I’m too sick to blog today, so I’ve been doing some scraping because apparently it’s really important that I update regularly because if I don’t, all my readers viewers will move on to the next new media marketing blog even if that blogger is a talentless hack next to me because we’re the internet generation, and we make the MTV generation look focused to the point of being stoic. I get cranky when I feel like this. Anyways, the Search Engine Tigers have another example of why SEO is such an integral part of reputation management:
Back in the pre-web days, when someone was unsatisfied about a service or a product, the most they’d do would be to write a letter, tell their friends, and in some extreme cases stand outside the business telling anyone going in about their issue. All of which could dissuade someone from purchasing from your business. These days, all it takes is someone with a blog to put up a post about how they didn’t like your business, and literally within minutes there’s a listing showing up against your name when someone searches for your business. […]
For example, of you do a site: search on the URL for the Virginia State Sexual Offenders Registry, you’ll see that there are over 20,000 pages indexed. That’s ~20,000 pages of Sex Offenders and Violent Sex Offenders, all with their place of employment listed in lovely spiderable text, and yes, they can rank for a business name.
Whether you like it or not, Google is the new front page and blogs have made every consumer a journalist. Since Google loves blogs, then, reputation management requires SEO. If you don’t want to take my word for it, then you should ask CBC tech-columnist Tod Maffin or SEO guru Aaron Wall because they’re both with me on this one.
