How to Clear Bad Press from Search Engine Results

Nothing can be more disappointing to a website or business owner than to find that his or her search engine results are cluttered with negative statements about their product or services. Open forum complaint sites and blogs have unlocked the gates for anyone to say just about whatever they want to about your company, whether it is true or not. 

Here are a few ways to wipe the slate clean and reclaim your search engine ground with information you want your potential customers to see. 

1) Playing Nice- A Tried and True Strategy
The first, and perhaps most obvious, strategy for clearing your company’s name on the internet is to contact the webmasters of the websites where negative comments are displayed about your company. Often a politely and well-written request can make all the difference. Just remember, that cached search engine listings may remain for a considerable amount of time, but they will lead to pages that no longer display the comments you requested to be removed.

2) User-Edited Pages:  The Wiki Trend
Anyone who’s visited Wikipedia lately  knows that Wiki websites are an up and coming internet trend. Wiki websites allow users to add and edit content to existing pages. Wiki comes from the Hawaiin word "wiki wiki" which means"rapidly." Leverage the power of wiki by adding positive content about your company that will help overshadow any bad press you’ve received. Some popular Wiki sites are LovetoKnow.Org and Wikipedia.org.

3) Stop Being a Wallflower—Step Out in Style
Social bookmark sites such as Netvous and Del.icio.us are simple ways to create content buzz about your company, and help you outrank negative comments on search engines. Through these sites you can create an account and post all the positive press about your company or site. You can also post photos at sites such as Flickr. Using your name in the titles of your photos can be helpful to your search engine results. Don’t forget to utilize tagging features wherever they are offered. 

4) Be a Squidoo Guru
The ever-changing and fresh content of blogs are the darling of Google, and it is very simple to create one at Squidoo.com. By creating “lenses” about your site, you’ll have the equivalent of a blog. Submitting to blog directories such as LSBlogs and BlogHub can also help your blog’s rankings.   

5) Write? Right!
You truly cannot go wrong with well-written articles and press releases about your business.  Articles help in a number of ways including, the ranking of your company name, building backlinks to your website and positioning you and your company as experts in your market.  Article Alley is one of many good websites for submitting articles about your company.

6) Create a Business Profile
Some media websites like PR.com and others will allow you to create and update a company profile to be displayed in a business directory. Listing in these directories adds credibility to your company, and they are indexed by search engines, so they can help you flood out bad content about your business. Some sites require an annual membership fee for this feature.

7) Post Classified Ads
Posting your company’s help wanted ads on powerful and popular sites such as Craigslist.org. is a great way to pipe positive information about your company into search engine results. Write the ads as if they are a content article—using your company’s name several times.

8) Comparison Shopping Sites
If you sell products on the internet, you may want to try listing them on comparison shopping websites, sometimes called "shopping engines”. Shopping.com, Bizrate or Nextag are all popular comparison shopping websites. 

9) Testimonials
Ask your customers to write favorable reviews for you at Epinions.com, CoffeeGeek.com or ConsumerReview.com. Nothing speaks more highly than another customer’s positive experience. Recent positive reviews will help clear any negative press of the past.

10) Deep Linking With Directories
Google and other search engines place a lot of weight on backlinks when determining search engine rankings. Octopedia, WorldSiteIndex and Microsoft's Small Business Directory are directories that will allow you to link to pages other than your home page.

How Long Will This Take?

Clearing bad press from search engine results can take several months, but by consistently adding positive content about your company to the internet, you will eventually see success.