Free spreadsheet for Google reputation audit & sentiment analysis
My presentations on the topic of Google reputation management have changed over the years, but there’s one important piece of advice that has not changed: [highlight color=”yellow”]always conduct a Google SERPs (search engine results page) sentiment analysis for your brand’s reputation.[/highlight]
It’s vitally important, because if you don’t know where you start, you won’t know how well you are moving the reputation needle in a positive direction.
It is so vital, that I have decided to share the spreadsheet I use and recommend for benchmarking your Google reputation.
Click to enlarge
Google Sentiment Audit Steps
Let me explain a few things that I think are important when conduction sentiment analysis for your Google search results.
- While the spreadsheet shows 10 results, I recommend you expand your analysis to 30 results. That way you can spot threats and opportunities outside of the top 10 on Google.
- You should update your analysis at least every month. If your reputation is under, or prone to, attack, then you should update more frequently.
- Positive results ranking between 11 and 20 are potential candidates for optimization and improvement.
- Any negative results inside the top 30 should be watched carefully for improved ranking.
- You should conduct this sentiment analysis for any important reputation keywords.
The 80/10/10 Rule
[pullquote]Don’t forget to follow my 80/10/10 rule[/pullquote]One last thing I want to explain is my 80/10/10 rule. Quite simply:
Spend 80% of your efforts on optimizing content your own. Anything on your server, which can never be deleted without your approval.
Spend 10% of your efforts on optimizing content y ou control. Anything only you can change, but is owned by a 3rd party that could go out of business or shut you down on a whim (e.g. twitter.com, facebook.com)
Spend 10% of your Google reputation efforts on content you influence. This applies to content that you cannot directly edit and is owned by a 3rd party. An example would be a partner page endorsement, or a speakers’ bio on a conference page.
The reason for this rule is that you want to focus only on improving the Google ranking of web content you will always own, control, or at least influence.
Download the spreadsheet here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AjwJ2A5i2-vPcFFlTWVJTXRxWFc4UGJFajZQdy1rUXc&output=html
