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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

Lee Odden, the CEO of TopRank Online Marketing, spoke at the News Search Engine Optimization as well as the Blog & RSS Search Engine Optimization sessions at SES London 2008. He also moderated the one that I covered in “Online Reputation Management Requires Cabinet War Rooms.”

In his spare time, he did a video interview with Adam Lasnik of Google, posted photos from SES London, and covered the “Beyond Linkbait: Getting Authoritative Online Mentions” session on his Online Marketing Blog.

Somewhere in the middle of all this, he found time to be interviewed for our new SES Conference Expo channel on YouTube.

Lee Odden, TopRank Online Marketing, at SES London 2008

For those of you who haven’t met him yet, Lee Odden is a 10+ year Internet marketing veteran and of TopRank Online Marketing. Recognized by MarketingSherpa and topseos.com, TopRank helps Fortune 500 companies with Internet marketing consulting, training, and implementation services.

Lee has been cited in numerous books and industry publications, including The Economist and DM News on the topics of search, social media, and online public relations. He also publishes the Online Marketing Blog, ranked as one of the top 10 marketing blogs online by Advertising Age.

Lee is a regular speaker at Search Engine Strategies, WebmasterWorld Pubcon, DMA Annual Conference, Media Relations Summit, PRSA International Conference, and Mediapost’s Search Insider Summit. At SES New York 2008, he’s speaking at the session, Beyond Linkbait: Getting Authoritative Online Mentions, and will be moderating the Podcast & Audio Search Optimization session.

The biggest Search Engine Strategies conference of the year will be held the week of March 17 in New York City. Whether this will be your first SES New York, or the fifth one in a row that you’ve attended since 2004, you might appreciate some free advice on schedule optimization.

One look at the conference at a glance will tell you why. There are more than 70 workshops, keynotes, panels and sessions over the four-day Search Engine Strategies conference. And, on the fifth day, there are an additional six SEM training classes following SES New York.

Since there are five concurrent tracks during the four-day Search Engine Strategies conference and three concurrent workshops during the fifth day of SEM training, no one can attend everything. This is not daunting to the first-time attendee. It is also a challenge to someone like me, who attended SES New York in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007. I’m looking at last year’s conference handbook and this year’s conference at a glance and more than 70% of the sessions are new!

Now, Danny Sullivan programmed last year’s show and Kevin Ryan organized this year’s agenda. But, that’s only one of the factors driving the dramatic changes in the content at the event.

On the last day of last year’s Search Engine Strategies conference in New York City, Google announced its $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick, which is still pending. A couple of weeks later, Yahoo! acquired the remaining 80% of Right Media for $680 million. Then, last May, Microsoft acquired aQuantive for $6 billion. Last July, Microsoft acquired AdECN for an undisclosed amount of money and in September, Yahoo! acquired BlueLithium for $300 million in cash. Then, on Feb. 1 of this year, Microsoft proposed to acquire Yahoo! for $44.6 billion.

That’s a lot of M&A news for the industry to digest – and our search engine marketing definition needs to be rewritten this year.

And our search engine optimization definition needs to be totally rewritten, too.

About a month after last year’s SES New York, Google announced its critical first steps toward a universal search model that offers users a more integrated and comprehensive way to search for and view information online. It was the biggest thing to hit the search engine marketing industry since Google’s Florida Update in November 2003.

In June 2007, Ask3D was launched. In September 2007, Microsoft launched its biggest update to Live Search since its debut in January 2005. And in October 2007, “an all new Yahoo! Search experience” was launched.

Meanwhile, comScore reports that YouTube, Google Image Search, Google Maps and Google News are approaching 1.6 billion searches a month, which is more than Live Search. In other words, Google (6.2 billion searches a month) is the #1 search engine, Yahoo! (2.4 billion) is #2, YouTube and all other Google “expanded” search sites (1.6 billion) would be #3, and Microsoft’s Live Search (1 billion) is #4.

So, is it any wonder that even SES alumni are heading back to New York?

So, to help industry veterans as well as search newbies, I’ve put together the optimized schedule below for the Search Engine Strategies conference that starts on Saint Patrick’s Day in the Big Apple.

Now, when you get to SES New York, you’ll make adjustments on the fly. As Bob Shirilla of Keepsakes Etc. told me at SES Chicago back in December, “I had a detailed game plan when I came to SES, but I’m calling a lot of audibles.”

