Search Engine Marketing and Reputation Management

Search engines A well organized and funded attack campaign intended to damage a company’s reputation and branding efforts will normally have at least some elements of search engine marketing. For an attack to be successful, search engine marketing is required to push the content of the campaign high enough on the pages of the major search engines so that it can be seen by searchers. The most effective and damaging attacks are usually sponsored by corporations due to the time, expense, and amount of work involved in the execution of the campaign. These sponsored attack campaigns incorporate blogs, complaint boards, articles, and forums into a strategy of consistently posting negative content about the targeted company. That kind of breadth in an attack gives the impression that issues being brought up in the negative content are both widespread and ongoing. The repetition of the theme through multiple venues reinforces the message and over time can convert those that were skeptical of the content at the first exposure. The same principles for conventional optimization apply to negative content campaigns. In situations where companies are under-optimizing their web presence, negative content can be search engine optimized and marketed to the point where it ranks higher than the targeted company. Whether it’s justified or not, credibility increases in the mind of the consumer in a direct relationship with page rank on the search led lights engine pages. If negative postings start getting higher page rankings than the targeted company the damage incurred can be swift and severe. Regardless of how outlandish the negative content may be, its repetition, focus on the message, and high page rankings can make it seem like the truth and steer potential purchasers toward the sponsor of the attack or other competing websites. The counter attack to these campaigns will be very similar in design to the attack itself. Starting with a determination of where the attack is coming from, its scope, and where the negative content is being posted, the optimization and marketing strategy and its tactics are put into action. Positive content already on the internet is located and new, search engine optimized content is created. Fact based rebuttals to negative content get posted wherever possible. Links to all positive comment are put in place to add to the credibility of the new content. Battle lines drawn, the ultimate outcome comes down to three factors:1) Money – Search engine optimization and marketing requires money and resources. An attacker is led light bulbs likely to scale back or stop altogether if there is a determination that a campaign is no longer cost effective.2) Discipline – Work has to be done constantly and consistently to determine a positive outcome.3) Talent – Without it, the expenditures of money and discipline/work are diluted. On the other hand, partnering with a talented and experienced reputation management company can make all the difference. A firm that can deliver quality content, a broad counter offensive, and cost effective results can turn back an attack, preserving a company’s reputation and savings thousands of dollars in revenue that might have been lost otherwise.Negative content campaigns, if left unchecked can wreak havoc for a company in many ways. Responding immediately with a talented and experienced reputation management partner can keep damage to minimum and provide a huge return on investment.