Reputation Management Advice Options

[Rebecca Kelley]

We're doing some reputation management for a client, where we're trying to push an unfavorable search result off the front page of Google. The problem is that the unfavorable search result is from a site with only five links to that particular page, yet the result refuses to budge because it's ranking high due to the power of its domain. We've built loads of social media profiles, links to our client's sites, etc, but the page in question won't get off the first page.

Do any of you have any suggestions or tips on anything else we can try?

[joedolson]

Have you tried alternate high-powered domain name pages? Creating positive references on blogspot, google pages, typepad, wordpress.com, livejournal, etc., and linking to those from the social media profiles and other locations?

The domain significance of those pages might help push the problem page down...

[Respree]

We've built loads of social media profiles, links to our client's sites, etc, but the page in question won't get off the first page.

I seem to be missing something, Rebecca. Wont' that strategy, if successful, simply make your client's site rank higher (I presume they're already on page one somewhere). Don't you want to pursue making 'other' sites rank higher, thereby pushing the unfavorable site off the first page?

Or are you saying that the social media profiles that you're building are intended to do just that?

[yannis]

Rebecca

I assume that you are probably talking about a product that possibly got a bad review from a consumer site. It will be too difficult to beat them at first and rank higher. But consider this whatever you do they will probably be always, near you client's results as they have strong ranking.

The search engine algorithms have determined that the site you referring to is an 'authority', not by links alone but algorithms that take the contents of the whole site into consideration.

My advice besides links you need to build tons of content on the site. Make your Client's site be the 'authority' on the subject. Suppose your Client sells 'stop hair loss products'. Do not just promote the product on the site. Be the authority on the subject have tons of pages of the research behind it, scientific papers, layman's explanations etc alternatively a site that for example protects consumers by doing their own tests can out-rank you.

Yannis

[bwelford]

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Is there no way your client can find an accommodation with that other group. Do they have legitimate grounds for their antagonism? Might it be possible to find some way of resolving the conflict? Sometimes if you turn someone like this around, they become your strongest missionary.

[EGOL]

If you have sites that currently rank above the undesirable page place a second page on them that is SEO for the problem search term then build links to those second pages. Or, take an established page on the site that has little money value and redo the SEO for the problem term.

Then, all you need to do is to get the second page up to #10 and it will join the higher ranking page as a double listing. If there are other sites above the problem listing that you do not own, then build links into the second most relevant page on their site (you can find that by digging down into the SERPs for that query).

Is there no way your client can find an accommodation with that other group.

lol... This is the best way. Good idea Barry. Kiss a couple of feet, send a nice Harry & David fruit, and they might change that page to a complement and put up a link to your site. Might be the cheapest permanent link that you ever buy.

[Black_Knight]

we're trying to push an unfavorable search result off the front page of Google.

I'm getting the feeling that this isn't the actual top result on Google, is that correct?


If so, you may be able to arrange to expand the listings above it by creating secondary listings (the indented result from the same domain) on some of the listings above it to help push it down.


The other question is concerning the internal linkage of the domain to the unfavourable page. I'm guessing that there's more than 5 links internally to the site pointing to that page?

[Rebecca Kelley]

Have you tried alternate high-powered domain name pages? Creating positive references on blogspot, google pages, typepad, wordpress.com, livejournal, etc., and linking to those from the social media profiles and other locations?

Yes, Joedolson, we've created accounts/profiles/references on all of those sites.

Respree, we're basically trying to dominate the first page of results for this keyword with sites/pages that can push the negative result off of the first page. So far, all of the results except for the negative one on the first page are pages we've built as part of this reputation management campaign.

I assume that you are probably talking about a product that possibly got a bad review from a consumer site.

Actually Yannis, we're talking about a negative search result for our client's name (which I can't share, sorry).

Do they have legitimate grounds for their antagonism?

Yes, bwelford, they do. It's not really something that can get resolved or taken down, either.

Good advice, EGOL, we can certainly look into trying your suggestion. Currently we have indented results for quite a few pages, but they show up on the 2-3rd page of search results.

I'm getting the feeling that this isn't the actual top result on Google, is that correct?

Ammon, good to hear from you! The result we're trying to push off the first page is ranked #2, behind our client's personal website. As for the linking structure, according to Yahoo! Site Explorer there are 5 links pointing to this search result, one of which is an internal link from that site.

[joedolson]

Yes, Joedolson, we've created accounts/profiles/references on all of those sites.

Well, worth a try...

It sounds like you've got a challenge! Ammon's suggestion seems like the best so far...

I'm guessing that the bad rep page has been up for quite a while, and there's relatively little likelihood that it's benefiting from any kind of short-term ranking advantage from being new.

What are the characteristics of the other 8 results? Are they part of what you've been building, or are they separate entities? What websites are in those results which you can control and add parallel content which could spawn those indent pages?

Obviously, the privacy/confidentiality issue here makes for a challenge!

[EGOL]

Get a wikipedia page up about their biz. lol The problem with that is the wikipedia page might rank #1!! But you can probably get one natural link out of it.

[Jozian]

Interesting proposition.

I had a person come to me 2 weeks ago wanting to do something very similar to this.

Told him that the only credible strategy would be to bump the 'offensive' pages off by creating more and better content. But he wasnt willing to pay as much as I expected it would take, and without a guarantee, which I would nver give a client for a SERP result.

The page(s) to be bumped, in my situatation were PR5/PR6 pages on a .ORG domain, so I thought it do-able but potentially risky for me to make promises, and certainlly pricy if it had to happen fast and be sustainable.

I would be very interested to know wether you are able to accomplish this type of a push down for your client, Rebecca.

-Jeff

[bragadocchio]

Do any of you have any suggestions or tips on anything else we can try?

I'm going to throw this one out there because it hasn't been discussed, because it could be effective, and because it's too easy to think of this as just an SEO problem.

The client could start doing some things that are newsworthy and noteworthy (of course, in a positive fashion), like climbing Everest, starting a charity drive, flying into outerspace, writing a best seller, running for president.

This article is from the perspective of an organization that has developed a bad reputation, but it fits the theme and title of this post:

Repairing a Bad Reputation: It Takes More Than Good Works

The short term problem is a search result that might show up with someone does a search. The longer term problem is that regardless of how far one might push down a search result, the reputation issue still remains.

[Big Bill]

Fight fire with fire maybe, get something odourous nice and visible in the serps about the opposition. Then get both sides to agree to a mutual cessation of hostilities.

BB

Also let's not forget we're in the new era of Google results now. Get your client to make a GoogleTube movie, be in the news for something bigtime, get pix up in Google Images. Go Universal :-)

BB

[Jozian]

BigBill-

Universal Search *does* offer some new avenues if you were looking to bump the competition off the first page. Good thought.

-Jeff

[Black_Knight]

This is a particularly tricky issue to deal with effectively with so little knowldge of the kind of information in the second listing, the kind of search term involved, etc.

Generic advice can be inappropriate to certain specific issues.

However, with that warning given, here's some generic guidance:

When dealing with a negative listing that seems to be based on strength of domain, not links, then consider using other strong pre-existing domains to host your counter-content.

[Rebecca Kelley]

Thanks for the advice, everyone. I appreciate it. This has been a tricky task, and pretty frustrating at times. To answer someone's question above, pretty much all of the other results on page 1 are from our campaign efforts. Also, Ammon, we can look into trying to leverage other strong domains to get something going there.