Put simply, an online reputation management tool (sometimes called a brand management or brand monitoring tool) helps you monitor, influence, and manage the online presence of your business.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve been working in digital marketing or\u00a0digital PR<\/a>\u00a0for any length of time, or if you have any level of familiarity with SEO, you know it\u2019s a lot of work for one person or even one in-house team to tackle.<\/p>\n You are also probably aware that a solid online reputation and top presence in Google\u2019s SERPs can earn you more business. In fact, over\u00a090% of adults<\/a>\u00a0using the web leverage search engines to get the information they are looking for.<\/p>\n So, you want your potential customers to find positive information about your brand when they go looking for solutions to their problems. An online reputation management tool can take the guesswork out of answering the question \u201cHow well is my brand performing in the SERPs?\u201d<\/p>\n But how do you know which tool is right for your business? Let\u2019s take a look at that now.<\/p>\n Due to the sheer number of available options, it can be overwhelming to decide where to invest your time and money.<\/p>\n Choosing an online reputation management tool is the first step toward streamlining your digital marketing workflow.<\/p>\n The best choice for you will come down to a few factors:<\/p>\n Once you mull over these factors, it will become much easier to select the perfect tool for your brand.<\/p>\n To help make the decision even easier, let\u2019s take a side-by-side look at some of the top brand monitoring tools Semrush offers. We\u2019ll talk a bit about what each tool does and summarize who will get the most use out of each.<\/p>\n Surround Sound<\/a>\u00a0is a solution designed to help you spot hidden but critical opportunities for your brand to be mentioned around the web. Specifically, it allows you to find the content people are reading when they are ready to make a purchase decision for the product or service you offer. It instantly reveals where your competitors are part of the conversation but you\u2019re not.<\/p>\n The goal with Surround Sound SEO, and the tool in particular, is not to rank your own pages but to be present on the pages that are already ranking for your keywords,\u00a0increasing your share of search<\/a>\u00a0and the chances that people will hear about you everywhere they go.<\/p>\n Surround Sound finds all the web pages ranking for your high-value, high-intent keywords (think \u201cbest running shoes,\u201d for example). Then you can see where you\u2019re mentioned, find where your competitors are mentioned and you\u2019re not, and begin reaching out to make sure your brand is included in all the important pages for \u201cvalue mentions\u201d and links.<\/p>\n These may take a little more work to obtain than getting a link on a random website, but the fact that these target pages rank for your keywords (and are key to your buyers\u2019 decision-making process) makes it worth the effort.<\/p>\n Use the handy graphs to report on your progress overall and compared with your competitors. Ultimately, you want to\u00a0use Surround Sound<\/a>\u00a0to dominate the search results, even if you only rank for one page. Check out our recent webinar if you\u2019d like to learn more.<\/p>\n 1. Enter your brand information, high-intent keywords<\/strong>\u00a0(for example, \u201cbest running shoes for beginners\u201d)\u00a0and your competitors\u2019 information.<\/strong>\u00a0Be sure to add any additional brand names people might use when referring to you.<\/p>\n \u00a0You can easily add all the information you need to build a campaign from one pop-up window in Surround Sound. Here, we are targeting shoe and Nike keywords. We are also looking at a competitor site, Adidas.com, in this example.<\/p>\n 2. See how you stack up<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0This snapshot shows how Nike is stacking up against competitors Adidas and Reebok in terms of visibility in the SERPs. For the keywords used, Nike is way ahead of the competition.<\/p>\n 3. Find opportunities for new mentions<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0Surround Sound shows you the pages where your brand is ranking for certain keywords. By looking at these pages (and particularly where your competitors are mentioned but you\u2019re not), you can spot opportunities to grab more positive visibility for your own brand.<\/p>\n 4. Track your progress<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0The Surround Sound dashboard holds a plethora of information about your SERP coverage and visibility as well as your progress over time.<\/p>\n Surround Sound is a great tool for businesses that need a boost in the SERPs. If you operate in a highly saturated market, this tool can help you push through the digital noise and find opportunities to be mentioned anywhere people are looking for help with purchase decisions. For instance, instead of \u201chow to start running,\u201d think \u201cbest running shoes for beginners.\u201d<\/p>\n Surround Sound allows you to be found in SERPs even if your own site isn\u2019t ranking for your keywords yet.<\/p>\n If your business\u2019 overall brand sentiment needs instant attention (i.e., you need to get on top of many negative mentions), you\u2019ll want another tool to do that for you (we\u2019ll get into this in just a moment).<\/p>\n The\u00a0Backlink Gap<\/a>\u00a0tool works by comparing your domain to that of your competitors. It analyzes each website\u2019s backlink profile and looks for prospective backlink opportunities you might not have considered. It sends you a list of target domains that you can focus on in your link-building campaigns.