A blogger is hurting our business.

March 23, 2006 4:56 AM

How can I outrank bad comments?

I work in a small legitimate company (I'm not ready to go into detail of who), and we do have a decent business. Unfortunately, we had a customer who had a poor experience with us, which we have tried very hard to make right, but she just isn't happy. This happened a few months back, and she started posting negative comments on a blog that now show up #2 in yahoo searches (right behind our company), while google seems to be ok (well down the list). Since we aren't search engine experts, does anyone have any suggestions on how we can push her ranking down? Can we get our name higher through blogging? We can't for the life of us figure out why her blogging is ranked so high.

And yes, we are attempting legal recourse as well, but that doesn't happen quickly. Thanks!

posted by astorias to computers & internet (37 comments total)

She'll be linked high because of people going "yes, we were going to buy from them, but then we read this [link]". Does the blog have comments? Have you left comments?

There is very little you can do, really. The old-world advice is to ignore it, but I don't think you can do that on the web. It gives everyone a voice, so if you respond it at least looks like you're engaging. There's a danger you give her creditability, but that's easy to get on the internet anyway.
posted by bonaldi at 5:11 AM on March 23, 2006

Bonaldi...thanks for the comment. We aren't looking to reply to her comment...we just want to post positive things about us, and get them ranked higher than her post. In effect, we want to 'hide' or push down her rank.
posted by astorias at 5:19 AM on March 23, 2006

You could astroturf. That is, create your own blogs to talk up your company. Many people, however, disapprove of such practices.
posted by veedubya at 5:28 AM on March 23, 2006

One word for you: Kryptonite. The blogosphere can me a mite unforgiving if it think's it's being suppressed, one post to Digg.com and you're knackered, so tread carefully, and do consider engaging with her. Obviously if she's being a total whiner for no reason, and that's obvious from the content of her posting, then ignore it and/or start your own honest company blog with the intention of communicationg with your customers, rather than just suppressing bad press. Have a read of Hugh over at Gapingvoid, he has a lot to say on the matter.
posted by Happy Dave at 5:30 AM on March 23, 2006

Astroturfing is one way of doing it.

For your way however, really you'd need thousands of "good" comments to outrank the one bad, and it's just not going to happen, especially spontaneously.

One company I saw put a response page (with comments on) on their site to such a complainer, and linked to it in the comments of the original site. That can work very well: potential customers read the complaint, read your rebuttal and remember it.

Then when more links are made to the complaint, they'll be immediately followed by "oh, that's crap, see what happened was this[link to your site]" and your rank will rise to match hers.

You absolutely *have* to be 100% in the right for that to work, though.
posted by bonaldi at 5:32 AM on March 23, 2006

See if you can get other bloggers to review your product/service favorably in their blog.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 5:33 AM on March 23, 2006 [1 favorite]

Exactly what ThePinkSuperhero said. I don't know if it's a product/service I'd use but you're free to email me (address in profile).
posted by ceri richard at 5:37 AM on March 23, 2006

The problem here is that you have an extremely unhappy and unsatisfied customer, not that they are posting comments about your company.

Trying to take legal action is going to exacerbate the situation.

You are trying to deal with the symptom, not the problem. If the blogosphere gets hold of what you are trying to do, they will paint you as bad guys for trying to suppress criticism of your company. The *only* good way of addressing this problem is to make the original customer happy, even if that means eating crow to do so.

I freely confess to being one of those hard-asses that companies hate to deal with. In the last six months I've had a $6000 refund from my ISP and a new transmission for my truck even though it was out of warranty. I fully deserved both of them, and both companies admitted as much in writing, but I wouldn't have gotten them without threatening to go to the press about my experiences.

My point here is that it is better to take the hit and cave to a squeaky wheel of a customer than to have to deal with this kind of shit down the line. It's just a cost of doing business.

If the squeaky wheel's claims are eminently ridiculous they will get no traction in the blogosphere. However that is clearly not the case here.
posted by unSane at 5:48 AM on March 23, 2006

If her opinion is very important to you, find a way to make her happy.