Nevertheless, schedule optimization will help you get the return on marketing investment that you’re looking for. Here are the workshops, keynotes, panels and sessions that I’d recommend:

Day 1 - Monday, March 17, 2008

9:30-10:45am
Creating Compelling Ads
Organic Listings Forum

11:15am-12:30pm
Analytics: Data Into Action
Igniting Viral Campaigns

2:00-3:15pm
Web Analytics: Measuring Success
Auditing Paid Listings and Click Fraud Issues

3:45-5:00pm
Orion Panel: Getting Vertical Search Right

Day 2 - Tuesday, March 18, 2008

9:00-10:00am
Conference Welcome and Opening Keynote
Nick Carr, author of The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google

Nick Carr, SES New York 2008, The Big Switch

11:00am-12:15pm
Introduction to Search Engine Marketing
Ads in a Quality Score World

1:30-2:45pm
Orion Panel: Universal Search

3:15-4:30pm (Sponsored Sessions)
Hitwise: Know about Your Competitors’ Paid and Organic Traffic
Google: What’s new with Google Analytics and Website Optimizer?

4:45-6:00pm
Search Engine Friendly Design
Ad Copy & Landing Page Clinic

Day 3 - Wednesday, March 19, 2008

9:00-9:45am
Morning Keynote
Gordon McLeod: Search Has Changed Everything… And So Can You

10:15-11:30am
Link Building Basics
Ad Testing: Research & Findings

1:00-2:15pm
Search Advertising 101
Top Search Trends

2:30-3:30pm
Afternoon Keynote
Jason Calacanis, Founder & CEO of Mahalo.com, Inc.

4:00-5:15pm
The New Face of In-House Search
Social Media Research: Informing Search Strategies

5:30-6:45pm
The Business Case for SEO Content Development: Turning Words Into Action!
Ad Exchanges Are Changing Everything

Day 4 - Thursday, March 20, 2008

9:00-9:45am
Morning Keynote
Andrew Tomkins, Chief Scientist at Yahoo! Research

10:00-11:00am
Usability & SEO: 2 Wins For The Price of 1
Podcast & Audio Search Optimization

11:15am-12:15pm
Beyond Linkbait: Getting Authoritative Online Mentions
Images & Search Engines

12:45-1:45pm
Meet the Crawlers
Video Search Optimization

But wait! There’s more!

On Friday, March 21, there are six half-day SEM training classes, which can be taken in addition to the SES New York conference or independently – at an additional cost.

Again, look over the descriptions of each workshop to see which ones are for you. But, here are the SEM training classes that I’d recommend:

8:00am-12:00pm
Link and Reputation Workshop
Optimizing for Universal Search

1:00-5:00pm
Search & Analytics Workshop: Using Analytics to Increase Search Effectiveness
The 7 Step RSS/Content Syndication/SEO Strategy

If you register for the Search Engine Strategies conference by tomorrow, Friday, Feb. 29, you can save $150. Conference attendees get free access to Market Motive training and Bruce Clay tools. And, if you attend SES New York, you could win a Scion xB! A free drawing will take place on Wednesday, March 19, in the Expo Hall.

I should disclose that Search Engine Strategies is now a client, but I’ve been writing about SES since 2002, when the March event was still held in Boston.

The search engine marketing industry has been totally transformed since then. For example, the keynote speaker at my first Search Engine Strategies conference was from Terra Lycos.

Remember them?

That’s why both industry veterans as well as search newbies will be heading to SES New York in a couple of weeks. The newbies will want to learn everything they can. And the veterans need to relearn most of what was being taught just a few years ago.

Greg Jarboe of SEO-PR and Amanda Watlington of Searching for Profit at SES London 2008

I expect that about half of the attendees at the Search Engine Strategies 2008 Conference & Expo in London will be going to the event for the first time.

“And what analysis led you to that deduction, Holmes?”

It was elementary, my dear Watson, elementary.

The event being held at the Business Design Centre in Islington Feb. 19-21, 2008, will be the fourth SES London that I’ve attended. At the previous three conferences, I’ve asked attendees to raise their hands if it was their first Search Engine Strategies. About half the people in the room raised their hands in 2005, 2006 and 2007. You don’t need to be a super-sleuth to deduce that this will be case again in 2008.

“Well, what about the other half of the attendees?”

Obviously, they have returned from previous shows. This explains why attendance at SES London has grown so dramatically since 2005.

