Online Reputation Analysis

Online reputation analysis is an important part of any online reputation management (ORM) strategy along with broader digital marketing efforts. Analyzing your brand mentions across review sites, search engines, forums and social media platforms can help you:

• Get a sense of the first impression potential customers will have about your organization when they search for your company name in search engines
• Understand what’s driving negative reviews — and what factors result in positive feedback
• Pinpoint opportunities to improve the customer experience, generate more reviews, optimize your social media and online presence, and boost your SEO

Let’s dive into what we mean by online reputation, what it takes to have a good reputation, the top benefits of online reputation analysis and brand monitoring tools that can help you keep track of what’s being said about your brand name.

What Is an Online Reputation?

Online reputation is an overall measure of what people have to say about your company online. This includes platforms like Yelp and Google Search, as well as social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Your online reputation is inclusive of anything related to your brand and company name that appears in search engines, such as:

• Customer feedback—both negative reviews and positive reviews
• Online brand mentions on third-party websites
• Your company’s own positive content about your brand on your business website and social media profiles
• Articles on news sites that mention your organization, resulting from public relations
• Positive and negative comments posted to forums that mention your company name
• Local listings and directories that include your company name, business information, contact information and overall star ratings
• Social mentions and hashtags related to your brand
• Backlinks to your website 

Together, all of these references to your brand online reflect on your company’s overall reputation and offer a comprehensive look at your online presence. 

Also see: What is online reputation?

What Does It Mean to Have a Good Reputation?

While “good” is a subjective term and some negative feedback is inevitable, a good reputation is one that mirrors the type of customer experience your team wants to deliver and reflects the brand values your company strives to embody. If your company’s mission is to provide high-quality products and services, then receiving lots of negative comments describing the poor quality of the goods you sell would not reflect a good reputation.

Star ratings can often give a quick snapshot of your online reputation, with higher star ratings being linked to stronger business performance. Research conducted at Harvard Business School that found that a one-star rating increase on Yelp could lead to a 5 to 9% lift in overall revenue. 

That said, achieving a perfect 5-star rating may not be required to achieve a good reputation. One study found that only 10% of customers trust 5-star ratings and most (57%) trust three- and four-star ratings. 

What Online Reputation Management Tools Can I Use to Analyze My Brand Reputation?

Free tools like Google Alerts can ensure your company receives real-time notifications any time your brand name is mentioned. There are also a wide range of more comprehensive online reputation management tools, including: 

• Review management tools
• Sentiment analysis tools
• Social listening and social media monitoring tools
• Reputation monitoring tools 

These solutions are designed to help you understand your online reputation and identify opportunities to improve the quality of your products and services and increase customer satisfaction.

Why Is Having a Good Brand Reputation Important?

There’s no denying the power of social media platforms and customer feedback left on online review sites. Just a handful of negative reviews can reach—and influence the purchasing behavior of—thousands or even millions of potential customers. 

Brand reputation is a critical factor that affects success across the board, including:

• Customer acquisition
• Customer loyalty
• Sales and other business metrics
• Search engine algorithm rankings and overall SEO

Why Is Analyzing My Online Reputation Important?

Here are some of the top reasons companies should prioritize analyzing online reputation.

1. Customer reviews, a key component of your online reputation, are a top driver of customer purchases. Studies from sites like BrightLocal and eConsultancy show that 87% of customers say they look at customer reviews and 84% say they trust customer feedback as much as personal recommendations of friends.
2. Monitoring and responding to customer reviews can help you get more reviews, which can help boost your local SEO ranking, grow your customers and increase your overall business.
3. You can identify and address the root cause of top customer issues. By monitoring and analyzing your results over time, you can begin to establish benchmarks that are specific to your company. For instance, if you tend to have positive or neutral sentiment on social media and review sites, but you notice a spike in customer feedback that lowers your sentiment analysis metrics, you’ll know it’s time to dig in further to see what issues may be driving this fluctuation. 

How Broadly Can Help With Your Online Reputation Analysis

Looking for the right platform to analyze your online presence? Broadly offers a range of tools to help with digital marketing. Our comprehensive brand reputation dashboard enables small businesses to monitor customer feedback and gain key insights into their most important customer experience metrics.