A good reputation is an asset painstakingly built over many years. However, one online review from an unsatisfied customer, a misunderstanding, or a rumor could damage your reputation. When customers research about your brand online, there is a high likelihood that they find these negative search results.
In many cases, it’s not possible to remove negative search results about a brand from search results. However, there are a few things you, as a business, could do to build a positive perception of your brand in the search results. Let’s look at a few things’ businesses can do when a reputational crisis arises.
- De-indexing or removing Content from SERP: By sending a petition of removal to Google, it’s possible to get rid of certain search results from its web index. This includes information like tax ID numbers, credit cards, signatures, bank account numbers and explicit content that’s uploaded without the consent of the individual. This content can even be de-indexed with Digital Millennium Copyright Act requests.
- Build Web Properties: Businesses can boost brand awareness and outdo negative content by building multiple web properties. These could be subdomains, social profiles, CSR sites, charity initiative sites, microsites, blogs, and site links.
- Push Results down: To fulfil its searcher’s needs, Google’s algorithm crawls the internet for fresh content and then indexes them around relevant topics. Therefore, it is possible to push search results down by publishing highly targeted, SEO optimized quality content that is relevant and stronger than the page you want to bury. This can be done with the help of certain content marketing techniques. While the results are slow, this is one of the most effective methods to get longstanding results.
- Removal at Source: If the publisher agrees then the content can be deleted at the source. Another way is to hide the content by requesting the publisher to add the NoIndex tag that restricts the search engines from crawling it even though the page still exists.
- Promote Positive Reviews: If there are positive reviews from authoritative sites ranking for your brand name on the 2nd or 3rd page of the SERP; then with little effort it’s possible to improve it further. Thus, pushing down negative search results.
- Develop Wikipedia Page: Wikipedia pages are considered highly authoritative as they always rank on top because other websites constantly refer traffic back to this encyclopedia website. If a Wikipedia page about a brand exists, then it acts as another positive result on the first page when the audience researches your brand.
Fixing a brand’s reputation is not easy but at AiPlex it is our primary mission. Our in-house team is trained to develop personalized strategies to mitigate threats from multiple angles. If you’re looking for a comprehensive online reputation management plan that also includes improving brand image in search results, please drop us a line.
