In the marketing world, any publicity is good publicity, but does this hold true for the online marketing world? A negative word about your product or service can cost you thousands of dollars in sales. Small businesses are especially hurt by negative reviews; sometimes the damage is so deep and irreversible that businesses are forced to shut down. To stop bad publicity, it's important that you nip it in the bud through some smart SEO service. If you are one of those suffering from bad press, here are a few things that you ought to know about Online Reputation Management, or Search Engine Reputation Management.

What is it?

Negative reviews, comments, articles, write-ups, or any content that talks bad about your product or service. Popular sites where negative reviews are posted include ripoffreport.com, scamxposer.com, and of course the Better Business Bureau. And sometimes, scammers/bad reviewers go to the extent of creating pseudo sites with names that talk bad about you. For instance, if your site is called abc.com, a site by name ihateabc.com, or abcisbad.com would be created. With Google striving to ensure that the online user is treated right, such sites naturally rise high on search engine rankings. Potential customers are sure to be curious to know about user experience, thereby ensuring that this negative word is fueled. Anyone can post a bad word about you; from a dismissed employee, to a customer who was refused a discount, a competitor, or even your ex-partner.

How do you tackle negative publicity?

Bad naming sites can be pulled down by adding content through SEO service that speaks well about you. You can begin by creating public profiles in sites such buy backlinks , Digg, Stumbleupon, Twitter etc. If the damage isn't deep, you can push down negative sites, merely by creating profiles in these sites. And if the bad name reviewer has established himself well, you may make as many friends as possible on these sites and get them to play an active role. The more internal links that come back to your profile, the stronger you get. This can be sustained with some unique content creation, wherein you can write articles, press releases, reviews, write-ups, etc.

Can you do it on your own?

Yes, provided you are well versed with the SEO world, and have the time to spare to do the things that I earlier mentioned. But a better idea would be to hire SEO services from an SEO company that specializes in online reputation management. Google dynamics keep on changing frequently, and it is important that you are aware of them while pushing those bad guys down.