Tell her that you've reviewed your list of customer complaints for the quarter (because you can't stand to see even one customer go away unhappy), that you've taken another look at her complaint, and that you've decided that you could do more for company karma. Then do it. One time only, because you want to, not because you have to. If the product was bad, send her a totally new one on top of the crappy old one, or give her a total refund plus interest and shipping and a free gift and a certificate for a massage, or whatever you think it will take to make her unreservedly happy with the outcome. Make sure she absolutely, undeniably comes out ahead in the deal.

Then if the complaint remains on the net, she's a crank who will never be satisfied, and you can make that clear as needed.
posted by pracowity at 5:48 AM on March 23, 2006

Again, I do appreciate the comments, and we are very sensitive to her needs (we have offered a full refund to her). However, I do want to stay on topic, as the question is in regards to search rankings, not so much as to how to deal with a difficult customer. We are not trying to ruin her credibility, we are not trying to inflame the situation with her, we are just trying to push her comments down in search rankings.
posted by astorias at 6:05 AM on March 23, 2006

astorias, what people are telling you is that you can't do it in any kind of ethical way, and if you try some of the unethical ways, it's likely to backfire and cause you far more pain than she ever could.

That's why they're telling you how to deal with her, because it's the best available approach.
posted by Malor at 6:31 AM on March 23, 2006

I'll assume for the sake of argument the unhappy customer has worked herself up to a level of indignation that nothing realistic will make her happy.

I don't see an easy fix for this. The one thing that occurs to me is this: Astorias (or someone else from astorias' company) starts their own blogspot blog giving their side of the story, speaking as an official representative of the company. Link to the page of the dissatisfied customer, address her complaints in detail and discuss how you tried to resolve them, etc.

You could then try bookmarking that blog in del.icio.us, digg, etc, and see what happened. Now, the effect here probably will not be to reduce the unhappy customer's page rank (not much, anyhow), but it will get your story out there and perhaps mitigate the damage; it may also just give your company improved cred in general because it shows that there are regular human beings there, and that you are engaged with your customers, not aloof. Of course, you've got to be prepared for her to respond to your response, and so on.
posted by adamrice at 6:33 AM on March 23, 2006

We aren't looking to reply to her comment...we just want to post positive things about us, and get them ranked higher than her post.

What adamrice said. Why not reply? That's kind of how things work with blogs. A decent reply, either on your own blog or on hers, will probably get you a lot farther than trying to 'disappear' her post.
posted by nyterrant at 6:41 AM on March 23, 2006

I agree with the dialogue approach. The less you are perceived as the "evil faceless corporation" by the bloggers the more you will gain sympathy. Put a link on your homepage where you explain the entire situation and how you tried to rectify it. You can't hide. I never purchase from anyone online without finding out if there are any disgruntled former customers out there. When I buy on ebay if someone has negative ratings I'm much more likely to buy from the ebayer who has responded in the comments on how they tried to fix the situation than the one who just ignores it.
posted by any major dude at 7:00 AM on March 23, 2006

You claim to be a part of "a legitimate company", but then you start asking how you can artificially manipulate search engine results. Do you not see the disconnect?

Combine that with your history of asking questions about sketchy business practices and it makes me wonder what's really going on.
posted by alan at 7:05 AM on March 23, 2006

Time might also push her down in the rankings- I wrote a bad review of a restaurant I went to, and it got a little publicity from some other blogs and it was #3 in the Google search for awhile. But the publicity died down and now it isn't anymore.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:36 AM on March 23, 2006 [1 favorite]

Folks...please. I'm surprised this is kind of turning into a bit of an attack on me.

We are still working a dialogue with her. We are continuing to try to work things out and make her happy.

We are not trying to manipulate search rankings as has been implied. We are trying to get more positive info out there, as we have thousands of customers who are very pleased with us.

It is a bit disappointing that many posters here to this question are looking for the worst angle possible (what they assume we aren't doing).

In its simplest form, we are just trying to protect our business by not letting one unhappy customer hurt us.
posted by astorias at 7:50 AM on March 23, 2006

Man, no offense, but you're dissatisfied with a customer's response and you off-handedly mention you're pursuing legal action as well? Boy, did you ever come to the wrong audience.

Seriously, I don't think you're going to get extremely detailed advice as to how to Google-bomb her out of existence. The answers to your query may not be addressing your particular question, but they're answering your situation.

