I saw my first business client cry

**TeamFreedom** · May 12th, 2012, 12:59 PM

It saddens me to see people cry. Like break down & cry. Tears, runny nose & red eyes crying. Why were they crying? They lost 45% of their revenue because of a website called S*C*A*M book dot com had someone post some false information about their business. The information was so bogus. It was basically stating that the wife didn't put out or something along those lines. In fact, it was vulgar. The website, even after my client begged them still wouldn't take the information down.

This was what they wrote him.

Dear Butch, Thanks for contacting XXXXXXXX.com. Unfortunately, it is not our policy or practice to remove entire complaints. However, there is a "follow-up" function on your S*******k Dashboard that allows you to post a comment underneath your original posting. Your comments appear more prominent than other S*******k users' comments, so any clarifications you would like to make are clear to S********k readers.

It just has extortion written all over it.

My question and why this has prompted me to ask. Do people really take this seriously? I mean does it seem like they are popping up a dime a dozen. I mean there is another site that encourages people to submit scam alerts.

It really made me feel bad for all these potential businesses who get ousted for things that may not be true, or are outlandish due to jealousy, trying to kill a business or whatever. I wonder if anything can be done? They are clearly manipulating, right?

I want to help my client and I want to help others. What can be done to eliminate this? I mean it's the same thing with those Mugshot websites. There are legal sites who are posting whether people have had bankruptcies or other personal problems.

I just feel there is too much taking advantage of.

People are losing their hides because of crazy people. No wonder the US is going to the crapper. It's a dog eat dog world it seems.

**Slowdive** · May 12th, 2012, 3:07 PM

There has been a growing trend in negative SEO through reviews sites and even sites that specialize in it well for a long time but its definitely not slowed down. The problem is remedying it is usually prohibitively expensive for small to medium businesses as its really easy to get exact match searches to pitch up.
What can be done about it depending where the site is hosted their may be grounds for demanding the information is removed via legal means. Despite what people think just because some one posted something on your site does not mean you have the right to present it as fact or fiction, out right slander remains slander. However the blow back can be twenty sites popping up where only one previously existed.

Out rank them, no one is likely to be searching is business-name a crook. Well a very small amount of people anyway so its actually what appears in the SERPS directly below you for the query business-name.com or company-name that is the concern. However most of these complaint sites are hard to out rank due to a large user base, many articles and even their link profile so again it becomes prohibitively expensive.

Nearly anything one does is either costly or engaging in under handed tactics. They are however some easier fixes to attempt to stop this negative review pitching up in the SERPS. If I google one of my companies names, I see around four pages of mine, then my facebook page, then my squidoo lense, then a classified advert, then a blog post and then some one mentions it on a website. Basically create direct matches that may have a chance of appearing in the SERPS before this negative review

Dont know if this was any help but its a starting point, if you can beat the trashy review down the serps less people who matter will see it.

**JJMcClure** · May 13th, 2012, 3:41 AM

It works both ways. I recently emailed a company to request a refund for a product that I thought their site had been a bit misleading about. They replied with what wasn't really a clear 'no' so I emailed them again and their second reply was patronising and quite unprofessional I thought. If it wasn't for that tone I would have dropped it there but that really pissed me off.

So, I threatened to start posting my experience on 'every review site' I can find and I told them I'd make sure that the keyword phrases that returned their site would also return my reviews. At first they told me they were going to take legal advice so I told them to go ahead because I was serous and the next email was an apology. I eventually got the refund.

I'm not particularly proud of doing that but they were very unprofessional in the way they dealt with my refund request and it was an interesting experience in how much power I held over them because of the fear of looking bad online.

I had no intention of actually doing it....

**Thomas** · May 13th, 2012, 5:22 AM

How do you know the company revenue fell by 45% JUST because of one bad review? Sounds like a load of rubbish to me. Either that or a rubbish business in the first place.

Fake/bad/******** reviews are just part of doing business. If your business is losing 45% of its revenue because of one bad review then you have a serious issue...

Sites like that can be quite hard to outrank, but should be easy enough with a combination of guest posts, press releases and web 2.0 (Squidoo etc.) that you then build links to.

