SEO vs. Online Reputation Management (ORM): What is the difference? (2024)

What do you do when you want some information? You google it – and every single second67921 peopledo the same. Indeed, our next story starts online: and just like93%of online experiences do, it starts with opening a search engine and typing in some words.

Jenny’s journey

Imagine Jenny. She is Director of Communications and recognizes her company needs help with social media advertising. She goes online to search for “digital marketing consultant”, and stumbles upon an interesting article on targeting online audiences. Jenny is interested and spends the next hour reading his blog.

The first part of Jenny’s story illustrates whatsearch engine optimization (SEO)can do for a business. SEO is an online marketing technique used to improve content and make it discoverable for search engines. Had it not been for the interesting blog post written and optimized for the phrase “digital marketing consultant”, Jenny wouldn’t have known that the company existed.

However, she is not ready to request a company training yet. Before buying, Jenny needs to learn more about the expert. She does a couple of quick searches on his name. Most of the results are positive, but his LinkedIn profile looks rather vague. Jenny then finds a review three-star review that highlights a mixed experience with the social media professional.

Jenny is confused. She is torn between her desire to request training for her company and her hesitation about the expert. So she turns to her LinkedIn account and searches for her network’s recommendations about freelance social media consultants. She also tweets to some of her fellow marketers whether they know the guy in question.

Jenny’s decision-making process is where online reputation management (ORM) kicks in. Unlike SEO, ORM includeseverythinga business or an entity can do to improve its image and build a positive reputation online. ORM services enhances theentire online presenceof the businessor entity and they are increasingly important for sales – recent data shows that about80-90% of people check online reviews prior to making a purchase. Successful ORM lies behind Jenny’s decision to hire the consultant.

Setting the terms right

ORM is broader and more general than SEO. It involves everything from building aSEO-friendly website with relevant content to having a positive presence on social media, online review websites, forums, blogs, etc. Whilst SEO is a technique that helps websites appear higher on search engine results pages (SERPs) ORM combines different disciplines– online PR, content marketing,social media marketingand monitoring, SEO, community management, web analytics, and psychology – to proactively build and control the brand’s reputation online.

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