If you try to sue her blog entry out of existence, and if you try to astroturf (plant fake positive spin), it's going to backfire, badly. Especially the legal action. If you sue her, it's going to probably hit a number of very high-traffic blogs, stuff like BoingBoing, Metafilter, Consumerist, etc. There's nothing the blogosphere likes better than a nice juicy cease-and-desist letter.

I'll add my voice to the others recommending that you post a page on your website that explains your side of the story, and/or attempt to get into a public dialogue with this blogger so that your side of the situation is factually out there as well.

If you're really going to try to thrash this out your way, google "SEO" and/or "search engine optimization." There are forums out there that are better equipped to give you advice than we are. But don't say we didn't warn you when it backfires in you and your company's face very, very badly.
posted by WCityMike at 8:00 AM on March 23, 2006

have your company issue a press release (or one every so often) about itself and its going-ons. that will generate more legitimate links spawned on the internet about your company and may well move their comments down.
posted by Izzmeister at 8:01 AM on March 23, 2006

I would think that any business, no matter how good, cannot sell to the public without generating at least one unhappy customer. It's highly unlikely that one unhappy customer will torpedo your entire business without some corroborative evidence; every company has at least one critic.

The best way to get more positive info out there is to have more happy customers. Happy customers will do your evangelizing for you; it's called word of mouth. Happy customers will pipe up if their experiences do not match those of the complainer. If you're a good business, in other words, the problem will solve itself in the aggregate. Anything other than that will come across as pure PR at best, crass manipulation at worst, which is why you're getting the kind of response you're getting.

In the end, though, there are some people who you will never make happy. (I'm sure we've all dated someone like that.) Do the right thing. If that doesn't work, take it on the chin and move on. If the criticism persists, and you can't make it better (in their eyes), I can't see how engaging the criticism makes you look any better.
posted by mcwetboy at 8:06 AM on March 23, 2006

I doubt that there would really be a business case for trying to outrank her comments. How much will revenue be increased by doing this? Not to mention that there's no guarantee of success -- or of the durability of any success.

I'd say that the rule in a situation like this is do your best with the things that are in your control and don't get worked up about things that are outside your control. This applies to both of your issues:

1) Make sure your own web site answers the questions/concerns of anyone who has read the other web site (in general terms, not discussing her situation). Imagine someone coming to your web site worried about what would you do if X happened and make sure that your web site reassures them. e.g. describe your generous return/refund policy if that's the issue.

2) Also, don't tie yourself into knots trying to please someone who can't be pleased. Put the ball in her court (make an offer that is more than fair) and then forget about it if she doesn't respond. All you can do is be fair and generous -- you can't make her respond appropriately.
posted by winston at 8:07 AM on March 23, 2006

Mike...I hear what you are saying, and to all, let me tell you this much: she had us do some kitchen work for her. She was unhappy with what we did, and after many discussions, we offered a full refund. That was not good enough. We even made the offer to have whoever she wanted redo the work, and we would pay for it. That still didn't make her happy.

The legal action I referred to was because she is saying we are non-responsive, when clearly we have been. But, as I'm sure many people know, the world tends to believe everything that is posted or printed somewhere.
posted by astorias at 8:18 AM on March 23, 2006

The way I would handle a single negative comment would be to post on either her site, or yours what the problem was and how you attempted to resolve it. If you remain cool and level headed about it, it could easily reveal the other person as irrational and people will ignore the complaint.
posted by drezdn at 8:21 AM on March 23, 2006

My negative comments about a particular company regularly show up on the first page of searches for that company. They ripped me off and lied to me, and have done the same to others. Spreading the word about them was a hobby of mine for a long while. They tried astroturfing; I just upped the ante, and for a short while my comments were the top search result.

Taking legal action will bring reports of your legal action to the first page of search results (hell, I'd help link to such a story; this kind of criticism was upheld 9-0 by the Supreme Court of Canada as protected speech the other year). Engaging the customer publicly will do the same thing. If you can somehow convince Google to drop her pagerank, then that tactic will be reported on by someone and will show up in the first page of search results.

