Having a business in the 21st century means a ton of online exposure. You have your social media accounts, a website filled with blog articles, and advertisements dedicated to your business. These digital assets collectively shape your reputation and online presence. While having all this talk about your business sounds advantageous in theory, this extensive digital footprint sometimes works against maintaining a positive image.
You see, when your business’s online presence becomes outdated, you face three key risks: your information no longer reflects reality, customer reviews don’t represent your current service quality, and your valuable business data becomes increasingly vulnerable to falling into the wrong hands.
In this article, we will explore how exactly the digital footprint of your business works against it, and how to prevent it.
Leaving Old Digital Footprint Isn’t Ideal
First, we must answer the fundamental question: what is your business’s digital footprint? This is a collection of all the information about it that has been published online. This includes every social media interaction, all the ads you ran, your customers’ feedback, and so much more. It can be found on social media, websites, blogs, review services, and web caches.
Let’s imagine your business has been running for over a decade. When you started, you likely had no idea how to manage your customers’ negative experiences, resulting in unanswered bad reviews online. But it’s been ten years, and you have grown a lot – your clients are happy and only leave five stars nowadays. However, these few negative comments can still rank high, scaring new customers away from purchasing your services or products.
Furthermore, third-party services can still show your old emails, addresses, phone numbers, and goods that no longer exist. Customers attempting to purchase old products or contact you using your old contacts will find a frustrating dead end and will be left dissatisfied with the overall experience.
Acknowledging your business data stored on employees’ devices is also essential. If they ever connect to unsecured public Wi-Fi networks, lurking attackers can intercept their internet traffic, steal your business’s sensitive information, or inject malicious code. This kind of data breach, among other security incidents, can spread online and severely damage your business’s reputation.
Clean up Your Business’s Digital Footprint
It’s now clear that cleaning up old digital footprints is necessary for every business. But how do you do that? Here’s a step-by-step guide you can follow.
Review Your Online Profiles
Before you take any drastic measures, research your business on different search engines. Check the data you find on them, especially the top-ranked results. Read through reviews and business descriptions and pinpoint outdated content, negative feedback, and security breaches.
Clean Up Outdated Content
After you find out where outdated, irrelevant, or misleading content about your business lies, contact website owners and blog writers to correct the information or delete anything that doesn’t match your current business information.
Importantly, pay attention to whether any of your employees’ sensitive information has also been exposed there. If there is, leverage data removal services. These services search the internet and request the deletion of irrelevant content related to your personnel.
Respond To Negative Reviews
It is common for businesses to ignore negative reviews. Yet, this is a harmful tactic for your business reputation.
Instead, address every bad review you find, check if it’s not fake, and be respectful. Showcase how your business is improving and propose a solution whenever possible.
Update Listings
Check your social network pages, review websites, maps, and other online platforms to make sure your business description is right. Update any listings to avoid misdirecting potential customers and leaving them disappointed.
Secure Digital Communication
Remote work is now standard for businesses. When teams work together across borders, eSIMs offer safe and cost-effective connectivity that protects sensitive information from being accidentally leaked online. For your next business trip, look into eSIM UK plans or other choices specific to your country to access your business systems and files securely.
Monitor Your Reputation
When your business is up-to-date online, don’t let the old information collect again and reviews go unanswered. Use tools to alert you once something new about your services or products is posted. This will allow you to reply or take action right away and manage your reputation effectively.
Always Clean Your Online Slate
Every post and review online shapes your business reputation. Keep it in check by removing outdated information, responding to feedback, updating active listings, and maintaining secure communications. Before investing in any business tools, research thoroughly and read honest assessments like this Saily review to learn from other business owners’ experiences.