Online Reputation Edge » Online Reputation Management

Maximizing Front Page Visibility for Your Primary Domain

Brett Borders — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 18:53:24 +0000

If your site is poorly optimized, it may only take up one space on the front page of Google’s search engine results page (SERP) – leaving the rest of the page “up for grabs” by your competitors and customers. However, a professionally optimized and marketed site can take up more visual space – and you can dominate the upper, “above the fold” area where most people look first.

In the example below, the pay-level domain *.apple.com takes up 5 spaces at the top of the page:

Here are some tips for maximizing control of the home page with your official domain:

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements. Search engines make money by selling placement ads. If you bid high enough on your brand name, you can appear near the top. If your business name is trademarked, you can prevent other people from buying ads for it. You can file a trademark complaint with Google (note: must be logged into a Google Account) to prevent competitors from buying ads for it.
Official home page. After your site has been around for several months and picked up some links, it should appear near the top of the search results. It should at least rank for your exact domain name (i.e., ExampleWidgets.com should rank for “example widgets”.) If it doesn’t, there’s a problem and and need to consult a professional.
Sitelinks. Sitelinks are a sign that Google considers your site to be the number one, most-trusted destination for a particular search phrase. You can’t buy or ask for sitelinks, they are automatically granted to some sites. If you get sitelinks, you can manage how they appear inside Google Webmaster Tools.
Link-rich Internal Page. A popular page or article with an abundance of internal links (i.e., linked to in a sitewide menu or sidebar) as well as external link citations can show up below the home page in the search results. Try to create a piece of flagship content that will be a link magnet for your visitors, and promote it heavily – both on and offsite.
Link-rich subdomain. In my personal observations, I have often seen subdomains like “locations.example.com” or “store.example.com” show up in the search results – if they have lots of links and other signs of activity. Note: You usually won’t get more than one subdomain to show up unless it has hundreds-of-thousands to millions of links.
Local Business Listing. If you put an official mini-site, subdomain or directory on your main domain – listing all your organization’s regional locations… and register them with Google’s Local Business Center – you can get a Google map in the middle of the search page – pointing to your official site and taking up a lot of screen “real estate.”

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Using Humor to Defend Against Negative Publicity Attacks

Brett Borders — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 01:06:39 +0000

This week, a Turkish ship full of Pro-Palestinian activists tried to break a naval blockade of the Gaza strip. When the Israeli Navy tried to board the ship to inspect the cargo, violence broke out and 7 Israeli soldiers were wounded and 9 activists were killed. Israeli officials calaimed that the Gaza Flotilla was a pre-planned negative publicity stunt – a conflict designed to provoke Israel into a defensive reaction that would harm its reputation in the media. Flotilla organizers blamed entirely Israel for the violence, and much of the world’s media sided with them.

Israeli activists hit back with a comedy PR video combining slapstick humor and video evidence that their soldiers were acting in self-defense… mocking the weapon-wielding flotilla passengers who called themselves “peace activists”:

This video went viral and got over 3,000,000 views within 10 days. It caught the attention of the pro-Israel and anti-Israel crowd… and humor was able to help Israel partially neutralize some of the damage and explain its case better than a long and passionate defense.

Setting Up and Safeguarding An Online “Alter Ego” Identity

Brett Borders — Mon, 10 May 2010 17:36:29 +0000

Not too long ago it was fashionable and normal to go by a pseudonym like “CyberBabe” or “Warlord” – even on professional blogs or forums. Around 2008, when Twitter started to take off, a critical mass of people became more aware of the branding advantages of using your real name. While using your real name is best for branding and business, there can be some hefty privacy disadvantages. You’ll have to be very conscious about what you say — and about what others say about you — when using your real name… as it goes on your long-term, digital “permanent record.”

