A Year In Review: Reputation Management Stats for 2018

People are increasingly searching online for information and to formulate opinions on businesses and people. It’s rare for people to scroll down on the search results that show up below the first three entries, making first impressions even more crucial in creating a strong online presence. It means you need to take every opportunity to make a positive impact or else someone will simply take that place.

2018 Stats

Keeping in view that the internet has the power to make or break your reputation, it’s important to be aware of the latest reputation management stats. Here we take at some of the most significant stats for 2018: 1. When searching or any information or news, 64% of consumers will trust search engine results. In spite of the fact that there were some glaring incidents of ‘fake’ news floating around on the Internet at the start of 2018, the world wide web continues to be the go-to place for trustworthy information related to businesses, news or even to validate or confirm users. The convenience and speed aspects of accessing information on the Internet are what keep users coming back for more. 2. Google accounts for 87.37% of the search engine market share in the United States. 3. As per Net Market Share data as of April 2018, Google accounts for 73.73% of the global desktop search traffic. 4. In terms of search volume, Baidu is the second most popular search engine (11.69). It mainly serves online users in China. 5. Yahoo! Accounts for 11%. 6. Bing has a search engine market share of 7.82%. 7. According to BrightLocal, the leading market researcher, 97% of consumers will read online reviews while searching for local businesses. Of these, 12% will do so every day. 8. 85% of consumers also trust online review sites as much as any personal recommendations. 9. Positive reviews will make 73% of consumers trust local businesses more. Appearance on the search results pages is one of the main markers or trust. But that alone isn’t sufficient. Consumers go through an average of at least 7 reviews before trusting any business. Of these, 49% need at least a 4-star rating before they decide to choose a business. Although the data that BrightLocal’s publishes is largely focused on local businesses, this principle holds true for just about any business, regardless of where their physical location is.

Your Online Reputation Matters

If online reputation management wasn’t something you thought to be important or just wasn’t something you focused on enough, reading these stats should definitely change that. If your company does not exist online, it’s almost as if you don’t exist for the modern customer. The manner in which your company appears and the number of stars and positive/negative reviews it has holds equal importance. Building a great online presence is a lot about balancing your marketing strategies with your presence on social media and involvement with the online community. It’s a good idea to hire digital marketing professionals to handle your online reputation management. For more information on that, or any of our other services, feel free to contact YourSocialStrategy.com via our online form and we’ll get back to shortly.