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By Richard B Newman in Featured

onlinereputationOnline defamation and reclaiming personal and professional reputation are hot-button issues these days. Numerous potential claims are available for use against the poster of an unlawful publication, such as defamation, unlawful publication of photographs, harassment, and trade libel. However, from the perspective of the individual who feels as though they have been victimized, it is the website itself that facilitated and caused the harm. In fact, it is the website itself that, more often than not, permits the unbridled dissemination of harmful content and then actually profits from the spiteful conduct.

What liability does the owner or operator of the website itself face? Much to the dismay of those who wish to pursue the website operator the answer is, more often than not, none.

Pursuant to section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (the “CDA”), website owners are shielded from claims that seek to treat them as the publisher or speaker of information provided by another information content provider. Specifically, the CDA, at 47 U.S.C. §230(c)(1), states that “no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.” The immunity is limited to providers or users of interactive computer services, and the claims must treat the services as having acted as the publisher or speaker of information provided by someone else.

However there are narrow exceptions to the broad immunity granted to website owners. For example, a website owner may lose CDA immunity if it ceases acting as a mere passive conduit and takes an active role in creating, screening, and/or editing the unlawful content. Despite the broad CDA immunity bestowed upon website operators, such protection also does not apply to intellectual property related claims, such as copyright, trademark, or patent infringement.

These narrow exceptions aside, website operators are not liable for the content posted by its users. In fact, numerous “consumer gripe sites” routinely refuse to comply with court orders that mandate the poster to remove unlawful content. These websites take the position that posters are intimidated into removing content and that the proper response is to merely post a reply. Ultimately, these website operators use the CDA and other legal precedents as a shield, arguing that they are not “information content providers,” have not aided or abetted a defendant, and that no rule requires them to remove content – and so they will not. Refusals such as these have resulted in a number of lawsuits. In short, even when a plaintiff that properly files a suit against a poster of unlawful speech and secures an injunction requiring the third-party poster to remove the defamatory statements, a website operator can refuse to remove the unlawful content. While most websites value their credibility and often remove defamatory or otherwise unlawful content, others do not.

Recently, courts analyzing progressive issues surrounding Internet defamation and online commerce have started to show some signs of splitting on key procedural issues under the CDA. Some Internet defamation lawyers take the position that Section 230, 47 U.S.C. §230, is one of the most important tools interactive services have at their disposal to shield against lawsuits involving content posted on their websites. They believe that the CDA was designed to facilitate the free flow of information online, by alleviating service providers’ liability concerns about large volumes of user-generated content, which they may lack the means or interest to screen and edit. Could disagreement among federal appellate courts about how closely they should be examining interactive services’ business practices and website design features signal a step backward in terms of legal protections for online intermediaries? Could it create disincentive for companies to make their websites more useful, and ultimately hamper innovation?

Courts are clearly beginning to pay attention to how a website is structured. So, while there are splits among the courts regarding how claims against intermediaries are treated, website operators are well advised to develop products to the lowest threshold.

Richard B. Newman is an Internet Defamation Attorney at Hinch Newman LLP. He can be contacted at rnewman@hinchnewman.com

By Nick Stamoulis in Featured

onlinereputationIn the online world, your reputation is one of your most valuable business assets. A good reputation instills confidence in your consumers and business partners, and can also help carry your company though bad press if/when it arises. Much of your online success is related to your online reputation, so that reputation needs to be carefully protected and maintained.

The maturation of social media has taken the control of a brand and placed it squarely in the hands of the consumer. It doesn’t matter how you define your brand, it all comes down to what your audience says. One negative comment on a social networking site can spread like wildfire in a matter of seconds and companies have to be prepared to deal with any related fall-out.

Here are 5 ways you can better manage your online reputation:

Set up e-mail alerts

All you need is a Gmail account. An e-mail alert is Google’s attempt to condense web activity around a given keyword or search phrase into a daily e-mail. While it doesn’t show you the entire buzz about your company and related keywords, it is a good way to get a snapshot every day of what is going on online.

