Digital Always Media Inc.
: Search, Social & Analytics :

“A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.” – Brutus, Julius Caesar: Act 1, scene 2

Google’s former Director of Engineering, James Whittaker, posted a scathing assessment of the company he left on February 2nd of this year on the Microsoft Developer Network blog, owned and operated by his new employer where he is now a ‘Web Futurist’.

In his post, “”, Whittaker paints a picture of social desperation, or perhaps more appropriately, a desperation for social. Gone is Google Labs and the innovative benefit of the fabled 20% time. The techno-playground ‘build it to see what happens’ atmosphere has evaporated, replaced by a buttoned down C-Level driven dictum stating all important innovation involves the simple formula; personal data + ? = greater profit.

According to Whittaker, Google delved deeper than a basic double down in its bid to make Google+ more influential and more user-centric than Facebook. The firm made an existential bet using its greatest sacred cow, algorithmic objectivity, as the make-or-break marker. At stake is dominance over a multibillion dollar content/advertising delivery environment where planetary-scale data mining means advertisers know more about individual consumers than those consumers could possibly understand about themselves. Ideas of controlling the past are bygone passe. This is a game for the immediate future and the definition of the Agora for the next few decades.

Google knows the web has changed and that it, like Microsoft before it, has fallen behind a data cloud that threatens to form into an eight-ball. Facebook knows more about its users than Google does and that pinpoint (and often banal) granularity of knowledge could make hanging your shingle in the closed garden of Facebook more valuable than waiting for explorers to find your business by actually taking the time to search for it. That’s what Google most fears and that’s what they are reacting to this week.

Where Google brought us the mega world by making the world’s information available to all, it today wants to micromanage that information; in turn micromanaging our purchases, our news sources, our lifestyles, our entertainment options and, ultimately, our personal interactions with society. Confirmation bias on a global yet uniquely personalized scale.

Search has been Google’s game to lose since it started its ascendance in 1998. Just like it was Yahoo!’s, Alta Vista and Infoseek’s game in years past. Though Google might be aping the proverbial corporate dodo, search and information availability will always be strong. They say it was said, “Beware the ides of March”. That’s wise but remember the world takes a 365-day, 360-degree view. Watch your back Google, especially if you put all your eggs in the same basket. It only takes one trip to break them.

Last week we received an email reference from west coast Internet marketer asking if we had experience helping victims of the infamous RipOffReport. (link redacted) We’ve helped a number of clients over the past year dealing with the infection of search results by RipOffReport so we welcomed the reference. Here is the email we received from the potential client:

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Thank you for your email.
A little bit of background:

My company is [name redacted], a creative services and design studio located in [location redacted]. One of our specialties is motion graphics and short films as promotional tools for client products and services. You can see some of our work here [links redacted]

I am a recent father of a baby girl and a hard working, small business owner with only a few part-time employees under me.

In May of 2011 this report was posted on RipOffReport.com:
[link redacted]

The post includes my personal cell phone number, our home address, and totally untrue, slanderous and defaming comments about myself and my business — including the statements, “this company is a complete scam and a fraud” and “[name redacted] is known as a very violent person.” Despite being totally untrue, those statements have already caused severe harm to my business and my quality of life, including the loss of numerous clients, projects, and even relationships.

I have no history of violence, arrests, or lawsuits, or any other negative complaint of any kind. My credit is good and my company is in perfect standing with all of my clients, past and present.

Background:
In 2011 all-girl motorcycle rally bartending crew asked if I would be interested in investing and producing a pilot program for a reality tv series based on their work. My girlfriend/partner and I discussed the project and decided it would be a great vehicle to support and, with our prior film experience, it might be fun and potentially profitable to take a crack at making a tv pilot. Or possibly serve as a launchpad for future television and cinema work. We hired a crew, rented a house, paid for legal forms, arranged filming locations and permissions, purchased equipment and then setup our shoot. During filming, myself and one of my crew members were assaulted by the ex-boyfriend of one of the female cast members (completely unknown prior to us).

The police were called and a report was filed in [location redacted] County, South Carolina on May 20th at 11:30 PM. The individual was then arrested and cited for drunken and disorderly conduct as-well-as assault. Myself and my crew member were treated and released by an ambulance already on-site and we considered the issue disturbing, but closed. We continued filming and wrapped the project later that evening.

Two days later, the same individual that assaulted us, posted the fraudulent article on RipOffReport.com.

Approximately two weeks after that, I began receiving phone calls from “Reputation Management Companies”, offering to assist with the Rip Off Report. Prices were quoted starting at $8,000 “and higher.”

Everything within the report, with the exception of my full name, business name, contact information (phone and address), is completely and totally untrue. After hearing about the report from the reputation management companies (calling my cell phone as it is listed in the ROR article), I contacted RipOffReport with a factual rebuttal and was told I would need to purchase an “Arbitration Program” (which costs $2700), and even then, the case would only be reviewed with no guarantee of outcome (despite the overwhelming evidence of clear defamation, slander, posting personal information, etc), and the best I could hope for would be red text added above the article that the description is false. The article itself, all search rankings, and the severe damage it causes to me and my business would stay on the internet, indefinitely. They flat out refused to remove the article, investigate its validity (without payment), or remove my personal information.