It’s absolutely normal to have “something to hide.” Not everyone is a squeaky clean, vanilla, boring professional. Maybe you dabble in alternative sexuality, radical politics or you’ve got a sensitive health issue you’d like to discuss on a forum? If you go the “real name” route, you are sure to create a set of digital tracks. Here are some tips for keeping your online shadow identity secret and private:

Use a Proxy or VPN.

No matter what username or e-mail you use, the administrators of sites and blogs you post on will able to see your IP address, which is associated with your real name (in many cases). For non-casual cases that require extra security, use a proxy server or a virtual private network (VPN) to create an extra layer your real IP address. Then it will often take a legal subpoena for third-parties to track down your real IP address.

Establish a root e-mail account.

Don’t register for forums or social sites using your normal e-mail account – because the administrator will know your real identity. Make a secondary e-mail address on a free e-mail service. GMail or Lavabit – and register all your alter ego’s accounts under it. This will help keep things organized and your real e-mail address safe. Don’t log into sites with OpenID, Twitter or Facebook connect – as this shares your real ID credentials with the site you’ll be using.

Choose completely unrelated pseudonyms and avatars.

Don’t be tempted to use an image or name that offers any possible clue to your real identity, no matter how subtle or oblique. Pick something totally random and avoid puns or unconscious associations that may offer evidence as to who you really are. Don’t use real people’s images as avatars, as this can attract unwanted conflict or attention. Use a cartoon avatar or a non-copyrighted picture of something.

Be really, really careful about who you are logged in as.

The easiest way to blow you cover is to be accidentally logged into Twitter under your real name, thinking you are logged in as your alter ego, and post something identifying that blows your cover. Before you post anything as your alter-ego, make double sure you are logged into the correct account — before clicking “send” or enter.

Never confess your true identity, even in private messages.

If you want your online alter ego to be secure, don’t let anyone know who is really behind it. Loose lips sink ships. Each person who knows the true owner of your alter-ego account makes your security much more vulnerable.

Monitor your typing, grammar and spelling style.

It can be easy to roughly identity someone by their digital “handwriting” – their typing style and certain words they frequently use or consistently misspell. When posting under your alter ego, either make sure your spellchecking and grammar is perfect… or write in a completely different style of punctuation and sentence structrue than you normally do. Be consistent.

Beware of “psychic” residue.

I have seem things that were posted completely anonymously, but someone “energetically” picked up on who it was and called them out for it – without any proof or evidence – and the community believed the accusation. If you are the only one griping loudly about this one small issue, and suddenly you quit and some other name / avatar resumes right where you left off – people will assume you are the same person. So watch your timing, tone, typing and energy signature so you’ll be able to fly under the radar.

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Disclaimer: This post is not legal advice. It is written as free resource by a well-meaning IT consultant, not an attorney. All information on this site is for informational & inspirational purposes only, and it is NOT a replacement for qualified legal conunsel. Please seek the advice of a qualified attorney who specializes in internet law before proceeding or acting on important online legal matters.

Online Sabotage on Complaint Sites

Brett Borders — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 01:11:31 +0000

You can’t belive everything you read online. This is especially true if you read it on a trashy, anonymously-registered “complaint” site. These for-profit sites, like Rip Off Report, ComplaintBoard and Pissed Consumer – make big money by running huge blocks of ads alongside, over, under and inside the anonymous, negative “reviews” of companies. Some charge victimized business owners $5000 a year to edit or remove false reports.

These “consumer complaint” sites are being exploited by someone interested making reputable companies (especially successful ORM sites) look bad by using online sabotage: creating false libels against competitors. Someone out there is hiring third-world contractors to invent and systematically post “complaints” accusing legit company owners of fraud, theft and unethical business practices.

Want to see proof that malicious, fake online reviews are being used as online sabotage against ORM companies ? Here is a list of 5 fake “complaints” that were apparently filed by the same individual over a 24 hour period from 3/24/10 – 3/25/10 – and all were copied and pasted onto multiple sites. All of the victim’s have sites that rank visibly in Google for “online reputation management.” Most reports claims that the company “stole” a sizable sum (between $1,900 to $6,000) and then refused to do the work or communicate again. Most of the reports have a similar style of electronic “handwriting” – written by a non-native English speaker who OCCASIONALLY USES CAPS LOCK for EMPHASIS.

