You've heard the stat before, 84% of consumers trust an online review as much as a recommendation. This means one negative online comment can send a huge chunk of potential leads packing to the competition.

Reputation management is the number one way to protect yourself and protect your brand as a mortgage broker.

Let's talk about the ways reputation management can impact your sales and help you have an overall more successful broker company.

Can you blame them?

After all, how many times have you let reviews steer your decision about buying a product or service? If you see enough negative reviews, you decide to shop elsewhere. That gets you the best value for your money.

That's why small businesses and Fortune 500 companies alike have to be careful with their respective reputations in the mortgage world. Here are our tips for managing and protecting your internet reputation.

9 in 10 consumers put online reviews and personal recommendations from friends and family on the same pedestal.

Online reviews are like a double-edged sword. Most satisfied customers will gladly leave your business a glowing review. However, those who were not as satisfied with your mortgage services can leave damaging negative reviews about your business in their wake.

Review management, when well executed, effectively suppresses and addresses any bad publicity your business is facing online.

But how can you leverage online reviews to boost your brand's visibility? Let's find out.

Don't get us wrong, reputation management is highly important. We're not saying otherwise. However, beyond merely managing it, you can actually tap into your reputation and use it as a channel to generate profit.

How? Today we're going to talk all about reputation marketing and how it can bring in more leads and closed transactions.

Google's 3-pack local listing model makes citations even more crucial. To get listed here you need NAP consistency across the web. High-quality directory mentions lend to your prominence in search engines.

Here we talk about the 7 things you need to know to get started on citation building.

Reputation management takes time and a consistent effort. You must develop a solid strategy for success.

90% of homebuyers use the internet as part of their decision.

In a climate where one poor review or a single typo can diminish your reach by thousands, this seems daunting. Knowing the current trends in reputation management services will help make your life easier and your business more fruitful.

If your website isn't optimized for local search, potential customers won't even know you exist. There's no point in focusing your SEO strategy on the entire world if you only do business within a specific area.

It's often much easier to rank well for keywords in your local area, as you're not competing with so many other businesses.

It's been shown that 18% of local mobile searches lead to a sale within one day, and 50% lead to a store visit on the same day.

Ready to find out how to improve your local search results?

Let's do this.

Keep reading to learn our top nine ways to use your business’ online reputation to your advantage. Let’s get into it!