Reputation Armor

Reputation Armor received several calls a week from businesses that are having issues with positive 4+ star Yelp.com reviews being filtered and not viible to visitors of their yelp listing.

The big question is why does Yelp filter reviews and what can trigger a good review to be filtered?

Based off of our (Reputation Armor’s) research it was found that yelp reviews (goos ones and bad ones) can be filtered for many reasons. Some of the reasons are listed below:

-Your company has put “good” reviews on yelp immediately after a bad one was filed on yelp. A good review immediately following a bad one has the characteristics of foul play within yelps eyes.

-A user has flagged your good reviews and yelp looked in to it and feels it may be false review trying to combat a bad review.

-You are getting to many reviews and it does not look natural to Yelp. It you normally get 1-2 reviews a month and then all of a sudden you get 10 in one month, Yelp will filter some of the because it is not natural looking.

- The same IP address (computer) is trying to post multiple reviews. Yelp can tell that your computer has been there before. They will filter duplicate user or IP reviews (Good or Bad).

-The location of your computer might play a role. If you are in Salem VA, and trying to review a restaurant in LA, then a restaurant in NC, yelp may  think they are false reviews since your computer is sitting in VA.

-Too good to be true? Most reviews online are negative in nature. Not many people go out of their way to say good things about a company unless they are pushed to do so. Yelp is not made up of idiots; they are quite smart and have put hundreds of thousands of dollars in coding to ensure real reviews go live. It is apparent that any GOOD review will go through a greater verification process and maybe a live moderator will read it. If your review sounds over zealous it may get filtered.

-Using a proxy (hiding your true IP) might get god reviews filtered. Proxies are shared with others and yelp might stay up to speed with the newest proxies and give them no creditability.

In Yelp’s Own Words:

“Here at Yelp, we’re trying to connect people with great local businesses. Providing consumers with trusted review content is critical to this mission. One question we occasionally get asked on this topic is why reviews sometimes “disappear” from a business page. While the overwhelming majority of reviews aren’t affected, we figured this might be a good time to offer some specifics on why reviews sometimes don’t appear on business pages (and why we think this helps make Yelp the most useful consumer review site around).”

“Yelp has an automated Review Filter that many people are surprised to learn was put in place soon after our big launch in 2005. Of course, it’s evolved over the years; it’s an algorithm our engineers are constantly working on. Its purpose, however, remains the same: to protect consumers and business owners from fake, shill or malicious reviews.”

Conclusion: If you need help managing a yelp review issue please contact us at 1-888-358-2766 x 701

What is Reputation Armor?

Reputation Armor (ReputationArmor.com) specializes in manipulating the search engine results our clients favor. Reputation Armor is one of the leading online reputation management firms and can help protect, repair, and build your online reputation, which includes such services as Removing Ripoff Reports, Complaintsboard, Yelp, PissedConsumer, ShamScam, and any other site that may contain negative information about an individual or their company.

No company is impervious to getting harmful comments or complaints online. Some of the largest brands in the world have negative information that appears high on Google search results. Reputation Armor offers a great example of how a 1 website or negative entry can tarnish your online reputation: the website PayPalSucks.com. This website ranks in the top 10 results on the first page of Google when you search the term “PayPal”. There are also dozens of other online negatives that appear when you search for “paypal” online.

The point that Reputation Armor tries to make is no company is perfect and every company has someone out there that does not like them. In some cases people go far out of their way and invest a lot of time to ruin another company’s online image. Having negative information online about your business is not the end of the world and it can be corrected or at least made less damaging. Reputation Armor has been in the online reputation management industry for over ten years.

The Reputation Armor solution is to bury these negative items deeper within search results. By pushing negative comments and mentions of your company deeper within search results you will regain your positive image. Reputation Armor knows has found it to be fact that only a small segment of internet users go past the first 2 pages of Google when they search for something or someone. If you can maneuver the negative links to go further down and the positive links up, then you have accomplished the most important aspect of reputation management.

Do you need reputation armor?

The best way to view your online reputation as potential clients will is to simply search your name or company name on Google. See what shows up on the first 2 pages of Google, if there are negative mentions of your business that might make a potential client think twice about doing business with you, then you may need reputation armor s help.

