Companies aren’t immune to negative web content published about them. Common places you may see negative posts about an organization are sites like RipOffReport and GlassDoor, but companies should also know those aren’t the only places that can host unflattering content.
While awareness of negative posts is important, your company should also recognize the need to stop giving online traffic to this content. In fact, monitoring your company’s online reputation should be something your company invests in and utilizes.
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It’s time to be proactive about capturing, monitoring, and stopping the visits to the negative content, and here are four ways you can do so:
- Capture (via screenshot or control print) the corresponding pages and their search engine results page (SERP) and save as PDFs as soon as possible.
- Use these PDFs for future reference. This allows you to stop contributing towards their page clicks and traffic popularity for continued SERP.
- Reference these PDF files when needed by saving them to a shared folder on your local server or in the cloud instead of returning to those live pages.
- If possible, create a Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets spreadsheet to list the outlet, article title and link, date published, date of when you captured the PDF, and a link to where you saved the PDF. This will assist your company in knowing exactly what negative content you’ve captured and when.
PRO TIP: To capture negative content, we recommend using GoFullPage - Full Page Screen Capture, a Google Chrome extension.
Similar to viral videos and content, the more clicks negative content garners, the more traction it gets. As it gains traction, it moves up in search results and could rank higher than your company’s Facebook, Twitter, or even your homepage. This can have devastating consequences to your company as domain authority is an important and necessary part of your company’s online presence.
If your company is seeing an influx of negative content online, now is the time to download our e-book Online Reputation Management to help you move from finding the initial negatives about your company to being proactive in managing your company’s reputation.
Clients love Marjorie’s work ethic, speed and diligence. She has worked with Axia Public Relations since October 2011. Marjorie graduated from Rockhurst University with a Bachelor of Arts in communication and loves to cheer for her hometown Kansas City Royals. Learn more about Marjorie.
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio
Topics: reputation management, crisis communications, online reputation management
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