Online reputation management is all about cleaning up, protecting, and improving what people find about you online.

That process is by no means simple; negative reviews, unflattering news, and algorithm updates are all par for the course. No one can control those hurdles, but businesses on the path toward a clean digital presence can sometimes makes self-destructive mistakes that turn routine challenges into long-term consequences.

Are you falling into any of those traps? Here are four of the most common online reputation mistakes business owners are still making today.

Leaving Listings Unclaimed and Profiles Unreserved

One surefire way to take control of your business’s first impression is to claim and update your company information on platforms like Google and Yelp. Those listings are usually one of the first things to pop up in a Google search, and customers know they can go there to confirm simple business information like hours of operation and company addresses.

Incredibly, most business owners are still leaving this opportunity on the table. A study from 2017 found that 56 percent of local retailers still haven’t claimed their Google my Business listing and 66 percent haven’t claimed their Yelp listing.

Unfortunately, Yelp and Google’s automatically-generated local listings can often prove even more disastrous than a missing one. There’s no telling what information is correct and what isn’t. Potential customers who take the listing as gospel may be surprised and frustrated to find a business closed when the listing promised it would be open.

While Instagram and Twitter don’t automatically create accounts for businesses, an unreserved social media profile can be just as devastating.

Businesses that fail to reserve their preferred handles across top platforms early on may find them no longer available the next time they check. Or even worse, they may find the profile has been taken by an impersonator or bad actor trying to sully the business’ name.

Ignoring Social Media Notifications

When customers have a question or a complaint, how do they let the business know? Over the phone? Via email? In person?

Not anymore. Nearly 60 percent of Millennials prefer to use social media to voice concerns and complaints. Even non-Millennial customers are likely to vent their frustrations online: 47 percent of buyers across the board address customer service issues over social media, second only to in-person complaints.

Taking care of customers online is important for brand perception, but it also impacts a business’s bottom line. Customer care is an opportunity to form a relationship, not just solve an issue.

On the other hand, brands that ignore customer complaints on social media risk losing them forever. When consumers complain and get no response at all, more than one-third will never buy that brand’s product or service again.

Scheduling out posts using an automation tool like Buffer or Hootsuite can be helpful, but remember that social media is not a one-way street. Make time to regularly check back in to see how people are responding and audit notifications for customer questions and concerns.

Forgetting About Online Reviews

Picture the scene: a business begins to invest heavily in its digital marketing program. The content team writes dozens of articles and creates engaging videos to increase brand awareness. They share all that content on social media channels, launch various pay-per-click campaigns to drive leads, and start to build up an engaged audience.

The only problem? As soon as those potential customers decide to look deeper and research the company, they find the company’s negative online reviews.

A few negative reviews here and there is completely normal, but the real damage comes when there are no positive reviews from happy customers to balance the score. All customers are left with at that point is an unrepresentative sampling of negativity to inform their purchasing decision.

That's a concern worth taking seriously: 86 percent of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business.

It might be impossible to prevent unhappy people from posting negative reviews. But there are two important steps you can take.

First, it’s critical to respond to those reviews to mitigate their impact. Nearly 90 percent of consumers read businesses’ responses to reviews, so an unanswered review is a missed opportunity to balance the scales.

Second, it’s worth putting a process in place to generate new positive reviews. Angry customers aren’t the only ones with a voice; happy customers are willing to write about their experiences too, as long as it’s easy to do so.

Handing Responsibility to the Under-qualified

What happens when businesses realize they need help with their digital footprints? Usually, they either look to either hire the right staff internally, or else partner with firms that specialize in digital branding and online reputation management.

But sometimes they make the decision to start delegating responsibilities internally -- often to people who lack the necessary experience.

It is not uncommon, for instance, for CEOs to delegate social media responsibilities to interns or executive assistants. Neither is it unheard of for content marketing or review management tasks to fall on executives who don’t have the time nor ability to do an effective job.

Unfortunately, that’s when mistakes are made. Those mistakes can undo months, or even years of hard work spent building up a strong brand and a loyal customer base.

Facebook and Twitter responses are often the first line of defense against angry customers. Blog articles and social media posts contribute to the first impression people get when they research your company for the first time.

Online content takes many forms, but regardless of platform or length one thing is certain: that content needs to represent the brand well. Accidents, misrepresentations and customer service flubs are far too common to risk delegating those responsibilities to a first-timer.

There are enough challenges along the road to a clean and positive online reputation without suffering embarrassing mistakes along the way. There’s nothing wrong with involving interns in your social media activity, but do yourself a favor and leave management to the experts.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve developed ninja-like reflexes to swat away pop-ups and ads with lightning speed. You’re never one second too late to press the “Skip Ad” button before a Youtube video starts and you DVR your favorite programming (or simply watch Netflix) to avoid all the annoying adverts.

Why have we become so accustomed to treating adverts like pesky mosquitoes?

Perhaps it’s because they’re actually pretty similar. After all, companies that spend money on ads prioritize getting in front of your face whether you like it or not.

I know this is controversial and advertisers are picking up their pitchforks as we speak, but bear with me. My point is this: Traditional advertising is simply one way to get attention for your business, but it’s not the only way.

Ties.com knows this, and the company is proof that you can drive growth and awareness without annoying customers with ads. According to CEO Omar Sayyed, the company has enjoyed 30% revenue growth each year over the last five years, and they’ve earned trust by providing value with digital content that educates and inspires, rather than popping up when you least expect it to.

A Sticky Web Of High-Quality Content

I first heard of Ties.com a couple years ago when I stumbled upon their comprehensive knotting guide. It gives step-by-step instructions for tying classic necktie knots, adventurous knots (check out the eldredge!), and of course, the bow tie.

