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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

Yahoo is creating some wide open spaces for web developers. This is no API playground, people. It’s a zoo.

SearchMonkey will let developers go hog wild with search results. Simple links are so old school. Listings could now include photos, reviews, ratings and contact information via developer mashups. Want portability? You got it.

And if you don’t want it, you should. Yesterday, I reported that search is integral in finding social media results that affect a consumer’s opinion about brands. SearchMonkey should be a tremendous tool to help influence your online reputation.

The launch party for SearchMonkey is May 15th. Here are the details:

When:May 15, 2008, 5:30 – 8:30 p.m.

Where:Yahoo! Headquarters – Url’s Café, 701 First Ave, Sunnyvale, CA 94089

RSVP: Register at upcoming.org AND send your full name and company name to searchmonkeyevent@yahoo-inc.com. Space is limited.

If you read only one blog post this weekend, let me micropersuade you to read Steve Rubel’s SEO Shenanigans Pose a Clear and Present Danger to Social Media.

Before engaging in the debate, I’d like to invite Steve to expand on his Micropersuasion post in Search Engine Watch, home of Sergey Brin’s Internet Doomsday Scenario.

Hey, we don’t hate debate. We like controversy. We love search engine optimization, SEOs, social search, SMM and search engine marketing.

Steve: help our readers around the world understand what specific search engine strategies are “SEO shenanigans.” You listed this Search Engine Watch blog post first: Boost Organic Results. Link Build with Social Media.

I think it’s a brilliant guide: How to earn more money, improve online reputation and build brand equity online — goals, Steve, you share for your clients?

Even so our blogger received death threats. Marty’s blazing new SEO and SMO trails and that takes courage.

Wikipedia (Slate’s new BFF) defines a shenanigan as a “deceitful confidence trick, or mischief causing discomfort or annoyance.”

I don’t think your brilliant linkbait blog post is a con game. It’s a great SEO shenanigan!

Anonymous Wikepedian(s) go on to say, “However, in some regions, shenanigans can merely refer to harmless mischievous play, especially by children. It should be noted that the word itself is considered humorous, because of its unique sound.”

So Steve were you - a PR maven - just joking around? Let me know. I think I may agree with you to a certain extent but I’m not sure.

So let’s dynamically insert “search engine optimization” and “social media” keywords into Dictionary.com’s definitions from the Random House Unabridged Dictionary:

1. SEO mischief; prankishness by SEOs: Halloween shenanigans.
social media marketing deceit; SEO trickery.
2. mischievous or deceitful SEO trick (Googlebombing?) practice, etc.

Here’s the revised American Heritage Dictionary version of SEO shenanigan:

1. A deceitful SEO trick; an underhanded SMM act.
2. Online social media remarks intended to deceive; SEO PR deceit.
3. A playful or mischievous search engine optimization act; an SMM prank.
4. SEO mischief; SMO prankishness.

None of the above seems to pose a clear and present danger.

Graywolf points out in your post’s comments that everyone’s playing by Google’s rules. Here’s what The Google says:

Google’s number two SERP (search engine results page) suggests shenanigans engaged in by couples present a clear and different danger.

Shenanigans - Indiana - Midwest’s Premier “Couples Only” Club for …
The Midwest’s Premier “Couples Only” Club ! Shenanigans “Where Adults Come for Fun”. Couples Only!

For inquiring minds, that’s shenanigans.net. Since the keyword’s in the title, it’s not SEO shenanigans at work (or in play).

Google’s paid search algorithm matches “shenanigans” with the “biggest losers” crowd: diet, fat and weight loss tips and tricks:

Sponsored Links
10 Rules to Cut Belly Fat
Lose 9 lbs every 11 Days with these 10 Idiot Proof Rules of Fat Loss.
www.FatLoss4Idiots.com

Steve, did your database of intentions intend SEO shenanigans to encompass a Google broad match/Thesaurus.com semantic search? For example, did you mean:

SEO antics, SEM capers, SEO dirty trick, fooling around with SEO, social media optimization frolicsomeness, search engine optimization funny business, SEO gag, search engine optimization hanky-panky, SEO high jinks, SEO PR horseplay, SEO PR horsing around, social media misbehavior, social media marketing mischievousness, monkey business*, SM naughtiness, SEO nonsense, search marketing prank, SEO trouble, social media marketing vandalism

If so, Google contextual advertising (content advertising) seems to think shenanigans are just a joke: Super Trooper-style (see YouTube result for keyword “shenanigans”) or in a Superbad Knocked Up kind of way.

Here’s another AdSense ad matched to “shenanigans” on Thesaurus.com:

Click to read the rest of this post…

Credibility separates the wanna-bes from the somebodies in the blogging world, which makes building your online reputation a critical part of blogging success.

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