What is Reverse SEO? How Does It Help Manage Online Reputation?

In the ever-evolving landscape of the digital age, growth is often the ultimate goal as businesses constantly strive to expand and cater to a broader customer base. However, as your business grows, it becomes increasingly challenging to meet every customer’s unique needs and expectations, leading to inevitable negative reviews.

These unfavorable comments can be problematic, especially when these negative reviews start to appear on the first page of search engine results (SERP), as they can significantly impact your online reputation and, subsequently, your bottom line.

In such a scenario, managing these negative reviews becomes crucial, and this is where the concept of reverse SEO comes into play. Reverse SEO strategies aim to counteract the negative effects of unfavorable content dominating your SERP rankings, allowing your business to regain control of its online image and reputation.

In this article, we’ll delve into the strategies and tactics you can employ to effectively manage negative reviews, reclaim your online presence, and continue thriving in the ever-competitive digital marketplace.

Let me ask you: What would you do when you type your brand name or relevant keyword on Google and see a negative review, news, or unwanted page ranking up on the top of the SERP?

For example:

In the above example, negative news pops up in the SERP when you search for Equifax, tarnishing your brand’s reputation! You don’t want that, right?

Here comes the role of Reverse SEO!

What is reverse SEO?

TL;DR

Reverse SEO is a strategy used to manage your brand’s reputation online. As the term “reverse” suggests, this technique involves using SEO for the opposite reason—rather than trying to achieve top ranks, the goal is to push down web pages with a negative reputation to keep them away from the public eye.

Reverse SEO, also called Derank SEO, is a popular strategic online reputation management technique. It involves manoeuvring or manipulating search engine results to favor a person, brand, or organization by pushing down unwanted, undesired, or negative content, reviews, and web pages to improve your online reputation and image.

It involves pushing down unwanted web pages from the top-ranking positions for important keywords in the search engines.

Read Also: Topic Clusters Framework For SEO & Content Marketing

Reverse SEO vs. Negative SEO

TL;DR

Reverse SEO involves burying pages with negative reviews and content and then optimizing positive web pages to bring them up. It’s a legit, positive, white-hat online reputation management technique.

Negative SEO, on the other hand, involves using malicious techniques to lower your competitors’ search rankings. It is considered an unfair practice.

Reverse SEO and negative SEO are two distinct strategies in the realm of search engine optimization (SEO), with opposing objectives and ethical implications. Reverse SEO is a legitimate and ethical strategy focused on improving one’s online reputation and pushing down negative content. In contrast, negative SEO involves unethical tactics aimed at damaging a competitor’s website or online presence.

Reverse SEO involves burying pages with negative reviews and content and then optimizing positive web pages to bring them up. It’s a legit, positive online reputation management technique and a white hat.

• Objective: Reverse SEO is a legitimate and ethical approach to improving or repairing an individual’s or business’s online reputation by pushing down negative or unfavorable content in search engine results. Its goal is to reduce the visibility of harmful information on search engine pages.
• Methods: Reverse SEO involves optimizing existing positive content, creating new positive content, and using various SEO techniques to promote this content in search results. This can include creating and optimizing social media profiles, blogs, articles, and other online assets to rank higher than negative content.
• Ethical Consideration: Reverse SEO is an ethical practice as it focuses on improving one’s own online reputation and does not involve any malicious intent or actions towards competitors.

Negative SEO, on the other hand, involves using malicious techniques to lower your competitors’ search rankings. It is considered an unfair practice.

• Objective: Negative SEO, on the other hand, is an unethical and malicious tactic to harm a competitor’s website or online presence. It involves various tactics to decrease a website’s search engine rankings or damage its reputation.
• Methods: Negative SEO tactics can include activities such as creating spammy backlinks to the target website, hacking the website to make harmful changes, copying and spreading duplicate content, and other actions that violate search engine guidelines.
• Ethical Consideration: Negative SEO is widely condemned in the SEO community and is considered unethical and harmful. It goes against the principles of fair competition and can have serious legal and reputational consequences.

