Online Reputation Edge

Understanding and Disabling Google Personalization

Brett Borders — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:55:13 +0000

One of the most common questions I get from readers who are tracking negative content in the search results is:

“Why are are Google search results different when I use someone elses computer?” -

When you’re trying to track the visibility of a negative search result (anxiously watching for it to go away), it can be maddening to watch its position arbitrarily shift around each day. The negative link may appear at the top of page 1 on your laptop in the morning, but show up on page three at the library internet terminal the same afternoon.

The reason for the fluctuation is that Google automatically customizes the search results for you. Google records all the information about what you search for and which links you click on — stores it all in a secret database somewhere — and uses it, in part, to determine which web pages and ads you would mostly likely be interested in clicking on. If you’re always clicking on your own company website, it can start to show up as #1 on your screen (but no one else’s). If you’re always clicking on a negative article on page 2, Google “thinks” its your favorite site and will move it up to the top of your search results.

If you are logged into Google (through Gmail, Android OS, AdWords, etc.)… then by default it is recording your web history. Even if you log out of Google, it tracks your searches through your IP address and a cookie stored in your browser.

How to Turn Off Google Personalization in the Search Results

Sign out of your Google Account. When you’ve done this, you shouldn’t see your Google Account or e-mail address at the upper right part of the screen anymore.
Search for what you want. After you see the results, click the tab that says “Web History” in the top right corner of the search results page.
Click “Disable customizations based on search activity.” This should remove most of the personalization slanting, according to Google, but I don’t know if it is reliable and absolute.

After experimenting with this, you can follow Google’s instructions for permanently deleting your web history.

Two Additional Tricks to Stop Google Personalization

After each search, add “&pws=0″ to the end of the URL in your browser’s address bar, hit enter and run the search again. This is a command that means “personalized web search equals zero.” Here are more instructions for disabling personalized search in Firefox and Chrome.
For the paranoid: Clear your cookies and use a proxy. A web proxy is a remote computer that you can use to mask your real IP address. Clear all the cookies from your browser, choose from this list of free web proxies, use one to connect to Google and then search from there. Your results should definitely not be influenced by your past search history.

While it’s unclear how different “what Google actually do” is different from “what they say they do” in their privacy policies… Following these instructions should show you how the Google results appear to others, uninfluenced by your previous clicks and searches.

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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.

Why Negative Pages Rank: Link Neighborhood Diversity

Brett Borders — Thu, 20 May 2010 22:00:00 +0000

Google’s PageRank – the algorithm that decides which pages show up when someone searches for your name – is an incredibly complex and nuanced algorithm. Every time you hit the “Google search” button – it runs millions of possible result pages through a detailed mathematical equation and displays the highest-ranking results on the first page.

Google takes over 200 factors into account before deciding where a page should rank in the search results. You certainly can’t just “whip up 20 new pages” and expect that they’ll rank overnight. Google takes into account when the page / and or domain was first discovered, as well as a few hundred other quality controls that make it very difficult to game or “whitewash.” It appears to semantically analyze both the content of the page, and the content and tone of the different sites that link to it – to determine where it should rank in the index.

Say you do a search for Abraham Lincoln. All the results in the top ten are being propped up by links from schools, government websites and historical information sites. But one day a new domain is registered called “AbrahamLincolnConspiracy.com” and it starts to accumulate links from an entirely different and diverse set of link neighborhoods — skeptic sites, historical revisionism sites, and conspiracy theory forums. These aren’t junk sites or spam – they’re real, popular sites where people publish controversial opinions. Google wants to offer a diverse mixture of information to the end users and may well try and boost the visibility of this page in the search results.

Here’s a more common, business-oriented ORM example: Say you do a search for “Joe’s Auto Repair.” You see 9 positive results and one negative one on the first page. There are over 15 pages that mention his shop, but they’re mostly linked to by low quality automotive-themed sites and local business directories in Joe’s state. Then Joe has registered 5 blogs on different topics (he didn’t know Google can tell who registered them and where they’re located) – and he linked these to his positive pages to repair his online reputation. But that one darn consumer complaint site domain has over 50,000 links from other consumer watchdog sites, and the negative review page on it about Joe’s shop has links from an angry lawyer’s blog who claimed Joe ripped him off. Google will probably discount Joe’s domains and automotive-theme links, push some of them aside and make space one the one negative page appears to be different and unique – because it has links from a quality legal-themed blog, and none from the usual auto sites and directories.

Note: this is not a scientific fact (Google does not share the details of their algorithm) but merely my personal opinion based on observations made when working intensively with search results.

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!

Making Online Reputation Management Look Natural

Brett Borders — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:01:27 +0000

Making your online reputation management (ORM) campaign look natural isn’t easy. It takes creativity, an eye for diversity, and the ability to step outside of yourself and get inside the head of the average (hurried & skeptical) web user.

This 5-minute video will give you some tips on creating a natural online identity:

Do you have any theories or tips for maintaining an natural online identity? Please leave them in the comments below…

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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