Google Endorses Reputation Management, Says Stop Asking Them To Remove Content

Google already offers PPC advice and SEO advice. And now, with “Googling yourself” becoming a common part of the language, Google’s now offering reputation managament advice, too.

The actual advice is basic, to say the least: Create a Google Profile. Ask happy customers to review your business online. Publish positive content about yourself.

But it’s interesting to see Google offering tips about how to “get stuff that you want people to see to outperform the stuff you don’t want them to see.” Reputation management can sometimes be a hot-button issue — some people believe it’s unethical to create and optimize content for the express purpose of pushing negative content out of sight. Google’s endorsing it in today’s blog post, and offering suggestions for how to make it happen.

I also suspect, from reading the blog post, that Google is trying to do some pre-emptive customer service here. You can imagine the amount of emails (and perhaps phone calls) Google gets from people who are upset about what they see when they Google themselves. The blog post basically says, Would you stop asking us to clean up the search results mess you don’t like?

“Rather than immediately contacting Google, it’s important to first remove it from the site where it’s being published. Google doesn’t own the Internet; our search results simply reflect what’s already out there on the web.”

It’s probably not just emails and calls Google wants to stop. You may recall that they’ve been sued over “bad” listings appearing in the search results, too.