Reputation Armor is a company that can assist you with protecting your online images and repairing your online reputation.

Remove Google Map Reviews

 
Google Map reviews are tough to deal with and Google Is too busy to moderate reviews left by other Google users. Below you will find everything about removing Google Map Reviews.

So it is my understanding that if your review is written by a Google user that is logged in to Google when they leave a review you can FLAG the review as inappropriate and state why you want it removed. This method rarely gets negative review removed unless the review context violates Google Maps Policies. The fact is someone simply saying something bad about your business is not a violation of the policy, even if what they say is a lie.

If the review is displayed on Google but is from a third party site like citysearch.com, you will have to contact the site the original review was left on. In most cases the other site will have policies that make it next to impossible to have the bad review removed, unless the review text left violates their terms of service. Again a violation of terms is needed in order for these reviews to be removed by the review sites.

Sometime the only way to deal with a negative Google Maps Review or many of them is to launch a reputation management campaign in an effort to bury the negative reviews.

There are some cases where we can have your Google Maps account completely removed/deleted. If you rely on Google maps to bring you business then this may not be an option for you. We offer consultations on Google Maps Reputation Management.

Reputation Armor notes that Reverse Search Engine Optimization goes right along with the structure of your online reputation management agenda. It is the quickest, most capable resolution for dealing with negative results that have surfaced on the search engines about you or your company. By forcing negative listings from the front page of Google, Yahoo, and Bing, reverse SEO protects you from the detrimental annotations of others.

Negative exposure online has become one of the most frustrating challenges for Reputation Armor clients.

With sites like RipOffReport.com it is easier than ever for anyone to post anything. These Complaints are typically anonymous. Reputation Armor has found that names are consistently unattached to forum threads, blog posts, and even entire websites. Therefore, it is an complex task to track and address the source of the complaint. Furthermore, Reputation Armor has found that the growing popularity of social networking platforms has made it easier than ever for anyone with a accusation or false complaint to give weight to their resentment.

If you or your company has been the target of negative online complaints, it may be time to launch a reverse SEO campaign with Reputation Armor

In the following, Reputation Armor will spell out how negative results gain footing within the search engines, and how it can lead to a public relations nightmare. We’ll also provide a working blueprint for executing a reverse SEO campaign and controlling the damage.

Managing Negative Results With Reverse Search Engine Optimization

To appreciate why reverse SEO is effective, the ReputationArmor.com team thinks you should be aware of how negative results take root within the top search listings in the first place. Google, Yahoo, and Bing rank pages based on a large number of criterion. If a website and its individual pages satisfy the most important of those criteria, those pages will rank well.

A lot of the negative results that target companies are to be found on websites that meet key ranking parameters in the search algorithms. That means the negative results can climb into the top positions and gain exposure. When people search for you or your company, they’ll see the ghastly press.

Reputation Armor s reverse search engine optimization consists of an Online Reputation Management strategy that pushes negative exposure from the top search positions. By removing the negative results from the first 2 or 3 pages of listings, reverse SEO limits its exposure and suppresses its force.

Fundamentals Of A Triumphant Reverse SEO Campaign

Like search engine marketing, reverse SEO uses a systematic, multi dimensional approach to protect your online reputation. The first step that Reputation Armor recommends is to identify the sites and pages that include negative results about your company, and are ranking for central keywords. Those keywords might include your name, that of your company, or key employees.

The second step of reverse SEO as Reputation Armor observes it is to analyze those sites and pages for their respective ranking authority. That will help you establish the effort and tools you’ll need to use in order to move them from the first page of listings within Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

The third step is to assemble the necessary tools and execute your reverse SEO campaign. Deployment of optimization tools such as press releases, a new network of competing sites and blogs, social media profiles, and social bookmarking programs begins immediately when Reputation Armor starts a campaign for a client. A Reputation Armor Reverse Search Engine Optimization campaign also includes heavy content syndication to build high-quality links. Reverse SEO Begins

Before Negative Press Emerges

Reputation Armor has found that the best time to launch a reverse SEO campaign is before negative results appear in the search results that are generated by search engines. This is due to the way that the pages link. A page will rank well within the search engines if there are enough links pointing toward it. However, once it ranks, it will receive a larger spotlight. Negative results can spread in a hurry as people attach the links pointing to those negative results to their own blogs, sites, forums, and social media accounts. That creates a growing portfolio of links pointing toward the damaging press, cementing its position in the top listings. It becomes more difficult to address. By launching a “Reputation Armor” reverse SEO campaign upfront, you can thwart the negative results

from gaining exposure in the first place.

