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Blast Negative Publicity off Google & Yahoo With These Insider SEO Tips
By Rosemary Donald (c) 2007 Rank1 Website Marketing

Somewhere out in cyberspace an unknown or known associate,
competitor or just plain slanderously natured individual has
written a particularly damning or negative article/blog about
yourself or your business and posted it on the internet.

So what happens next? The nature of the beast is that the major
search engines will index and crawl all of the content on the
internet regardless of whether it is good content, relevant or
controversial. The next thing you know when Googling your name
up comes the offending article or blog on the first page of
search engine results.

Annoying is an 'understatement'. This type of negative publicity
has the potential to damage your business reputation and your
ability to attract new clients. The bigger problem is that
unless the negative article or entry is removed from the site it
is posted on it will remain index-able and searchable by the
major search engines for as long as the content exists and this
could equate to a number of years.

First up, don't panic there are a number of positive SEO
remedies that you can employ to counteract the slanderous
attempts of these individuals and their effect on the search
engines. Unfortunately with the Internet there is limited
recourse by a targeted individual or business to defend their
reputation especially when articles are written by so called
'consumer advocates' or vigilantes doing the public a 'service'
yet able to post anything on their websites regardless of the
dire effects it may have on the targeted individual involved and
their business.

SEO Remedies to tackle negative internet publicity...

Step 1 - If the article or blog is genuinely slanderous
and has no truth or merit, then approach the website owner
posting the entry and ask for it to be removed. Legal
representation and legal advice may be necessary to protect your
business. A well written letter from your lawyer or a threat of
legal action may be enough impetus to persuade the website owner
to remove the post. However, be aware that if unsuccessful, it
may encourage the author of such articles to focus more attention
on you so it may be more prudent to try steps 2 to 5 first.

Step 2 - Examine the keywords within the offending article to
see what is being picked up by the search engines. This will
normally be your name and/or business name. This is easy to
check by clicking on the 'cached' entry next to the search
engine listing. The keywords indexed by the search engine will
be highlighted on the cached page and show you exactly what the
search engine is indexing and crawling from the article or blog.
These keywords (name or business name or both) will be the focus
of your SEO Band-Aid treatment. To push the negative listing off
the first page of results on Google and Yahoo you will need to
create as many new listings as possible on the Internet to be
picked up by the major search engines.

Step 3 - Start with 'free classified ad' listings and
post your new ads under the category of business services.
Include your name and business name in the body of the free
classified ad plus a relevant keyword title specific to your
industry or business service provision. Free classified ad
listings will show up on search engine results within the first
week of posting them on the internet. Complete as many free
classified ads as possible and post them for the longest
duration possible.

Step 4 - Write some free articles on your area of business or
industry expertise remembering to include an eye catching title
and your name and business name in the content of the article
and author bio. Post these articles on your website and on free
article submission sites; the more the better. Make sure you
allow your free articles to be syndicated for content to other
sites. This improves the opportunities for your article being
listed on several internet sites which has a domino effect,
boosting your search engine rankings and the positive listings
picked up by the major search engines. If this still does not
remedy the problem, then proceed to Step 5.

Step 5 - Create as many free directory listings on the
internet as possible under your applicable service or product
category. Use the same title and keyword text as your free
classified ads remembering to mention your business name and
name if possible. You can manually find free directories by
performing searches on Google and Yahoo or alternatively use a
directory submitting tool such as 'Submiteaze'
(http://www.submiteaze.com) which is reasonably priced.

The results from employing these SEO strategies may be
instantaneous unless the offending article or post has been
prevalent in the search engine listings for a number of years
(2 or more). You can then expect the recovery process to take
up to 6 months of concentrated SEO effort to bump this listing
off the first page of results on Google and Yahoo.

If all else fails...

Employ Step 1 and, if that fails, then lets hope in the very
near future that just like 'spam', slanderous material posted
on the internet becomes a reportable offence to the major search
engines, government bodies and consumer watch dogs. And, that the
consequences for engaging in such underhanded practices results
in a site being dropped from the search engines and classified
as a 'bad neighborhood site', plus a monetary fine of such
magnitude as to deter the practice. If a site can't be indexed
or is banned by the search engines, then it effectively becomes
'voiceless' and the power to publicly affect an individual's
livelihood or a business's profits, growth and sales is then
vastly diminished. Noting, that a banned site would still have
the opportunity to remove any offensive or slanderous material
and then reapply to be indexed by the search engines.

It may be argued that the search engines are not responsible for
this problem. Well as the most influential body on the internet
with the most power to help, who else are we to turn to? The
print and television media are unable to publicly slander an
individual or business without facing retribution via legal
action and a public outcry, so why should the Internet be free
of the same accountability?
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Rosemary Donald is an SEO Consultant with Rank1 Website
Marketing (http://www.rank1websitemarketing.com) and author of
the SEO ebook 'Insider Secrets of Rank1 Websites' available for
$29.95AU. Rosemary is a regular contributor to online article
sites on the topics of SEO, website marketing, ecommerce, search
engine marketing and small business development. Rosemary Donald
is also a successful online trader of top ranking site
http://www.sabujewellery.com
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