In a previous post mentioned in this same blog, it was suggested that internet marketing for an online business is one way for a small business to reach a wider client base and hopefully gain more consumers.  This meant that the business would need to have and maintain an online presence. While advertising on the internet may be a good idea, there is also a dark side. In the same way that the business utilizes the internet to spread the news about their products and services, it could also be used as a tool to besmirch the business’s reputation. A single negative comment about a business service can easily spread throughout the World Wide Web. Worse, it could even get so bad that searching for the company or service in a search engine, such as Google, would display the negative comments before your business website. That is why it’s important to have Search Engine Reputation Management. As many people utilize search engines to access websites to learn more about a product, the business needs to try to control how they appear on such sites. Unlike before, wherein a single person could answer comments or posts on forums, and there are special tools and techniques to maintain this reputation. That’s why it may be an excellent idea to outsource this task to specially trained people. One could place this as an expense that is similar to advertising on the internet. After all, building a reputation takes time, but destroying it is as easy as posting a single comment. As such, having a dedicated outsourced team to monitor these developments is a great way to safeguard your business's online reputation.