Ten Ways to Fix Your Google Reputation & Remove Negative Results
Wednesday, October 31st, 2007;
-- Andy Beal |
Need help managing your Google reputation? Andy Beal offers Google reputation management consulting or buy his new online reputation management book.
Google is no longer just a search engine. With your potential customers, future employers, and members of the media turning to Google for information about your business, Google has become a reputation engine.
In helping clients with their online reputation, I’m consistently asked how they can push out negative results that appears on the first page of Google for a search for their name. Whether they were fined by the SEC, ridiculed by an ex-employee, or investigated by their local newspaper, they share one common goal: get that negative result off of the first page!
Of course, it’s near on impossible to make a negative Google result simply disappear—although there are some black-hat SEOs that claim to have that gift. Instead, your best approach is to provide Googlebot with a healthier diet of web content that shows your reputation in a positive light.
On that note, here are my recommendations for the best web content to fill up the first page of Google results.
1. Get your own web site.
It sounds simply enough, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, you’d be surprised at the number of individuals and companies that haven’t registered their own branded domain name and thrown up a web site. Registering yourcompanyname.com or yourpersonalname.com and adding a basic web site is a sure-fire way to occupy one of the top ten Google listings for your name.
2. Start a blog.
If you love and nurture a blog, it will likely become a great asset in your reputation management arsenal. But the great thing about a blog is that it tends to rank well, even when left un-watered. Blogs are the cactus of online content. Wordpress.com and Blogger.com both provide free blogs and free hosting. Add just a few posts, keep it targeted to your name—that means use it in the blog title, posts etc—add a few links and bake for a few days. It will be on the first page of Google in no time.
3. Add a sub-domain.
If you’ve put a lot of effort into growing your main web site, chances are there’s an opportunity to add a sub-domain. Sub-domains are great. Google considers them as separate from your main site, but they still include your main brand. There are a lot of great reasons to add a sub-domain: careers, corporate info, and product info. Take a look at jobs.marketingpilgrim.com as an example.
4. Create a social networking profile.
MySpace.com profiles can rank well for your personal or company name. When you sign-up, be sure to use your real name—using a nickname won’t help with your Google reputation—and enable the option that lets you pick the URL of your profile. myspace.com/companyname works a whole lot better than myspace.com/12345678.
5. Create your own social network.
If a social networking profile ranks well in Google, how much more so your own social network? Ning.com will let you create your own customized social network. Better yet, you can pay just $5 a month and point your own domain name at it. Take a look at www.marketingpilgrim.tv for an example.
6. Create a business profile.
You should join LinkedIn.com because it’s a great tool for networking with your peers. You should also join LinkedIn as it allows you to talk about yourself, link to your other Google-friendly web content, and customize your profile URL. Wouldn’t you rather your potential employer find your LinkedIn profile on Google, than that run-in you had with your last boss?
7. Share your photos.
Flickr.com is very Google friendly. Upload photos of you, your company logo, your products, etc, and label them using your name. Add some comments to each photo (including your name) and Voila! You’ve just added a dozen pages of content, each labeled with your company name! Be sure to do the same when selecting your profile name for Flickr too.
8. Claim your identity.
Naymz.com is a blessing for those looking to control their Google reputation. It effectively lets you create a profile and then link out to all of your other profiles. Whereas LinkedIn is heavy on the networking-side, Naymz is more of a holding-tank for your brand. Best of all, Google seems to love it!
9. Create your own Wiki.
If you’re facing a Google reputation nightmare, you may be tempted to create a Wikipedia profile for yourself. After all, Wikipedia ranks all over Google, right? Bad move. Not only is it hard to get one approved, but they’re totally unbiased. That DUI incident, you’re trying to cover-up, will likely make its way on to your profile. Not good. Instead create your own wiki and build your profile that way. Wetpaint.com is perfect for this. You can focus it on your personal name, or your company name. The best part is that you get to decide who contributes to it.
10. Get a free page from Google.
I’ve saved the best until last. Ok, I lied. While a free page from Google Page Creator (googlepages.com) isn’t the best web content for managing your Google reputation, there’s something satisfying about having Google help mend your reputation.