The guides are top-notch. Look closely and you’ll get a feel for the writing, designing, and production skills required to execute the final product. The guides include text instructions, helpful sketches, and well-produced Youtube videos for more visual learners.

Is all that effort worth the investment?

Consider this: Ties.com’s knotting guide is the first result that shows up when you Google “how to tie a tie.” The same is true for the phrase “how to tie a bow tie.”

Google’s Keyword Planner shows that those two questions get searched 800,000 times total each month. That’s nearly 10 million people who find Ties.com’s knotting guide every year, thanks to just two search terms!

That doesn’t even take into account the dozens and dozens of other, more specialized questions and keywords that the company ranks for as well. (Guess who shows up at #1 for “halloween ties”?)

The end result? A web of educational, high-quality articles, visuals, and videos that rank for key terms and phrases and consistently drive people back to Ties.com to get their questions answered.

The Winding Road To Ranking #1

Of course, Ties.com isn’t the only brand targeting these valuable keywords. The Tie Bar and The Art of Manliness both have their own tie knotting guides that rank well for the same keywords, but neither rank as high as the content from Ties.com.

It’s an impressive feat, to be sure. So how did they do it?

With such a strong roster of content success stories, you’d think the company had some master plan all along to produce smash hits and grow its web of online content into a sticky traffic funnel. But to hear CEO Omar Sayyed tell it, producing top-ranking content was almost an accident at first.

“In the beginning, we just wrote content that we found interesting,” Omar explained. “We’ve always believed in pushing out products that we believe in, and we felt the same way about our content.”

Passion without direction is risky business. The Ties.com team began to pour hours and hours into the initiative, creating a library of articles and instructional content that they thought would attract interest. Some earned decent engagement, but some were gigantic flops.

“I remember we were so excited about this one post that compared jean fits across different companies,” Sayyed recalls.

“We went to all these different stores and measured jean sizes, created an infographic using the data and even reached out to people about getting backlinks and sharing the post. But it ultimately fell short and you can’t argue with your audience.”

(I actually found that denim comparison article and it has since earned a few hundred shares on social media, which isn’t shabby, though it does pale in comparison to this pocket square video on Youtube with over a million views and 11,000 likes.)

Today their process is much more polished. The company has senior level writers on staff to ensure the content quality is consistent, they employ their own illustrators and video producers, and they filter their topics through keyword research to uncover the phrases and questions get the most search volume.

“We’re much more deliberate about picking content topics today. We may not have started by targeting ‘how to tie a tie’ but we got there eventually,” said Sayyed.

Armed with the right topics, the Ties.com creative team then determines the right medium and format to share each story. Depending on the topic, the content may lend itself better to a listicle with images, a beautiful infographic, or a quick YouTube tutorial.

The extensive focus on content is impressive, especially for a small, private company like Ties.com. Still, there are priorities. Sayyed admits the company doesn’t do a great job of proactively getting people to share their content or link back to it -- two elements that are often helpful for improving Google rankings.

“We’re not a major content-producing outlet so we have to figure out where our priorities lie,” Sayyed explained. “We either write mediocre content and do a lot of outreach, or write amazing content and wait for people to find it. It may not be perfect, but it’s the way we’ve done it.”

Their method certainly seems to work. The tie-knotting guide did so well that Ties.com started the Man Academy, with all sorts of additional manly knowledge for the style-conscious gentleman. They have a complete guide to bow ties, the ultimate guide to the tie bar and even a guide on how to lace your dress shoes like a pro.

The Man Academy initiative appears to be paying off too. Today, the company is ranking in the middle of Google’s first page of results for the search term “how to tie dress shoes” and is well on its way to a number-one position for “how to fold a pocket square.”

Playing The Long Game

While some companies focus exclusively on targeting people who are ready to make purchasing decisions, Ties.com has taken a different, longer-term approach.

For example, consider the search term “how to tie a tie.” People who Google that phrase already have a necktie in front of them, and there isn’t any immediate commercial intent behind that query.

But that audience clearly cares about neckties, which makes it a great demographic to develop a relationship with long term. The more that we, the consumers, associate tie advice with Ties.com, the more likely the company is to get our tie business long-term.

The company has already published content that targets the most important, high-volume search queries. Sayyed says that they’re now focusing on niche phrases and questions that attract less search volume but educate people during other pivotal moments.

They also write fun pieces that don’t target any specific keywords at all, but are merely created to drive blog traffic and position the company as a thought leader in the menswear space. 10 Things Women Find Most Attractive in Men's Style doesn’t do the company any good from a Google search perspective, but according to Sayyed, it has been huge for their visibility and has increased blog traffic by 8%.

It’s comforting to see that a passionate men’s accessories company can climb its way to the top of search rankings by providing authentic, high-quality content. It means Google is doing its job by allowing the best content -- rather than just the best-optimized content -- to rank the highest.

For those looking to follow in the footsteps of the men’s fashion brand, the Ties.com roadmap is a reminder that success in Google results is less a product of rocket science and secret sauces, and more a result of smart keyword research, a strict adherence to quality, and some good old-fashioned hard work.

The Ties.com story is also a reminder that companies can grab attention through educational content rather than annoying advertisements. By earning trust and developing a relationship with its customers before they ever need to buy a tie, Ties.com solidifies its position as the men’s accessories go-to when you decide it finally is time to make a purchase.

Originally published on Forbes.com.

Ryan Erskine is a Senior Brand Strategist at BrandYourself, where he helps people take control of their online presence. Visit his website, follow him on Twitter, and read his book here.