What is the Difference Between SEO and ORM?

The two main differences between SEO and ORM are their purposes. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) uses search engine optimization techniques to help create content that is easily found online, whereas Online Reputation Management (ORM) involves how you, your business, or brand name is perceived online in regards to likability and trustworthiness.

Both SEO and ORM have come a long way over the years in regards to how they are used and how powerful both become when used properly. Here is how SEO and ORM compare, as well as helpful techniques and practices to help you use both like a professional.

Online Reputation Management has everything to do with how you, your name, or your business is perceived online, and Search Engine Optimization only has to do with how easily that information is found online.

Examples of Search Engine Optimization vs. Online Reputation Management

Picture this, a new pizza shop just opened up downtown. Passing by, the shop looks like a little authentic Italian pizza restaurant, clean, tidy, welcoming and ready for business. During the first week of business, the pizza shop did amazing getting new customers and positive online reviews, as well as likes and follows on social platforms to help spread awareness of the new business.

In this case, the online reputation of the business is flourishing with the help of happy customer reviews giving the restaurant 5 stars. Everyone’s likes and shares of the restaurant’s photos of their favorite specialty pizzas are circulating like wildfire, bringing in new customers from towns nearby.

That in return helps the overall SEO of the business’s online website, profiles and pages. With the increase of the business’s name popping up online, SEO increases as a result.

Had the business gotten poor reviews during their first week, their reputation would have plummeted from the beginning. The unbiased opinions of others spreads quicker than word of mouth when it comes to the online world.

If the business didn’t have a website or review platforms for people to leave those 5 star reviews, the SEO of their online business would not have been able to circulate so quickly.

You see, SEO and ORM go hand-in-hand, but are different entities entirely.

Online Reputation Management: Perfecting Your Online Reputation

Online Reputation Management often utilizes SEO practices to help improve the overall online reputation of a person, and business, or a brand.

With the help of technology, brands have the ability to create a positive online reputation built to impress any target audience.

Online Reputation Management usually starts with a main goal. Increasing the likability of a brand, creating a deeper sense of trust in a brand, improving overall brand reach and quality, etc.

Depending on the main goal of the brand, SEO is utilized to carry out that goal by helping to create content that directly reflects the brand and their goals.

Search Engine Optimization: Optimizing Content to Get Found Online

Search Engine Optimization utilizes certain techniques to help that content get found online. Keyword research, image and video optimization, writing styles, snippets, catchy taglines, improving user experience, and creating content that is easy to understand and share with others – it all comes into play when utilizing proper SEO techniques.

In this day and age, creating a solid brand online is important for anybody and everybody, from college students trying to apply for college, to startup brands or businesses looking to make a name for themselves.

The internet is here to stay, so we might as well learn how to use it as a tool instead of allowing it to potentially be our demise.

You see, it’s completely possible to use the content you post online to completely build a brand based on the 3 core values Google likes to see: likability, trustworthiness, and usefulness. If the content you post, no matter what type of source, falls into those categories, you build a positive online reputation that will perform well in combination with search engine optimization techniques and strategies.

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What is Reputation Management in SEO?

It’s no secret that startups, small businesses, local business, and independent brands usually come from humble beginnings that require a tight hold on finances begging to ask the questions, “what’s worth the money?”

Is SEO a Waste of Money?

Try typing “best pizza restaurant near me” into Google and hit search. No matter where you live, Google will go out on a scavenger hunt to answer your question as best as possible, wrangling up the online results of the best, most trusted, most mentioned pizza restaurants with the best online reputations so you, the user, can find what is truly the best pizza restaurant near you!

Do you think Google will put a pizza restaurant in a first place position on Google if it has bad reviews, no likes, and a website that looks like it was made in the 90’s?

No, Google is going to use those 3 core values to find you your answer, finding the best results based on like-ability, trustworthiness, and usefulness.

All of the results that land on that first page will give you all the information you need, because 9 out of 10 users do not click past the first page of Google results. If you type “best pizza places near me” into Google, odds are you’re going to pick a place that landed on page one, and not one that’s on page 2 or 3.

Yes, it pays to have good SEO so your business can get found online by the customers that matter most. If you do not have good SEO, you risk losing on profit, customers, and brand reach.

How to Use SEO to Improve Your Online Reputation

Whether it comes to your own personal reputation or the reputation of a business there are endless possibilities and opportunities to help you improve your reputation online with the help of SEO. Improve your Google search ranking for good with the help of our online tools and guides!