So, there you have it. While these shouldn’t be used as a “get out of jail free card”—you should avoid a reputation nightmare to begin with—they’ll at least help you re-build your Google reputation.
(This article was first published by Andy on Gooruze. Don’t miss other great articles, join Gooruze today!)
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October 31st, 2007 at 1:53 pm
All it takes is one .gov or .edu site to put your name on there and all bets are off.
I have a business associate who, via a legal technicality, was listed on a .gov site for a state atty general. Nobody is going to unseat that page from #1 Google. He did not get arrested or anything, but was issued a “warning” for not filing a form on time one year.
He is taking a legal path to remove it because they are supposed to use an ombudsman approach to limiting ad-hoc access. But so far he’s gotten nowhere as the law is so vague on the matter.
All of the items above except Flickr/Wiki were done (and a few you’ve not listed) but it makes little difference.
Just a perspective from a real-world situation.
October 31st, 2007 at 2:02 pm
@Scott - there’s a lot that can be done to clean up a Google reputation nightmare. The above will help many prevent one from happening, but I agree that a .gov etc are tough. There are a few tactics that I keep to myself - to help pay the bills.
October 31st, 2007 at 2:11 pm
This is my list of brand hygiene approaches. I may steal one of yours. :- )
http://www.sitecreations.com/social-reputation-management.php
Also, an article on social forgiveness and Google. If you don’t like links in the comments, just nix this one. I just wanted to show you.
http://www.sitecreations.com/blog/2007/07/google-and-the-loss-of-socia l-forgiveness.html
October 31st, 2007 at 2:13 pm
Great toolkit for personal brand reputation management.
October 31st, 2007 at 2:19 pm
@Scott et al - there’s a lot more of this stuff in my new book.
http://www.amazon.com/Radically-Transparent-Monitoring-Managing-Reputa tions/dp/0470190825
October 31st, 2007 at 2:23 pm
Andy,
Great stuff, and thanks for the mention. I saw that you are in the process of writing a book on reputation management. It’s a very opportune time for a guide on rep management and I can’t wait to get my hands on it. Let us know if we at Naymz can help out in any way.
@Scott - I second Andy’s viewpoint. It takes a lot of work to displace .gov and .edu, but it is possible if the right tactics are used.
October 31st, 2007 at 3:00 pm
@Scott,
I beg to differ. There is a lot that can be done to take that page off the front page of Google. The question is, are you or your associate willing to put in the time and / or money to get it done.
If you were talking about a top 50 internet phrase that was obviously hand edited, that might be impossible. But someones name? Easy, I don’t care what site I am competing against.
October 31st, 2007 at 3:18 pm
I am absolutely sure you’re right. It does come down to committing to do it (or getting paid to!)
I should qualify to say that “passive” vs. “active” efforts are very different when a .gov or .edu is involved. Passive solutions are more preventative in nature while active ones could nudge it.
October 31st, 2007 at 3:52 pm
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October 31st, 2007 at 5:16 pm
This is an interesting article..^^..thanks for posting it. I will keep in mind all your tips and suggestion on how to land on Google’s first page.
October 31st, 2007 at 9:08 pm
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October 31st, 2007 at 11:09 pm
These tips are also work for getting more traffic to your website if you look at them closer. For example get social network’s profile and upload images to flickr.com.
October 31st, 2007 at 11:27 pm
Nice tips. I will have to work on my sub domains.
October 31st, 2007 at 11:32 pm
Andy:
Loved your tips! I have implemented many of them, including starting a Social Network with Ning.com (www.TuDiabetes.com for people with diabetes).
BTW, I am an Amazon.com reviewer (#75). I am interested in reviewing your book. Can you email me so we can talk about this and I can give you my mailing address?
October 31st, 2007 at 11:35 pm
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October 31st, 2007 at 11:37 pm
[…] a practical and potentially very useful post: Ten Ways to Avoid a Google Reputation Management Nightmare. Let’s say you google yourself to see what a potential employer might find, and the #1 result […]
November 1st, 2007 at 12:42 am
Hi Andy. Thanks for the nice tips. I never heard of Naymz.
