With the growth of the web comes an unrelenting expectation of transparency and open lines of communication. But what happens when negative outliers - or worse, actual missteps on the part of the company - result in a reputation problem in search results? * Monitoring the social web * Search result monitoring Dealing with negative comments or reviews SEO tactics to push out results Takedown requests via Google or hosts - when can it be done? Case studies

1. Gradiva Couzin
@gradiva
Wednesday 10/24 10:30 am | Ballroom G
Gravity Search Marketing

2. Practical Online Reputation Management
Gradiva Couzin
Partner, Gravity Search Marketing LLC
Los Angeles and San Francisco, CA
Coauthor, Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day
(Wiley, 2011)
www.yourseoplan.com
Twitter: @jengrappone, @gradiva

3. Everything is Reputation!
Everything your business does on-
and off-line is part of your reputation
management.
Today I am focused on:
• Search results for your brand
• Preventing social media crises

4. Search Results for Your Name or Brand
What results do Google/Bing display when someone
searches for your brand, your name, or a product
name?

5. Search Results for Your Name or Brand
LOCAL SEARCH YOUR OFFICIAL SITE
REVIEWS YOUR SOCIAL PROFILES
IMAGE & VIDEO
NEWS
PAID SEARCH
ETC…

6. Search Results for Your Name or Brand

7. I didn’t read the book, but…

8. Search Results for Your Name or Brand
What to do?
What to do?
• Ask: Which queries? Queries
• Monitor & track branded results to Monitor
catch problems
• When take-down is possible, go for it! Take down
• Crowd out bad search results with
SEO/Social efforts and enhanced Crowd out
listings
• Prevent problems before they start Prevent

9. Choosing Queries to Monitor
Google AdWords Tool: Number of people searching may
not matter, when reputation is concerned.
• Name of business
• Personal names of
president, execs, etc.
• Names of products
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

10. More Keywords with Google Suggest
• {my brand} … ?
• Is {my brand} … ?
• {my brand} vs … ?

11. Monitoring Name/Brand Search Results
• Google Alerts www.google.com/alerts
• Track search results on a regular basis

12. Monitoring Name/Brand Search Results
Important: Don’t trick yourself with personalized
search results!
PERSONALIZED GLOBAL

13. Monitoring Name/Brand Search Results
Social listening, search monitoring & dashboards
Google Alerts (f)
Tweetdeck (f)
Brandify (f - beta)
radian6 ($)
BrandsEye
($)socialmention
twilert (f)
Sprout Social ($)

14. Monitoring Name/Brand Search Results
Social listening, search monitoring & dashboards
Google Alerts (f)
Tweetdeck (f)
Brandify (f - beta)
radian6 ($)
BrandsEye
($)socialmention
twilert (f)
Sprout Social ($)

15. The take-down:
When is it possible?
(take down)
Take-down opportunities in organic search are rare
Google organic, accepted reasons for a removal request:
• Page contains confidential personal information (gov’t ID
number, signature, bank or cc #)
• Page contains SEO spam or malware
• Adult site contains your full name or name of business
• Site contains your copyrighted materials
http://support.google.com/bin/static.py?hl=en&ts=1114905&page=ts.cs

16. Free speech, eh? Someday Google
is going to go nuts with this
thing!
(take down)

17. The take-down:
When is it possible?
Other Google properties have broader take-down
options
• Google AdWords
If an ad is using your name, you can submit a complaint
• YouTube
removal includes defamation, privacy, abuse/harassment, selling counterfeit
goods

18. The take-down:
When is it possible?
Complaints to Hosting Company an Option
• WordPress.com
Page can be removed for abuse: personal threats, calls to
violence, impersonation, more. en.wordpress.com/abuse
• Other hosts will have various policies. Find out who the host
is on who-hosts.com and get contact info here:
www.plagiarismtoday.com/dmca-contact-information/

19. Crowding out Undesirable Listings
FILL TOP RANKS
WITH GOOD
LISTINGS
PUSH THE BAD LISTING
DOWN

20. Crowding out Undesirable Listings
Best methods for crowding out undesirable search
results
• Optimize pages on your own site
• Create new pages such as new social profiles
• Throw your power (links) at other desirable pages
• Press releases (temporary)

21. Optimize Pages On Your Own Site
• Google will usually show a
max of two pages from your
domain
• You can snag a bit more real
estate with SERP
enhancements

