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Yesterday I published a post on the Search Engine People site titled 50+ Sites to Help You Bury Negative Posts About You or Your Company!.

While the tactics mentioned may be enough to push some negative online mentions of you or your business to the second page of the search results or lower, in other cases they will not. The question then becomes; what else can you do when the initial tactics themselves aren’t enough, and you’ve got a negative piece about you ranking in the search results for an important phrase. Burying your head in the sand and hoping it goes away isn’t really a viable option. The answer … LOTS can be done!

Lets start with our goals … they’re progressive.

Progressive Goals:
Goal #1: First … bump the listing below the fold asap
then
Goal #2: Bump the listing off the first page of the search results for the given term(s)

With goals in hand, we can now consider tactics.

Tactics:
To Achieve Goal #1:

a. select the strongest 3-5 of those 50+ sites, where strong is a subjective assessment based on many factors. My personal assessment would be:

1. Digg
2. Twitter
3. Stumbleupon
4. MyBlogLog
5. Linkedin

b. establish a profile on each, where the profile name is the term/phrase the negative piece ranks for
c. get lots of friends on each of those sites … the more the better. It works best if you take an active role and participate. Each friend will result in an internal link back to your profile on that site, making it stronger.
d. within each site, you can see which profiles are the strongest in the offending engines’ eyes … the search engines themselves with rank them in order of importance given a simple search query (eg. site:twitter.com). Try to secure links from the strongest profiles first … they pass the most value.
e. join groups where possible too … often these will pass link power to your profile as well.
f. possibly create a social profiles menu on your site(s), and link to each of these profiles.

To Achieve Goal #2:

a. determine how far down you actually wish to push the piece. Beyond the first page will take a great deal of time and energy.
b. assuming you’ve already bumped the offending post below the fold, you need to select the number of sites you will need to use from the 50 + listed in the 50+ Sites to Help You Bury Negative Posts About You or Your Company! article.
c. follow the steps outlined above for each
d. within each (where possible) include links to all your other profiles on the other sites

Following these steps should be enough to push most negative mentions to the second page. If not, or if you don’t have the time and energy, do engage the services of a professional with experience in the space. Aside from the obvious value … its not a bad idea to take out profiles under your name anyway, just as a pre-emptive measure.

Please note … these tactics are by no means comprehensive or advanced. They’re just a relatively quick and efficient means for burying negative online mentions. Much more advanced tactics exist, which I will not delve into here.

Other great reference posts about reputation management include:
Glen Allsopp - What Is Online Reputation Management
Andy Beal - Free Online Reputation Management Beginner’s Guide
Todd Malicoat - Reputation Management Emancipation PRoclamation - 10 Ways to Own Yourself Online
Lee Odden - Basics of Online Reputation Management
Marty Weintraub - 9 Essential Tactics for Reputation Management in Social Media
Andy Beal - Buzz Monitoring: 26 Free Buzz Tracking Tools
David Wallace - Using Social Media to Help Manage Online Reputation

It’s Day 4 at SES New York 2008 and the folks from Pan Communications found more than 20 stories about the Search Engine Strategies conference that had been written before 1:45 p.m. when the press room was closed. So, I may be missing some of the additional coverage of the event that appeared later in the day.

Plus, Kevin Ryan, VP, Global Content Director, SES & Search Engine Watch, added a morning keynote to the schedule along with new sessions like “My Search is Better than Your Search.” So, there were plenty of sessions to cover.

Plus, there are so many search engine marketing news sites and SEO blogs that have been covering SES New York that I’m sure I’ve missed some of stories from the event – because its been called “SES New York,” “SES NY,” “SES NYC,” “Search Engine Strategies New York,” “Search Engine Strategies NY,” “Search Engine Strategies NYC,” the “Search Engine Strategies conference,” and the “Search Engine Strategies expo.”

So, while watching the NCAA Mens Final Four in my hotel room, I’ve looked through the news articles and blog posts that I could find from Thursday, March 20, 2008. Here’s the best list that I could assemble of the top ten stories on Day 4 of the event:

1. Yahoo Wants Sites to Play Ball on Semantic Web
Kenneth Corbin of InternetNews.com says, “In his keynote address here at the final day of the Search Engine Strategies conference, Andrew Tomkins, chief scientist of Yahoo’s (NASDAQ: YHOO) search division, described an industry at a tipping point. The search engines are only now beginning to adapt to the explosion of content and the increasing complexity of the tasks people perform on the Internet, he said.”

2. My Mahalo preview at SES New York
Jason Calacanis of Calacanis.com says, “Had a blast at SES New York this week… at the conference we previewed some new features called My Mahalo that build semantic relationships between our users and object in our database (fancy way of saying you and the thing you own, have seen, want to see, want to read, etc.).” He adds, “We also spent some time doing interviews with the SES team. I’ll post a couple here.”