Fake “Complaint” #1

Victim: Online Reputation Edge
Post Date: 3/24/10
False Allegation: Claims that I stole $6000 and refused to return phone calls. Ha!

Fake “Complaint” #2

Victim: Elixir Interactive
Post Date: 3/24/10
False Allegation:The company uses high-pressure sales via telemarketing, stole $2750. Says the owner should be put “in jail.” Ha!

Fake “Complaint” #3

Victim: OnlineRepManagment.com
Post Date:3/24/10
False Allegation: Claims this informational blog (has no commercial services or contact info listed) is a “complete fraud.” Also claims that the site promises things that it clearly does not even address or mention. Ha!

Fake “Complaint” #4

Victim: BigBlueRobot.com
Post Date: 3/25/10
False Allegation: Claims the company stole $3500 and has a big team of lawyers that harass people. Ha!

Fake “Complaint” #5

Victim: Sayre Online
Post Date: 3/25/10
False Allegation: Claims the company is “complete scum” and stole $1900. Ha!

Proof of Copy & Pasting

Here is a report that accuses the company ReputationHAWK of holding people “hostage” and being “careless,” but it doesn’t even use the same company name consistently in the report. At the bottom, ReputationManagers.com is carelessly pasted into the complaint template:

All Successful ORM Sites Have Been Subjected to Online Sabotage

Reviewing the evidence here leaves me two options:

#1 – All the successful, well-known ORM sites and companies are being systematically sabotaged by a competitor.

#2- ALL of the ORM companies that are considered trustworthy by Google are actually “complete frauds” and they each respectively swindled $1900 – $6000 from the same overseas guy (who can’t spell or write proper English), during the same month, and he posted several hundred complaints about all of them on the late evening of March 24th!

It’s easier for me to believe that I’m married to the Tooth Fairy and we have Seven Dwarves for kids… than it is for me to believe #2.

If your company was listed in this article and you would like to address these reports or have any concerns, please e-mail me – brett -at- onlinereputationedge -dot– com – and I’ll promptly take care of anything you need!

LastPass – An Excellent Online Identity Management Tool

Brett Borders — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 02:47:25 +0000

LastPass is a high-quality online password manager for all popular web browsers. It lets you toggle between multiple online identities and brands (personal, business, client #1, client #2) at the click of a button – and it remembers all the passwords without getting any of the details mixed up:

The most complex and crucial part of an ORM campaign is online identity management (i.e., tracking the Gmail, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, etc. logins and information continuity – for each of your brands and clients). If you don’t have a solid tool like LastPass (basic version free, $12 per year for premium) – you’ll be tempted to use the same password for all the accounts – and chances are you’ll forget some of them or keep them in an insecure place. I just switched to LastPass from 1Password and it is one of the very best online idenitty management tools. It does a lot more than just remember passwords, so explore it and find out.

(Note: I have no absolutely affiliation with the makers of this software, I just dig it.)

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The Danger of Stealing People’s Content, Images & Identities

Brett Borders — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 03:37:51 +0000

Recently, the Iran arms smuggler for Hamas (a Palestinian Arab terrorist group) was assassinated in a Dubai hotel room. The suspects used forged passports bearing the names and photos of real people in Israel and other countries. These innocent people woke up one morning to find out they had been framed as killers: their name and reputation was “assassinated,” ruined in the international press.

