Hush Those Complaint Sites in Google Search

Jul 25, 2008 - 9:36 am 2 by

As many people will attest to, it can be a reputation management nightmare when you are trying to push down negative press and remove the websites that speak badly of your company and your brand. But why are these sites incredibly popular? In a nutshell, they give people a voice when they previously had none. The thought process (sometimes) is that the companies will help the consumer to save face (and hopefully the negative press will be pushed down).

There are other ways to address the problem, though. Loren Baker writes about how to combat the reputation management problem and suggests that other channels are utilized, including blogs, media channels (.tv subdomain to share videos), get positive press coverage from other bloggers, brand social media profiles, get hosted/cobranded subdomains, and utilize video/YouTube for more "universal" search results.

Still, the fact that these sites exist create a huge problem for forum members who participate in the conversation on Sphinn. Instead of calling it a reputation management fiasco, they call it "defamation." But IncrediBILL says that you need to think about what you're doing at all times to avoid the Internet being used as a channel for negative press.

HINT: Don't do anything to generate a complaint in the first place and you won't have to combat those sites.

What about real defamation that can be generated by the competition? That's where the courts should come in.

Additional Search Engine Roundtable discussion: Personal Reputation Management: The Reactive Approach, Out-Ranking Negative Reputation Sites, Secure Your Brand Name on Social Sites, and Addressing Reputation Management Issues with Search.

Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Follow

Search Video Recaps

 
Google Core Update Rumbling, Manual Actions FAQs, Core Web Vitals Updates, AI, Bing, Ads & More - YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 18, 2024

Mar 18, 2024 - 4:00 pm
Google Updates

Google Urges Patience As The March 2024 Core Update Continues To Rollout

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:51 am
Google

Official: Google Replaces Perspective Filter With Forums Filter

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:41 am
Google Maps

Google Business Profiles Now Offers Additional Review After Appeal Is Denied

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:31 am
Google Maps

EU Searchers Complaining About Google Maps Features Changes Related To DMA

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:21 am
Google

Google Showing Fewer Sitelinks Within Search

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:11 am
Previous Story: Google Announces PageRank Update - Thank You