Do you have a Santorum search problem? Reputation Management Tips for you and Rick

I don’t normally enjoy breaching sensitive subjects like politics, but Rick Santorum’s search crisis is about as newsworthy as you can get. For those of you who don’t know, Santorum offended the wrong columnist back in 2003 by making some disparaging remarks about a heated political issue. In response, Dan Savage (the aforementioned offended party) leveraged his web savvy by creating a new meaning and website for the word “Santorum” which has since cemented its legacy in the annals of history.

What has Rick done about this? Other than ask Google to remove the listing directly, not much. As a result, when people all over the globe search for “Rick Santorum” the number 2 entry will be a very unflattering definition of his last name. What could Rick do about this? Let’s explore some simple reputation management tactics.

Optimize your website

What’s the first step toward rebuilding your search reputation? Make sure your website is optimized for search! We talk about SEO a lot in this blog (and I mean a lot). Making sure your foundational SEO strategy is intact ensures that you’ll have a great shot at being ranked for your most valuable keywords. Consider the following tactics when optimizing your website for search engines:

1). Effective title tags. Your title MUST have your targeted keyword in it. This is the first step in showing search engines what your website is all about. Keyword research is essential here, so make sure you know all of the terms that under attack.

2). Meta descriptions focused on CTR. This is exactly what Savage did with the website that got Santorum into this mess in the first place. High click-through rates equals high rankings. Write brief, concise statements describing the content on the page and calling the searcher to action.

3). Identify and target long tail keywords. Rick Santorum shouldn’t just focus his effort rehabbing “Rick Santorum” and “Santorum”. He needs to look into all keyword variations that prompt the unflattering website in search. For example, “rick santorum for president” still prompts the attacking website, which needs to be rectified immediately. Distribute content around long tail keywords to boost your relevancy for them and bump down opposing websites.

Get more inbound links

Once your onsite SEO is in place, you need to work on getting more links pointing to your website. If you’re competing with some bad press, you can bet that the bad press has a lot of inbound links if they’re actually ranking ahead of your official website. To combat this, you’ll need a significant amount of high quality links. Here are some tips on building quality inbound links to your website:

1). Distribute quality content. Wait. So you’re saying that if I distribute quality content on the web, people might read it and share it with their friends? This one goes without saying. Get some good content in front of the right people and the links will pour in.

2). Run a promotion or contest. Get people talking about you through social channels. This is a great way to build links while engaging your community. Try creating a contest where the community has to vote to decide a winner. This will prompt contestants to share links with their friends to earn votes.

3). Just ask! Reach out to websites and bloggers who are on your side. Ask to be a guest blogger or for some kind of feature on their website. This kind of link can be incredibly valuable and really boost your authority in search.

Focus on the most important page

You likely have a ton of pages on your website and limited resources to optimize them all. If your reputation is under attack, you need to shift your focus to optimizing the page in close competition to the attacking listing in search. In Santorum’s case, the home page to his official website is ranked closely to the attacking website. Santorum should spend a significant amount of resources organically developing the authority of that page in search engines. Focus on the following:

1). Point inbound links to focus page. If your home page is the page competing with the attacking site in search results, be sure to point as many of your high value inbound links as possible to this page. It has the best chance of toppling the opposition.

2). Keep content fresh. Search engines love fresh content. Keep active news and social streams on the website to keep content fresh. Generate posts for a daily or weekly blog and showcase it on your focus page. Actions like these keep your website relevant and boost your chances for positioning well in search.

Cleaning Up

It’s time to stop complaining and start taking action. Google, Bing, and Yahoo! aren’t going to change the way they operate just because someone is smearing your reputation all over the floor. Assess the situation, do your keyword research, and start generating some positive buzz about your page. If you play by the book, you should be able to topple even the most aggressive competitors in search using these SEO tactics.