22. On Page Optimization Example:
Huffington Post
This page is an attempt to rank well for “egypt protests”
HTML title
Page URL
Text on page
Internal
links on site

23. On Page Optimization Example: Sonos
Ranks on top page for “sonos reviews”
HTML title
Page URL
Text on page
Internal
links on site

24. Optimize Pages On Your Own Site
If you create a new page on your site, you must
link to it; don’t try to hide it
• Internal links distribute
SEO power through your
site
• Orphaned “doorway”
pages aren’t loved by
Google

25. Create New Social Media Profiles
Particularly useful for name searches
• Major & minor social media
sites
• LinkedIn is top for names
• Facebook; Twitter; YouTube;
Pinterest; Google+ etc.
• Can be for individual or
business
http://blog.brandyourself.com/brand-yourselfcom/want-to-look-better-in-
google-our-data-shows-you-the-best-ways-our-first-infographic/

26. What Other Pages Can You Create?
More pages to crowd out undesirable listings
• Wikipedia page – for your brand or
company (individuals must be newsworthy
to qualify)
• Central listing databases that will feed into
many other sites: Localeze.com, Acxiom.com,
ExpressUpdateUSA.com, listings.YellowPages.com
• Press Releases (probably temporary)

27. Send Link Power to Desirable Pages
Link to preferable pages that are already in the
search results
Existing pages with ranks
already have an advantage.
Your link to this page… ..may
improve its
rank

28. More Crowding out Tips: Enhanced
Listings
Enhance & expand your presence in search
results with rich snippets
• May draw attention
and clicks
• Usually result of
semantic tagging
schema.org

29. More Crowding out Tips: Google
Authorship
Give your listings extra credibility
• Ties to Google+ or
on-site profile page
• Adds credibility
• Likely to increase
clickthrough rate
https://plus.google.com/authorship

30. More Crowding out Tips: Local Results
Local results have increased in prominence
• Google will show local
results if query deserves
• Google Places listing
merging with Google+
• Claim your business to
manage, edit

31. Prevention
Prevent social reputation problems
before they happen
• Where do crises originate?
• Social reputation rules of thumb
• Crowding out bad reviews

32. Prevention: Where do Crises Originate?
Sources of social media crises (2011)
54% triggered by customers
33% triggered by the organization
itself
13% triggered by other parties
Data from J. Owyang, Altimeter Group

33. Prevention: Where do Crises Originate?
Top causes of crises
• Negative customer experiences
• Poor influencer relations
• “Rogue” employees
• Failure to respond quickly or
inappropriate response
Data from J. Owyang, Altimeter Group

34. Social Reputation Rules of Thumb
Provide other channels for complaints.
Responsiveness Respond quickly and move
communications to private channels.
Transparency Identify staff or paid reviewers
Clearly identify staffers who can
Security post to accounts; require firewall
between personal & company
2nd Opinion Develop a process with a built-in
“second opinion” for touchy
subjects

35. Easy Mistake to make: Tweeting to
Wrong Account
Don’t let a problem escalate:
• Limited access
• Clear boundaries
• “Panopticon” philosophy
www.juanmarketing.com/how-to-deal-with-a-social-media-crisis-and-prevent-a-catastrophe/2011/05/23/

36. Easy Mistake to make: Tweeting to
Wrong Account

37. When Negative Reviews Attack:
Crowding out the Bad
Same idea as crowding out search results
• Positive online reviews will inoculate
you against any future social media
crisis
• Ask for reviews at every opportunity
& especially post-transaction.
• Follow-up email, phone, postcard:
Sooner is always better.
• Make reviewing easy - include a link
• Paying for reviews breaks FTC rules

38. Replying to Bad Reviews – Should You?
• WAIT – it may get filtered
• Do not reply while emotional. Get a
2nd opinion on your response.
• Respond publicly and then take it
offline: “Please email me at {}.com
so I can help you resolve the
problem”
• Rarely, a review can be
removed, e.g., hate speech.
• See some examples:
http://www.reviewtrackers.com/case-studies-
business-owners-respond-bad-yelp-reviews/

39. Replying to Bad Reviews – Should You?
Yes No
• Review from influencer • Excessively
• To apologize for true angry/inarticulate/drunk
error review – no way to make
• To correct factual happy
mistakes • Filtered review
• Feels fixable • You are too mad to
apologize
• Never delete a bad
review

40. Thank you!
Questions, comments?
@gradiva