In 2007, following disputes over wages and benefits, current and former employees began to attack the company with highly inflammatory blog and forum postings. This went to the extent of a lawsuit filed on behalf of some of the employees, an action that further engendered unwanted news coverage as well as a continuing cycle of negative press events.

The issue became more deeply entrenched in the following months as employees set up dedicated “attack sites” where they continued regular postings. Since many of the blog postings were linked to the attack sites, and since the attack sites used the client’s corporate name in the web text, these attack sites rose to top Google rankings for searches on the company name and related keywords. The damage to the company’s reputation deepened and began to affect business in the variety of countries in which the client operated. Online Reputation Manager identified as many as 25 keywords that brought up negative postings — a significant problem.

Online Reputation Manager had a critical task at hand where it had to simultaneously manage top 20 search engine rankings for 25 separate keywords—in effect, an optimization campaign for 500 web pages. For this reason, the required remedy had to include not only an extensive content writing campaign, but the identification of 500 web pages, each of which would have to be placed in the top positions in order to suppress the rankings of the offensive content.

Online Reputation Manager began to achieve top search engine rankings for many of the keywords within the first month of the campaign. Within six months, Online Reputation Manager achieved positive positioning for 18 of the 25 keywords identified.

CASE STUDY 2

Global Distribution (not real name) is a subscription fulfillment center for a long list of professional publications in such areas as photography, home décor, and wedding planning. Subscription orders are processed in the main office, and orders directed to the relevant publisher. Global provides customer service and timely delivery to tens of thousands of subscribers. Global has been a leading name in direct selling for nearly 20 years and is a member of a reputable national sales organization. Global’s reputation for excellent service is a key element of its selling proposition.

Within the past year, one or more unidentified parties began to post complaints regarding the company’s services on a high profile business-rating site. It was apparent that the complaint was contrived, an apparent attempt by a competitor to undermine Global’s business standing.

The damage became extensive when searches on the company’s business name yielded offensive listings as high as rank position #2 in Google. The postings became a serious threat to the Global’s reputation and needed to be removed from the search engine results pages.

Global contracted with Online Reputation Manager when the situation became intolerable. They asserted that their industry was highly competitive, and that the perception of consumer service satisfaction was critical to them.

Online Reputation Manager undertook a campaign involving site development, marketing and public relations submissions, and search engine-oriented strategies.

1. Marketing and enhancement of website.

Within two months, the publicity we generated dominated the engines and displaced negative publicity content on the business-rating site. This represented a radical improvement in Global’s online image.

HighStep Marketing (not real name) holds an important position in the direct sales industry, and has, in the past two years, experienced unparalleled growth. The company has a workforce of several hundred and a reputation for customer service. HighStep has been at the forefront of direct selling for fifteen years, and is dedicated to carrying on the industry’s history of providing reliable, trustworthy service to customers. They travel extensively throughout the US in order to establish a national profile, and are known for providing training, employment, and career growth opportunities to young people nationwide.

The company faced two major issues regarding negative online complaints on a well-known business complaint registration site such as www.ripoffreport.com. These complaints threatened their reputation and created further concern of lowered sales and customer loyalty.

Online Reputation Manager undertook the task of posting a high volume of positive web pages to counter the negative web pages associated with the complaint site. This effort involved combining public relations and standard SEO practices. The objective was to radically increase the density of positive results pages in the search engine listings, and to use these positive listings to push the offensive pages below the top 20 ranks in the major search engines.

Within two to three months, we suppressed over 95% of the offensive content to below rank position 20 in Google and the other engines. Within four months, 100% of the offensive postings were suppressed. Web searches on the client’s name (and related keywords) now yields only a wide variety of positive articles and other listings.