These people were framed, most likely by an Arab or Israeli intelligence operative. Photo: AP

Even if you think that using someone else’s name or picture won’t be a big deal, it can have serious and international-scale repercussions. It can also backfire and mess up your online reputation. Here’s how:

Using Someone’s Name or Likeness Without Permission

My friend Sitka in Oregon woke up to find out a picture of her face was featured in a Korean national newspaper. Her friend, who was teaching English in Seoul, saw her face in a column on improving English skills. She had no idea how the Korean paper possibly got her picture. What did she do? She blogged about it. This can easily create negative publicity for the organization that used the person’s image.

The Law: The person who takes the photograph, or who makes the art or diagram owns the copyright to it. It is legal to use a photo featuring a person’s image on the Web as long as you took it yourself, or else have permission from the photographer or copyright holder.

The Safe Bet: Regardless of the law, many people are very sensitive and may get angry if a (subjectively) “unflattering” or unexpected photo of them appears on your site. Use a cartoon avatar of someone instead of their head shot. If you must use someone’s likeness in an ad or website without permission, blur their face out with Photoshop or crop them out of the picture. If you must use someone’s name as an example, do what the Weekly World News tabloid does… and use an extremely common name like, “John Smith“.

Using Other People’s Photos & Diagrams Without Permission

If you copy and paste a photo from someone else’s personal website or Flickr stream – and add it to your own website – they may well find out. And they might get mad. Then, they might blog about it and “call you out” in public, creating a worse reputation for yourself.

The Law: These days, almost everything online is copyrighted, whether you see a copyright notice or not. Unless you are explicitly and reliably assured the image is public domain, you should assume it is forbidden to use. You’re not allowed to upload the photo to your own webserver and use it on your own site. Courts have ruled that “hotlinking” – or linking directly to the image on someone else’s website and using their bandwidth – does not directly violate US copyright law… but it makes some webmasters quite mad.

The Safest Bet: E-mail or call people first, before using their photos. If they don’t respond to you, you can always say you asked first but didn’t hear back. If you are determined to use someone’s photo without her express permission, offering them credit with their name and a link to their site may help soften any animosity that could develop. If someone “busts” you for using an image you don’t have permission for, apoligize profusely and offer to remove it ASAP don’t argue. Don’t hotlink if possible. If you want to use someone’s diagram, create one with similar information yourself… don’t just swipe theirs entirely.

Dangers With Scraping People’s Text or Web Content

I have had some of my best blog articles and headlines blatantly “ripped off” by competitors. I got a little mad, and I either wrote to the offender in private or left a tactful public comment noticing the similarity. Other people seem to get a lot more angry than I do. They will sometimes engage in a nasty defamation or extortion campaign to get “revenge” for stealing their intellectual property.

The Law: Web scraping is illegal in the US, although it is extremely common. You cannot legally take paragraphs of text content published on someone’s private web site and copy it onto your own. You may be allowed to use short excerpts or quotes for commentary and discussion purposes, according to US courts.

The Safe Bet: Don’t publish text from anywhere else on the internet, including a private e-mail sent to you, on your website. Google doesn’t like duplicate content, plus… the original author will likely find out and get mad… and it can easily backfire on you. You have to make sure your own writing is 100% original, but you also need to check the originality of articles that your employees and guest contributors submit to you. Check out Plagiarism Today for more detailed info.

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Traditional PR vs. Search Engine Reputation Strategy

Brett Borders — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 03:20:33 +0000

There are major, fundamental differences in how traditional media and search engines serve up news and information. The public also consumes, evaluates and remembers info they see in search engines differently from what they see in print.

PR pros who are getting deeper into online reputation strategy should consider these fundamental differences:

Traditional Media Is Temporal & Fleeting

Traditional media is cyclical. News is refreshed each day. Bad publicity lasts only as long as the paper is on the newsstand, and after that it lingers faintly in most people’s memory. That negative memory can be effectively offset by putting a “positive spin” on things. So… the PR firm orchestrates a disabled children’s charity drive and fires off a dozen press releases to announce it. If this is done skillfully, the public’s negative perceptions are slowly massaged out of the collective memory and replaced by positive perceptions, one media mention at a time. There’s nothing to compare side-by-side. The negative information is no longer in sight. Just warm fuzzies brightening up yesterday’s dark thundercloud.