Businesses and individuals should always engage in ethical SEO practices and avoid negative SEO tactics, which can have serious consequences both in terms of reputation and legal repercussions.

Why do we need Reverse or Derank SEO?

TL;DR

we need Reverse or Derank SEO to repair a tarnished brand reputation due to inevitable negative content or reviews.

Navigating the online space can be tricky, and it is hard to avoid mistakes. For example, one of your products malfunctioned, a customer was not satisfied, or an employee did something wrong. Whatever the case may be, these situations can all paint your brand in a negative light and lower consumer confidence.

Consumers rely heavily on the Internet to learn more about a business, so if they see a negative page about your company, they may decide against engaging with your brand.

A reverse SEO strategy allows you to repair a tarnished brand reputation due to negative content or reviews.

But what are these negative links that can tarnish your brand’s image?

These negative links could be

• Negative press
• Government notices
• Undesirable content on scam watch, complaints boards, and similar sites
• Corporate scandals
• Litigation and tax or criminal records
• Negative reviews (text or videos)
• Negative forum comments
• Negative testimonials
• Controversial statements by employees, etc.

When do you need reverse SEO?

Reverse SEO becomes necessary in various situations to address specific challenges related to online reputation management and search engine results. The primary needs and use cases for reverse SEO include:

1. Mitigating Negative Content: When negative or damaging content about a person, brand, or business appears prominently in search engine results, it can have detrimental effects on reputation and trust. In such cases, you can use reverse SEO to push down such negative content in search results, making it less visible to the public.
2. Online Reputation Repair: Individuals and businesses may require reverse SEO to repair their online reputation after experiencing adverse publicity, negative reviews, or scandals. By promoting positive and relevant content, they can gradually rebuild their online image.
3. Competitive Advantage: In highly competitive industries, your rivals may engage in negative SEO tactics to harm your online presence. Reverse SEO can help counteract these attacks and maintain a positive brand image.
4. Brand Control: Organizations want to maintain control over their brand’s narrative. You can use reverse SEO to ensure that positive, accurate, and authoritative information ranks higher in search results, allowing you to shape how your brand is perceived online.
5. Job Seekers and Professionals: Job seekers and professionals often undergo reverse SEO to clean up their online presence. They aim to ensure that potential employers or clients find positive and relevant information when searching for their names.
6. Personal Privacy: Individuals who value their privacy may use reverse SEO to reduce the visibility of personal information, ensuring that sensitive details are not easily accessible to the public.
7. Crisis Management: During a crisis, whether it’s a public relations issue, legal matter, or other form of controversy, reverse SEO can be employed to minimize the damage caused by negative coverage and improve the organization’s image.
8. Online Harassment and Cyberbullying: Victims of online harassment or cyberbullying may need reverse SEO to suppress harmful content and protect their online identities from further harm.
9. Marketing and Brand Enhancement: Even when no negative content is present, reverse SEO can be used proactively to strengthen a brand’s online presence, increase visibility, and enhance its reputation.
10. Compliance with Regulatory Requirements: In some industries, there are regulatory requirements regarding online content. Reverse SEO can help ensure that compliant and accurate information ranks higher in search results.

Reverse SEO Strategies

TL;DR

6 reverse SEO strategies

1.     Suppression or deranking of negative links

2.     Optimize to improve rankings

3.     Deindex or deoptimize the webpage

4.     Outreach website owners and request removals

5.     Encourage positive reviews

6.     Create microsites for Reverse SEO

You might be thinking, how do I get rid of negative content? How do I improve my brand’s reputation online? What strategies are available to me as a digital marketer to leverage reverse SEO?

Here are 6 broad strategies to take:

1. Suppression or deranking of negative links

This strategy involves deranking, deoptimizing, suppressing, or pushing down negative site results by doing positive SEO on web pages that are ranking underneath the negative results. This strategy applies when you do not own the negative content, which ranks higher on the SERP.