Simply put, I cannot afford to pay for these exorbitant “reputation management” company services but I have a need to try and push this vindictive awfulness behind me and move on with our life. Is it possible to do this with SEO/SEM and, if so, would you be available and willing to assist (for a price of course)?
Thank you.
[name redacted]

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OK. Obviously this person has a problem and is being unfairly extorted for an amount ranging between $2700 and $8000. He’s a new father, a small business owner, and, if his claims are to be believed, a person of good character. Something in the way he wrote his letter asking for assistance struck me. Perhaps it was the words he choose to use. I read sincerity in his email and decided that Alan and I had to do something to help him. Here’s the reply I offered:

Hi [name redacted], (and Rebecca and Alan)

My name is Jim Hedger. I am co-owner of a SEO firm based in Toronto which specializes in cases such as yours. Rebecca passed this on to us as we have a good deal of experience in dealing with issues caused by RipOffReport (ROR).

First of all… ARG! On behalf of my business partner, Alan K’necht, I can’t overstate how much RipOffReport angers us. I have had over a dozen dealings with ROR over the years, none of which resulted in ROR retracting or removing posts without payment. It’s called extortion and, unfortunately, ROR is just an inch over to the side of being legal. We would almost certainly NOT be able to produce an outcome that includes a retraction or deletion of the report and I can’t justify advising giving ROR any of your hard earned money.

After researching your case, we believe there are ways you can push the ROR down further without incurring the expense of hiring a team like ours. Don’t get me wrong, we love new business but we do not like taking money from people when we believe that with a few simple steps, they can likely accomplish what Digital Always Media would charge thousands of dollars for. You mentioned you are a new father. I would be more comfortable advising you than taking money from a new father. Please deposit the money you would have given us in an education plan or a new motorcycle for your kid (or something similarly cool) and follow the instructions below.

We tested several keyword phrases including your name, your business name and titles we found on your website, on Google using Google’s “search from location” tool that allows us to see what a searches conducted in [location redacted] (as well as S. Florida, Los Angeles, Phoenix Arizona and NYNY) would look like. In most cases, we found the ROR page relating to you in the 10th position. In no cases did we find it higher than the 10th spot. We also found evidence suggesting you’ve been trying to push the offending listing downwards yourself. If this is true, keep on doing what you’re doing as it appears to be working. If I was in your position, here’s what I would do…

1. Start creating more content for your website. Publish new/fresh content at least once a week on your site.

2. Use your blog and guest write for other blogs with links pointing to appropriate pages in your website. For the anchor text of the links (the text used to phrase the link), I would use keyword phrases like your name, [name redacted], or the topic of the page you’re directing the link to.

3. Every time you post to your blog, add fresh content to your site, or guest write to another blog, publicize your efforts using Twitter, Facebook, Linked-In and Google+. Get your friends, family, employees, band-mates, pizza delivery driver and anyone else you can think of to LIKE, +1 or ReTweet your social media messages. Be sure there is a truncated link (ie: bit.ly) back to the post or fresh content pages.

4. NEVER mention the RipOffReport again in writing, especially if where you’re writing might be spidered by Google or Bing. Any mention gives them potential power through the search engines. This goes double for social media applications. Mentioning ROR is like feeding trolls raw red meat. Please spit at the nearest lamppost or other inanimate object if you ever have to mention ROR verbally.

5. Get your supporters, associated artists, staff, and business associates to link to your website from their websites.

6. Publish a secondary website that discusses the technical aspects (or other aspects) of your business. It almost doesn’t matter what goes there as long as it is relevant to the topic of the website, coherent, and of interest to folks interested in film, video production, distribution, etc…. This secondary website will be used to direct links and, as it grows, to push ROR down even further.

7. Join as many local business associations as possible, especially ones that mention and link to their membership. In some cases, such as with the [location redacted] Chamber of Commerce website, links are intentionally set to “no follow”, a tag instructing Google to avoid passing PageRank from one page to another. Don’t worry about that. Get the link anyway.

8. Continue posting fresh content to your website as frequently as possible

9. Maximize other forms of search listings such as YouTube videos. The goal is to push the ROR as far down in the listings as possible so any content you can offer Google (and Bing) is probably good.

I hope you’re cool with me suggesting you don’t need to spend too much money for a third party service in this case. I think with a bit of time and effort (which I believe you’re already committed to), you will solve the issue yourself.

If, in 30 – 45 days, you’ve followed the eight (nine if you count #8) points above and have seen no changes in search results, please give us a call and we’ll take a shot at it. Otherwise, I’d feel awful taking money from you as I am pretty sure you’re already close to the kind of resolution a Reputation Management firm would be able to produce using SEO methods.

Please feel free to contact me if you have further questions or concerns.

best,

Jim Hedger
Creative Partner,
Digital Always Media

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I hope the advice helps. I’m pleased to report the potential client was extremely positive about our response. I do hope he doesn’t need to contact us in 6 – 8 weeks. If he does, we’re here to help.