Search Engines Are Permanent

Search engines index information “permanently.” As long a page is live on a webserver somewhere (and the domain does nothing shady to get penalized or banned) – the search engine will probably keep “listing” it somewhere in the search results. It will usually remain in the index until the website goes out of business or gets taken down by the webmaster. Even if you manage to get some “positive buzz” right on the front page, the negative information will probably still be there – right in front their faces.

(“Wash all the negative stuff out by flooding it with positive information” is mostly the mantra of hucksters and ORM novices. It can sometimes work in mild cases of reputation damage, but it rarely works for severe reputation problems that are impacting established businesses.)

Search Engines Directly Invite Scrutiny and Comparison

Search engines naturally encourage people to compare a variety of contrasting web pages, side by side. There’s a ton of junk on the web, and people have adapted and become very discerning about the credibility of content they’re consuming. Many people can spot fake reviews and PR puffery a mile away. Heartfelt negative sentiment mixed with phony, manufactured positivity and praise looks worse than just negative sentiment alone. It is my firm belief that creating neutral, natural pages is usually far more credible than stuffing “positive” pages into search engines.

That’s the way of the web. Adding a “positive spin” on things doesn’t work in the same way it does with temporal, cyclical traditional media. The negative information will still remain there – perhaps for a long time to come – and adding too much positive stuff just seems to accentuate and validate it.

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Questions to Ask Reputation Management Companies

Brett Borders — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 21:37:45 +0000

A knowledgeable online reputation management company or consultant can be invaluable for those with online reputation questions or problems. But buyer beware: there are hundreds of “boiler room” ORM firms run by money guys and their poorly-trained salespeople and third world “technicians.” Hiring the wrong type of company can be catastrophic for your online reputation by making it look irreparably worse than it did before. It also wastes time and money that could have been used to improve your reputation.

It pays to ask yourself (and any prospective reputation management company) lots of hard questions before making any kind of contract. Here are some questions that go through my mind when I am evaluating services that are offered:

Does the company operate “anonymously” or are there “real people” involved? Performing work on your online reputation is complex process that requires a very personalized and delicate touch. You should look for a really smart, honest and reliable people – human beings – who can help you. You don’t want an anonymous chop-shop with a 1-800 number and 4 different people are handling the keys to your digital identity… and then not communicating clearly with you about what’s happening.

Do they show any proof of their knowledge or skill? Is there anything on the site (articles, blogs, videos) that demonstrate a certain level of technical knowledge and communication skill – or is it just a sales brochure that’s skimpy on anything of substance? Do they rank in the organic Google search results for their own business terms like “online reputation management” – or do they rely on spammy domains and paid ads?

Does the company have any reputation in the SEO, PR or social media worlds? Online reputation is a new industry without a well-defined sense of professional standards or certification – but it takes up-to-date and “black-belt” knowledge of SEO, PR and social media marketing. Do they have any “social proof” of their reputation in these areas – like substantial interviews, guest articles, blog comments, trackbacks and retweets? Can you find anything online that attests to their history, skill and involvement in online marketing – to show they are not unknown, unskilled or “fly-by-night”?

Do they make any kind of “money back guarantee”? The world’s most elite SEO and ORM experts are just as unlikely guarantee specific outcomes as the world’s best surgeons or attorneys. The nature of the work is unpredictable, their own reputation is paramount, and they are not desperate to take your money. “Boiler room” ORM shops that do high-volume sales frequently offer bogus guarantees to get people to overlook what seems “too good to be true.” They know most online defamation victims will be too weary & exhausted to fight for a refund after months of deception and disappointment.

These are the questions I find myself asking as I look at sites of the online reputation companies that seem to pop up each month.