“So, are newbies at a disadvantage at the show?”

Not really. The search landscape changes so radically from year to year that even the experts come back to discover what the don’t know yet, as well as to uncover what they thought they knew that is now antiquated. So, newbies aren’t at a serious disadvantage – but they don’t know it.

“Surely you can spot the newbies when you catch them poring over the conference handbook trying to decide what session to attend next.”

This year may be different, my good friend. Only 28 of the 46 sessions, panels, and keynotes at this year’s Search Engine Strategies were listed in last year’s conference handbook. With almost 40% of the topics brand new, I suspect that we might catch some of the experts pouring over this year’s conference handbook – if there is a conference handbook. The one at SES Chicago was replaced by a new magazine. So, that dog won’t bark this time around.

“But at least the experts know about the conference at a glance on the Search Engine Strategies website. Won’t they determine in advance which of three or four concurrent sessions they should attend over the three-day conference?”

That’s an astute observation, Watson. One that I’m sure Inspector Lestrade will take credit for, if we don’t intervene. So, let’s propose a hypothetical track for the first time attendee. Of course, newbies can deviate from it. But, the Great Game will be giving a preliminary plan to help a newbie navigate his or her way through a dozen dilemmas that face anyone going to SES London for the first time.

“Excellent!”

Let’s begin with Day 1: Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2008. I propose that a newbie should attend “Introduction to Search Marketing” at 9:30 a.m. and then “Search Engine Friendly Design” at 11:00 a.m.

The rest of the day is child’s play. Attend “Google University: Basics” at noon; the “Orion Panel: All Star Analytics Team” at 1:30 p.m.; the “Google University: Masterclass” at 2:30 p.m.; Fredrick Marckini’s opening keynote at 3:30 p.m.; the “Orion Panel: Universal, Blended and Vertical Search” at 4:45 p.m.; and the Networking Cocktail Reception in the Expo Hall at 5:45 p.m.

“What about Day 2? The choices are less obvious on Wednesday, Feb. 20.”

On the contrary, the choices are quite obvious. Even to the youngest of the Baker Street Irregulars knows a newbie should attend the keynote roundtable at 9:00 a.m.; “News Search SEO” at 10:30 a.m.; “Search Term Research & Targeting” at 11:45 a.m.; the “Google University: Google Analytics and Website Optimiser” session at 12:45 p.m.; and “Compare & Contrast: Ad Program Strategies” at 2:00 p.m.

Then, our first time attendee should visit the 20 exhibitors on the trade show floor at 3:00 p.m. After that, our newbie should attend “Balancing Organic & Paid Listings” at 4:p.m.; and “Linking Strategies” at 5:15 p.m.

“And what do you propose for Thursday?”

I must admit, Watson, the choices on Feb. 21 baffle me. The agenda looks like the handiwork of Professor Moriarty. But, let’s hope that by Day 3 our fictional newbie will have gained enough confidence to start making difficult choices without our advice.

“But Holmes, we can’t abandon our poor newbie without of clue about what to do next! Where’s you sense of honor?”

I was just pulling your leg, Watson. So, on Day 3, let’s have our newbie begin by attending “Meet the Crawlers” at 9:30 a.m. Then, let’s suggest that he or she sit in on the “Site Clinic” at 11:00 a.m. Following lunch, I’d recommend attending “Beyond Linkbait: Getting Authoritative Online Mentions.” Then, it’s off to “My SEM Toolbox” at 2:15 p.m. Finally, let’s tell our newbie to attend “Brand & Reputation Management” at 3:30 p.m.

“What about the search training classes on Friday, Feb. 22?”

Oh, those could be useful, too. I’d counsel our fictional first time attendee to sign up for the “Optimizing for Universal Search” workshop at 8:30 a.m.; and the “Making Pay Per Click Pay – Best Practices in Pay Per Click Advertising” workshop at 1:30 p.m. There are additional registration costs, if there are any seats left, of course.

“Shouldn’t you disclose that SES London is one of your clients?”

Of course I will, Watson. But, I would have thought that anyone who has read “It’s ‘Horses for Courses’ at SES London” would have known that.

And, anyone who has ever read Search Engine Watch or The Strand Magazine already knows that I have shown myself to be a master of disguise from my earliest cases, adopting personas from all walks of life.

Finally, deductive reasoning, Google and Wikipedia should have led to this obvious conclusion. How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?