Protecting Your Search Engine Reputation

We’ve outlined before on this blog some ways you can help perform damage control when it comes to dealing with negative feedback on your website.  It doesn’t take much for a boiling pot of consumer rage to spill over and torch the very reputation that you’ve worked hard to build online.  Even a simple complaint can quickly spin into a category F-5 tornado, especially with the introduction of social media.

Vancouver Canucks fans got nothin’ on Twitter.

There are some steps that you can take, however, to ensure that you protect your online reputation, at least in the eyes of search engines.  Although these tips won’t completely troll-proof your online reputation, it will at least help reduce the ability for such issues to spread like wildfire.

Domain Control

Make sure that you own not only your main domain but also register as many variations of the domain as possible.  This includes all of the traditional extensions like .com, .ca and .net and also the more colourful extensions like .me or .tv.  In addition to domain extensions you may want to purchase alternate spellings of your domain that could do some serious PR damage if they fell into the wrong hands.

Branding Social Media

If you ever needed yet another reason to step up to the plate on social media, this is it.  Make sure you gain control of the proper social media user names and brand them as the official feeds and accounts for your business.  Facebook, Twitter and other networking sites are hugely popular and as such often show up at the top of search engine rankings.  There’s no stopping someone from creating a false account for your business and spewing a bunch of garbage, intending to cause mischief.

“They ran out of toilet paper at Arby’s? Facebook needs to know about this immediately. ANARCHY!”

It certainly isn’t easy to deal with criticism or negative press online, but when encountering such problems your ultimate goal should be to let your clients, consumers and overall audience know that things are alright.

A proper strategy for dealing with online criticism is key to avoiding a major PR blunder.  To find out more about what you can do to protect your brand’s search engine rankings, contact Point Click Media.