I have personally seen some devastating reputation damage that was done by incompetent or unscrupulous ORM firms, where a person’s identity was botched and looked far, far worse than before the company got involvde. I get a lot of calls from people needing help and, unfortunately, I don’t know a lot of solid online reputation companies or consultants that have time to take them on. Hiring an online reputation company is a huge decision that should never to be made impulsively: ask a lot of question and shop around!

Why Reputation Attacks Are Self-Attacks

Brett Borders — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 02:52:19 +0000

When people get emotional and publish defamatory attacks on the internet, they probably think “I’m gonna show him!” They rarely think about what other people are going to read — between the lines — into their diatribe.

We are all interconnected. Attacking others can easily stain your own reputation. image: sahaja meditation

What you say about others online, and how you say it, is more a snapshot of your own character than it is about the person your speaking about.

Quick story: I know two guys who run advertising agencies. One of them won a contract with a big-name brand. The other one had bid on the contract, was dismissed in the early stages, and he became full of sour grapes.

A few months later, the losing owner wrote a public piece with a scathing criticism of how his competitor’s agency was handling the Big Company’s ad campaign.

Did it make the agency he was attacking look bad? Not one bit. Did it make him, the critic, look like a petty & poor loser? Did it raise a huge red flag about his own character, professionalism and truth worthiness? Yup. Big time.

Before reading his nasty review, I had a positive impression of the critic. The moment I read it, I became immediately and permanently mistrustful of the him. He showed himself as a hostile, insecure and unprofessional.

The digital threads of interconnectedness permanently and visibly tie us all together. We all live in fragile glass houses. Throw stones at a neighbor and you may well crack your own – for everyone to see.

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Personal Domain Name Squatting / Extortion

Brett Borders — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 05:23:40 +0000

Watch out! People are registering domains that match the full names of high-profile executives, building them up and ranking them, and using the public visibility to financially scalp them. This could only sound like a “good business plan” to a morally and creatively bankrupt person with no ability to create anything valuable of their own. But, unfortunately, such people exist and they’re doing it.

A mock-up of a existing personal name squatter / extortion site.

If someone registers a name and quietly holds onto it outside of the public eye, that’s opportunistic capitalism or “squatting.” But when someone swipes a person’s name online and uses SEO techniques to make your stolen identity situation blatantly obvious to the world.. in order to pressure you into paying them money… then that’s full blown reputation extortion.

Using a meta description tag to call attention to the executives’ stolen identity

Denver SEO Zach Katz published an interesting account of how he got his domain name back from cybersquatters. Zach wrote the domain company who was holding his .com site, citing section 4b. of ICANN’s Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy:

b. Evidence of Registration and Use in Bad Faith. For the purposes of Paragraph 4(a)(iii), the following circumstances, in particular but without limitation, if found by the Panel to be present, shall be evidence of the registration and use of a domain name in bad faith:

(i) circumstances indicating that you have registered or you have acquired the domain name primarily for the purpose of selling, renting, or otherwise transferring the domain name registration to the complainant who is the owner of the trademark or service mark or to a competitor of that complainant, for valuable consideration in excess of your documented out-of-pocket costs directly related to the domain name…

While writing a letter didn’t directly get Zack’s domain back, his knowledge of the domain trademark dispute process helped him get his request taken seriously. There are a set of rules that all professional domainers are aware of.

ICANN, the international domain authority, has designated the National Arbitration Form as the third party to handle the domain name dispute process.

The arbitration process looks quite messy and complicated – and it seems to favor trademark holders without making specific references to personal names. But it is possible to file a complaint and go through a detailed bureaucratic process if you are willing to pay fees. However… it would be far simpler to just register your own business or personal domains today – even if you don’t plan on using them now or in the forseeable future. Just do it!

Hat tip: to Everett Sizemore for bringing this activity to my attention.

If you have any personal experience dealing with executive domain name squatters / extortionists, or with arbitration.. please leave your comments below!

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