Armor Your Online Reputation with Reverse SEO

Reverse SEO should play a key role in your online reputation management. It is effortless for unsatisfied customers, resentful employees and malicious competitors to discolor your name. And when it happens, it is usually done under the cover of anonymity.

To launch your Reputation Armor reverse SEO campaign now – before trouble strikes and the damage begins to gain momentum in popular search engines, contact Reputation Armor @ 888-358-ARMOR

How can a website that claims to help consumers hurt so many families and businesses? The website ripoffreport.com is responsible for several businesses going out of business. The website allows ANYONE to create an anonymous account and post highly visible complaints which they call Rip Off Reports.

The rip off report website DOES NOT verify or validate any of the complaints left on their website. There are several reasons why in my opinion the rip off report website should be shut down or at least regulated in some manner.

A few problems with RipOffReport.com Include:

1. The site will never remove complaints even if it is obviously from a competitor. Even if you can prove it is from a competitor, the complaint will remain.
2. Anyone can say anything they want about how bad a business or an individual is without verifying their identity.
3. If a business makes good on the issue the complaint remains online forever and still looks bad and ranks high.
4. Businesses that pay rip off report their high fees for the “advocacy program” get special treatment.
5. Rip Off Report allegedly makes complaints rank higher for certain businesses that contact them, in an effort to extort money from them. (Per others).
6. There is no physical location to deliver court documents to the owner (Ed Magedson).
7. If the author of the complaint request it be removed, rip off report still won’t remove it.
8. If a business provided 100% proof that the complaint is fake, rip off report won’t remove it.

Anything Good About Rip Off Report?

1. They would be a great website if they had a verification process that verified and displayed the true identity of who filed the complaints. This would allow businesses that are wrongfully attacked to take legal action against the author and not rip off report.
2. The only good thing about rip off report is that they will one day be forced to change their ways or be shut down. There are too many businesses and individuals being damaged for this to continue.
3. NO

Why and How is Rip Off Report (Ed Magedson) Legally Protected:

The Communications Decency Act of 1996 was designated as Title V in the larger legislation of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The inclusion of the Communications Decency Act in the greater Telecommunications Act was meant to criminalize obscenity online in the face of the rise of Internet pornography. (Remember, this was 1996, when Internet use was first becoming a common part of American life and people were worried that Internet porn was going to permanently damage our children.) Eventually, the scope of the bill was significantly tightened through the landmark case Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union.

Interestingly, CDA 230 was not an original part of the Communications Decency Act, but was added by the House of Representatives through the Internet Freedom and Family Empowerment Act, which was co-sponsored by Republican representative Chris Cox and Democratic representative Ron Wyden. The purpose of the addition was to protect Internet service providers from being held criminally liable for indecent content that its users posted. In legalese, the CDA 230 read, “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.”

  About Filing Rebuttals – Should I file a rebuttal on a rip off report?

This is a highly debated subject among the reputation management industry. From an online reputation management standpoint and because search engines like content and more content, we would say NO, DO NOT file a rebuttal on rip off report. If you file a rebuttal it WILL (Not May) make the rip off report page about you stronger and possibly rank higher or rank longer on the first page of Google.

If you have no intentions of pushing the link down search pages or there is no possibility at all that the link will move ever, then a rebuttal may be ok. When filing a rebuttal (if you must), DO NOT attack the person who filed the complaint. State simple facts about the issue and explain how your company respects clients and maybe talk about your customer service goals.

Here is an example rebuttal.

