You will find quite a few complaint websites with high rankings such as the South African local one hellopeter.com on the world wide web. Complaints placed on these trusted sites usually ranks very high on the organic Google search results for your brand, company name and even the names of your key executives.
These days, upset clients have easy access to review anyone and they can even set up a blog for free to express their feelings to the world. This is a big problem because these complaints stays on the internet forever. Legal action can get these removed, but it isn’t easy.
What can you do to repair your digital reputation when this has happened to you?
Monitor
Every company should set up tracking and reporting systems that will notify them any time their name is used on the web. This could include their name mentioned in searches, blog or forum posts, etc. Google Alerts is a free tool that will send you an email any time Google detects something new being said about you or any phrase you specify.
Respond
Start by taking a little time to monitor and view the reaction. Criticism of your services or products should never bring a strong response or argument. Always be concerned and helpful to resolve the issue. Try and turn the situation around.
Repair
You may not be able to erase what has been said about your brand and company, but you can take steps to minimize the damage. The goal is to push the damaging statements down in the organic search results and replace those with positive information and comments.
The key to repairing your digital reputation is to be focused on a specific phrase such as your company name. Launch a series of articles, press releases, videos on YouTube, blogs and even possibly an article on Wikipedia. Use the exact phrase you want in the title and the body of the text. With time, the search engines will generally give these good rankings.