By Julie Ann Ross in Featured

Practicing online reputation management is a must for any public relations professional who believes his or her company may face a corporate crisis in the future. As our news gathering and reporting moves online, online reputation management is becoming more important. Now, news stories and blogs are being indexed by search engines, and many times, if a company makes the news, that can sometimes be the first item found in the search engine rankings.

Proactive PR is important for online reputation management, because it means you are creating positive search engine results, which can keep negative search results from ever appearing. You can focus on positive content-generating activities, rather than putting out fires via reactive management.

Here are five ways to improve your online reputation management.

Start a blog. Fill it with as much positive information as you can find. News releases, product and service descriptions, customer questions, employee interviews, and anything else you can think of. The more content you can create, the better your online reputation management efforts will be, because you will have a central location you can direct people to.

Create a Twitter profile and a Facebook page. Fill your networks with customers, journalists, and anyone else who would have an interest in your company. Answer customer care questions, link to your blog posts, and be a valuable resource to anyone you interact with on these networks. An important part of your online reputation management will be to create positive relationships with people. This way, if something ever does go wrong, you’ll have a group of people who are willing to support you, or at least forgive you.

Use your own face and name on your company’s social media profiles. While this may not be possible for a large corporation, it’s crucial for a small business. An important part of your online reputation management will be to put a personal face on your corporate brand. People will be able to relate to your company more easily, which will make your online reputation management efforts much easier.

Join a niche social network for your industry. Start communicating with people on the network, especially answering questions and providing information. You can help your online reputation management by becoming a trusted resource among your industry peers and customers. Form relationships with people on the network, make referrals to people inside and outside the network, and work to become a regular, well-known presence in the group. If there is a crisis that hits the media, you may end up finding allies in your industry group who will speak favorably about you.

Good online reputation management includes effective search engine optimization. Do all of these other steps with an eye toward SEO. Your ultimate goal is to win all searches on the big three search engines; Google, Bing, and Yahoo; which will help keep negative entries off the front page. If you’re already sitting on top of the mountain, it will be harder to unseat you. But if you aren’t even on the front page when an incident blows up, you’ll have a hard time getting to the front page let alone the top of the results. And the longer you wait to begin, the harder it will be.

It’s important you begin your online reputation management efforts immediately. If you ever find yourself in a crisis, and the news results hit the search engines, it’s too late to start thinking about online reputation management. You’ll be playing catchup for days, weeks, and even months later, trying to overcome every news story, blog entry, and tweet that other people have been posting while you’re still setting up your first Twitter account.

The key to online reputation management is to do it before you ever need it, and to create a positive online brand. Follow these five steps and you’ll be ahead of the game.

Rostin Ventures principals have extensive experience in restoring reputations online, using Reverse SEO among other tactics to provide positive Online Reputation Management Services (ORM Services). When an individual or company name is being searched in Google, Yahoo, Bing and an undesired page or website appears, they can push the negative page back in the search results where it will rarely, if ever be found. www.RostinVentures.com

By Julie Ann Ross in Featured

Reverse SEO fits seamlessly within the context of your online reputation management (ORM) program.It is the quickest, most effective solution for dealing with bad press that has surfaced on the search engines about you or your company. By pushing negative listings from the front page of Google, Yahoo, and Bing, reverse SEO shields you from the damaging commentary of others.

Negative publicity online has become one of the most frustrating challenges for companies. It is typically anonymous. Names are often unattached to forum threads, blog posts, and even entire websites. Therefore,it is difficult to track and address the source of the complaint. Moreover, the growing popularity of social networking platforms has made it easier than ever for anyone with a mild grievance to give weight to their grudge. If you or your company have been the target of bad press online, it may be time to launch a reverse SEO campaign.

In this article, we’ll clarify how negative publicity gains traction within the search engines, and how it can lead to a public relations nightmare. We’ll also provide a working blueprint for executing a reverse SEO campaign and controlling the damage.

