Negative publicity is when consumers talk negatively about a brand, product or service in public (e.g. on social media platforms). Posting or publishing negative reviews on social media handles, Google review pages and website feedback forms are examples of negative publicity. Negative publicity causes negative marketing. Individuals who create negative publicity may be unsatisfied customers, an angry ex-staff member or an anonymous representative of a competitor.
The virtual world is growing every day. People can access the internet from anywhere in the world. People are more connected to each other than before and can learn new things every day. The online audience is increasing every second and people are searching for more information every day. Given many people surf the web, it is not good for a business to have any kind of negative publicity. Negative publicity can harm the business in many ways. Today we are going to learn more about Negative Publicity. Being a SEO Consultant in Melbourne, we would like to share some insights on “How to Remove Negative Search Results from Google”.
We are going to share a few secrets which will help you remove negative search results from Google. But before we share these secrets, let’s understand a little bit more about Negative Marketing.
The internet has created many opportunities for different business owners to market their products or services on multiple internet platforms. Finding a digital space is important for every business in the world. If we talk about online presence, almost every business established throughout the world is available online. The business might have a social media page, online business directory, PR Channel, website or a business listing. In today’s world, the internet is the easiest way to drive business smoothly and reach out to a wider audience. There are so many other positive effects of online marketing, but today we are going to learn about negative publicity and how to remove negative search results from Google.
Deal with Negative Publicity
It’s not an easy task for business owners to deal with Negative Publicity. The process requires maximum effort from the business team and the engagement of a Digital Marketing Expert. Negative publicity can harm business reputation greatly if left unchecked. Every business owner needs to understand the importance of online presence and learn to handle Negative Publicity effectively.
In this Knowledge Graph, we will learn about some SEO Strategies to push down negative search results. It will be interesting to understand “Reverse SEO” which is a great strategy to deal with Negative Publicity.
Brand Negative Publicity
Brand negative publicity is negative marketing that targets the brand name only. With this type of publicity, users express their anger against the brand name instead of the business’s services or products. For example, example.com is a service provider which sells x product but due to a mistake, a faulty product was delivered to the user and the use was not happy. Displeased about the product, the user starts complaining about the brand (example.com) from where he/she has purchased the product. Now, here is one important point to understand about brand negative publicity. Every user who is not satisfied with any service or product will make a complaint to the brand. If the user does not receive a proper response or a quick resolution, they will start targeting the brand with negative remarks. When talking about brands negatively, users start complaining on the following platforms.
- Google My Business Page
- Business Listing sites
- Negative comments on social media i.e. Twitter and Facebook Pages
- Parody web portal or deceptive brand website
Negative Publicity for Services
Similar to brand Negative Publicity, services negative publicity involves users who are receiving particular services. Let’s understand this better with another example. Hypothetically, Sharp Instincts is providing paid services such as monthly newsletters for Digital marketing Services in Melbourne Australia updates. But users are not receiving the latest updates on the list of companies providing SEO services in Melbourne as per the paid subscription plan as promised. Instead, users are receiving quality information from other free platforms. The very first step a user would take is to contact Sharp Instincts and inform them about other service providers and demand the services according to contract. If a positive response was not received from Sharp Instincts, they will start talking negatively about Sharp Instincts services on the internet.
Product Negative Publicity
Product Negative publicity is different from Brand Negative publicity and Service Negative Publicity. This arises when users are happy with the brand, but they are not happy with the product. E-commerce platforms across the world are familiar with this kind of Negative Publicity. Let us take one more example here.
Let us assume that Sharp Instincts is an E-Commerce brand in Australia which is considered to be a large brand in the Australian market, like Amazon where different vendors can list their products to sell online. A user has ordered a number of products from Sharp Instincts but they received faulty products. In this hypothetical scenario, the user would make a complaint against the originator who has listed the product on the E-Commerce platform for sale rather than expressing frustration to the E-Commerce Brand.
In this situation the user starts talking negatively about the product they have received and for that they user different internet platforms.
Let us take another example of negative product publicity. If customers are loyal users of any brand and on one occasion, they received a faulty product, they will complain to the brand but will not talk negatively about the brand.
