SEO Redefined

Google stalkers? The other side of Google Latitude!

2009-02-06T05:38:00.000-08:00

Many privacy advocates will be decrying this new Google tool called Google Latitude. This widget, as I mentioned in a previous blog, allows you to track where your friends and family members are ay any given moment. By downloading a small widget to your phone and your computer and turning on the GPS feature of your phone you can see in real time on a map where people are located. Many people, including myself find this tool to be kinda cool.

The downside is that people do not have to have the same carrier as you to see you. If you are not careful how you use this, one of your kids could be tricked in to giving “VIEW” permission to the wrong person. Google has some built in protection . You can set features to:
- Hide your location.
- Share only city level location.
- Remove the friend from Latitude.

But we all know about hacking and most hacking is done through social engineering. So your privacy is only as protected as long as you know who is viewing your location.

It’s ten o clock; do you know where your kids are? Google might!

2009-02-06T05:16:00.000-08:00

Google released a new widget called Google Latitude, that can keep track of your kids for you. The widget can be used with a cell phone and your computer. By downloading the widget to each cell phone you want to track and turning on the GPS feature you can locate you children quickly. Now in theory your children can now no longer hide from you, but there have been some issues with this new technology.

Several groups have done some testing and found that this service is not always accurate. The system using what is called Triangulation. Simply put the nearest three cell towers make a best guess as to where the cell phone is located. Hopefully the cell phone is still with your child. One group found that their children had relocated to a mall in Las Vegas, even though they had been in Atlanta, GA just 30 minutes before that.

This new free service has many advantages for small business as well. Even though it has issues it is a great start for a free service.

A Minute a Day for Search Engine Reputation Management

2008-10-20T10:21:00.000-07:00

Online Reputation Management is an ongoing process that needs to be practiced on a daily basis. There is a very easy way to monitor your image online. Just use Google Alerts. Google Alerts will scour the Internet during its regular schedule and alert you when it finds your name or company name (really any phrases you set it up for). This frees you from the daily task of doing this.

The URL for this cool little feature is http://www.google.com/alerts . When you get there you will see that you do not have to have a Gmail account to use this. I use it for my Gmail and Yahoo accounts. You can choose which groups to monitor. You can monitor just News, Blogs, Web, Video or Groups. In this same drop down menu I always choose Comprehensive because that will monitor all of the above for you.

There is another drop down menu that asks you how often you want to be notified. This is going to be a personal preference on your part. You can choose As-It-Happens, Once-A-Day or Once-A-Week. Again I chose As-It-Happens so I can react quickly to any negative information. Not that there will be any but if there is I want to squash it as quickly as possible.

Remember here that I strongly suggest you do this for two very good reasons. First you want to manage your Online Reputation so your “Brand” is not affected negatively. Secondly you want to be to react as quickly as possible to any negative and potentially harmful information.

Follow your online Reputation with these great tools!

2008-10-05T08:03:00.000-07:00

Trying to keep up on your online reputation can be a time consuming task. But lucky for us there are a few really great online tools that can actually make this task much easier. By utilizing the following tools you can get up to the day notices when someone has been blogging or posting any comments about you or your company.

1. Google Alerts: This is a great tool and only requires that you have a Gmail
account. You can set up Alerts for any word or combination of words and be
alerted as they are found or once a day. The results are then emailed to you.

2. Trackur: This tool allows you to track the use of your name or company name in blogs, news articles, posts, images and videos. You can also track the most current info on your competitors. This is not free but works well.

3. Technorati: This will track any mention of your name, company name or brand name in any blogs. Great tool to use and you will have to register to use it, but it is free.

4. MonitorThis: Finally this tool searches over 20 search engines for info about your or your company. Very useful tool when you have the time to actually look up this information.

Probably the easiest way to do all of this is to hire an SEO firm that specializes in SERM. For just a few dollars a month we can monitor the Internet for any information about you or your company and brand name. We will then alert you to what we have found and recommend a course of action. Contact us today for more information.

Do I need to Proactive about my On-line Reputation?

2008-09-20T09:13:00.000-07:00

You have to be very proactive when it comes to your on-line reputation. The way the search engines work today any bad press about you can be listed in a matter of hours on the search engines. Deals could be lost and business relationships shattered if you are not proactive about your company and personal reputation. But how does one become proactive?

One of the easiest ways is to do a search on your name or your company's name. Try all three of the most popular search engines. They would of course be Google, Yahoo and MSN. Each one will give back a different number of searches and many times different websites in the top 20 or 30 links. Click on every that mentions your name and see what it has to say. The search can be refined by using a (“) before and after the search term. A good rule of thumb is to check at least once a week. A very good move is to sign up for Google Alerts using your name and your company's name as an Alert Phrase. This way anytime there is a posting about your or your company and Google finds it, they will alert you of the post.

If you find many negative posts then you should talk to a good Reputation Management Company for a free consultation. They can tell you if you need a lawyer and what can be done to have these posts neutralized. SEOredfined.com can help and they have lawyers on staff that can answer any legal question when it comes to Search Engine Reputation Management.

Being proactive makes good business sense and can directly effect your bottom line. So before that happens take a few minutes every week and check your reputation out.

