Managing Your Google Reputation — SES San Francisco

Chris Sheridan is moderating and introduces Andy Beal, who has the solo presentation for this reputation management session. Andy steps down off the podium to do his presentation on the floor amongst all of us little people.

About Andy:

• CEO of Trackur.com
• Editor of Marketing Pilgrim
• Co-author of Radically Transparent
• Hates the social media guru/expert/Grand Poobah term, but prefers being an active user without the moniker

He has one blank slide with the SES template so he meets the conference requirement before reverting back to his preferred display.

5 keys to SERM:

1. Rethinking keywords
2. Spider Friendly
3. Me, Myself, & Irene (Andy’s favorite slide)
4. Anchor’s Away
5. SuperBrand to the Rescue

OK Andy sure uses Apple & the iPhone as an example quite often — not sure this is what I signed up for in liveblogging this session :)

Suggests a Google Sentiment Audit, an audit of the first 30 results with the focus of the top 10 in URL, page title, status, and sentiment.

Status Categorizations: Owned, Control, Influence Third Party

80/10/10 rule: Spend 80% time on content you own, 10% on what you control, and 10% on what you can influence.

He equates indented listings with a double shot of Whiskey. Okay, now I’m going to need some of those as Andy includes even more Apple references.

Owned approach (preemptive) purchases the standard TLDs for the brand such as .net and .org, beyond .com, as well domains with positive terms in addition to your company name, such as companycares.com or companycommunity.com, then using subdomains as a multiplier effect.

Controlled approach uses WordPress.com, Blogger.com, Facebook with a personalized URL, LinkedIn, Flickr, Wetpaint, and GetSatisfaction.

Influence approach uses business partners for positive write-ups and guest posts, plus linking out to others content when they make positive mentions of your company.

When under attack:

• Get alerts via Google Alerts or Trackur
• Scan past the top 10 results to see anything coming on the horizon
• Reach out for removal
• Use legal as a last resort

Summary:

Andy hit on the main points of organic search reputation management in this session as the audience seemed to enjoy by taking copious notes as Andy presented.

The short Q&A segment revolved around frustrations with the RipOffReport, which Andy was careful to parse his words in saying they generally settle on an amicable solution when push comes to shove.

Michael Martin is the owner and author of Mobile Martin and is the founder and featured editor of GoogleAndBlog. He is a contributor to the Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Land and FeedFront Magazine. Follow him on Twitter, @googleandblog.

See michaelmartin's author page for links to connect on social media.