There really is no cheap or easy way to do what you want to do if you're dealing with a determined individual. What you could do, perhaps, is to offer financial incentives for people to write reviews about your company and post them to their blogs. "Write a review, get $20 in free whatever!" Not exactly astroturfing, and it's becoming more and more common.
posted by solid-one-love at 8:22 AM on March 23, 2006

Well, hopefully your company was thourough documenting the various ways you tried to satisfy her, including a REGISTERED MAIL letter detailing your offer to compensate that she signed for. If you haven't done that... perhaps it is time to do so. If she's this nuts, she may choose to sue you. You'll be happy you spent the $6 on registered mail at that time...

Anyways, as others have said, you make a rebuttal, and include a copy of the letter, and proof it was sent registered mail. I wouldn't suggest showing a signature, though...

Once the rebuttal is made with significant proof you have done everything reasonably possible to satisfy her and that she will not accept compensation, and it is correctly linked anywhere she has complained, you will come out the clear winner. It won't matter if her comment is always #2 on yahoo -- people will click it, read your rebuttal, and realize that your company is BETTER THAN THE REST.

Give her an opportunity to respond to your rebuttal, and post her responses (Let her know you'll do that first). If the situation can now be amicably resolved, your request is that she work on removing her comments from the internet, or at least annotate them that the issue is resolved. If she removes her comments, you can remove your rebuttal. If she can only annotate them, you will leave your rebuttal up. Simple as that!
posted by shepd at 8:41 AM on March 23, 2006

The watch story:

My partner wanted to buy a fancy watch. He selected the model, then went looking around the internet for a company to buy from. He found a few possible vendors; one was in China, which is a little worrisome, but they all seemed faceless and not very trustable, since you don't really know with whom you're dealing.

The vendor in China would certainly not have gotten his business, _except_ that he found one complaint about that vendor on a ratings site somewhere. While we're sceptical about complaints, in a comparison among anonymous vendors, all else being equal, one complaint would normally have pushed that Chinese company out of the running. Instead, it helped win my partner's business.

The vendor posted a response explaining what he'd done to make the customer happy, what had happened, and repeating an offer to make things right. This, with other information we found, impressed my partner enough that he purchased his watch from this Chinese company. That one complaint provided an opportunity for us to see how the vendor dealt with problems and difficult situations; since it was written by the owner of the company, it gave us just a tiny bit of insight into his personality and willingness to work on customer problems.
posted by amtho at 8:47 AM on March 23, 2006

As far as the legal option goes, if she is really saying things that are patently untrue, then you may have a case.

If you're a local contracting company, I can see how it would be more difficult to get lots of blogs noticing you.

Here's what I would do if I were in your position: start another website were people can review local contracting companies, and the contracting companies can respond. Then ask all your happy customers to write reviews on your company. Advertise the site locally a lot so that everyone knows about it, and write reviews for other companies.

Eventually a page like http://local-contractor-review-site.com/mycompany.htm would be the number 2 search result.

If the site gets big it would eventually be a new revenue stream.
posted by delmoi at 9:21 AM on March 23, 2006

nd she started posting negative comments on a blog that now show up #2 in yahoo searches (right behind our company), while google seems to be ok (well down the list). Since we aren't search engine experts, does anyone have any suggestions on how we can push her ranking down? Can we get our name higher through blogging?

Since you're already #1 how do you expect your name to get higher?

As others have said, you're likely powerless do to anything about the prominence of her statements beyond a one-time detailed response. Getting into a dialog with a crank is always a waste of time, however responding to her once looks better than not at all.

I don't think anyone is 'attacking' you, however you should take the response here as an indicator to possible pitfalls of any other action against her. Almost everyone is aware that every business has to deal with irrational cranks but few people have been on the receiving end of one. Almost everyone, on the other hand, has been treated badly by a crappy business. So you have the possible pitfall that people are pre-wired to be able to empathize with her in a way they can't with you. I think it's why even the hint of gaming the system brings out people to wave a finger at you and you need to be mindful of that when you respond.

Do you do much electronic contact with your customers? If so, perhaps you could send out a mail to past customers looking for positive feedback you can post on your own site or on wherever she's posting her stuff, if that's appropriate.
posted by phearlez at 9:42 AM on March 23, 2006

I think the reason you get such an early negative reaction astorias is because you appear to be looking for solutions other than a full and open dialogue with her. Being evasive generates hostility and bad publicity, which you're trying to counter.