XYZ Company takes customer service and satisfaction very seriously. In the uncommon event a client is not happy with our products or service; we will take all necessary steps to ensure that the customer is a happy one.  As per the client experience mentioned herein, we have takes steps to refund or satisfy the customer and have reached an agreeable resolution to the matter with the client.

Again, Remember a rebuttal will make the rip off report links rank higher and stronger on Google, so only file on if you have no intentions or hopes of pushing it down with SEO or ORM.

Remove a rip off report link and take it off the top pages of Google search results.

Removing a rip off report from the top of search results is a tough task and can take several weeks to accomplish (If Not Longer). Our reputation management company Reputation Armor realizes it may not be within your budget to hire a reputation management service to help you remove (displace) rip off reports from the search results. We have compiled some tips that may help you bury a rip off report and reclaim your good online reputation.

The tips below apply to Individual names and Business names. When removing a rip off report the main thing is BE PATIENT.

1. Register domain names: Go to Godaddy.com or Moniker.com (Better) and register yourname.com, .net, and .org. If YOURNAME.com is taken already try registering YOUR-NAME.com (With a hyphen). After you register your domain name get a small website up and online. We use wordpress (blog) a lot. Make sure to have your name in the title of the website and mention your name within the website a few times. Then go to Google and submit the website to Google and be patient.

1. Now create social profiles (a lot of them) on websites like Twitter, Linkedin, FaceBook, and several others. We use about 300 social networking sites and many of them rank well. Some of them will let you add a link to your website (YourName.com) do it!

1. Create an account on free article sites and submit a few articles on a topic you like. Use your name as the author and include a link to one of your domain names in the resource box.

1. Use social bookmarking sites like Digg.com to share your articles and website. Digg.com shows up on Google pretty high sometimes.

1. Get Paid blog reviews. Regardless of what any “seo company” says, paid blog posts and paid blog reviews are very effective and useful for SEO and Reputation management. I would personally stay away from blogs that openly advertise they sell paid posts and reviews. Google frowns upon paid blog posts and paid reviews, they consider it selling links and PR. Also try to stay away from blogs that have casinos, adult related, illegal warez, and other objectionable material. Include YOUR NAME in the title of the posts and link to your domains and other sites about you from the blog post (article). Always link from YOUR NAME so when you click on YOUR NAME it takes you to a website about YOU.

Obtain backlinks (other sites linking to yours) from websites with PageRank. Link building is important when trying to push a website above a rip off report. You can find backlinks for sale by searching for them on Google and webmaster forums.

This article is provided by Reputation Armor – Online Reputation Management Services. You can reuse this article as long as you keep this footer intact.

Need Help Removing Rip Off Reports: Call: 1-888-358-2766

Clearly, the best approach is to have no negative results in the first place. But Reputation Armor has seen a rising amount of reputable companies receiving these negative results. Sites like RipOffReport.com overwhelm anything you and pushing those complaints out of the top search results becomes difficult. Reputation Armor is prepared to go to bat for your good name.

Reputation Armor has seen many examples of businesses forced to deal with extremely negative search results simply because they happened to upset the wrong high profile blogger. Reputation Armor observes a rising amount of negative results coming from the businesses competitors. Once a negative result from a convincing blog gets well-established in Google it can be among the most difficult kind of listing to remove.

If you find this is the case with you, contact Reputation Armor and we can start by getting in touch with the blogger personally and do everything in our power to make them happy. We can often get them to at least write a follow-up post that presents your company in a better light.

Reputation Armor doesn’t want negative search results to be your company’s down fall, and with ReputationArmor.com they don’t have to be

Reputation Armor takes a look at Yelp

Yelp (a local search and reviews online service) offers paid advertising for businesses called the “Yelp Sponsorship Program”.

According to the page advertising this opportunity, this Yelp Sponsorship program allows you to:

1. Add a slideshow of the images of your business.
2. Highlight a user’s review that you (business owner) are most fond of
3. Endorse your business as a sponsored search result and on your competitors’ business pages. Aim towards potential clients while they are making decisions about where to spend their money on a business similar to yours

How’s that sound?  Sounds like you get FURTHER control over your business listing which will help “put your best foot forward” and sneak attack your competitors, stealing all their would be consumers.

