When was the last time you took a moment to Google your own blog or your company name? It may sound a bit narcissistic, but if you’ve ever done it and became unpleasantly surprised by what popped up at the top of the page – you probably have a different perspective.
What if you Googled your blog or the name of your company and the first thing that came up was something extremely negative?
What if one unsatisfied customer took it upon his or herself to post negative comments all over the web – spreading a negative image of you or your company regardless of whether or not you handled them fairly?
What would you do?
For most bloggers, it might not be that serious – in fact, the negative publicity might even bring in extra traffic and positively affect ranking.
But what if the negative comments could potentially cost you thousands of dollars?
Have you thought about what you would do or how you would get the negative posts or comments removed? Or at least get them off of the first page of the search results?
I had a friend who experienced an unfortunate incident just like this – but in his industry, where his reputation could make or break five figure deals – his credibility was everything. Even one less than stellar report online could cause him to lose future clients.
Whether or not we can admit it or not, when we are conducting research about a company or product online, negative comments – whether they are true or not tend to send us running in the opposite direction. In my friend’s case, it caused a lot of potential clients to doubt him and every day that negative post sat on the first page of Google cost him more and more money.
But instead of sitting around boo-hooing about the lost, he took action.
Here’s what he did:
He Contacted the Site Owner
The comment was posted on a very high-ranking forum. So he contacted the owner and explained what really happened with the client and asked that the comment be removed – or at least that his company’s name be removed.
The site owner agreed to remove his company’s name. It took a couple of more days for the change to be reflected in the search engine results, but soon after it completed disappeared from the results.
He Responded to Negative Comments and Questions
On another occasion when removal wasn’t possible, he responded to the negative comment and clarified misconceptions that the person was spreading. His response opened up a dialogue that eventually revealed that the person was just misinformed.
Other times, when there were questions about his company that showed up, he made sure to answer them. It’s not a good idea to leave questions about “scams” or “schemes” open for speculation – so he made sure to answer them and provide additional information whenever it was possible.
He Gathered Positive Feedback
Whenever he received positive feedback from satisfied clients, he took the time to publish their testimonials on his site. He also solicited recommendations on his LinkedIn profile. He built an impressive list of reputable people that potential clients could contact if they had questions.
He Updated His Website and Social Media Profiles
He realized that posting new and useful information on his site and also on his social media profiles about his business, often pushed those negative comments down in the search results faster – until they were no longer on the first page.
These are just a few of the things he did that helped. Fortunately, he had enough insight into the web to do these things, but not all bloggers or business owners are this savvy. Those who aren’t might want to consider hiring a corporate reputation management professional. A professional will have even more insight into what to do and how to implement an effective corrective campaign.
The good news is that, a negative comment or posting doesn’t have to be the end. So what about you? Have your Googled yourself today?
About Kiesha Easley
Twitter: AandLHeat
says:
Excellent article. The way the situation was handled was wonderful. I agree with every way it was addressed. I have to say responding to the negative comments and addressing the issue is probably one of the best tips I could give any person going into business. Sadly, not every customer is going to be happy with your work. I know this from experience, after all my family and I have been in the heating and cooling business for over 50 years. Especially now, with such fast paced media outlets like facebook, a negative comment can go viral, so it’s best to address it, like a professional, business person would. After all, not only are you trying to quite down the customer making such a fuss, but also you are giving a positive impression to your other fans and followers. As easy as it may be to delete a comment, many times it’s best to leave it on and respond to it.
Heating Contractor Massillon recently posted..The Importance of Having an Efficient Furnace
Twitter: freedom9to5
says:
Your competitors may also try to damage your online reputation. There will be people out there to destroy your brand, but you have to take the good with the bad. Your friend did the right thing by responding to the negative comments. If you do respond in a polite way, I believe people will not care about the negative comments. It shows you took the time to respond. When I see a company responding to negative comments without having a negative tone, I give them a chance.
counteracting negative feedback is necessary especially if you are selling a product or service and
how much the negative publicity is going to affect you.
