When you really think about organic search and how it works, you’ll find it’s a lot like public relations. (In fact, SEO can play an enormous role in a PR strategy, which we’ll examine in Truth 22, “Using SEO PR as a link strategy”). SEO isn’t advertising. In advertising, you buy broadcast or print or outdoor media, and then get to put pretty much whatever you want in that space or time for as long as you want—or can afford.
Organic search is different. The pages that appear in organic search results are the pages the search engine’s algorithms think belongs there. Like issuing a press release or speaking with the media, you put information “out there” and hope for the best. To be sure, you can influence what’s out there. You can put a positive spin on it, emphasizing some points, while de-emphasizing others.
But at the end of the day, what appears in the search results—not unlike what appears on the evening news or in the morning paper—isn’t solely determined by you. Search engine algorithms make the call.
Heaven knows, you’re not the only one out there clamoring for attention—so are your competitors. And so, unfortunately, your detractors are vying for the same attention. SEOs often recommend a simple test: Conduct a query on your company name, or the names of your brands or products, names of your management team, accompanied by the qualifier “sucks”. Too often, businesspeople are utterly shocked and horrified at what shows up in organic search results, not to mention being at a complete loss when it comes to coming up with a strategy to actually combat those negative results.
If not for forever, organic search results can live on for a really, really, really long time. Take the case of the Kryptonite lock. Several years ago, a guy named Chris Brennan discovered that you could easily open one of these expensive, top-selling bicycle locks with a few twists of a cheap and ubiquitous Bic pen. Brennan posted a couple of how-to videos on the Web. And boom—the discovery turned into a viral phenomenon, a high-profile news story, and unsurprisingly, a PR catastrophe for Kryptonite.
Fast-forward four or five years, and search on Google for “kryptonite lock”. The first two results are for the manufacturer’s websites. But the #3 result—way up high on the page—is a Wired magazine story entitled, “Twist a Pen, Open a Lock,” dated September 17, 2004. The next result is an entry on the super-popular blog, Engadget, from a few days earlier, with the headline “Kryptonite Evolution 2000 U-Lock hacked by a Bic pen—Engadget”. YouTube videos of the foiled locks are featured. A number of articles harshly criticizing Kryptonite’s response to the revelation are next in the search results. There are links to audio files, such as a radio show segment that asks: “Can Plastic Pen Defeat Kryptonite Bike Lock?”
You get the idea. The company tripped up. Back in September 2004, Kryptonite was subjected to a PR fallout.
On the Internet, as far as Kryptonite is concerned, the fallout is still falling, regardless of the fact that nearly five years have elapsed since the crisis. As far as anyone searching “kryptonite lock” is concerned, Bic pens are opening Kryptonite locks in the here and now. That’s because the overwhelming number of page 1 search results for “kryptonite lock” refer not to the company, not to the product, not to information about bike security, testimonials from satisfied users, reviews of the products, new company or product announcements, or retail results. Search “kryptonite lock,” and you’ll get all Bic pen, almost all the time.
Yikes!
Whose fault is that? After all, the term “Dell Hell” no longer appears on the first page of results when you search the computer manufacturer—although it did, and remained there for a long, long time, after Dell incurred the wrath of A-list blogger Jeff Jarvis in the fall of 2004, at pretty much exactly the same time the Kryptonite storm unleashed its fury. In fact, today the first page of Google results for a search on “Dell” contains only one negative result. And it’s quite far down the page, well “below the fold.”
That search results are dominated by negatives for Kryptonite and relative positives or neutrals for Dell is no accident. It’s not that the search results are more or less relevant for either company or brand. In both Kryptonite’s and Dell’s case, the results are very relevant. Yet there’s certainly no confusing which set of search results you’d rather have show up on a search for your company, product, or brand name.
It is no accident that Dell managed to wipe the lion’s share of negative results from the first page of search results. Dell had more negative web content created about it than Kryptonite ever generated with the Bic pen debacle. But Dell paid attention. It changed its practices as a result of the Dell Hell fallout and instigated a significant push to respond to media, bloggers, and its own customers about what it was doing to be a better company.
Dell created new web content. It took action, and those actions prompted untold legions of others to create new Dell-related content on the Web. This new content relates to its products, practices, and successes rather than its failings. Over time, the weight (or is buoyancy a better term?) of this new, positive, and better content took its toll. Bit by bit, result by result, the positive feedback rose higher and higher in organic search results. Although there are few absolute truths in SEO, there are some. One of those truths is when something rises in rank, something else will have to fall. There simply cannot be two #1 results.
SEO may not have been the central goal of Dell’s crisis management PR strategy, but you can be sure SEO was certainly a core goal of the campaign. Although what dogged Kryptonite five odd years ago remains front-and-center, Dell’s problems remain, relatively speaking, largely consigned to the archives.
Search results are not something you can control. But if you’re smart, and if you know what you’re doing, you can wield plenty of influence over what shows up in them—and even over what doesn’t.
It all boils down to one simple rule: Fight content with content. Although you can’t remove the negative, you can accentuate the positive. Although you can’t rewrite yesterday’s news, you can develop a plan to create newer, fresher, more relevant, and more recent content over time. There’s no quick fix for eradicating negative search results, but over time, “bad” results can be pushed farther and farther down the search engine results page as it’s superseded by relevant and fresher results.