How to Deal With Negative Company Reviews In The Search Engine Results

by DJ Baker
(New York, US)

Most businesses work hard to establish a favorable reputation among their existing and potential clients and business associates.

They provide quality products or services and work hard to make sure their customers are always satisfied.

So, what happens when this same business finds negative information or bad reviews floating around the search engines?

You can't simply ignore it, as it all definitely have a negative impact at some point on your business; especially if that information is sitting on page one.

Thankfully, there are ways a business can combat such negative information and replace it with positive reviews.

Let's explore some ways that this can be done and how you can take some proactive steps to help avoid any incidents in the future.

- Locate the Source of the Information
If the negative information you have found is an isolated incident, you may first want to seek out the source of the information.

It may be possible to simply request the negative information be removed from its origin once you locate it.

- Contact the website owner, forum, or blog owner and see if you can get the information removed.

There are many website owners who will be sympathetic to the situation and may not even be aware that the negative review was on their site.

Don't just assume the information is there to stay. This will work over 90% of the time.

- If you find that the source of the information is coming from comments in a blog post or a forum posting, you can attempt to post your own positive information in the same location.

There is a chance that the newest information will take the plays of the old information in the search engine results the next time the pages are indexed.

This also gives you a chance to lend your voice to the situation and counteract the negative information by explaining what may have happened to cause such a review.

Replace the Negative Information

If you've located the information, and have found you cannot just simply have it removed, you will have to take other actions.

One of the easiest ways to do this is to simply replace the negative information by pushing it down through the search engines with positive information.

This can be done by simply targeting the same key words used (your company name, product name, etc).

This tactic can often be initiated quickly by strategically scheduling a campaign of positive reviews in the form of blog posts, forum posts, social marketing, and article marketing all which will target your company name and the keywords used in the original negative information.

By replacing the negative information with your positive reviews, you will be able to push the negative information down through the search engine over time and away from your customers view.

Don't be too aggressive with this technique.

Although you may want the negative information out of the public eye as quickly as possible, the search engines will penalize your website if they notice a large amount of identical information hitting the Internet at the same time.

Schedule this campaign over a 3 to 6 month period, posting 3 to 4 times per week in a variety of areas.

Also make sure that the information is coming from different sources and is varied in content.

The critical piece will be to include your company name and any keywords which may have landed the negative comments on page one.

Be Proactive

Although you may have been successful in eliminating the bad press this time, it can always occur again, so it is important to have a proactive approach to your company’s reputation management.

One of the simplest ways to do this is to set up alerts which can scour the internet for your business name.

Whenever your company name is mentioned on the web, you will receive an alert to your email.

Google Alerts is ideal for this and can be customized to also target your product line or the names of Partners and CEOs.

Be sure to keep on eye on the social networks such as Twitter and Facebook as well.

The conversations going on here are in real time and you will have an opportunity to catch the issue as it is happening and diffuse a potential PR disaster.

Building a good reputation takes hard work so you want to make sure you maintain it.

Take care of any negative information immediately and be proactive to ensure you are able to catch any future events before they become an issue.

DJ Baker is a professional SEO content writer. You can learn more about her and her services by visiting her Website.