Brand reputation management is often conflated with crisis management. Many small and local businesses don't consider this critical component of their online presence until there's an emergency. However, there are real benefits to taking a proactive stance when it comes to online perception of your brand. Don't wait to get a plan in place to help manage your online brand reputation.

A Positive Review Can Make a Big Impact

According to the Pew Research Center, 32 percent of Americans surveyed in 2016 said that they highly value the ability to look up online reviews of a product or service before making a purchase.

You're on vacation in an unfamiliar city. You want pizza. What do you do? You Google "pizza places near me," and within the hour, you're sinking your teeth into cheesy goodness.

Local search is useful for instant gratification, or micro-moments, which can boost profit margins for brick-and-mortar retailers. Think With Google reported that these "nearby" or "near me" searches doubled from 2014 to 2015 — and in 2017, consumers are dropping "near me" from their searches since they expect search results to be relevant based on their location. If you're wondering how to keep up as local search trends change, take a look at how you can implement local search techniques in your own online marketing strategy.

It's easy for local businesses — especially small ones with a single location — to look at the online world of e-commerce and digital marketing and feel like they exist on their own terms outside of that world. After all, if you own a local dancewear retail company, you might think that since you aren't competing directly with retail giants, you don't really have to exist in the online marketing world, instead relying on local clients and traditional marketing only. However, even though this line of thinking may keep your doors open, it could be limiting your growth potential.

Here's why local businesses can't sit on the fence anymore when it comes to online marketing.

Write it, and readers will find it. Or, will they? Just because you craft engaging and insightful content for your clients, doesn't mean potential customers are going to flood the Contact Us link with inquiries. Why? Your SEO might be slipping, or virtually non-existent. If you've never done an SEO audit, put it on your calendar as soon as possible. Then, click the recurring button and check on your SEO efforts at least once per quarter.

Addressing an Audit

First, let's quickly define what goes into auditing your SEO techniques. This process will help identify issues, implement fixes and interpret data collected by various search analytics companies. There are multiple, detailed steps of an audit, ranging from evaluating page speed to identifying duplicate content.

If your business sells tacos, you probably cash in on the hashtag #TacoTuesday. You guesstimate that a high percentage of your customer base will be persuaded to eat tacos on Tuesday, thanks to jokes at work, memes on social media and general knowledge of the spicy food-worshiping day.

While food delivery used to be most closely associated with Chinese food and pizza, online delivery services have provided consumers a whole new world of choices for breakfast, lunch, dinner and even dessert. Even though restaurant owners might vaguely know about these services — or perhaps even use one or two of them — there are even bigger opportunities for restaurant owners to bring their world-class dishes to as many guests as possible. Here are a few reasons why Google is critical to restaurant success:

There's no shortage of examples of online reputation management catastrophes, and all it takes is one messy situation to tarnish your brand for good. But while larger organizations can work with pricey PR firms to orchestrate a rebound, smaller businesses aren't usually so lucky. In fact, failing to properly manage your company's reputation online could be a kiss of death to your business.

The good news is there are best practices to follow to maintain a positive reputation and keep current and prospective customers loving your brand. Here are our top three tips:

As long as Google has been generating results for user's search inquiries, businesses have been striving to reach the top of page one. After all, 75 percent of users never scroll past the first page of search results, according to HubSpot. Achieving the highly coveted top result can bring plenty of traffic to your site and potential leads to your business.

While algorithms often change, one thing is guaranteed: Search engines will always strive to connect users with the best possible answers to their questions. And the most effective SEO trends are those that improve the user experience.

According to Modern Restaurant Management, 80 percent of people will look at a restaurant online before trying it, and 88 percent of that group will visit the same day. With these statistics in mind, it's easy to see how crucial social media marketing for restaurants is. Your online presence can either bring diners right to your door or drive them to the competition.

Here are three things you can do right now to attract diners on social media.

Voice search is making a quick move into the lives of mainstream customers. Smartphones now come with voice-activated digital assistants, in-house technology like your TV may already have voice functionality and in-home digital assistants such as Amazon Echo and Google home are already shipping to customers around the world.

According to research from VoiceLabs, an estimated 24.5 million devices will be shipped in 2017 alone, resulting in 33 million voice-first devices currently in use. That just counts voice-first digital assistants, which means the true number of voice search touchpoints — counting smartphones and other devices — is much higher.