It seems that even chickens cannot cross the road anymore without having their motivation questioned by everyone on the internet! Of course, it is important to question everything, but people are heading online not just to gathered information, but to defame other people’s character. Today, we have to deal with cyber bullies and cyber stalkers, as well as a wealth of other internet trouble makers. Also known as ‘keyboard warriors’, they spend their time destroying other people’s reputation, simply for the fun of things. And that is why, whether you are an individual or a business, you are likely to need online reputation repair at some point or another.
There seems to be nothing you can do when someone attacks you online. In fact, certain websites are completely dedicated to enabling people to spout whatever nonsense they like. There is some truth to the idea that there is nothing you can do, covered by the first amendment, the right to free press. However, there are laws protecting you against libel and defamation of character. However, do you really want to go down the legal route? The route that is expensive, lengthy, and not guaranteed to succeed? Plus, it would mean that whatever libelous thing is being said about you, would become even more public.
There definitely are cases where you need to get the police involved and file a restraining order against the person posting the information. Online harassment and stalking is treated in the same way as physical harassment and stalking. However, in the vast majority of cases, what you really need is some online reputation repair.
What Online Reputation Repair Can Do for You
Most companies and individuals first come into contact with reputation management companies when their reputation is being damaged. This is unfortunate, because the entire situation could have been avoided had they been more proactive and engaged in reputation management from the word go. However, those companies can still help when the damage has already been done, through reputation repair. This is a four-stepped approach:
-
They identify what negative information exists about you and where it is posted.
-
They request the owners of the website or the content to remove the content.
-
If the content is not removed, they request Google to de-index the posting.
-
They engage in reverse search engine optimization (SEO) to push the posting back and in regular SEO to push the positive information about you to the top of the Google search results.
Of course, this all sounds a lot easier than it actually is, which is why you should really be engaged in reputation management from the word go. However, the silver lining is that, if you have fallen victim to online harassment and the legal route is not really an option for you, there is help out there. Professional online experts can make sure that the information that exists about you or your business is buried deep into the realms of the internet, never to be seen again.