For example, imagine a small restaurant called “Tasty Bites” receiving a highly negative review on a popular review site. This review appears at the top of search engine results when someone searches for the restaurant’s name, causing potential customers to see it first and potentially deterring them from visiting it.

Now, you can derank or suppress the existing webpage, viz., a negative review on the review website (not owned by your business), by optimizing your existing content that is already ranking on the SERP for the same keywords by securing more authority links, adding new content, and optimizing it for higher rankings.

2. Optimize to improve rankings

Another strategy is that you should focus on curating and promoting more positive content around your brand, products, and services to help push down any negative web pages from the search results in general.

For example, Tasty Bites can create and optimize positive content highlighting its strengths, such as delicious food, friendly staff, high ratings, and a welcoming ambience. This content can include blog posts, articles, and videos showcasing the restaurant’s best aspects. The restaurant should also optimize its website, social media profiles, and any other online assets to ensure they rank well for relevant keywords, such as “Tasty Bites restaurant” or “best local eateries.”

_{Reverse SEO Strategies: Reverse SEO can be used to optimize to improve rankings. It can also be used to remove, deoptimize, or push down the rankings for negative content.}

3. Deindex or deoptimize the webpage

If some of the web pages on your website with undesired content are popping up in the SERPs for certain keywords, you can deindex those web pages wherever you can. Or else, you can deoptimize those web pages so that they are no longer ranking on the SERPs. If you’ve tried all of the above and the negative content is still ranking, you can use a disavow tool to tell Google to ignore the backlinks to that content and deoptimize it by reducing its authority.

For example, a company named “GadgetTech” used to sell a product called the “SuperGizmo” a few years ago. However, they discontinued this product due to poor reviews and newer, better models entering the market. Unfortunately, some old product pages for SuperGizmo are still indexed on search engines and occasionally show up in search results with negative reviews. These outdated pages are confusing to potential customers and can harm GadgetTech’s reputation as a forward-thinking tech company.

How can you create a deoptimization or deindexing strategy?

1. Identify Outdated Pages: GadgetTech’s first step is to identify all the web pages related to the SuperGizmo that are still indexed on search engines.
2. Deindexing: For those pages that are no longer relevant and should not be visible in search results, GadgetTech can use the “no index” meta tag on those pages. This tells search engines not to include these pages in their search results.
3. Deoptimization: For pages that need to remain on the website but should not rank prominently, GadgetTech can deoptimize them. This involves removing or minimizing keywords, backlinks, and other SEO elements that would make the pages rank well in search results.
4. Redirection: For visitors who stumble upon these outdated pages, GadgetTech can implement 301 redirects to send them to more relevant and current product pages or a relevant information page about product discontinuation.

4. Outreach website owners and request removals

Suppose some news article about your brand is ranking higher in the SERP. In that case, you can reach out to other website owners and webmasters of these news portals to remove the negative content about your company, with proof if you think the claims are wrong or with steps you have taken to solve the issues.

Let’s understand this with a use case.

Scenario: “TechVibe,” a well-known tech company, faced a crisis when a prominent tech news portal published a story claiming that their latest product, the “SmartGizmo,” had severe security vulnerabilities that compromised user data. This news spread rapidly, and the negative content started ranking prominently in search engine results, causing significant damage to TechVibe’s reputation.

Reaching Out to Website Owners and Providing Evidence:

1. Verify the claims: TechVibe’s first step was to investigate the claims made in the news article, thoroughly. They discovered the allegations were based on outdated information that had been addressed through a software update months before the article was published.
2. Compile evidence: To support their case, TechVibe gathered documentation of the software update, along with independent security assessments that confirmed the SmartGizmo was now secure. They also documented their commitment to user privacy and data protection.
3. Contact the news portal: TechVibe reached out to the tech news portal that published the negative article. In their communication, they presented the evidence of the software update and security assessments, requesting a correction or retraction of the erroneous claims.
4. Offer a follow-up story: To rectify the situation, TechVibe proposed providing the news portal with an exclusive follow-up story that highlighted the product’s enhanced security and privacy features post-update. This not only corrected the false information but also generated positive news.

