Burying Negative Content – What to Do Versus What Not to Do

March 2nd, 2010 by Search Influence Alumni


These days it is really easy to tarnish the online reputation of a company.  Just one bad review or article posted on a high traffic web site is all it takes.  In most instances it is impossible to have negative comments and stories removed.

The best way to fight negativity is through positivity.  The simplest way to do this is to drown it out.  Good news can chase bad news down the search engine ranks to the 2nd or 3rd page, where it is less likely to be found.

Here are some action steps:

1) Monitor activity- Find all of the sites where the bad news lives.

2) Stay calm- Be patient, it takes some time.

Patience for reputation management techniques to work!

3) Post positive- Here are just a few ideas:

Create a social networking profile – Facebook
Create a business profile – Linked In
Start a blog – WordPress
Share photos- Flickr
Claim your identity- Naymz
Create a Wiki- Wetpaint

The number 1 thing NOT to do is search for yourself or search for the negative information.  This is the fastest way to ensure it will NEVER go away.

It is hard work and extremely time consuming to bury bad press.  I know it is tempting to look, but that one search can enable the bad news to resurface and erase all of the work that was already done, bringing you right back where you started.

Even if you do not have a reputation management issue at this time, please know if one does present itself, there are ways to fix it, as well as one major way to prevent it from disappearing!

Image Credits: Thanks to ladybeames and stevoarnold for the great imagery for this post.