Controlling Bad Publicity With Reverse Search Engine Optimization

To appreciate why reverse SEO is effective, you should understand how negative press takes root within the top search listings in the first place. Google, Yahoo, and Bing rank pages based on a large number of criteria. If a website and its individual pages satisfy the most important of those criteria, those pages will rank well.

A lot of the bad press that targets companies (possibly even your own) is placed on websites that meet key ranking parameters in the search algorithms. That means the negative publicity can climb into the top positions and gain exposure. When people search for you or your company, they’ll see the bad press. That damages your reputation.

Reverse search engine optimization is an ORM strategy that pushes negative publicity from the top search positions. By moving the bad press off the first page of listings, reverse SEO limits its exposure and stifles its impact.

Ingredients For An Effective Reverse SEO Campaign

Like search engine marketing, reverse SEO uses a methodical, multi-pronged approach to protect your online reputation. The first step is to identify the sites and pages that contain negative publicity about your company, and are ranking for important keywords. Those keywords might include your name, that of your company, or key employees.

The second step of reverse SEO is to analyze those sites and pages for their respective ranking authority. That will help you determine the effort and tools you’ll need to use in order to move them from the first page of listings within Google, Yahoo, and Bing. A negative PR blitz that is spreading across the social networking sites is more difficult to remove than a single blog post that is on a non-authoritative domain.

The third step is to gather the necessary tools and execute your reverse SEO campaign. Utilization of optimization tools such as press releases, a new network of competing sites and blogs, social media profiles, and social bookmarking programs. Reverse SEO may also include heavy content syndication to build high-quality links. A search engine marketing specialist will have these tools at their disposal.

Reverse SEO Begins Before Negative Press Emerges

The best time to launch a reverse SEO campaign is before bad publicity appears in the search engines. This is due to the way that the pages link. A page will rank well within the search engines if there are enough thematic links pointing toward it. However, once it ranks, it will gain exposure. That exacerbates the problem.

Negative press can spread rapidly as people attach the press to their own blogs, sites, forums, and social media accounts. That creates a growing portfolio of links pointing toward the damaging press, cementing its position in the top listings. It becomes more difficult to address. By launching a reverse SEO campaign upfront, you can prevent the negative publicity from gaining exposure in the first place.

Protect Your Online Reputation With Reverse SEO

Reverse SEO should play a key role in your online reputation management program. It is far too easy for unsatisfied customers, resentful employees, lazy journalists, and malicious competitors to tarnish your name. And when it happens, it is usually done under the cover of anonymity. Anonymity makes the complaint or grievance impossible to address in private.

Launch your reverse SEO campaign now – before trouble strikes and the damage begins to gain momentum in the search engines. In a year’s time, you’ll be glad you did.

Rostin Ventures principals have extensive experience in restoring reputations online, using Reverse SEO among other tactics to provide positive Online Reputation Management Services (ORM Services). When an individual or company name is being searched in Google, Yahoo, Bing and an undesired page or website appears, Rostin Ventures can push the negative page back in the search results where it will rarely, if ever be found.

By Julie Ann Ross in Featured

reverse seoReverse SEO has become critical for all types of organizations. Throughout history, it has never been easier for your customers, competitors, and employees to publish items online that can have a negative impact on your business. If those items gain exposure in Google, Yahoo!, and other major search engines, their effects can last for years. Regardless of whether you operate a small firm with less than ten employees or a multi-billion dollar company, bad publicity can decimate your business.

This article will introduce you to the fundamentals of reverse SEO. We’ll explain how it works and the advantages of using it. We’ll also describe a seldom talked about strategy of leveraging reverse SEO as a preventative approach to online reputation management (ORM). You will discover why many companies are rushing to SEO specialists to enlist their assistance for damage control. If you are not currently using reverse SEO to limit the effects of bad publicity, your company may be vulnerable.

By Julie Ann Ross in Featured

Reverse SEO has become one of the most effective strategies for minimizing the impact pf bad publicity within the search engines’ organic listings. It is an online reputation management (ORM) tool of SEO consultants who manage public relations online. Too often, companies become targets for negative press online. Angered customers start blogs to take businesses to task for grievances suffered, real or imagined. Dishonest competitors will often go to great lengths to distribute fraudulent reports online. Still others post untruthful reports about companies simply to cause mischief. The problem is that these blogs, pages, and reports can start ranking well in Google and Yahoo.