**TeamFreedom** · May 13th, 2012, 12:15 PM

Meathead, the review spiraled into several bogus "claims". The guy is a pretty stand up guy and had a good business as well. However we live in a small town and this has been happening a lot. Even with car washes.

**KenW3** · May 13th, 2012, 11:55 PM

I cannot comprehend how a review on one web site could take 45% of company revenue. Could you please explain how this happened? Was it broadcast on some local news show? Did the company have 20 clients, and 9 left because they believed one review? If the claims occurred that are 'bogus', as you state above, why would this cause loss of revenue? How did this happen?

My very first software review in a national U.S. magazine was back in the mid-1980s. It was a negative review, suggesting my software was over-priced and did not deliver. I was devastated. I received an advance copy based on sending the magazine 5 test copies, 3 of which were sent to testers. I started to try and develop a plan to counteract this negative press. A week later, the issue hit the stands and the orders started. Sales of that software increased substantially - from a bad review. I recall actually having the thought that I could not have handled the sales volume had I received a good review

The same thing happens here on EP with products and services offered for sale. Any press is good press when it is found by people looking for information. While the people over at Flippa, for instance, may not appreciate someone saying something negative about the something that happens, the fact remains that any press is promotional, even negative press. I know people who have been made wealthy over negative press. I will take that over obscurity any day of the week!

**TeamFreedom** · May 14th, 2012, 1:24 AM

The figures, I am going by are from him. They were broadcasted in the small niche that he is in. I live in a small town. So everything seems to be blown out of context or issues. It hasn't helped him. He has had several come in telling him that it needs to be removed. It looks bad on his business, etc. Small town mentality here amongst everyone.

Originally Posted by KenW3

I cannot comprehend how a review on one web site could take 45% of company revenue. Could you please explain how this happened? Was it broadcast on some local news show? Did the company have 20 clients, and 9 left because they believed one review? If the claims occurred that are 'bogus', as you state above, why would this cause loss of revenue? How did this happen?

My very first software review in a national U.S. magazine was back in the mid-1980s. It was a negative review, suggesting my software was over-priced and did not deliver. I was devastated. I received an advance copy based on sending the magazine 5 test copies, 3 of which were sent to testers. I started to try and develop a plan to counteract this negative press. A week later, the issue hit the stands and the orders started. Sales of that software increased substantially - from a bad review. I recall actually having the thought that I could not have handled the sales volume had I received a good review

The same thing happens here on EP with products and services offered for sale. Any press is good press when it is found by people looking for information. While the people over at Flippa, for instance, may not appreciate someone saying something negative about the something that happens, the fact remains that any press is promotional, even negative press. I know people who have been made wealthy over negative press. I will take that over obscurity any day of the week!

**Andrew** · May 14th, 2012, 10:14 PM

My personal view of "scam report" style sites is to monitor but not engage. The "reviews" are unsubstantiated (otherwise Flippa is run by the two founders in nigeria and all bids and listings are a fascade created by bots). Engaging in these threads only increases the chances of it appearing in SERPs and gives detractors a stronger soap-box.

Customers or prospects who read these sites tend to be lower value and arguably a waste of time. Am with @meathead1234 in that any business than can be ruined by a negative review was possibly not in the strongest position to start with.

Its arguably a rite of passage for any established business to appear on a scam site. Unless the complaint is valid, I prefer to focus on real customers who voice their concerns directly or through more targeted channels such as industry blogs (eg http://domainnamewire.com/2012/03/28...omment-1582621) and forums (pretty well every thread here that discusses flippa ;-)).

The rest is just noise ...

**Jacob** · May 15th, 2012, 12:19 AM

I have had success with getting these kinds of reports taken down. Most of the time I follow up several times bugging them about the complaint and eventually they look into it and end up removing it. I'm always nice and inform them that they the webmasters should follow through on compalints when a person tells them they are false. If they can not get in touch with the other person to verify the complaint and ensure it is real then they should remove it. For the ones with no success I do generally make a comment about being the site owner and that their is no such client or that the complaint was clearly false. I include a link to or ask the readers to view my testimonials page and also link through to the BBB and or other positive reviews.

Does it all matter? Not really. I can't say a negative review has ever had an impact on my sales bottom line.