Have you ever searched for your name in Google? If so, you’re correct in assuming that other people will search for your name as well, whether you are an individual or a business. In fact, if you’re looking for a job, there’s a 90% chance that recruiters interested in you will Google your name. If you’re a business, know that 3 prominently displayed negative reviews are enough to make people pass on what you’re offering, according to Lightspeed Research. Although it isn’t fair, Google may give you results in the search engines that aren’t to your liking. You may see negative reviews on sites such as Google Places or negative reviews on gripe sites such as ConsumerAffairs.com. Here’s how to deal with each of these scenarios…

Negative Reviews on Google Places, Yelp, etc

Unfortunately, you can’t delete reviews off of sites such as these. Unless they are blatant falsehoods, which you can mark as spam, opinions against you cannot be deleted. The best way to deal with negative opinions on such sites is to drown them out with real positive reviews by encouraging your customers to leave reviews. Pass out fliers in person, talk to your customers, and give them the best experience possible so that the review section of your site is your asset and not a liability.

Google Places and Yelp, popular review sites, will allow you to respond to reviews, letting you leave professional replies in which you apologize to your customer and remedy the situation. Even if you think your customer is completely in the wrong, stay level headed because your response to any negative reviews will be a reflection of your professionalism, for all to see.

Negative Reviews on Gripe Sites

Gripes sites include sites such as PissedConsumer.com, ConsumerAffairs.com, ComplaintsBoard.com, and ScamBook.com. These websites allow you to voice your opinion about any one person or company, completely anonymously, no matter how far away from the truth your opinion is. Gripe sites are allowed to host third part content because of section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The only chance you have of deleting something is if that something is factually false and if you know who wrote it.

In some cases, the prevalence of gripe sites can be so bad that all the money in the world won’t be able to get them off the first page for your name. Your best bet in this case would be to directly address the issue on your main site. If you only have 1 or 2 gripe sites showing up for your name, creating social media profiles (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Youtube, Google+) and websites that have your name in the domain (yournametruth.com) may push the negative content off of the first page.

Although making social media profiles, websites, and search engine optimizing these newly created pages increases the chance of gripe sites going down the search results, there’s a chance that they will stay there for many years. If you feel that gripe sites will be a permanent fixture in your search results you may want to change your name or address the issue in the most professional manner possible on your main site.

Your online reputation is your most valuable asset and your image can be monitored and improved. Even if your reputation is spotless, create social media profiles and websites for your name. Also, if you’re a business, encourage your clients to leave reviews. Being proactive in your reputation efforts may very well save you a lot of time, money, and headaches in the future. The sooner you have content that you like, showing up for your name, the less chance there is of negative content superseding it.

Nickolay Lamm is an online reputation specialist who updates InventHelp Scam Watch for InventHelp.