Best way to defeat negative press?
-
Hi there, One big reason my non profit hired me to tackle SEO for our site is that there is currently a lot of negative stuff out there right now about us. There was a lot of stuff that went down in the past, and currently Googling different names of our org's members, or typing in variations of our name, brings up several sites that are negative and inflammatory. They have been up since the early 2000's, so they have that advantage over us. It's interesting because I'm sort of in a position where I'm doing SEO for the sake of doing SEO, which is sort of cool because I get to learn a lot. We don't really have conversion KPIs or anything, but I'm sure that will come in time. I suppose my question is, what is the best way to tackle this? I mean I know that overall doing great SEO will help, but I'm wondering if there's a specific practice I should be focusing on to defeat a ton of negative stuff that has age over us. I'm also concerned that even if we get our site listed #1 for various searches, there will still be the negative stuff on page 1, just lower ranked. Any thoughts? Thanks for your time!
-
Thanks Ryan, this is really helpful. We have our Social properties in place, we just need to come up with a comprehensive plan to keep it updated. Any recommendations on readings on how to get a plan together for social media? That is probably another Q/A...right now our struggle is getting daily posts, and finding the right people to follow.
I am doubting that we will be able to afford a consultant. I took a pretty hefty paycut to take this position...it's a non-profit that I feel passionate about, which is the only reason they could afford me. Not that I'm SEO expert, by any means...I'll actually be doing a lot of different things for the org on the administrative side.
Out of curiosity, any idea on a price range I can expect to see for an SEO consult?
-
I think Ryan hit it on the head. One place commonly forgot about but important is the Better Business Bureau. It is a paid listing that does provide tremendous benefit in ranking for Brand and giving clients comfort for your service.
Local listing sites would also be great places to look to make sure to take ownership of your property.
-
Hey Mike
As already suggested set up lots of social sites and spend some time on them i.e don't just set up a twitter account actually use it and it will rank very highly.
Another great way is to find all the good stuff out there on the web and link to it!
Doing this will help give it a push in the serps hopefully pushing up the good and clearing the bad.
Hope that helps
-
I have never really looked at doing this sort of stuff in the past but I always assumed the key would be to get lots of positive external content which would lower the negative external content.
I guess the place to start is social networks, press release sites, review sites, Google Places etc..
-
Is the brand name affected? Id make sure that you rank #1 for your brand name, because Google is giving those site large site links that almost go down to the fold before the #2 listing.
Also, I would grab as many social media profiles that you can, so if a user searches for you then your twitter, facebook, etc... accounts should show up on that first SERP page.
I'm sure there are a lot of different ways of getting rid of bad press(you'll find a ton of ideas here), and hopefully your company doesn't assume you'll create good press for them, that's up to them to change the ways they currently do business for the future.
-
Mike,
Clearing search engine results from a single well-ranking negative article requires a combination of a tremendous amount of focus, effort and money. My recommendation would be to hire an experienced SEO to consult with on this issue. Have the SEO create a plan, which you will then execute.
On a high level, by far the most effective means of resolving the issue is contacting the sites who are providing the negative pages and make every effort to work things out. If that is not possible, then your next steps are to create web pages which will outrank the negative pages.
As a non-profit you should have a twitter account, facebook page, LinkedIn and other social pages. Each of these pages, if properly promoted, have the ability to outrank the negative publicity. That would be a good start. The good thing is all of your efforts will have value for your organization outside of simply cleaning up the current mess.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
What's the best way to search keywords for Youtube using Moz Keyword explorer?
I want to optimize my youtube channel using identified keywords, but I'm concerned that the keywords I'm identifying work well for SERP's but might not be how people search in Youtube. How do a distinguish my keywords to be targeted for Youtube?
Moz Pro | | Dustless0 -
Is there a way for me to find out how a keyword would rank if it were on a specific site?
Is there a way for me to find out how a keyword would rank if it were on a specific site? For example, lets say that XYZ.com does not have the keyword "ABC". Is there a way for me to find out how the keyword "ABC" would rank if it were on XYZ.com?
