Monday, December 7, 2009

Reverse SEO Protects Your Business From Bad Press And Malicious Rumors

Reverse SEO is an online reputation management (ORM) strategy. It protects your company from negative publicity and rumors that can circulate quickly online. Left unattended, this bad press can find a permanent home within the natural listings of the search engines. If it gains exposure, it can damage your reputation and brand.

When people search for your name and see disparaging remarks, it chips away at their confidence in your company. The purpose of reverse SEO is to limit the exposure of such negative publicity. If few people see the bad press, it will have little to no effect on your company's success.

Below, you'll learn how reverse SEO prevents negative commentary from gaining momentum in your market. We'll explain how the strategy dovetails with your search engine marketing campaign, yet takes a contrarian approach to generate results. We'll also describe the reasons you should launch a reverse SEO program before bad press takes root.

Reverse SEO Prevents Negative Publicity From Gaining Momentum

Blogs, forums, and social networking sites have given millions of people the ability to publish their thoughts on a global stage. What's more, they can do so instantly and anonymously. Many companies have discovered that these community-based platforms can attract a groundswell of attention. If bad press gains momentum on such sites, reverse SEO becomes the only cost-effective way to control it in the search engines.

The search engines have given social media and community sites a bump in ranking authority. These sites tend to rank well in Google, Yahoo, and to a lesser extent, Bing. If your company becomes the target of false rumors or negative publicity posted on these sites, the damage to your reputation can be substantial.

This is the reason a growing number of companies are launching reverse search engine optimization campaigns. Reverse SEO can push the bad press off the first page of search listings. Because few people explore past the first page, few will see the negative publicity.

How Reverse SEO Converges With Search Engine Marketing

Search engine marketing (SEM) positions your business in front of your target audience. It plays a key role in gaining valuable exposure to those who are looking for you and your company.

Reverse SEO complements your SEM campaign. While the latter seeks to control the top positions for your most important key phrases, the former removes disparaging pages from those same positions. They work together to protect your reputation and improve your visibility to your target market.

Taking A Proactive Approach To Reverse SEO

Reverse SEO is an effective strategy for suppressing negative publicity about your company within the search results. However, once the bad press takes root, it begins to cement its position. As a result, it become more difficult to remove.

The reason this happens is due to age and inbound links. The longer a page stays within the index, the more authority it receives from the search engine. Meanwhile, the more exposure it receives, the more inbound links it attracts. Those links further strengthen its position. Reverse SEO techniques can push negative publicity from the first page of organic listings. But, it requires time and effort to knock entrenched pages from their perch.

Consider taking a proactive approach to your online reputation management program. Launch a reverse SEO campaign before bad press and rumors circulate. That way, you can control the top positions for your company's name and other critical keywords, and prevent disparaging commentary from infiltrating the listings.

Launching A Reverse SEO Campaign To Protect Your Reputation

Walmart, PayPal, Home Depot, Bank of America... these represent a small sample of companies that have been the target of negative press in the search engines. While large businesses can often shrug the bad publicity off, smaller companies are far more vulnerable. If you have not already done so, take the time to launch a reverse SEO campaign that protects your company's reputation.

It is easier than ever for embittered employees, irritated customers, and deceitful competitors to post bad press online about you and your business. If the sites on which they publish their thoughts gain traction in Google, Yahoo, and Bing, it will become more difficult to remove them. This is why it is important to protect yourself with a reverse SEO campaign before negative publicity can cause damage.

Unlike a PPC campaign that yields an immediate ROI, reverse SEO delivers lasting results and strengthens with time. It is a key component in your online reputation management program. And given your potential exposure, it is arguably one of the most valuable.

Rostin Ventures principals have extensive experience in restoring reputations online, using Reverse SEO among other tactics to provide positive Online Reputation Management Services (ORM Services). When an individual or company name is being searched in Google, Yahoo, Bing and an undesired page or website appears, we can push the negative page back in the search results where it will rarely, if ever be found. Each circumstance is unique and therefore a custom ORM campaign will require a custom SEO quote.


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