Negative Online Reviews? Bury Them Fast or You Will Lose.

| Friday, March 29, 2013
By Jim Randolph Kirkland


What happens when you or your company gets a negative review online? Can you even fix a bad business review? The answer is yes. There is a solution to your worries. In fact, there is a step-by-step plan that will remove negative online business reviews from your potential customers searches. If you can't get the negative review removed, you can sure get it pushed out of the search engines' first page of results.

Negative online reviews can sure cause some trouble. If a negative review or scam page is in the first page of results, there is a chance that it could climb up to the top of the search results pretty rapidly. People love to read up on the dirt, and clicks and views make results go higher in the search results. So, you want to get the review to page two as soon as possible. If the negative online review is already on the second page, you're in pretty good shape. Just keep an eye on it.

Although most people don't go to the second page of results of search engines, a negative review can cause some trouble if it is on the first page. A scam claim can kill your business pretty fast, but not if no one can see it. If the negative review is on the first page, you must keep it 'below the fold.' In other words, if it is the sixth result or lower - most people will not click on it. 75% of all 'googlers' only click on the top two or three results for any given search. However, if the title of the review is unusually obnoxious, it may be higher i.e. Company XYZ Sucks and Scams People. If this is the case, do some damage control.

What do you do if it is on page one? Is it possible to fix a bad business review online? The answer is yes.

You should first attempt to contact the webmaster of the site. I have successfully removed a previous employee's complaint, based on the fact that he disclosed proprietary information and was in breach of his previous contract. Just write a nice letter telling the site owner what information is false or proprietary and they may just remove it for you.

If that doesn't work, respond to the review with professionalism. Don't point fingers or claim 'he said - she said.' Simply apologize for any misconceptions and let the poster of the negative review know what steps have been taken to alleviate any future problems in their area of concern. Not that you really care what this one person thinks (or maybe you do), but you are really telling everyone else that sees the review that there isn't a problem anymore.

Responding to a negative review isn't nearly enough, though. You must pursue search engine 'maximization.' You can either do this yourself or hire an SEO company to do it for you. There are several reputation management companies to choose from. Try to see if anyone in your network has used similar services and get a recommendation. Even after Google has updated their algorithm several times (and will continue to do so), there are several methods to get positive links about you or your company above the negative review.

Just remember, it takes some time to fix negative online reviews. You must do the work and be patient, or hire a very competent company to do it for you. Plenty of companies do this and get results.




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1 comments:

Unknown said...

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