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Bad Spin on Google Got You Down?

A common problem that impacts both businesses and individuals is negative Internet postings that come up on Google searches and other search engine results. Negative or false information about a person or business can cause untold trouble.

For a business, it can cause substantial revenue losses, upset existing customers and ruin a company’s reputation or credibility. For an individual, it can mean losing a job or not getting one, being humiliated and many other types of problems.

As more people (potential customers, future employers, competitors, media representatives, friends and family, and even your enemies) turn to Google for information about you or your business, Google has become more than just a search engine for data, it has evolved into a sort of out-of-control PR or reputation engine.

The situation is further compounded by “consumer protection” websites that make a living out of posting, sometimes truthful but often false, negative and anonymous comments they receive about a business without any verification about the veracity of the claims being made.

Ripoff Reports is a perfect example of such a website. It is a website that illustrates blatant irresponsibility and greed by hiding behind a flawed legal system that protects their right to post unsubstantiated allegations. These for-profit websites will post anything about a business as long as the author (often completely anonymous) says it’s true; they don’t verify anything or require proof and they’ll never remove a post once it’s up (at least none that I’ve ever seen or heard of).

I have one client that had a “potential customer” post negative and slanderous comments about their business. The comments were about one of the company’s employees; they were inflammatory, misleading and false. But the kicker was that this post was put up anonymously, and was not even made by a customer, but by a “potential customer” who said he had spoken with a representative. Without being able to identify who the author was, it was impossible to know if the complaint had any merit—it could have simply been a competitor trying to soil a company’s reputation.

Since it is nearly impossible to have such posts removed, the best way to counter negative search results is to have many more positive search results that push the bad ones down beyond page three or even further down the search results. If you can’t get rid of the bad, you just have to counter it with much more good.

In helping clients with their online reputation, I’m often asked how to push down negative search results that appear on page one of Google (or Yahoo) for a search for their name or company. The solution is to create lots good press, postings, articles, web pages and websites about you or your company.

Following are some simple recommendations that a business or individual can use for online content that can come up ahead of the negative search results you want to push off of page one:

1. Create a blog.
Blogs usually rank very well, and do not require as much attention or updating as one might think. But you should try to keep your blogs as relevant to you or your business as much as possible. WordPress.com and Blogger.com offer free blogs, many design templates to choose from as well as free hosting. Create a few posts; keep them targeted to your name. Use your name in the blog title, posts etc. Add links to relevant websites and you’re done.

2. Build a web site with your name.
Register your name or your company’s name and use it as your own branded domain name on a web site. Registering yourcompanyname.com or yourpersonalname.com (also get .net and .org extensions for a business) and adding a basic web site is a guaranteed way to get on the top ten Google listings for your name. Network Solutions offers an easy way to check domain names and buy them.

3. Create a social networking profile.
Facebook, Twitter and MySpace profiles will rank well for both individuals and businesses. When you sign-up, use your real name—using a nickname won’t help with your online reputation—and enable the option that lets you pick the URL of your profile: facebook.com/first-last-name or myspace.com/company-name works much better than myspace.com/mighty-thor29

4. Create a personal page on Google.
Build a free page with Google Sites It will definitely rank well and help in your quest for positive information about yourself or business.

5. Create a business profile.
Join LinkedIn.com to network with peers, business associates and business groups. You can talk about yourself, your business and link to your other online web content. This is also great to network for new jobs or new employees.

6. Build your online identity.
Naymz.com This networking platform allows you create a profile and then link out to all of your other profiles. Whereas LinkedIn leans more toward the networking-side, Naymz is more geared toward brand building.

7. Post photos.
Upload photos of you, your business logo, building, products, etc., to Flickr (from Yahoo) label them accordingly. Be sure to add comments to photos (using your name or company name). Also use your name or company name for your profile name.

If you do all of the above, it will certainly help drive down any negative posts about your business – and if you don’t have bad online PR it will create lots of good PR that you control. Good luck!

Jamie Sene

 

About the Author

Jamie Sene has over 20 years’ experience in marketing and transactional sales from working in the private sector, public companies and his own businesses; he has a broad and proven track record both in marketing and sales. Jamie started his business career in sales in his early twenties, selling in various direct sales and telesales companies. This is where he learned the fundamentals of selling. Later on Jamie got deeply into sales management, becoming Vice President of Sales for a national consulting firm. After years of successful selling Jamie moved over into marketing where he established and successfully ran marketing departments for several publicly held international companies (SmartForce, SmartCertify, Skillsoft, FleetMatics). Today, he works as a freelance marketer.http://www.SmartMarketingGuys.com is Jamie’s way of sharing his hard earned experience with those interested in learning more about the fundamentals of marketing and wishing to keep up-to-date with the latest proven marketing techniques.

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