In my case, my business is my name
-
This is becoming an essential part of doing business on the Net and it applies as much to individuals and it does to companies. If the negative result is about a real problem in specific database by industry company address it right away. Let the person who wrote about you know that you are handling the issue. Be willing to look at your mistakes and fix them. This can turn your worst detractors into supporters. You can work at moving negative results down in the rankings.
Depending on who the negative result
What site it is on, it may take a lot of work to move it off page one. To 'own' the search results for your name you need to create lots of good content and then link to I am as pro-active as possible, and have set up RSS feeds for my name, ActiveWords, and other ideas. I reach out instantly, and engage the writer in a conversation, offer to solve any issues, and this has worked very well. My goal has always been to turn lemons into lemondade.
We try to be brutally honest about our productAlways asking people for input and ideas
Your best bet is to get enough positive stuff out there on sites that will carry more weight/traffic than the ones displaying the negatives. Basically,you need a good SEO campaign combined with people that get viral marketing if you want to hire someone to do it.
In my case, my business is my name. The 1st thing I try to do is get past any name calling or insulting comments & determine what substantive complaint someone has. Then I think about it before answering the substance and ignoring the insult. If there is no substance as is often the case at places like Valleywag, I don't answer at all. There game is to build readership through controversy and I do not wish to play.
There are a few options here
At one level, if information is libelous and damaging you can consider legal steps against the source of the misinformation or the site displaying the offending references. This of course is costly, time consuming, and can often backfire. In recent years, the blogging community has become a powerful voice and an alternative media that rivals traditional news sources. Many major corporations have tried bullying these sites and sending cease-and-desist letters threatening legal action.
Bloggers then post these threats
Which draw even more attention to the issue that would have probably faded away on its own. In fact, companies demonstrating a sense of humor and support of the bloggers often come away with a much better public image. One option that can be effective is to simply contact the sites directly and discuss the situation with them.
If you can demonstrate why the information is wrong
or misleading or at least offer your perspective, there is a good chance that they will either remove the offending article, or at least offer your response to get equivalent exposure.
For less-than-flattering
But not libelous information, you should develop your own statement and post it on your website. If your company was in the wrong, demonstrate resolution, discuss how you fixed the problem, or reimbursed the customer. Show that you care about your customers and are honest and straight forward with them. People understand that maybe your customer service rep made a procedural mistake, or the previous release of your software had a bug. Show the world that have or are addressing the issue. Once you’ve established your position, you can take advantage of channels to propagate this to get the word out to your customers and to the people who will see the disparaging remarks. Interviews, press releases, etc.
Finally, if negative information
Shows up first in searches the best defense is to displace it with positive information about your business. Consider turning to experts in PR, SEO, and media relations to develop a strong, positive message about your company and be sure it rises to the top of the searches. This is not in retaliation to negative references on the web, this is what you should be doing every day to make sure the best news about your company comes from you and your satisfied customers.