[Note: I am not affiliated with American Laser Centers in any way. I picked them as an example because they are a local Michigan company that I googled and – right away – saw a page full of negative results for. I have also not researched the complaints and am not aware of whether they are true or not.]
When taking on a new online reputation management client, one of my first steps is to research the actual client: their brand, current online initiatives and presence, and the background on any negative information that is posted about them.
The second step, however, is to research the actual web sites that any negative information is posted on. Are these web sites solely geared towards bringing down one company/person/product, was it a one-off post that happens to rank high, a forum posting with a number of people who chimed in, an employee/customer/client that had an unpleasant experience, or a combination of the above?
American Laser Centers: 4 Negative Results Above The Fold
I decided to use a real company in this post because it allows me to give real examples that other companies can apply to their situation. The company I chose was American Laser Centers, a laser hair removal and cellulite reduction company with headquarters in Michigan.
While this post addresses analyzing negative results, American Laser Centers first step should be to address the negative information if at all possible. In this case, it is possible. But that’s another post.
When I google the company name, “American Laser Centers,” three of the five organic results that show up above the fold on my screen are negative results, plus one negative pay-per-click result.
If I scroll down to see the organic results below the fold on my screen (I have my settings at 10 results per search term), there are two more negative results, for a total of 5 out of 10 negative results on the first page, or 50% of the first page!
Keywords
In this situation, I searched for the exact company name, “American Laser Centers,” but if you search for variations of the name, more and different negative results come up. Try “American Laser Center,” or “American Laser” and different results show up. Depending on the amount of traffic a company receives for specific keywords, branding
American Laser Centers: An Online Reputation Management Series Case Study
involved, or results showing up, each keyword should be given a different priority level. In this case, the keyword “American Laser” is also showing companies in different industries and only one negative result, so priority should be given to the first two keywords before focusing on the third.
When analyzing negative results, compile a list of keywords to analyze by coming up with a list of products and services, company nicknames, common misspellings of your company name, company name and variations, and common search terms that bring traffic to your site (via analytics).
Search Engines
In the example of American Laser Centers, I’m only focusing on the results as they appear in Google, but a quick search shows negative results (and different results) appearing in Yahoo!, and Bing. When trying to analyze or move down negative results, remember that each search engine ranks results in different ways.
PageRank/Title Tags/Links
Online Reputation Management: Page One Analysis
I’ve stuck with the results from the first page of Google in the chart above, but many companies are looking to push negative results down to at least page three. If that’s the case, you’ll want to analyze three pages deep, as well.
In the chart above, I’ve compiled the URL of the results, the PageRank (as of 11/16/2009), whether the result is positive/neutral or negative, the number of links pointing to the domain, number of links pointing to the page, and whether the keyword being searched is being used in the Title. When working with a client, I update these numbers weekly to graph any movement in both rankings, links, and the actual site. I’d want to see the number of links to positive pages increase week over week and I would want to keep a close eye on any new links to negative mentions.
While some argue the importance of PageRank and whether it will play a part in future rankings, it’s still an important factor when analyzing negative search results. A combination of the PageRank of a site, the links to the domain of the site, and the number of links and quality of those links to the page that is ranking are all variables that determine how high a site will rank for a keyword.
In the “American Laser Centers” example, the first negative results, complaints board, only has a PageRank of 2, but the domain itself has a PageRank of 5, over 29,000 links, and 24 links pointing to that page alone.
I looked at the search results on Google, a search engine that tends to rank sites based on the quantity and quality of links that are pointing to a site, as well as the anchor text, and finally, PageRank. In the results above, I can see that Inc.com could be raised a bit higher if a few links were to be pointed at that page. By analyzing the Title Tags, links, and link quality of each of the negative results that appear on page 1 for your keyword, you can determine how hard it will be to outrank them, what they have done to rank so high, and a general outlook of what kind of work you’ll need to do. With 5 negative results, American Laser Centers will be looking at a few months, minimum, to push down the negative results and move up and/or create positive results, but it can be done.
Once you pinpoint the negative results that appear for your keyword, you can drill down to each result and further analyze:
- Links pointing to negative result:
- How many links are pointing to the page that is ranking? Analyze the link quality of each link pointing that page: PageRank, anchor text used in link, context of post pointing to page
- On-site optimization of negative result(s): Is the keyword you are analyzing in the title tag or used frequently in the negative post? Have they made use of internal linking, keywords in category/tags pages, in Alt tags, or are they doing any blackhat techniques (when a site is out to get you, opposed to the one-time post that unfortunately ranks high, you may have to do more research into their techniques)?
- Are the negative results that are ranking dormant or active?
Analyzing the basics (links, titles, PageRank) of negative results will help to give you a better idea of where to start with your online reputation management initiatives, but it will take a well thought out plan to actually see movement.
In the upcoming posts, I’ll go into detail about the tools you can use to analyze results, what efforts can be made to address negative results, how to find positive mentions of your brand/keyword, how to create positive mentions, and how to push positive mentions up in the rankings.
