The world of shopping online has changed a lot since its inception. Most shoppers today will first look at the company/brand before they can make an order with the same. The main idea is to know whether the company is legitimate/genuine or not and to see what other shoppers are saying about the same. That said, online shoppers will do a simple search on Google on the company, and will only read through the top page of a search result.
What the audience/customer finds on these pages determines whether or not he/she will shop with you. For this reason, it would be advisable to weed out any negative publicity that might show on the top pages of SERPs. While a tiring and slow process, flushing out these results will be far beneficial to both the company and the brand.
Here are a few tips on how you should do it.
1. Seek resolution with the webmaster: If someone posted/published a blog or report complaining of a bad experience they had with your company, settling the issue with the webmaster could help. Although a long shot, you’ll be required to track the customer down to see what you can do to satisfy them. Doing this can help calm the customer down, hence have the negative publicity removed from the web.
2. Create profiles on social networking platforms: The social media is one of the best places to influence both organic customers and search results. It’s the ideal way to start if you are wondering how to push negative search results down.
You, however, need to have/create a profile with most of these platforms for the strategy to be effective. You could start by creating a Facebook page under the company name, sign up with Twitter, build a profile on LinkedIn, and other networking sites including Miss, Reddit, and Digg. Be sure to be active on these sites to build ranking over time, hence own the search results.
3. Be active on other blogs: Blogs and blog commenting provide another way to get your company known out there, and gain as much exposure as possible. Commenting on some of the top-ranking blogs could also help improve the company’s visibility to search engines as well. Experts recommend leaving positive and informative comments on these blogs to help pitch in the conversation. The comments need to be genuine though – you don’t want to be marked as a spammer.
4. Have the company listed in relevant directories: Having your business listed on relevant online business directories would be a wise move. This should see you get decent rankings by search engines. These directories however need to be trusted to have an impact on your page’s performance as well.
5. Send out press releases send out regularly: Press releases provide a convenient way to flush out any negative publicity online. These however need to be done regularly to help suppress any negative influence and posts out there. You can have the press releases published on blogs, news websites, and other relevant channels.
6. Unleash the power of article/content marketing: Submitting quality and informative articles in article directories and other channels can also help give you the much-needed exposure. You should however be sure to attach your name/company name on the article whenever publishing it. Some of the best article directories include articlebase.com and ezinearticles.com.
7. Guest blogging: This strategy enables you to get your name out there through other blogs. It is also one of the effective and recommended ways to get rid of negative publicity and generate leads as well. Be sure to choose carefully where and how you do this.
