The internet has grown into a great channel for free expression; anyone can post his thoughts and opinions and millions who have access to it can instantly view it. Blogging, posting in forums and sharing in social media sites have further made the facility easier and compelling. With a personal blog site or a business portal online, you have excellent communication channels to promote yourself and your business to rack up an online reputation that can monetize your site. But because the internet does not distinguish between good and bad, your reputation can be game to malicious online lurkers who would try to damage your name.

There are plenty of websites that host reviews, forums, and message boards where people are free to browse and make comments. It would definitely hurt you or your business‘ reputation if someone posts slanderous and libelous comments about you on these sites. If such cases of defamation of character happen to you, don’t panic, because there are ways around it. Here are some tips on how you can deal with incidents of online defamation, slander and libel.

Your first option is to do nothing. Be patient, maintain your composure, and hope that the negative posts disappear from the face of the Internet soon. Even if you have a lot of friends and have established a pretty good reputation online, these derogatory comments can still tarnish your image. But they will go away given the time.

You can also sue the person who caused the negative publicity and hope that you win and get some compensation, as well as have the negative posts removed or the site taken down. The process for this takes quite a while but it’s worth a try. Just make sure that you have enough funds for this since court action can be costly. Your business could also suffer while the case is on-going because persons who see the negative feedback might lose interest in doing business with you.

You also have the option to harness the same technologies that increase your page rank. You can use search engine optimization to have other more friendly sites to overtake the sites with negative content. The net effect is to pull the negative sites 5 to 6 pages or more down the search result pages where they won’t do any harm. Surfers don’t bother to look beyond page 2 or page 3 of a search engine result.

When contemplating this option, look for the company specializing in brand protection repair services and online reputation management. SEO companies are known to harness various techniques to promote your site and achieve brand protection concurrently or when called for. Search engine reputation management can be your best arsenal to manage online reputation and counter defamation slander online.

Armed with the effective measures to mange online reputation, you can take aggressive action to reverse the onerous and often unfounded opinions that can ruin your reputation online. This will greatly help you in dealing with owners of sites with online defamation and slander, and eliminate their adverse consequences on your reputation.

It takes conscious effort, time, money, and talent to build a reputation online. When under attack, there are options and techniques you protect what you have labored to build. Know that you owe your customers, suppliers, your stockholders and yourself to preserve the integrity of the business and manage online reputation.

Crush libel off of the web. Grab a no-cost brand protection anaysis immediately by calling (800) 825-9500.