Moz Pro | | TurboH0 -
Best blog practices for website
For my Insurance website blog, I use MOZ to help me find high DA authoritative sites, then either generate ideas from them, or rewrite the copy. If I rewrite the copy, I tend to pull from 2 - 3 top authoritative sites. Just so I don't get in trouble, but still offer the most concision information. _My question is, Is this ok to do? _ Secondly, I just read that on some .Gov sites the information is public, and that you can use it as long as you give credit. _My questions is, how do I tell which information is public? _ Thank you in advance 🙂
Moz Pro | | MissThumann0 -
Easiest Way to redirect 50 404s spread out randomly over 9400 pages
Hello, I've got about 50 404s I'm hunting down and redirecting (to the home page) on a client's site. There are no on-site links pointing towards most of them, they're just out there floating and indexed by google. I should be more specific - these URLs just pull up as a blank white page with nothing on it. I'm concerned that Google has these indexed and it is causing a problem. They're all Ecommerce category pages where the URL has been changed. site:domain.com is showing 9400 pages. Moz analytics is showing 4 404s Is there any faster way to track down all 50 404s than to manually go through the 9400 URLs in the SERPs after I type in site:domain.com? Thank you.
Moz Pro | | BobGW0 -
Is there a way to view Facebook book stats for last 30 days instead of a week?
I'm trying to Facebook stats (engagement, exposure, etc) for the last 30 days instead of the last week...when I look at Facebook admin stats I'm only seeing the last week. Does anyone know if there is a tool (or a way to do it within Facebook) to see the stats for a 30 day time slot instead of just a week? Thanks!
Moz Pro | | NoahsDad0 -
What's the best way for SEO newbie to analyze & fix a site after being hit by Panda?
Hi, I have a prospective client who was in the top 3 on Google for two of their primary keywords. They fell way back in the rankings immediately after Panda was rolled out on September 27, 2012. Two weeks ago, they were at position #118 for one keyword. After looking for them in Rank Checker today, they cannot be found in Google at all. Here's my question. Because of the "bad links" (some pointing to Porno sites)... what's the possibility that this situation cannot be fixed? I don't know... maybe I'm asking an irrelevant question. I'm attempting to assess the situation so I can go back and present my findings to the prospective client. I'm committed to understanding what's going on with their website so I can assess the situation properly. Fixing their problem starts with a correct assessment. They have a ranking problem, and I know I can fix that... IF all their site needs is white hat <acronym title="Search Engine Optimization">SEO</acronym>. What I DON'T want is... to sell them <acronym title="Search Engine Optimization">SEO</acronym> services, only to find out in 3-6 months... I made an incorrect diagnosis of the problem, and therefore sold them the wrong solution. I know I can close the sale if I can show them with reasonable substantiation that the damage is not beyond repair. I'm familiar with the basics of <acronym title="Search Engine Optimization">SEO</acronym>, but I'm unfamiliar with how "bad linking" might effect the long-term commitment to optimizing. They're wondering if they should start over on another website. I was attempting to do an assessment to better understand if my typical approach on this site would be sufficient. Also... I wanted to get an assessment/report to show them something to substantiate my conclusion(s) about their website. If Open Site Explorer is sufficient to do the link analysis... great. At least I know I'm working with the right tool. All I have to do is learn how to use the tool quickly. At this point... I'm not sure which tool would be helpful. So... can you speak to the following 2 questions: 1.) How do you know when ranking problem is beyond fixing? 2.) What software/tool is ideal for doing some link analysis in order to assess the problem, and prescribe a solution? Thanks so much! Ramon
Moz Pro | | 48dayscoach0 -
How to push negative product review sites down.
Hi Guys, One of my respected clients have some issues with negative product review sites coming up when they search their brand name on google. So for an exmaple, when I search for Company Name on google, the 3rd and 4th results are angry customer reviews. This is harming my clients brand so bad. My questions are, 1. What should I do to push these results down. I am happy to do pretty much ANYTHING to push these sites down. 2. I'm also thinking of doing a blog for this client for SEO purposes and wondering the pros and cons of having the blog as a subdomain vs subfolder. Which will help me to again, push the negative site links down. Thanks
Moz Pro | | Uds0 -
Best way to improve your SEOMOZ avatar status ?
Whats the best way to improve your SEOMOZ avatar status and gain SEOMOZ brownie points? I notice some people have amazing status level such as Guru how is this possible? Surely That becomes a full time job in itself?
Moz Pro | | Bristolweb0