Reverse SEO can be used to suppress negative publicity that targets your company in the organic listings. By pushing bad press onto the second, third, and fourth pages of Google, those pages will be prevented from gaining traction or attention. In today’s article, we’ll explain the potentially devastating effects of negative press and how reverse SEO can help you manage your company’s public relations online. We’ll also describe what you can expect when you work with an experienced SEO consulting service.

Why Reverse SEO Tactics Are Used

The reason to use reverse SEO is based upon current societal trends. Many of your customers are likely to research your company on Google, Yahoo, or Bing before purchasing a product or service from you. When they find reviews, they tend to believe them. Unfortunately, there are few barriers that prevent people from posting negative reports online about your business.

For example, a disgruntled employee can start an anonymous blog vilifying your company. An unsatisfied customer can post a less-than-honest story about your business on ripoffreport.com. Your competitors can do the same. The reputations of more than a few companies have been decimated in this way.

When prospective customers find these pages on the search engines, they give them unwarranted credibility. Reverse SEO minimizes the damage. Studies have shown that the vast majority of searchers never venture onto the second page of listings. Of those who do, a small fraction progress to the third page. By pushing negative publicity off the first page of Google’s listings, a reverse SEO strategy removes them from sight.

Reverse Search Engine Optimization Curbs Negative Publicity

Negative publicity, if left unchecked, gains momentum in the search engines. Highly-ranked pages attract links. As inbound links increase to these pages, they become harder to remove. This is why it is important to launch a reverse SEO campaign as soon as bad press emerges, if not beforehand. By suppressing negative pages quickly, you can prevent them from gaining traction. Cut off from a supply of links, they will eventually submerge into the depths of the search engines’ listings.

The Basic Strategy of Reverse SEO

In the same way that a search engine optimization project requires a refined approach, a reverse SEO campaign should also follow a rigid formula. The basic strategy relies upon a network of authoritative sites to control the first page of organic listings for your company’s name. That includes article and press release syndication, capturing keyword-rich sub-domains on authoritative blog sites, and carefully using social networking properties. There are also a number of formidable online tools that can be used to further support your reverse SEO efforts.

By leveraging the ranking ability of these authoritative sites for your company’s name, you can control the first page of organic listings. That pushes negative press downward beyond your customers’ field of view.

The Positive Effects of Reverse SEO Require Time

It’s worth emphasizing that a reverse SEO campaign takes time to gain momentum. Even though you will be leveraging authoritative sites that rank more quickly than other properties, controlling the first page of Google is not an overnight process. However, once these sites climb to the top positions, they are very difficult to remove. Their ranking ability does not guarantee immediate results, but results tend to be sustainable. That means future attempts to attack your company with negative publicity will be forced to climb a much higher wall to do so. In effect, your business will be insulated.

Working With a Reverse SEO Consulting Service

The full-service SEO agency with whom your company works will already have a honed strategy for deploying a reverse SEO campaign. They will maintain a list of authoritative sites that are groomed for your circumstances. They’ll research your website’s position in the search engines as well as the positions of any negative press that currently populates the organic listings. Rather than pursuing reverse SEO methods that are unethical and thus, have only short-term results, they will use principled tactics that prevent bad publicity from gaining traction in the future.

Reverse SEO is becoming a popular method for minimizing the damage from complaints and negative reports, whether they are valid or not. In fact, a growing number of companies are relying upon reverse SEO tactics as a preemptive strategy for managing their public relations online.

Reverse SEO Consultants are found at Rostin Reagor Smith, Inc. With national experience in online reputation management (ORM) and proven strategies for reverse SEO in public relations online, Rostin Reagor Smith is the resource for reverse SEO (reverse search engine optimization,) public relations online, search engine marketing, and ORM (online reputation management.)

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