<\/p>\n Backlink Gap looks at link coverage from the domain level, not page level. So, this tool is for quantity link building rather than value link building. It does not take ranking or specific keywords into account.<\/p>\n Building backlinks is a great way to amplify your content and help rocket it to the top of the SERPs.<\/p>\n 1. Compare your domain with competitor domains<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0The Backlink Gap dashboard gives a tidy side-by-side comparison of your brand\u2019s backlinks against your competitors.<\/p>\n 2. See where your competitors have links and you don\u2019t<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0This is a great example of an opportunity for Nike to gain backlinks on avclub.com, since its competitors have anywhere between two and 56 backlinks, whereas Nike has zero.<\/p>\n 3. Get a list of domains to target for link building<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0You\u2019ll get a list of domains you\u2019ll want to consider building backlink campaigns around. This list can then be sent to the Link Building tool.<\/p>\n This is an ideal tool for businesses that have a lot of compelling content but just need help getting it to appear higher up in the SERPs. This is also a great tool for building relationships with publishers.<\/p>\n Consider another tool if your business already has plenty of healthy backlinks from relevant publishers in your industry.<\/p>\n Looking to evaluate and compare link profiles in-depth? Want to know what kind of link building your competitors are doing?<\/p>\n Backlink Analytics<\/a>\u00a0is the tool for you. You can analyze your backlink profile and track your growth against your competitors.<\/p>\n The best part?<\/p>\n It\u2019s free!<\/p>\n 1. Type in the web domain you want to analyze\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0The Backlink Analytics dashboard gives you a holistic view of your backlink profile.<\/p>\n 2. Take a look at the \u201cBacklinks\u201d tab\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The backlinks tab will reveal your individual backlinks. You can assess whether these are positive or toxic backlinks, which links are no-follow links or follow links, and a lot more.<\/p>\n 3. Be sure to look over the \u201cCompetitors\u201d tab to see how you stack up against your competition\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n By clicking on the \u201cCompetitors\u201d tab in the Backlink Analytics dashboard, you will get a \u201cCompetition level\u201d score, the number of common referring domains between you and the competition, the number of total referring domains, and the number of backlinks each competitor website has.<\/p>\n This is perfect for businesses that need an in-depth overview of their backlink profile. If you want to know the status of your backlinks, this is a great free option.<\/p>\n Consider another tool for your business if you really want to hone in on individual backlinks and assess whether you need to disavow certain links or reach out to publishers for corrections (we will talk about this next).<\/p>\n If you really need to dive into your backlinks or you need to know how many good versus bad backlinks you have,\u00a0Backlink Audit<\/a>\u00a0is a great tool to leverage. You can fully audit your backlink profile to get rid of potentially harmful links and greatly reduce your risk of Google penalties.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll be able to spot toxic signals quickly, then reach out to website owners to have them remove potentially toxic links. This boosts your authority and trust, not only with Google but also with your customers.<\/p>\n 1. Enter your domain<\/strong><\/p>\n In the Backlink Audit tool, just click \u201cCreate project\u201d and enter your domain name to get started.<\/p>\n 2. See the toxicity score of every backlink<\/strong><\/p>\n The Backlink Audit will give you an overview of your backlink toxicity as well as a granular view of each backlink and its potential negative or positive effects on your domain.<\/p>\n 3. Weed out harmful links workflow<\/strong><\/p>\n If you happen to find toxic backlinks in the tool, don\u2019t panic! You can click on one of the three buttons to the right: \u201cMove to whitelist\u201d (if you believe the flagged link isn\u2019t toxic), \u201cMove to remove list\u201d (if you need to contact the publisher to have the link removed), or \u201cMove to disavow list\u201d (if you need to let Google know you don\u2019t acknowledge this backlink as related to your site).<\/p>\n 4. Check back regularly<\/strong><\/p>\n The Backlink Audit tool is constantly on the hunt for backlinks leading back to your domain. Get a list of backlinks to review from the dashboard\u2014just click \u201cReview backlinks.\u201d<\/p>\n This tool is perfect for businesses that need to know if they are plagued with toxic backlinks. If you suspect your backlink profile is leaning toward the negative, the Backlink Audit tool offers great peace of mind and a seamless workflow to fix the problem.<\/p>\n Consider another tool if your business has a number of high-quality backlinks. In reality, this tool benefits virtually every business that utilizes it because toxic backlinks are plentiful. But if you are sure you don\u2019t need to audit your profile, you might want another tool that is more proactive than reactive.