from Jeff Dahl

Clark Diemer
Clark Diemer is an Associate of Strategic Choice Partners and the owner of Left Hook Videos. He has worked closely with more than 30 different direct sales companies. Read from Clark Diemer

Brett Duncan
Brett Duncan is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Strategic Choice Partners, a business development firm that helps direct selling companies take their next steps. Read from Brett Duncan

Jonathan Gilliam
Jonathan Gilliam is the Founder & President of Momentum Factor, a compliance software and services firm serving direct selling companies exclusively. Read from Jonathan Gilliam

Vince Han
Vince Han is the founder and CEO of MobileCoach and an industry thought-leader for learning technology with an emphasis on artificial intelligence and chatbot technology. Read from Vince Han

Rick Loy
Rick Loy is an Associate with Strategic Choice Partners, and a sales strategist and training specialist with more than 20 years of experience as a Senior Executive in direct selling. Read from Rick Loy

Alan Luce (1945-2021)
Alan Luce was Co-Founder and Managing Principal of Strategic Choice Partners. He was a US DSA Hall of Famer and a member of the DSEF’s Circle of Honor. Read from Alan Luce

Peter Maddox
Peter Maddox has been the President of the Direct Sellers Association of Canada since early 2018. He has extensive experience in the association world and the marketing industry. Read from Peter Maddox

Michele McDonough
Michele McDonough is Co-Founder of  C3 Executive Search, serving the companies in the acquisition of exceptional executive talent in the direct selling channel. Read from Michele McDonough

Max Pecherskyi
Max Pecherskyi is Co-Founder and CEO of PromoRepublic, a distributed marketing platform for multi-location brands that launched a social selling solution for direct selling businesses. Read from Max Pecherskyi

Andi Sherwood
Andi Sherwood is the Director of Strategy and Plan Design at Dan Jensen Consulting. Since joining in 2066, she has personally designed more than 400+ compensation plans globally. Read from Andi Sherwood

Don Sorensen
Don Sorensen is an Associate with Strategic Choice Partners. He is an online reputation management authority whose expertise has been featured in numerous prominent publications. Read from Don Sorensen

Gillian Stapleton
Gillian Stapleton was the CEO of Direct Selling Australia between 2016 and 2022. She was appointed to this role as the first female in the association’s 54-year history. Read from Gillian Stapleton

Nancy Tobler
Nancy Tobler is an Associate of Strategic Choice Partners, and Chief Data Analyst at MLM Compensation Consulting. She has worked in the direct sales industry on commission analytics for 20 years. Read from Nancy Tobler

Crayton Webb
Crayton Webb is the owner and CEO of Sunwest Communications, a public relations and public affairs firm. Previously, he was the VP, Corporate Communications at Mary Kay. Read from Crayton Webb

Ben Woodward
Ben Woodward is an Associate of DISSECT and the author of a best-selling book. He previously assumed executive roles at various internationals like Amway, Melaleuca and Nikken. Read from Ben Woodward 

Daryl Wurzbacher
Daryl Wurzbacher is the CEO of ByDesign Technologies, a company dedicated to delivering leading-edge capabilities in software-as-a-service, and platform-as-a-service solutions. Read from Daryl Wurzbacher

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