Do These Yelp Advertising Features Actually Accomplish Anything?  Or Is it Just A Bouquet Of BS?

While researching this I came across yelpscam.com. The following content is from their home page. But don’t stop there. If you’ve ever wondered about Yelp’s dealings, or are interested in all the hoopla about the potential class action lawsuit, then this site is a must visit.

Online defamation is any false statement, presented as fact, which is published online and which is injurious to the subject’s reputation, whether through neglect or malice. If you have been the victim you do have legal options, but they are quite limited. Most of the legal issues are covered in the Communications Decency Act of 1996.

The Communications Decency Act (or CDA) of 1996 was the first real endeavor by the U.S. Congress to get involved in the regulation and censoring of pornographic or obscene material. The Act was Title V of an omnibus bill called the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The CDA was first introduced to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation by James Exon, a Democrat from Nebraska, and Slade Gorton, a Republican from Washington.

The law’s purpose was to stop, or inhibit, the profusion of pornography, and other obscene material. The word used in the text is “indecent”, but it remains undefined throughout the bill, with no legislator willing to create a definition which clearly articulates what indecency is without including art or creative writing. Indecent remains a term which is subjective in nature—meaning each person’s idea of what is indecent varies wildly. While some find particular art “indecent”, some would find it perfectly fine. The same goes for humor or writing.

What is clear-cut about the act is that it upholds the illegality of defamation, whether slander or libel, on the Internet. However, Section 230 of the CDA specifically exempts Internet Service Providers from liability for defamatory comments. The courts have defined the term “Internet Service Providers” quite broadly, though. This broad interpretation of Section 230 has served to protect Internet Service Providers and third-parties from litigation concerning libel or slander online.

Bloggers, for example, can be sued depending upon their relation to the defamatory content. If they publish the content personally, then they are liable. However, if their blog’s comment section is host to the defamatory comment, then they are acting as an Internet Service Provider and are not liable for the damage to your reputation. To the extent that they act as a third-party, allowing users to use their blogs as communicative outlets, they are exempt from any responsibility whatsoever.

Even in the event that bloggers edit these comments, guest editorials, or republished material—they cannot be held liable. The sole exception to this is if the editing process itself creates defamatory comments, e.g., changing “Chris is not a murderer” by removing the “not”. Similarly, any forum website, wiki, or chat site cannot be held responsible for the defamatory statements of its users. This is true regardless of whether the website has posting guidelines or not—those guidelines have no bearing on who is liable for which comments. Section 230 of the CDA also makes clear that republishing defamatory content is not illegal, assuming the republisher does not add his or her own two defamatory cents.

Also of interest is that bloggers cannot be legally penalized for deleting any comments left on their blogs (the same goes for owners of other Internet Service Providers). However, as noted above, they are also not legally required to do anything of the sort.

Public persons are unique in online defamatory law because they are not afforded the same protections as private citizens. Any public figure, elected official, celebrity, or person involved in a major event must prove that their defamer knew that their comment was false or acted recklessly, neglecting to ascertain the veracity of the claim. This means that individuals who could reasonably be viewed as “public persons” have an extra high hurdle to jump in order to successfully sue someone for defamatory comments—this was done in an effort to protect the Freedom of Speech, especially in the political arena.

It is important to note that context is important in any of these cases. For example, the well-known satirical news website “The Onion” prints many statements which might be regarded as libelous if they were read individually, but in the context of the website and its purpose—the statements are not meant to be taken seriously and are therefore an example of non-libelous false statements. Many political websites are treated similarly because in context the statements are understood to be hyperbole (for example, if one calls a politician a “crook” or a “thief”).

While the CDA provides some level of protection to those who have been defamed, it largely concerns Internet Service Providers. Section 230 protects ISPs by exempting them from liability for users’ defamatory comments. In an increasingly anarchic environment such as the Internet, it can be difficult to sort out the legal issues regarding defamatory statements. While this Act was instrumental in shaping online defamatory legal policy, it does little to define what a victim of defamation is entitled to in terms of legal protections. What it does clearly define, especially in Section 230, is who is exempt from liability in the case of defamation.