Personal Brand

Optimizing your online reputation.

For real estate agents, reputation is everything. So it’s naturally a critical part of your personal brand.Given how very hard you work to leverage your sphere of influence, build your client base and win referrals, the last thing you want is for a potential new customer to search you online and choose not to do business with you because they don’t like what they see.

That’s why, when it comes to Zillow and other online real estate specific sites, it’s important to optimize the information potential customers will learn about you. Since Zillow has such a strong ranking for search, claiming and completing your Zillow profile, will put you in front of a significant number of people searching for help.

Leveraging this asset is an easy first step if you haven't done so already. And of course, after you provide great customer service, ask your customers to write a review you can use online. In the PDF corresponding to this video, we highlight other sites where you can consider supplying information and reviews to optimize your reputation.

Personal Brand

Despite your best efforts, sometimes problems arise, so you need to be vigilant.

We suggest that you regularly Google your own name. When doing so, you’ll want to search using a tool of the browser so the browser doesn’t use your cookies, search history, etc in the search; for example, if you’re using chrome, use the New Incognito Window feature to do a search on your name. If a search with your name on the first page contains negative information, those search results can seriously damage your reputation. You’ll need to take action to address the issue sooner rather than later. Customers who read it will avoid doing business with you and, in the worst-case scenario, they could repeat what they see there to people they know.

You must immediately attempt to remove any negative content. You have the option to create new content to rise above negative information. While one complaint or bad review can really hurt you, there’s no doubt that lots of continuous, positive content can help drive your personal brand to new heights. Anything you can do to optimize your online profile and overall online reputation is sure to help you build your personal brand.

Weichert does not endorse any specific outside firm that can help you with online reputation management. But if you have any negative information online and you’re serious about addressing it for the vitality of your career, there are reputation management companies that can help you. Reputation management pricing depends on the degree of difficulty of the project, the timeframe, and the type of project it is. The existence and strength of one or more negative search results is the main indicator of cost that could run into thousands of dollars.

A successful reputation management project may consist of development of hiqh-quality web properties, social media, well-written content that people find useful, search engine optimization including earned links, and more. Many resources go into the price calculations of a reputation management campaign. Reputation management prices are based on not only creating and optimizing web content, but moving multiple sites up in search results, removing a page altogether, or having it de-indexed by search engines.

Reputation management is different than SEO (search engine optimization). Reputation companies are different than SEO companies. SEO firms normally focus on one site. Reputation firms focus on many sites (sometimes over 50). Reputation firms also deal with branded terms (terms about a person or company name) whereas SEO firms deal with product or service related terms most of the time.

Removal of a search result often uses either legal tactics (expensive) or relationships (which we have, far less expensive). The cost also depends on whether something is being removed from the source, like a web page, or from Google search results. SEO firms don't normally do this, even though they say they perform reputation management. The costs involved with removal are based on where the negative content lives, who owns the site, and other factors. Most of the time a negative search result cannot be removed directly from the source or from search results, but sometimes it can.

If you do consider online reputation management companies, beware. There are many who offer low-price package options with customers who have not been satsified. Do your due diligence, such as talking to people who have used a specific service.