If you are completely open and in public about her complaints, people can make their own judgements about how good you are, rather than you trying to spin one on them.
posted by bonaldi at 9:48 AM on March 23, 2006

Astorias, you should read "The Cluetrain Manifesto." That might help shed some light upon where to go from here.
posted by limeonaire at 9:56 AM on March 23, 2006

We are not trying to manipulate search rankings as has been implied. We are trying to get more positive info out there, as we have thousands of customers who are very pleased with us.

You have very clearly stated that you are trying to do both of these things. Further, it seems as though the former is motivating the later, which is perhaps a little unethical..

The key is that you must forget this particular negative comment, and think of this issue as a marketing exercise to improve your web presence in general. Once you change your motivation, you solve the ethical dilema.


phearlez: Since you're already #1 how do you expect your name to get higher?

ThePinkSuperhero's idea is great! Basically, you need to generate positive buzz, normally that is done by giving some product away for free, I think; and asking satisfied customers to help.
posted by Chuckles at 10:27 AM on March 23, 2006

Chuckles - it's good, though it sounds from the description of what they did for this crank that it's something you wouldn't be able to shop to bloggers for review. Additionally, for that to work they have got to get bloggers with good visibility who will then rise above this person's public bitching. Depending on what forum this person is using for their complaints that may not be a minor achievement. I don't disagree that it's a good long-term strategy for marketing and success but it may not apply here in the short-term.

I acknowledge that there may not be a good short-term solution, however.

You can count me as a voice against The Cluetrain Manifesto, which I personally think is a piece of self-congratulatory dross that's only useful for self-important people who think The Internet Will Solve Everything and want to feel good about how cutting edge they are. Reading their 95 point screed is useful, but only to help you understand that there are folks who can read it without rolling their eyes a dozen times.
posted by phearlez at 10:49 AM on March 23, 2006

i agree with shepd, amtho, and others: if you satisfy her to the extent that she adds an addendum to her post stating that she's now happy, you'll turn that negative press into positive press. and then the #2 ranking on the search engines will instantly become a post that shows everyone how far you'll go to satisfy your customers. and that's publicity you can't buy otherwise.
posted by el-gregorio at 10:58 AM on March 23, 2006

Well, you could be really evil and start spamming links to 'her' webpage on linkfarms, splash pages, warez pages, using all sorts of hidden text / cloaking. Make it so that Google thinks that someone acting on her behalf is trying to game their algorithms. Theoretically, they would punish her site knocking it way down.

Of course, this could backfire and actually work or do nothing at all.

This comment is pure speculation.
posted by maxpower at 11:29 AM on March 23, 2006

I also think you need to be careful about making claims like, "a blogger is hurting our business," because this could be the makings of a countersuit on her part, as you would need to show material evidence of such damage. And I'm willing to wager that right now, all damage is hypothetical.
posted by yellowcandy at 3:04 PM on March 23, 2006

There actually seem to be several questions here:

1. How can we get our website to rank higher than other related sites?

2. How can we push her down the rankings?

For the first question, go to a library, bookshop, or popular book-selling website, and spend £20 on an SEO book. Check out seomoz.org (I believe they have a lot of good free articles, although I haven't checked it out personally). Apply all the lessons, which you will find surprisingly hard work. Remember, this will address issue 1, and issue 2 will only be addressed indirectly.

As for issue 2, I'd leave it well alone. Regardless of her "moral" position, you don't want to go down the dark and repugnant world of counter-SEO. Keep everything you do clean and nice. Even if people don't notice, it will help you sleep better. Personally I like the option of posting a public response to her. If the powers-that-be in your company don't want to do such a thing, then it can't be as much of an issue as people make it out to be.
posted by ajp at 3:58 PM on March 23, 2006

A good practice after every completed job is to ask your customer for a letter of recommendation. Ask for permission to post it on your website. Testimonials are always good for business, and if your customers have made a big purchase and are pleased, they will be happy to write it down. If they have a blog, then that is great, otherwise you post it. For your complaining person, link to their complaint, quote the items you can rebut, and detail the offer of refund etc. that she refused. If your sincere, that can be better than no complaint at all. Also, post lots of pictures of your work, and give useful advice to anyone thinking of redoing a kitchen weather they become your customer or not.
posted by gearspring at 10:47 PM on March 23, 2006