This document discusses strategies for fighting negative online reputation through proactive reputation management. It recommends being proactive, preparing for unexpected issues, thinking like large brands by creating multiple legitimate sites and profiles with unique focuses, and ensuring sustainability through high-quality, valuable content rather than "crappy" sites. The key is treating each site and profile as standalone to avoid over-optimization and shortcuts that could damage reputation.

1. Fighting The Online
Reputation War
Presented by:
Alan Bleiweiss
@AlanBleiweiss
@AlanBleiweiss

2. Brand & Reputation Strategies
• Reality Check
• Be Proactive When Possible
• Prepare For The Unexpected
• Think Like Big Brands
• Sustainability Is Vital
@AlanBleiweiss

3. Reality Check
1 Page on a scam site can rank for your phrases
or brand because of site scale
• PissedConsumer.com 500,000 pages
• RipoffReport.com 1,100,000 pages
• Scam.com 3,400,000 pages
• Scambook.com 8,100,000 pages
• 800Notes.com 1,900,000 pages
• Yelp.com 11,600,000 pages
@AlanBleiweiss

4. Reality Check
Scam Sites allow unsubstantiated complaints
•Competitors & disgruntled employees can post
anything they want
•No proof of claim required
•No personal identification confirmation required
•Legal process can take two years to get court
order to remove false claims
@AlanBleiweiss

5. Reality Check
Malicious attacker Arsenal
•Post to multiple scam & review sites
blanketing SERP rankings
•Employ teams of fake comment posters
•Create fake “review” sites to attack your
reputation
•Interlink across scam sites as “proof” of
scam claim
@AlanBleiweiss

6. Reality Check
• The Reputation Team
– Project Manager
– Designer
– 1 Senior Content Specialist
– 2 to 5 Content Generalists
– 2 to 4 Content Marketing Specialists
– 1 Social Media Specialist
– 1 or 2 Social Media Generalists
@AlanBleiweiss

7. Reality Check
• SERP Domination takes 2 to 6 months
• $200,000 - $400,000 a year
• Get buy-in from everyone on the team
– Explain the 5 Ws
– Your Team is Your Front Line
• Let the team be additional eyes & ears
• Take creative, strategy & tactical input &
suggestions
@AlanBleiweiss

8. Be Proactive
• Get ahead of the situation
• Take Action Before Problems Occur
• Anticipate Future Problems
@AlanBleiweiss

9. Prepare for the Unexpected
• Grill your client/employer about
skeletons in the closet
• Monitor News, Search, Video & Social
Channels for:
– Brand
– Brand + Scam phrase variations
– Key People
– Key People + Scam phrase variations
@AlanBleiweiss

10. Sustainability Wins
• Avoid crappy content sites
– Crappy sites cause trust doubt, can’t
sustain
• Squiddoo Lenses
• Weebly Pages
• Knock-off Domains
• Blatantly useless Sites & Profiles
@AlanBleiweiss

11. Sustainability Wins
• Don’t post fake reviews / comments
• Don’t create fake news sites
• Don’t create fake reviews sites
• $500,000 fine
• Permanent .gov site record
• Legacy SERPs from news coverage
@AlanBleiweiss

12. Think Like Big Brands
• Create Multiple Legitimate Sites
– Niche relevance
– Unique value
– Serve a real purpose
– Fully supported as stand-alone
@AlanBleiweiss

13. Think Like Big Brands
• Every Site/Profile needs:
– High Quality Content
– Unique focus
– Quality Off-Site Signals
• Link Profile
• Social Signals
@AlanBleiweiss

14. Big Brand Saturation
AmericanExpress.com AMEX FourSquare
AMEX Wikipedia Entry AMEX LinkedIn
@AmericanExpress AmexPub.com
MembershipRewards.com AMEX Facebook
AmexTravelResources.com Facebook/Open
AMEX YouTube Facebook/MembersProject
OpenForum.com Serve.com
AmericanExpressVacations.com AmexNetwork.com
AMTTravel.com
@AlanBleiweiss

15. Go Further than Big Brands
Main Site Company History Site
Corporate Site Community Outreach Site
Customer Support Site Giving Back Site
Complaints Resolution Site Twitter Corporate
Customer Testimonials Site Twitter Customer Satisfaction
Debunking Scam Stories Site Twitter Member Services
Member Services Site Twitter Consumer Advocacy
Consumer Advocacy Site Twitter Community Outreach
Product Return Policies Site Twitter Giving Back
@AlanBleiweiss

16. Go Further than Big Brands
Facebook Corporate
Facebook Customer Satisfaction
Facebook Member Services
Facebook Consumer Advocacy
Facebook Community Outreach
Facebook Giving Back
YouTube Channel
YouTube Customer Satisfaction
Channel
YouTube Consumer Advocacy
Channel
@AlanBleiweiss

17. Go Further than Big Brands
• Create detailed Complaint, Scam
Report and Customer Satisfaction
pages with forms on every site
• Or combine those into one single
page and form on each site
@AlanBleiweiss

18. Don’t Over Optimize
• Majority of pages unique to each site
• No Site-Wide Cross-Site Linking
– NAV Links:
• Only link to satellite sites from main site’s home
footer, About & Contact page
• Only link to main site home page from satellite site
home, about & contact
– Content Links:
• Only link from within appropriate related page
content areas
@AlanBleiweiss

19. Don’t Over Optimize
• Don’t hide corporate ownership of any site
• Vary Target Keyword Phrases across sites
• Link Social Profiles only to the appropriate
site
• Only Link to satellite site complaint forms
from customer satisfaction & complaint
related pages
@AlanBleiweiss

20. Treat Each Site & Profile As
Stand-Alone
• Add value with each new site & profile
• Press releases for each new site
• Press releases for each new social profile
• Build Quality Links to each site & profile
@AlanBleiweiss

21. Takeaways
• Think Like Big Brands & Do More
• Shortcuts Will Bite You
• Get Entire Team to Buy-In On Vision
• Avoid Over Optimization
• Avoid Fake Reviews
– $500k fine if caught
@AlanBleiweiss

22. Alan Bleiweiss
Forensic SEO Consultant
@AlanBleiweiss
AlanBleiweiss.com
@AlanBleiweiss