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Went Hot: July 24, 2008 - 4:12 pm
Posted By: EricLander 42 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://www.searchenginejournal.com)
Category: Google Searching
16 Comments
Went Hot: July 24, 2008 - 4:12 pm
Posted By: EricLander 42 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://www.searchenginejournal.com)
Category: Google Searching
16 Comments
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Pissedconsumer has to be one of the worst. I dont usually call out sites for shady things but they are using a run of site network, to interlink the brand pages thus helping them rank well for YOUR term.
I am not a big fan of complaint sites for the sole fact it is very easy for bogus complaints to be submitted.
Defamation is a real issue.
I agree. I think it's dispicable that good Internet marketing brains are applied to such low schemes. Some of these services charge a fee to get your negative listing removed -- that's kinda blackmail.
HINT: Don't do anything to generate a complaint in the first place and you won't have to combat those sites.
Heh, yes, this is good advice Bill :)
Not all complaints are legitimate. Some are from competitors trying to make things look bad for you. It's one of the nastier black hat attacks.
"Not all complaints are legitimate."
Those are called libel and defamation, courts deal with that all the time.
If someone wants to play fair, I'll compete with teeth bared to the bitter end.
If you want to play foul, I'll compete with sharks teeth (lawyer) bared and you'll lose your little online business.
If you don't believe me, ask about 30 sites that are permanently offline for crossing the line in various ways.
Well Bill you gave me a reason to talk about how someone in this community dumped me into one of those just to prove how annoying it could be. I did my homework, learned who it was, and kept quiet about it... something I'll save for a rainy day. But if you want to flash brass balls as you do above and suggest it's just bidness, I disagree. At least one of the operators of these sites is certifiably insane. Take that to your lawyers and watch them drain your bank account while the crazy nut keeps doing what you call "libel and defamation", despite having to move, wear sungasses and hats in public, dodge warrants, etc. And if you think I should sue the moron who pulled the stunt, I'll just say that not every libelous-looking, defamation-like statement is libelous or defamatory under the test of law... even if it looks that way to the consumer.
Payback's a bitch.... as some will learn. But this issue is not as simple as you describe.
It's more than thinking about what you're doing. I've had people write stuff about me and claim to be a customer but I've never heard of them nor have I been contacted by them.
I also did a website for a lady and she lost the password and login for her domain name. I did everything I could to help her but she wanted to do nothing too help herself. My hands were tied and after several phone calls decided to refund her money even though I had done my part of the job. She decided to write stuff about me because she felt I cost her money.
And another because their hosting company went off line and they felt it was my fault.
It does not seem to matter how good you try to make your customer service, you are going to have problems.
I've been in business for 8 years and do all my work 100% by way of the internet. There are going to be problems and people are going to get upset. But having things written that are not true or because a customer screws up and wants you to take the blame can me a harsh pill to swallow.
"At least one of the operators of these sites is certifiably insane." ... absolutely true! If you do a Google search on his name you'll find lots of evidence that he is known not only for hiding from the law, but also for being a total fruitcake. Unfortunately, people doing research on a company aren't also doing research on the person leaving the complaint (or the complaint board's owner) to put it all into context.
I recently worked for a company that was a target on a complaint site, and although we couldn't prove it, we were quite certain that many of the complaints were written by the site's owner, NOT disgruntled customers. The fact that he asked us for a modest fee (of half a million dollars or so) to "help" clean up our online reputation might look like a legitimate online reputation managment business or it could look like extortion, depending on how astute you were. Funny how the complaints started getting worse (and how very well optimized they were for searches on our name) and how we were no longer able to respond to them when we politely declined his offer to "help".
Not everything is always as it first appears when it comes to online flames. Clearly some people have an agenda other than the "truth"; it's naive to think that all complaints or attacks are provoked or justified.
I don't know anyone outside of the seo/web industry who knows any of these sites exist. These website are not being marketed to consumers, but they are known to anyone marketing on the web. I think the vast majority of these "reviews" are not written by consumers but by unscrupulous marketers trying to discredit their competitors.
@darkmatter - these sites might not have brand recognition themselves, but they rank well on searches for company names (i.e, when potential customers do research to make sure a site they want to buy from is legit, they'll Google the site's name and find these "reviews" at the top of the SERPs). They absolutely can influence consumer behavior.
For every horror story and bogus 'complaint' that's posted to one of these sites, there are hundreds or thousands of legitimate complaints by real people with real beefs. These sites perform an important service that the government and the companies themselves don't want to address: Bad products, bad service, and bad customer policies.
A site that only posts complaints is by its nature unobjective and biased and really doesn't servie much of a purpose besides making money for the site owners. A site that posts "reviews" (e.g. Google Local, Yahoo Local, Citysearch) which allows for people to post good and bad experiences gives much more value not only to the consumer but also to the person making the complaint for the complaint can be seen in the context of overall consumer experiences.
But this issue is not as simple as you describe.
Did I say it was simple?
I said some people that totally crossed the line got nailed.
Many people panic and fold at the first sign of real trouble but others, like you point out, are certifiable and should be avoided and it doesn't take much to figure out which one you're dealing with.
I know a lady who is a prominent book author. She noticed that she was getting a lot of bad reviews on amazon. This can cause sales to drop and it did. However the nasties hit her latest book before she even sold a single copy with generic comments like "This book is the worst I have ever read bar none!", "Don't waste your money on this trash pile!", "I am asking for a refund!"
Funny considering that she has not sold a single copy. Her solution was to pull her book from amazon and the bad reviews disappeared.
How can sonebody claim it is the worst book ever if they never read it? Perhaps they are a clairvoyant psychic?
@seobro haha I can't stop laughing. After I learned how people can "buy" positions on the bestseller list (by arranging for pre-orders in advance, juicing the sales counts etc) I lost all faith in that process. Now you say authors are getting a taste of their own medicine... too funny!