November 1st, 2007 at 3:04 am
This is about the lamest advice ever.
November 1st, 2007 at 5:05 am
Even if you’re not in any kind of business, this might be a good way to make sure family and friends can find you. If only they will think of Googling your name. I’m seriously thinking about trying this and find out what happens.
November 1st, 2007 at 6:33 am
Hey Andy thanks for diverting my attention to wetpaint and Naymz.com … first time heard about them. Will definitely give it a try…
November 1st, 2007 at 6:36 am
[…] auf die Bewerbungsphase nach dem Studium vorbereiten, diesen Beitrag bei Marketing Pilgrim lesen:Ten Ways to Avoid a Google Reputation Management Nightmare. Allerdings sollen anspruchsvollere Personalchefs mittlerweile die Namen der Bewerber nicht nur […]
November 1st, 2007 at 6:44 am
I have to say a lot of the stuff you’ve stated here are misleading and untrue.
November 1st, 2007 at 7:10 am
At the end of the day its a matter of weight and how important is your name in the context of the site. These are good strategies to push a bad reputation page to higher SERPS. It doesn’t eliminate the problem! so better work your way out the long way.
November 1st, 2007 at 7:18 am
Dinu and Nils - These smell like spambot posts.
If not, how do you expect anyone to take you seriously if you don’t post something to support your remarks?
I sure don’t.
November 1st, 2007 at 7:23 am
Thank you for your advices. I have used a few of them already. I hope, they will be useful for me. Greetings from Poland.
November 1st, 2007 at 7:54 am
it may usefull advise, thanks
November 1st, 2007 at 8:32 am
Thank you for your advices. I have used a few of them already. I hope, they will be useful for me. Greetings from USA.
November 1st, 2007 at 8:56 am
your talking is basic to an online bizz man. would you give out some more deep research.
November 1st, 2007 at 9:13 am
Thanks all!
@Horisly - the in-depth stuff is in the new book.
@Scott - I’ll check to make sure they’re not trolls.
@Manny - Thanks for the offer. I’ll drop you a note closer to publication - around end of Feb.
November 1st, 2007 at 10:24 am
[…] If you are worried about your online reputation, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of managing ‘your-name’ Google results with these simple methods. […]
November 1st, 2007 at 11:21 am
Best way to have a good reputation is to develop good character (all that negative stuff about me is lies anyway)!
November 1st, 2007 at 12:01 pm
@Tom - just rescued your comment from Akismet.
Thanks for the support. Naymz is mentioned positively throughout the book. You’ll have to buy lots of copies!
November 1st, 2007 at 12:13 pm
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November 1st, 2007 at 12:36 pm
Thanks for the tips.
November 1st, 2007 at 12:37 pm
I have also found that buying your name as a domain name really helps also. example, Josh Giese… JoshGiese.com google eats that stuff up.
November 1st, 2007 at 5:09 pm
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November 1st, 2007 at 8:39 pm
Great article!
One thing you haven’t mentioned is Google’s new Universal Search. Aside from images and video, Google’s placing Google News articles in search results on occasion. They don’t hang around for more than a day or two, but they rank high and there’s very little anyone can do to get rid of them!
So if there’s a bad news story about your organisation i.e “Glass found in ‘famous brand’ hamburger” - you’re pretty much stuffed, no matter what you do!
November 1st, 2007 at 8:59 pm
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November 1st, 2007 at 9:26 pm
@Chris - good point. However, you’d really have to make the headlines to have a Google News result show up for your name.
And as you mentioned, that’s just a short term issue.
November 2nd, 2007 at 11:25 am
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November 2nd, 2007 at 3:38 pm
In terms of social networking, FaceBook has become an inevitable choice. Just to mention…
November 2nd, 2007 at 4:44 pm
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November 3rd, 2007 at 1:45 pm
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November 4th, 2007 at 9:12 pm
Andy -
Thank you for the article. Not many people understand how Google works - that it rewards popularity over credibility, for example - but it is, nevertheless, considered by the average person to be the “gospel” for search. All the more reason that companies and individuals alike need to make sure that they have authentic and credible information about themselves out there.