Reputation Management is a Two-Edged Sword

2008-09-17T10:28:00.000-07:00

Reputation Management can certainly be a two edged sword. Though many companies use this “Technique” to legitimately rectify false and misleading information, others are using it to make a “Fresh Start”. This so called “Fresh Start” is usually the result of the company in question providing poor customer service or just ripping the customer off.

The legitimate uses are practiced by some of the leading Fortune 500 Companies and by smaller business and individuals. Many times a former employee or disgruntled customer will go on many of the “Service Rating” websites and make false claims. They will also blog anomalously about some terrible injustice this company committed. These companies and individuals are then forced to rectify these false claims by “Pushing Down” the fake and false search engine listings with positive and truthful posts.

The same tact is often taken by companies and individuals who have legitimate claims of bad behavior made against them. They know that only a few minutes of searching for a company or individual name on a search engine can loose them a great deal of business, if the information is negative. They also know that many people will not look much past the second or third page of a search engine. So by blogging or posting many positive comments and reviews these companies and individuals can get a “Fresh Start”.

There is no real set standard yet on how many posts it takes to disrupt a bad posts position in a Search Engine. But through some research that SEORedefined.com has done it seems to be running about 10 to 1 and in some case 25 to 1. Every negative post should be answered by 10 or 25 positive posts. This ratio seems to work pretty well. The further down you push a story the less likely it will be found.

Search Engine Reputation Management-Worst Case Scenario

2008-09-16T03:46:00.000-07:00

By now you have probably heard about what happened to United Airlines. But for those of you who have not heard let me briefly explain what happened. In 2002 the Chicago Tribune newspaper published an on-line article about United Airlines declaring bankruptcy. This should have stayed old news, since this story is now 6 years old, but it did not stay old news. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel whose parent company also owns the Chicago Tribune, reran the article just last week.. But the Sentinel had a date of 2008 posted with the article. In no time flat this information ran around the Internet so quickly that investors began dumping their shares. United Airlines stock plummeted from $12 per share to just over $3 per share. United Airlines worth dropped by more than a Billion Dollars. Who is to blame here and what can be done?

The blame will have to be sorted out by the courts. I can not imagine that United is going to sit by and allow this to go unpunished. All parties involved are claiming that they had nothing to do it with and it was all an accident. But I am not so sure about that. Someone or some internal system is to blame for this and needs to be corrected. The trading of the United stock was halted that day and the shares ended the day at just over $10 but not before the damage had been done.

This situations is just another example of how powerful information can be and how fast that information can be spread. It is even more important now to have some type of Search Engine Reputation Management policy in effect to stop these type of rumors before they cost a company their reputation and billions in value.

SERM Search Engine Reputation Management

2008-09-13T20:28:00.000-07:00

Recently SERM (Search Engine Reputation Management) has become a hot topic and a very interesting niche market in the world of SEO. Many people are very unfamiliar with this new concept and how it actually works. I will attempt to explain it here.

SERM are tactics that many companies use to proactively protect their brand names from untrue and damaging posts made by people whose only goal is to hurt and damage a company's reputation. Many times these lies and deceptive practices are spread through search engine searches. This same tactic is used by stalkers and harassment artists who are out to destroy a person's (or company's) reputation and good name.

Until recently, there was not a lot that could be done by a person or company to stop this horrific and cruel practice of deception. But thankfully a few states have passed new laws prohibiting this kind of behavior and made this tactic a felony. Where a few years ago a person had little to no recourse, a company or person can now sue and have the perpetrator put behind bars.

There are some things a company and person can do to limit the damage from this type of harassing behavior. You certainly do not want to ignore this and hope that the search engines will suddenly forget you exist. You will want to confront this type of harassment "head-on."

You may find that you need a lawyer to help you decide if there is some type of legal action you can take. In the event of a stalker or on-going harassment you will want to discuss your options with a lawyer.

When the matter is one of brand or name disparaging you will want to bury the offending posts, This can be done in many ways and certainly has many advantages. Most people do not go beyond the third or fourth page in search engine results. So blogging becomes even more important along with press releases. What you are trying to do here is bury the offending posts so noone will find them.

If the offending posts appear on any of the popular rating systems then address each post as you find them. Offer to correct the problem that the person is complaining about. Address any negative information that that may have made against you. Be very careful not to resort to name calling of any defaming behavior. You do not want to give this person a chance to sue you.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about SERM. We have a lawyer on staff that is always happy to answer any questions you many have about your situation.

Happy Birthday Google....

2008-09-07T16:33:00.000-07:00

Has it already been 10 years since Google was launched out of a garage? It sure has. I do not think anyone can disagree with the fact that Google has redefined the SEO experience for everyone. Google has become such a force on the Internet that they have literally changed the way we search for anything and everything.

A really fun link to read is this one: http://www.google.com/corporate/history.html
This link is Google's history of Google and is fun for the reading.

I think we all agree at times we love Google and other times we hate Google. But make no mistake, for any SEO firm this will be a long lasting love/hate relationship. Either way Google, HAPPY BIRTHDAY. I am anixous to see what the next 10 years will bring.