Negative Publicities for Person
Negative publicity for a person is common and often involves users and PR agencies working with News Platforms. Person negative publicities involve public figures and famous personalities such as Sportsmen, Politicians, Actors and Athletes. Person negative publicity is completely different to all the above listed publicity types. It involves large audiences and different media platforms. Let’s take an example of a politician that is not liked in the community. This leader has an image which no politician in the world would like. While sharing reviews about this leader, most of the users collect facts circulated by News agencies and PR agencies. The user’s information is manipulated by information media platforms.
Person negative publicity requires the following practices to write negative reviews about the person.
- Creating Parody Social Media Profile/Pages
- Web Pages including Personality Name
- Publishing Negative blogs
- Paid Promotions on social media
Let’s now understand how negative content can impact your business.
Impact of Negative Publicity on Business
There are several bad impacts of negative publicity on a business. It is not restricted to bad sales impact, but it can damage a lot of other things as well.
Impact on Brand Equity
Brand equity can be impacted because of negative articles on different internet platforms and search result pages. For example, the brand may have to recall their products because negative information creates an undesirable image of the brand and its products.
Trust Loss
It takes significant time and effort to gain user trust. One tiny mistake can break trust with a consumer. Remember to act fast in response to complaints and user reviews before it destroys trust between users. Once a brand loses its trust, it became an exceedingly difficult task to re-gain the user’s trust. Losing trust would directly affect your brand’s online reputation and product sales.
Effect on Sales
Every negative word on the internet about a business directly affects its product sales. The more your business receives negative reviews, ratings and social media mentions, the more you lose sales. Words on the internet play an important role in brand reputation and driving sales campaigns smoothly. If you are not taking complaints or user reviews seriously, you may see a dip in your sales.
Impact on Brand Reputation
Negative articles about brands leave a huge impact on brand reputation. Losing brand reputation is the most serious concern for every business owner in the world. If users are searching about your brand and they are viewing negative articles against your brand, this will never create a positive impact for your brand.
Remove Negative Search Results from Google
After learning about the types of negative publicity practices, it is time to move on to the solutions. The very first thing we should learn in this knowledge panel is how to “Remove Negative Search Results from Google” search engine result page (SERP).
Create Brand name Social Media Pages
This is the most effective method to deal with negative articles in search results. If any negative article is ranking high in the Search Result page for your brand name search, then try to push down the article by creating social media pages for your brand. You can use famous social media platforms such as twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Pinterest and many other platforms which are well-known across the world. This practice helps in ranking social media profiles on the first page of google on brand name searches.
Build Strong Business Profiles
List your business on different channels such as Google Business, Bing, Yahoo and Yelp. Try to capture the SERP (Search Engine Result Page) on your brand keyword with multiple results by using these business platforms. This solution will expose your business to a larger audience and help you develop a better brand image for your business.
Use PR Channels
If you have something exciting about your business which you want to share with the public then publish a press release. You could also approach PR channels to cover your story. A reasonable number of news articles about your business would rank down the negative articles in search results.
Report Deceptive Websites
If a blog or website has been created by using your brand name which has objectionable content, then you should report the website or blog. Once you report such content, search engines would only show the verified links related to this information. Here is how to report a spam website. You can follow the steps to file your report.
Additional steps
Apart from the above listed steps, you should consider these additional steps to remove negative links from search results.
- Address your customers in a timely manner
- Create engaging content on the web
- Use sub domains to capture SERP
- Create a buzz by getting mentions from non-business platforms by organising activities such as sponsoring events, charity and social causes.
By following these tips, you can remove negative search results from Google.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How Negative Publicity affects the business?
Negative publicity creates a wrong image of a brand or business in the customer’s mind which directly impacts sales and brand reputation. It may cause serious damage to a business if the business does not find a solution to remove negative publicity.
What are the reasons of Negative Publicity?
There are many reasons why someone will post or publish Negative Publicity. For example, a disgruntled ex-employee may publish his/her dissatisfaction about his/her boss. Others causes arise from angry customers, misleading interpretations of blogs/forum posts/interview excerpts, lack of proactive responses and average customer service.
Is negative publicity good?
If the business is established and has recognisable brand value, negative publicity is not good. However, in some cases Negative publicity is good because it can increase sales when a product or company is relatively unknown simply because it stimulates product awareness.
How to remove Negative Search Results from Google?
To remove Negative Searches from Google, you need skills and experience. Take help from a Digital Marketing Expert who can help you in developing SEO strategies for your business and remove all Negative Search Results.
Negative Publicity - Remove Negative Search Results from Google