When it comes to negative feedback, it is important to take the time to address concerns that people may have in time bound manner and make the correct improvements to address the issue..
Twitter: Ajayudayagiri
says:
Counter acting towards the negative review or reputation depends on our own decision and acting overly to the negative response exposes us more to the world in the negative field.
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Grow your small business, strategically. Without working 24/7. …
Thanks so much for posting this. A friend of mine has a small cafe in Tampa that specializes in Mediterranean food, and there was a customer a few months ago that was causing a major problem; he posted a number of harshly critical reviews on Yelp, Urbanspoon, and other review sites. What he said was false, absolutely untrue. My friend was really frustrated because the guy was saying things like there are rats in the kitchen. But my friend had no idea what to do.
I think counteracting negative feedback depends on your response to it. When you receive legitimate criticism or negative feedback, it is important to take the time to address concerns that people may have rather than overlook negative comments. Obviously there will be negative feedback that is not constructive, which should be overlooked, but when the criticism is genuine it is essential to take the time to respond to it and make the correct improvements. Viewers like to see that their feedback is being considered, and that adjustments are being made.
I don’t think it’s narcissistic at all; I do it once a week and I think it’s very useful. Everybody should listen your advice and check their “online image”.
Cristian Stan recently posted..Best Juice Extractor Reviews – Breville 800JEXL Review
Twitter: rancorinfotech
says:
These are certainly good points to tackle bad reviews. First of all try to answer any misunderstanding as if it works then you don’t have to do anything else. However when it’s not possible then you can come out with more positive reviews so that you can hide any of your bad reviews.
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Twitter: HadleyHodgson
says:
A healthy portion of our business now comes from helping clients manage their online reputations better because a lot of people aren’t aware of when there’s something out there that needs sorting.
Twitter: PMStudyCircle
says:
I had an experience of it. I believe that if the negative comment is not affecting you badly, it is better to avoid it because it will save a lot of energy and time. If you are honest, helping the people and constantly providing good content then you don’t have any reason to worry about.
Fahad recently posted..What is the Passing Score for CAPM Certification Exam?
Deeply appreciate the kind post Kiesha. Another thing should note that if it’s your fault, please do not hesitate to openly apolagise to them. Remember the stupid incident sadly happened for Dominos franchisee, the President of Dominos openly apolagise to the public for his franchise stupid act. People do appreciate it and still the brand Dominos was not severely affected except that particular franchise which was forced to shut down has its business was deeply affected.
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Hi Naveen,
Yes, I definitely agree, that when an apology is in order, it should be made. People respect that especially when it is delivered honestly and humbly. Sometimes, things do go wrong, people know that, and appreciate when mistakes are admitted instead of covered up.
Thanks for sharing your insights!
Potential clients will fish out negative reviews about a particular company, resolve them, and then think of associating with the said firm. Even a single negative comment can make things worse for the firm. I do agree with you on all the points. I believe though the second alternative to be the most effective one, since it aids the customer as well as the company. But if the company is huge, then it might not be the feasible one to go with.
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Hi Dhaval,
You’re right – it might not be feasible for a bigger company – but bigger companies aren’t impacted as harshly by negative feedback as a smaller business or blogger. No matter what, it’s always best to resolve problems instead of just leaving them to fester.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Twitter: RaviBhushanSin4
says:
Definitely true,
Negative comment will definitely carry more visitors to your website if only for fascination. The factors you discuss are definitely the first opportunity anyone experiencing a bad online popularity should take.
Twitter: indiagetahead
says:
Completely true…That will be the worst day of any bloggers life. Thanks for pointing to that angle also, never thought about that
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Twitter: EdmundsLaw
says:
I actually had this terrible issue, not long ago. Many of my former employees were going around leaving negative reviews about me, so I needed to get this fix. I took the war to them and was transparent about everything. You see transparency is the key to being online and I wrote about the reviews and was honest about some of the complaints against my practice, however in being honest and open I won more people than lost.
