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December 9, 2024
When the CoronaVirus Panic started in early 2020, hand sanitizer was one of the most sought-after products. In hindsight, it looks a bit silly, but hand sanitizers seemed like a matter of life and death back then. Some of you may remember another story from back then: During all the commotion, some dude from Tennessee named Matt Colvin stored a massive haul of more than 17,000 bottles of hand sanitizers in his home-Wearhouse and sold them for about 70$ each. Unfortunately for Matt, in March 2020, he was the subject of a New York Times article regarding Amazon sellers in the pandemic. Though the article twisted the story a bit, and the reporter used a different narrative than Matt thought he would when he agreed to do the interview, it didn’t matter: Matt Colvin was one of the most hated people in America for a few weeks.
Of course, time went on, and everybody forgot about it. However, more than two years after that New York Times article, anyone who tries to search Matt Colvins’ name on Google will immediately see the New York Times article at the top of the search results. Six months ago, Matt was somewhat redeemed eventually when a documentary called “15 Minutes of Shame” (Produced by Monica Lewinsky, herself a victim of probably the first major online shaming ever) gave him a chance to tell his side of the story. But the article is still there whenever someone Googles Matt’s name; Furthermore, many people like Matt around the world suffer the consequences of negative information about them online. For some of them, the only solution to this problem is online reputation management, or ORM.
There are a variety of actions that we can use to carry out an online reputation management activity. But before we dive into them, it is worth first understanding how Google works: When we search for something on Google, Google’s algorithm aspires to show us web pages that most likely will match the phrase we have tried to find. To do that, the algorithm uses hundreds of indicators, such as the web pages’ meta-title, meta-description, internal links, referring links, users behavior, word density, domain name, domain characteristics, and more. We will never know all of the algorithms’ markers, but there are several hundred.
Another thing we need to understand about Google is that, in general, Google prefers to show us diversified search results from different domains. In other words, if we search for something on Google, on every page, we will likely get about ten results from ten various websites on every page of search results.
After we understand how Google works a bit better, we can start manipulating the search results (or at least try). First, we analyze the search results: What websites are we dealing with? News websites? Blogs? Facebook post? It could be from anywhere, but the first strategy we can try to implement is “Switching.” What is switching? Because Google is trying to give us diversified search results, we can clear our search results page if we can replace the negative search result in the domain it is located. For instance, if it is a Facebook comment, we can try to replace it with another content on Facebook that will make Google prefer it at the expense of the negative result.
Another example can be an article on a news website: Many news websites offer the possibility to purchase sponsored content articles. There is a good chance that we can pay the news website and publish a positive article regarding the name or brand name that we are trying to clear. If we do it right, it will replace the negative story on Google whenever someone searches the name or brand name we are working on.
Another common strategy in an ORM activity is “Push Back.” If we can’t replace the negative search result as stated above, we can try to push it back to the 2nd or 3rd search results pages, where no one will probably notice it. It is done by establishing and posting all kinds of websites and profiles under the brand name. For instance, if there is a negative article about a restaurant somewhere, what we do is open 3-4 WordPress websites for the restaurant, add a couple of social platforms on the restaurants’ name, and buy a couple of sponsored content articles. If we do this right and under Google’s algorithm indicators, we will manage to push back the negative result to the point where it will no longer damage the restaurant’s reputation.
In conclusion, reputation online is essential; It can determine if our business will succeed, and even personal stuff like our right to a good name and privacy. With ORM, we can control our reputation online and get a 2nd chance.
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