Although online business owners hope to have their own company websites, as well as other sites that sell their products or speak positively about their services, appear at or near the top of the search engine results when prospective or existing customers are looking for their products or services, often times, this is not the case. In some instances, there are circumstances that may be beyond the business owner’s control such as “flaming” sites that rank prominently, often times better than, the legitimate website. Flaming sites aim to criticize, ridicule or complain about a customer’s specific experience with an organization. And often, these sites even beg for visitors to contribute complaints of their own. Flaming sites are most often created under a similar URL to the actual business name such as “starbucked.com,” a website developed by an angry Starbucks customer. Website owners should be aware that positive, as well as negative, search engine listings affect a company’s reputation because they are visible to and may impact the buying decisions of potential customers.
Although flaming sites are rare, they have been increasing in numbers over the years. Therefore, online business owners need to be aware of the possibility and ramifications. It is essential for successful businesses to proactively protect their brand by implementing some level of reputation management before such occurrences, however various search engine optimization techniques can be implemented after the fact to push negative results down, making them less prominent to customers.