5. Encourage positive reviews

If your webpage is popping up for some negative reviews at the top of the SERP, encourage more positive reviews and push down the negative ones. You can also reach out to unhappy customers, provide solutions, and motivate them to leave positive reviews and/or delete the negative ones they left.

Let’s understand this with a use case.

Scenario: “Delicious Eats,” a local restaurant known for its tasty cuisine, faced a challenge when a few negative reviews started ranking at the top of search engine results. These negative reviews, primarily related to slow service during a busy weekend, were impacting potential diners’ decisions.

Encouraging More Positive Reviews and Reaching Out to Unhappy Customers:

1. Identify Negative Reviews: Delicious Eats closely monitored online review platforms and identified the specific negative reviews that were prominently displayed in search results.
2. Reach Out to Unhappy Customers: The restaurant proactively contacted the customers who had left negative reviews. They empathized with their experience, apologized for the inconvenience, and explained the steps they were taking to improve service.
3. Offer Solutions: Delicious Eats went a step further by offering solutions to address the issues mentioned in the negative reviews. For example, they implemented a new reservation system to reduce wait times during busy periods.
4. Encourage Positive Reviews: The restaurant encouraged happy and satisfied customers to leave positive reviews on various review platforms. They included a friendly request on their receipts, inviting customers to share their positive experiences online.
5. Monitor and Respond: Delicious Eats consistently monitors new reviews and comments. For any additional negative feedback, they responded promptly with apologies and actions taken to rectify the situation.

6. Create microsites for Reverse SEO

A microsite is a branded content site that lives outside of the company domain. Creating microsites around your brand and targeting keywords is a great way to set up online brand protection for reputation repair. By having these microsites online, you can control the narrative about your company.

Let’s understand this with a use case.

Scenario: “TechHorizon,” a software development company, faced a challenging situation when negative news articles and customer complaints started dominating the search engine results for their brand name. The negative content was affecting their ability to attract new clients and partners.

Creating Microsites for Reverse SEO:

1. Identify Target Keywords: TechHorizon identified the specific keywords and phrases associated with the negative content, including their brand name and related terms.
2. Develop Microsites: The company created several microsites, each focusing on a different aspect of their business, services, or products. These microsites were hosted on separate domains.
3. Optimize Content: TechHorizon optimized the content on these microsites to include the target keywords while also providing valuable and relevant information about their expertise, achievements, and positive client experiences.
4. Link Building: They strategically built backlinks to these microsites from reputable sources to improve their authority and visibility in search results.
5. Content Marketing: TechHorizon regularly updated the content on these microsites with blog posts, articles, case studies, and other engaging materials to ensure they remained relevant and informative.

Outcome:

1. The microsites allowed TechHorizon to control the narrative about their company, emphasizing their strengths, achievements, and positive client testimonials.
2. The microsites started ranking prominently for the target keywords, pushing down the negative content in search results.
3. Potential clients and partners who searched for TechHorizon found a more positive and balanced representation of the company, which contributed to an improved brand image.

Steps in Reverse SEO

Step 1:

Identify the keywords that are harming your brand’s reputation and leading to negative search results.

Step 2:

Optimize neutral and positive web pages by targeting the negative keywords so they rank higher than the harmful pages.

Step 3:

Optimize pages and build high-quality backlinks to your website and other online assets.

Step 4:

Create long-form, high-quality, and valuable content on your website for top-performing keywords.

Step 5:

Publish your positive press releases to clear out the negative ones.

In summary, reverse SEO is essential for managing your online image, building trust, and ensuring that your digital presence accurately represents your desired image or brand identity. It helps you take control of your online narrative and maintain a positive online reputation.

If your business confronts the menace of negative online content, your most prudent course of action may involve seeking professional assistance. Reverse SEO professionals can help you deploy reverse SEO strategies for comprehensive online reputation management.

Thank you for reading.

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