Warren Buffet once said that it takes 20 years to build a reputation but just minutes to ruin it – this saying especially rings true in today’s digital age. The speed at which information spreads online, the vastly increasing number of ways to share it, and negative content’s tendency to rank highly in search results has made the defense of any brand and reputation more challenging and resource intensive than ever before.
Most people first find out about a business or individual after a quick search on Google – which is why it’s imperative to get rid of a negative search result(s) as quickly as possible. A popular study suggests businesses risk losing as many as 22% of customers when just one negative article is found by users considering buying their product or service. The first page of search results for a company should be considered a virtual storefront – how companies manage this can make or break their company. Having an accurate, positive online presence can give companies a leg up on the competition, and allow them to generate more business online.
Similar to companies, individuals face pressure to manage their own personal online reputations. It has become the norm for potential investors/business partners, HR managers, and acquaintances to “Google” someone before any further personal or business interaction. Having an accurate, positive, and professional online presence can significantly assist individuals in achieving their future goals and aspirations.
Many companies and individuals dealing with negative search results will hire an online reputation repair company, like us, to suppress, bury, and hide negative search results.
One of the most common questions people ask when it comes to repairing an online reputation is how long it should take before a negative search result(s) is buried and suppressed to at least the second page of Google. The response to this question is one of the defining factors that should help you determine whether a reputation repair company is worth hiring or not.
That’s because it typically takes 2-4 months on average to start pushing down the negative search results with strategically created positive/neutral links. Any company that tells you otherwise is likely to be using black-hat tactics designed to artificially manipulate search results in Google. These tactics, which include things like excessive use of keywords, hidden text, and purchased spammy backlinks, are all against Google’s terms of use. Using these tactics may get short term results, but once Google’s uber advanced algorithms catch on, the negative result will pop up back to the top of search results. This is the reason that a number of reputation repair & management companies have a bad reputation – they take shortcuts to maximize profits and the results are not sustainable.
Why Sustainable Search Engine Rankings Take Time to Build
When it comes to pushing down & burying negative search results, by far the worst enemy to your reputation is a lack of patience. Too many individuals and organizations have made the mistake of hiring low-cost dodgy reputation management companies in the hope of a quick fix. By contrast, it takes time to build sustainable, high ranking web properties to push down unwanted results.
It’s important to remember that Google and other search engines primarily serve their users, not the multitude of businesses vying for a spot on the first page of the results. The search engines achieve this by using over 200 ranking factors that help to determine the worth and relevance of the content displayed in the results. At the same time, these powerful algorithms are getting better at identifying low-quality content that’s clearly written for the search engines rather than for human readers. By aligning your content strategy with Google’s goals, you’ll be well on your way to taking control of the first page of Google search results, but it will still take time.
There are ways to expedite results. Content published by credible websites, which typically already have a high domain authority, will usually be indexed much quicker, typically within a couple days Here at Reputation Resolutions, we have a database of over 600+ websites we leverage that are known to rank highly in search results to suppress and bury negative search results as quickly as possible.
Quality vs. Quantity vs. Time
Burying negative search results used to be far simpler and quicker than it is today. Reputation Management Companies could, for example, hire writers on the cheap to create spammy 500-word articles for little reason other than to give the search engines more content to index. Today, however, the search engines are much cleverer and are better able to identify thin content that has little or no value to the human reader.
Ultimately, the reason it takes so long to improve your online presence and push down negative results is that it requires an organic approach, and that means publishing high-quality content that’s of genuine interest to searches. However, even quality content takes time to start appearing on the first page, since Google’s algorithms need to gather enough data to determine its worth.
Among some 200+ metrics Google uses to achieve this is the amount of time a user spends on the page, the number of pages viewed on a website and the number of social shares and backlinks a specific article has generated. This all takes time, but value-driven content ultimately yields the best sustainable and long-lasting results.
Are you dealing with negative search results and interested in burying them? If so, fill out the form below for a FREE consultation:
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