[links removed]
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November 7th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
I’ve since registered the domain names of everyone in my family. That’s all 5 of us. Thanks for the insight.
November 11th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
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November 14th, 2007 at 1:30 am
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November 24th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
Great list. You cannot go wrong with this kind of online reputation arsenal. The suggested sites are a good combination. If someone googles your name, chances are the whole first page will be from these sites. So when you sign up to these, make sure you put the information you would like people to see.
November 27th, 2007 at 2:30 am
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December 7th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
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December 17th, 2007 at 11:50 am
I have seen government and wikipedia articles get bumped in Google. Most of this was post the QDF (query deserves freshness) update by the Google algorithm team. I personally find that it’s a matter of convincing Google that the company or individual name is actually a revolving topic that is frequently updated with news and content. Once that transition occurs than a static page on a government web site begins to lose relevance to the update content related to you or your company’s name. But pre QDF it seemed near impossible. Now it’s not easy but definitely an attainable goal - just takes time and persistence.
-reputationHAWK
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January 6th, 2008 at 7:57 am
Good info.. thanks a million
January 8th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Thanks for the great advice. I have heard of and used most of these suggestions, but it was nice to have them organized.
January 13th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
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January 22nd, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Nice list - one of the comments mentioned that these things can make it easier for family and friends to find you which I definitely think is a plus.
I’m not sure if it’s been mentioned yet but submitting articles to article directories is another way to fill the Internet with information from you that you want everyone to know about.
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March 5th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
This is a great list that you’ve compiled! Thanks for putting this together Andy!
March 8th, 2008 at 11:04 am
Oh, and another one that might not been mentioned yet is Squidoo. Though I think I’ve heard it doesn’t work so well anymore.
March 8th, 2008 at 11:13 am
@Jayson - yeah Squidoo got hit by Google last year and I don’t recommend it now.
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March 30th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Looking for help with google
April 3rd, 2008 at 3:25 am
Great post - thanks
April 3rd, 2008 at 9:35 am
[…] for information about your business, Google has become a reputation engine. Below is the summary of Ten Ways to Fix Your Google Reputation & Remove Negative Results 1. Get your own web site. 2. Start a blog. 3. Add a sub-domain. 4. Create a social networking […]
April 3rd, 2008 at 6:29 pm
THX Andy for the great tips. Just what I need
April 4th, 2008 at 12:06 am
Very useful! Especially for newbies…Thanks for the tips.
April 4th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Very useful information! There seems to be a lot of buzz on the news lately about companies that offer this type of service. I have looked into two such companies ReputationDefender and Cyberfootprints - I was just wondering if anyone has used them or another similar company? Your feedback would be appreciated.
[Links removed]
April 10th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
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April 16th, 2008 at 7:37 am
A lot in this post comes in handy! Thanks for the tips!
Seologia’s last blog post..Google no es tonto, vos sí
April 16th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Andy your tips are always helping me. This article is really great one on reputation management.I will definitely try out your techniques to come up on google’s first page for my targetted keywords.
Thanks and keep posting the great stuff.
April 16th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
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April 23rd, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Of course my name is a spoof, but the issue is real: My real name shows, as it is the same as other folks, up as all kinds of things on the SERPs. I could spend half of my life in rep’ management and it wouldn’t help.
I am seriously–very seriously–thinking about suing Google and the court document aggregators and forcing them to put robot no-follow tags on entires. You pay for the service or search theri site and you can find the dirty laundry, but should not be # 1 for a 10 year old crime someone else committed because of Google’s screwy algorithm
April 24th, 2008 at 9:20 am
@Ted - you might want to save your legal fees. Google will argue that any negative results exist because the “wisdom of the crowds” says it’s the most relevant web content for your name. A reputation management campaign is where you fight back, by convincing Google that the 10 year old crime is not the most relevant thing about you. Although in your case, “Ted Bundy,” even I can’t help you!
May 6th, 2008 at 8:36 am
One fairly easy way to rank on page one for your name (worked for me at least), is to submit a couple articles to ezinearticles, or similiar directory.
Now you got first page results declaring you an “expert author”.
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