Search optimization is often an uphill challenge. Everyone wants high page rank and high online visibility, but this is not often the case. Competing for the internet user’s limited attention span requires a certain tech-savvy. You not only want the website to be bright and appealing in the eyes of the user, but you should also make the site very searchable so that it appears on the first page of Google.

But let’s face it, search engine results on your brand might not always churn out the most favorable results. In fact, there are even instance that search engines spit out websites that badmouth your brand. What’s worst is that most customers now do a search on Google or any other search engine before deciding to buy. Google results that give negative reviews in some or most of your top 10 results can definitely waste all your offline marketing efforts.

It’s true that the competition is getting fiercer with all companies in virtually any industry vying to land the precious first result of any search engine. Just how dirty you want to play the game depends on you. You can try to push yourself up the ranks. You can also decide to push negative reviews of the products up the ranks as well. This is why it is important to do reputation management to protect your image online.

Should you find yourself in such an unfortunate situation where a website gets a high page rank for an important keyword to your business, and it badmouths your products or services online, take heart. As they say, there are many ways to skin a cat. In this particular instance, however, only a few of the methods stand out to have any lasting result. Here are some things you can do separately or together.

First, you can choose to ignore the negative reviews. People will forget about it tomorrow, right? Let’s just hope that all the negativity will eventually blow over. Another option is to send a polite email or formal letter to the website owner to take down the offensive material. Third, you can bring the offending parties to court for slander. Get immediate relief with a court order to take down the site and seek compensatory damages. Lastly, you can consider a more creative online reputation management tactic that will push the offensive sites down 4-10 pages in the search engine results through reputation online repair services.

You’re obviously not going to get any result in the first option and even the second is a leap of faith that the site owner will respond favorably to your request if they know what’s good for them. Some web hosting firms will suspend an offensive site if they are violating the terms, but sites with malicious intent won’t. In fact, they’ll be careful not to!

What about litigation? The third option is the traditional big business way to scare website owners into pulling down content that is slanderous. For some websites, you will be able to get your way. For others, they will call your bluff and you will have to drag your butt to court. There are not only time and litigation expenses but it will also continue to take its toll on your brand because the content will not be pulled down immediately. In fact, you may have to wait until the court decides in your favor so you might as well just go ahead and do search engine reputation management.

Nothing beats proactive and aggressive counter-action to neutralize malicious online slander. Brand protection is as much a basic marketing function as advertising and promotions, whether online or offline. Doing so online will often require the right SEO professionals to manage online reputation.

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