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Link Building Tool<\/a>\u00a0gathers a roster of link-building opportunities for your website and then provides you with a special management interface that makes it easy to build outreach campaigns to potentially acquire\u00a0links<\/a>. Utilizing this tool within Semrush makes it easy to run competitive analysis on your rivals and operate a successful outreach campaign in unison.<\/p>\n 1. Get a list of prospects based on keywords, competitors, brand mentions, and more<\/strong><\/p>\n By clicking the \u201cProspects\u201d tab on the Link Building dashboard, you\u2019ll get a comprehensive list of prospective backlink opportunities, along with domain authority score and other metrics that will help you determine if the link is worth pursuing.<\/p>\n 2. Review results and choose the ones you\u2019ll pursue<\/strong><\/p>\n Reviewing the domain score and other factors will help you determine which backlink opportunities are most likely to yield the best results.<\/p>\n 3. Set up email outreach and track progress<\/strong><\/p>\n Get an overview of your outreach campaigns and track your progress from the \u201cMonitor\u201d tab on the Link Building dashboard.<\/p>\n 4. Monitor active, broken, lost, or rejected links<\/strong><\/p>\n The tool will break down backlinks that are active, broken, lost, or rejected.<\/p>\n This tool is ideal for businesses that need to quickly amass quality backlinks. If you are running short on backlinks, chances are you don\u2019t have great visibility in the SERPs. If that\u2019s the case, this is the tool for your brand.<\/p>\n Consider another tool if your business already has plenty of backlinks and a workflow that is working well to create more.<\/p>\n Prowly<\/a>\u00a0is an all-in-one workflow automation solution for PR professionals. This exciting media relations tool helps you find the best journalists for your pitch, saves time on getting your story heard, and supports you in storytelling with dozens of PR software solutions.<\/p>\n You can use this tool to land earned media publications and even valuable backlinks. From sending personalized emails to journalists, creating interactive press releases, and monitoring email statistics to building media-friendly newsrooms and monitoring the media for mentions about your brand, Prowly has everything you need to succeed in public relations.<\/p>\n 1. Find media contacts<\/strong><\/p>\n Finding the right journalists is never easy, and if someone tells you it is, they\u2019re lying. Prowly is helping you make this process as smooth as possible by providing you with a media database of over 1 million contacts, where you can search for the perfect media contact by their name, outlet, keywords found in their latest articles and tweets, and more.<\/p>\n 2. Send personalized emails<\/strong><\/p>\n To elevate your pitch, use Prowly\u2019s press release creator instead. Draft original, customized messages and capture your recipient\u2019s eye with interactive content and a sleek design to get your message across.<\/p>\n 3. Get stats on your pitches<\/strong><\/p>\n Numbers are the most accurate way to measure the performance of your pitches. Was the open rate too low? Perhaps it\u2019s time to change your subject lines. Not enough people clicked on the link? Step up your game with more targeted content. With Prowly, you\u2019ll get all the statistics you need to improve your performance.<\/p>\n 4. Monitor mentions in the media<\/strong><\/p>\n See who is saying what about you (and where) even before it\u2019s indexed in search engines. Prowly\u2019s Media Monitoring feature will show you all the statistics on your earned media presence and assist you in setting up alerts for new, important mentions you don\u2019t want to miss.<\/p>\n 5. Prepare PR reports<\/strong><\/p>\n Not everyone was born a graphic designer, so creating coverage reports shouldn\u2019t be a week-long task either. Show off accomplishments to your clients or stakeholders with personalized PR reports. Collect clippings, metrics, and other relevant data in just a few clicks.<\/p>\n 6. Build an online newsroom<\/strong><\/p>\n Not sure where to put all the important information about your brand? Prowly\u2019s newsroom builder is the easiest way to help others see what your company is doing in the form of blogs, videos, and other interactive materials. No coding skills required!<\/p>\n Prowly is great for businesses that need help managing stellar PR relationships. This tool probably works best for medium to large companies and agencies that pitch often, collaborate with coworkers on a daily basis, and need to closely manage their online reputation.<\/p>\n You might want to consider another tool if your business is small and doesn\u2019t field a lot of public relations requests. If you are a five-person business that makes just a few products, this might not be a worthwhile tool for you just yet.<\/p>\n Finding the right SEO-driven online reputation management tool can take a little trial and error. You might find that you need a few tools to get the job done correctly. However, some holistic tools work for virtually every brand. Of the tools we discussed above, one in particular comes to mind.<\/p>\nFinding the Right Online Reputation Management Tool for Your Business<\/h2>\n
\n
Surround Sound<\/h2>\n
How to Use this Tool<\/h3>\n
Backlink Gap<\/h2>\n
How to Use this Tool<\/h3>\n
Backlink Analytics<\/h2>\n
How to Use this Tool<\/h3>\n
Backlink Audit<\/h2>\n
How to Use this Tool<\/h3>\n
Link Building Tool<\/h2>\n
How to Use this Tool<\/h3>\n
Prowly<\/h2>\n
How to Use this Tool<\/h3>\n
Experiment to Find the Best Option for Your Brand<\/h2>\n