3. WSJ Digital Network gets aggressive with search: SES NY Keynote
Ellen Keohane of DMNews says, “Gordon McLeod, president of the Wall Street Journal Digital Network, spoke at Wednesday morning’s keynote session at the Search Engine Strategies conference in New York, sharing insights about the network’s efforts to grow its site traffic and search presence.”

4. John Battelle on Google Universal Search at SES NY 2008

John Battelle, Founder/Chairman/CEO, Federated Media, is interviewed by Pauline Ores, SES Advisory Board and Senior Marketing Manager, Social Media Engagement, General Business, IBM Corporation.

5. Search Goodness in Bite-sized Chunks
Jason Lee Miller of WebProNews summarizes the highlights from the Search Engine Strategies conference, “Or, SES you can put in your pocket.” He says, “There’s a ton of information pouring out of the Search Engine Strategies Conference in New York City, but we’ve done our best to bring you the best of it so far, via text and via video. Below is a representation of all of that knowledge, boiled down until each little bit fits into its own little nutshell.”

6. Live from Search Engine Strategies New York 2008
Andrey Milyan of Search Marketing Standard summarizes the 16 sessions that his The SES conference in New York has begun and our correspondent, Kent Lewis, is on the scene, bringing you the latest from one of the biggest events of the year.

7. My Search is Better than Your Search
Charles Knight of AltSearchEngines says, “The entrepreneurs and those who dare to do things differently have shaped the web and search as we know it. Is innovation dead? We at Search Engine Strategies and AltSearchEngines don’t think so. Though most experts agree there will be no ‘Google Killer,’ there will be several emerging technologies that will shape the way we search, find and retain content.”

8. Blogging Boogeyman:WHAT Is Social Media Good for? PART 2
http://www.aimclearblog.com/2008/03/20/blogging-boogeymanwhat-is-social-media-good-for-part-2/
Charlene Jaszewski of the aimClear Blog says, “Are you afraid of bloggers? Sleep with the light on? You’ll find reasons to sleep above the covers after you read the next installment Social Media: What Is It and What Is It Good For? from Search Engine Strategies New York.”

9. Search Engine Strategies NYC 2008 Recap - my own thoughts
Marshall Sponder of The Analytics Guru says, “Many people are already familiar with Search Marketing and SEO and there needs to be a way to present material satisfying to all levels, but that might not always be possible.” He adds, “The Social Media/Social Search Tract was the most interesting for me this year and was more expanded than in the past.”

10. Totally Plugged In @ SES New York: 13 Undeniable Symptoms
Marty Weintraub of Search Engine Watch says, “Search marketing conference attendees seem to be the most plugged-in-public group of techno-comrades on earth. We rove in packs of iPhone and laptop-totting pied-pipers evangelizing link love, holistic patterns, authentic participation, conversion tracking, and good will.”

There are countless reports that paid search is on the rise and is projected to continue trending upwards. But what are the driving forces behind the dramatic increases? A new paper by OneUpWeb examined that very question and came up with a resounding answer: It’s all about measurability.

Paid search offers unprecedented ability to measure, and the nature of the platform enables companies to quickly adjust campaigns according to analytical data or market conditions. Additionally, upfront costs are low because PPC ads are so darn cheap to create.

“We found, among all of our clients, that paid search improves lead generation and customer traffic. It increases conversion rates and suggested sales, and even improves brand recognition,” said OneUpWeb’s CEO Lisa Wehr. “Paid search is a win-win proposition.”

According to the paper, paid search accounts for more than three times the dollar revenue of classified ads, the nearest online marketing format. In 2007, paid search claimed 48 percent of the total U.S. online ad spend. In 2006, paid search grew 32.2 percent, while traditional media grew just .5 percent.

Managing PPC campaigns can be tricky. Last week, Marty Weintraub examined how to conduct PPC triage on a dying AdWords account. One of his conclusions was to integrate with natural search strategies, something OneUpWeb also found.

“When integrated with a natural search engine optimization (SEO) campaign, and overall marketing plan, it will return more for every dollar spent,” said Wehr.

Want a snapshot of the day’s search marketing news? Here we’ve collected today’s top news stories posted to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with search-related headlines from around the Web:
From the SEW Blog:

Search Engine Optimization 2008: Silence of the Lambs?Mike Grehan says that SEO is stuck in a time warp and not keeping up [...]

Search Engine Watch would like to welcome a new SEO blogger to our team of search marketing and social media optimization experts.
We think of him as the F. Scott Fitzgerald of bloggers, since he’s a great writer from Minnesota, too. Search Engine Watch will guarantee, though, he’ll be more prolific than Fitzgerald. [...]