How To Get Rid Of Your Negative Online Reputation

12 Jul How To Get Rid Of Your Negative Online Reputation

Removing negative content is not a quick and easy task, but it’s almost always worth trying (so long as the attempt to remove it doesn’t make things worse). Research shows that nearly 45% of people discover things online that change their minds about doing business with a company. If a potential customer reads even one negative review, they aren’t likely to click your link or purchase your product. It’s not just reviews. Things like defamation of character, bad reviews, negative articles, or something else can all damage your reputation and in most cases ought to be removed from search result

What is a negative online reputation
While researching my book, Good News for Bad People, I found that most people I asked defined a negative online reputation as a string of bad interactions on websites, blogs, social media, and forums. These can be negative events like a bad customer review or a bad report in a review mill. They could also be the negative account you get from every payment processor and payment processors, or the negative rep when you try to open an account with another bank. They could be from an unhappy former employee, or from your phone company issuing you a scathing write-up after you missed a bill payment. But these interactions don’t have to just be bad for you.

How to remove negative online reputations
Once you’ve identified a particular review that is causing you grief, the first thing to do is investigate it. How long has this review been around? Who wrote it? How can you find out more? What is the company’s policy for reviewing and responding to reviews? If the review was written by someone who is a customer, should you try to contact them? Some platforms will let you review anonymously and only accept reviews that are genuine. If you’re having a hard time getting to the source of a review, you can also perform a reverse image search on the photo accompanying the review. It might take a bit of time and effort, but it’s a simple way to quickly pinpoint where the review came from and its validity. In most cases, removing negative content is a simple process.

Some examples of negative online reputations
There are many negative online reputations, but for the sake of this article we will focus on five companies. All of these companies were contacted to talk about their negative online reputations. Each of them felt that their negative reputations could be beneficial for their business. Some of these companies actually agreed with their reputations and even went as far as to encourage the removal of their negative reviews. 1. Southwest Airlines. The Denver Post recently published an article entitled “Fare hike at Southwest means painful flight delays and a lot of angry customers.” It’s the headline that is what seems to have angered Southwest Airlines the most, but they do have a legitimate gripe with the Denver Post.

Conclusion
We all know what it’s like to experience negative remarks about our own products or service. Not all comments are bad. Some even increase our leads and sales. On the other hand, most reviews are negative and are a significant obstacle for us in creating a positive brand reputation.