Comments on: Can Negative Brand Mentions Hurt Your Rankings? The Answer Might Surprise You!

By: Adrian Cojocariu

Adrian Cojocariu — Fri, 01 Feb 2019 17:08:21 +0000

=)) Haha Nikola, I laughed my feet off at your nickname. It’s really nice.

I’m also vegan (almost) and blogger, so people have been laughing at me as well about this.

I don’t think there’s any good in taking offense. It won’t fix anything.

I agree, best way to fight negative reviews is to make the positive ones louder.

There are some cases though when you get listed on big scam sites, but then you probably deserve it and it’s a risk you should assume first hand because, as I said in another comment above, the stain will remain, even though you change as a person in the future.

By: Adrian Cojocariu

Adrian Cojocariu — Fri, 01 Feb 2019 17:04:13 +0000

No but it can eventually impact your CTR if negative articles rank higher, which can impact rankings.

By: Adrian Cojocariu

Adrian Cojocariu — Fri, 01 Feb 2019 17:02:22 +0000

On SEO directly, probably not. If you’re getting a link it might even do good, unless Google has some sort of algorithm that takes sites like scamwatch or ripoffreport in a special way… But they definitely can have an impact, as if an authoritative site will mention you as a scam, everyone will know. I’ve seen cases where ripoffreport was ranking higher than the site for the brand keyword… which lowers the CTR for the site (as people read the report) which results in lower rankings… and keeps pushing that negative mention article up.

By: Adrian Cojocariu

Adrian Cojocariu — Fri, 01 Feb 2019 16:57:05 +0000

Yeah, I agree that tricking users will eventually result in bad business. Get flagged once as a scammer and the stain remains, even if you truly resent your past and have changed.

By: Bright Speed Media

Bright Speed Media — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 21:17:56 +0000

Hi Adrian, great article and it’s and interesting subject. I wonder if negative brand mentions from authoritative sources might have a negative impact. Not sure. It would be way to easy to spam some negative mentions and hurt a site. Really good info though. Thanks!

By: Desmond Edmonton

Desmond Edmonton — Mon, 13 Aug 2018 16:24:48 +0000

An informative post. And yes, it is important to remember that google is essentially a reading machine so it will not distinguish good or bad, or even make inferences in words that are “relational” to one another, in the same way that a human reader will. Just because I say a bird in the hand is better than 2 in the bush it does not mean my website is about birdwatching.

So yes, unless the google humans are alerted and can look into the matter then things will probably not go into free fall ranking wise.

By: Nikola Roza

Nikola Roza — Thu, 12 Jul 2018 17:19:36 +0000

Hi Adrian. Great article on branding and negative side of it all.

I think this is one of the areas where we SEO’s can take it easy. Negative reviews are something we can’t control, and it’s a waste of time to try to fight and remove them (haters gonna hate still)

A much better way is to try to get genuine positive reviews and then use links and SEO to push them higher in Google.

And of course,

the final solution is to truly offer a valuable product or service.
Then the problem is solved from the ground up as over time there will be a disproportionate number of positive reviews compared to negative ones.

And Google will get even smarter and know that people will always be people.

Meaning there will always be someone who spits even on perfection (which by the way- doesn’t exist).

Thank you for the article, I learned a lot.

Cheers!

P.S.

I too am vegan and blogger, and from those two examples you gave I wonder if I should be offended or laugh my feet off. I did get a cool nickname from it though, Nikola “the twice baned” Roza. Sound like a Harry Potter character:)

By: Fazal Aasar

Fazal Aasar — Wed, 11 Jul 2018 09:28:27 +0000

Negative brand mentions never affect your SEO directly but they for sure affect your branding and reviews. People read reviews like a recommendation from a friend so for having a good brand image one must improve its overall online image and soon a business would witness more conversions and brand mentions. Never try to trick your user it is the key to success because in long run any dubious tactic would not pay off.