Twitter: collegeocontent
says:
that’s actually a good thing that you did, in terms of taking the time to address the issue about your former employees writing negative reviews about you on the Internet. have you created website content about the issue and posted it to your site-weblog, in efforts of keeping website content fresh? :-)
CollegeofContent.com recently posted..Avoid These Common Marketing Errors
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Hi Alan,
I admire your courage and your transparency. That’s the best way to handle things instead of ignoring them or just wishing they would go away. There will be times when you just can’t please everyone, most people understand that, but it’s when you try to cover things up or hide that makes potential clients/customers become even more suspicious and skeptical. Keep up the great work!
Twitter: smashpixels
says:
I had the same experience when i worked with a SEO contractor. He claimed he has done the work. I’ve mentioned clearly before to wait 2 weeks for the results to stand so i can confirm it’s completely safe method, but he refused and wanted immediate payment. 2 weeks later i did pay him, but he created a hate blogger page on me damaging my online reputation. I can’t delete it
Gautham Nekkanti recently posted..Omegle Australia – Free Stranger Chat
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Hi Gautham,
Unfortunately, this happens when you’re working with people via internet. You might not be able to delete it, but if you can get more positive content out there about your company than negative, it might help. Solicit some testimonials from other people you’ve worked with and get some people to write recommendations for you – that might help.
Twitter: ModestMoney
says:
I’ve had to deal with this for one of my employers while doing SEO work. They had an aggressive competitor who took to bashing the company on various blogs. Luckily most were bloggers who I had dealt with. So I was able to convince most of them to remove the posts with compelling evidence that it was not likely a real customer. On top of that I used SEO to build links to more favorable pages where our brand was mentioned. In the end we pushed the negative pages onto page 2 of the search results. With more time I might’ve tried to push it all the way to page 3.
Jeremy recently posted..Mid November 2012 Blog Update
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Hi Jeremy,
Awesome! Thanks for sharing your experience. For the most part, if you’re doing honest work and open about what’s going on, most people understand. You really can’t please everyone, there will be times when people will get upset, even if you’re doing everything you’re supposed to – glad to hear about your success with pushing those pages down.
I think it depends on the domain you’re working in. If you are selling something then yes, it would affect your imagine and your sales would drop. But if you are a blogger for example, these could have a nice impact on you – more traffic, free publicity, maybe some incoming links to help you seo…but if you are part of the first example, then it’s tough, as you have to make your way up there to your customer confidence again…
Andrei recently posted..Google ruins the excitement caused by Nexus 4
Twitter: shoryabist
says:
Hi Kiesha,
I am impressed that you put up this topic , because many Blogger thinks that by doing negative things(comments,images etc.) will bring them traffic ,many bloggers are getting also But this is not the way infact this will create a bad Reputation of Blog in Google, and this kind of thing Google will not accept and can penalize the blog.
Thank You
Shorya Bist
From Youthofest
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Twitter: MarkMorphew
says:
Negative comments will definitely bring more traffic to your site if only for curiosity. The points you mention are definitely the first avenue anyone facing a negative online reputation should take.
With the new Google Panda update even poor backlinks can affect your online reputation and it is now possible to have negative backlinks removed.
Great post!
Mark
Twitter: collegeocontent
says:
At times, when people write negative reviews of someone’s website and publishes it to the World Wide Web, surely it can affect the sites search engine ranking in a positive way. The negativity may positively affect the website although person opposes for months and years to come. It’s simply call the reverse psychology. It’s always a good practice for any website or blog owner to set up multiple profiles on social networks and business services such as Facebook, Twitter, Manta.com, yelp, yammer,ReddIt, and so forth. This way, people will get familiar will with who the website is and see affiliated social networking and social bookmarking services linking to that site. And, this may also influence people to look at that website in a good way, despite any negative reviews about the website potentially indexed in Google. When you think about this comment? :-)
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