HN Please Help, Google is ruining my business
12 comments
Normally, the only effective legal remedy for this precise problem is to file a lawsuit for libel and seek injunctive relief, asking a court to order that the items be taken down.
This is usually a tough case, and expensive to pursue. If the items are clearly defamatory, however, then either (1) any injunctive order you might get or (2) any fear of a large money judgment you might instill in the persons propagating the lies might get you the relief you seek.
A strong demand letter from an attorney might also shake them up and get some action.
There is also a measure of gamesmanship that claimants sometimes use in such matters. For example, a well-known "patent troll" sued an in-house lawyer from Cisco in a recent much-publicized libel case for blog postings to the effect that the troll had conspired with court clerks to alter the filing date of a complaint where such filing date was critical to the outcome of a case. Owing to liberal jurisdictional rules, the parties involved (including Cisco) were forced to defend the case in a remote forum (in Texas) where sympathies were strong in favor of the claimant.
All this turns on the specific facts. If the statements have a color of truth about them and constitute a customer's exercise of free speech rights, you may have an uphill fight in getting formal legal relief.
Of course, there may well be steps you can take here besides the purely legal but I assume you will consider these as well.
This is usually a tough case, and expensive to pursue. If the items are clearly defamatory, however, then either (1) any injunctive order you might get or (2) any fear of a large money judgment you might instill in the persons propagating the lies might get you the relief you seek.
A strong demand letter from an attorney might also shake them up and get some action.
There is also a measure of gamesmanship that claimants sometimes use in such matters. For example, a well-known "patent troll" sued an in-house lawyer from Cisco in a recent much-publicized libel case for blog postings to the effect that the troll had conspired with court clerks to alter the filing date of a complaint where such filing date was critical to the outcome of a case. Owing to liberal jurisdictional rules, the parties involved (including Cisco) were forced to defend the case in a remote forum (in Texas) where sympathies were strong in favor of the claimant.
All this turns on the specific facts. If the statements have a color of truth about them and constitute a customer's exercise of free speech rights, you may have an uphill fight in getting formal legal relief.
Of course, there may well be steps you can take here besides the purely legal but I assume you will consider these as well.
Even if you think you can win in court, it may not be your best option. You risk bringing even more attention to your critics, and creating more Google results that are about the court case rather than about your business. I side with the suggestion to move on, generate positive coverage, and hope the criticism is eventually ignored or forgotten.
Not to circle-jerk, but I'm glad to see you're posting here again grellas.
Make your other clients happy enough that they freely and enthusiastically detail their positive experiences on the web.
Agree.
Google has absolutely nothing to do with this. Google is actually the way you could resolve this.
To turn this into action, probably the most efficient way to work on this is to provide your current happy customers with a testimonials page on your current corporate blog.
To collect feedbacks from your current clients, do a survey by email (ex: surveymonkey.com) and provide a discount on your service or a special offer for all clients that fill in the survey (even the angry ones). No matter what, this survey will give you analytic data on how your clients percieve your services. Listen to your clients, there might be something you're missing out on too.
Focus on facts! You said that 80% of what was said is untrue, then you clearly need to demonstrate on your website that your not only provide great service to "counter argue" the 80%, but you also need to show that the 20% that was true is something of the past and that you resolved (with facts) the issue. Do it in a professional manner. It's all about making the first good impression for new potential clients.
Also you said you have 90 employees, try to give them a way to express their great experience working in your firm. Provide your employee the possibily to write a blog a week, or even better create a subdomain per department and provide public news (press release).
Google any firm name, if you really look hard for it, you will probably find unhappy customers saying how much company x or y sucks. This is not uncommon.
You can -in conjuction- always have your lawfirm work on this, but dont forget to Focus your resources on providing a voice to the happy customers of yours (and employees).
Google has absolutely nothing to do with this. Google is actually the way you could resolve this.
To turn this into action, probably the most efficient way to work on this is to provide your current happy customers with a testimonials page on your current corporate blog.
To collect feedbacks from your current clients, do a survey by email (ex: surveymonkey.com) and provide a discount on your service or a special offer for all clients that fill in the survey (even the angry ones). No matter what, this survey will give you analytic data on how your clients percieve your services. Listen to your clients, there might be something you're missing out on too.
Focus on facts! You said that 80% of what was said is untrue, then you clearly need to demonstrate on your website that your not only provide great service to "counter argue" the 80%, but you also need to show that the 20% that was true is something of the past and that you resolved (with facts) the issue. Do it in a professional manner. It's all about making the first good impression for new potential clients.
Also you said you have 90 employees, try to give them a way to express their great experience working in your firm. Provide your employee the possibily to write a blog a week, or even better create a subdomain per department and provide public news (press release).
Google any firm name, if you really look hard for it, you will probably find unhappy customers saying how much company x or y sucks. This is not uncommon.
You can -in conjuction- always have your lawfirm work on this, but dont forget to Focus your resources on providing a voice to the happy customers of yours (and employees).
There are several sites like getsatisfaction.com that could help you crowd those pages out of the front page. You can point these sites to your customers and actively encourage them to leave feedback.
You want SEO (search engine optimization). Basically, it's getting your website to rank highly on Google. I don't have any experience there, so I can't give you names of who to talk to.
Basically, I'd recommend a few things: 1. Get a website (yourcompanyname.com). You can't rank higher than they do if you have no site. 2. Make it useful. This will encourage people to link to your site. The more links you have, the higher you'll rank.
Basically, I'd recommend a few things: 1. Get a website (yourcompanyname.com). You can't rank higher than they do if you have no site. 2. Make it useful. This will encourage people to link to your site. The more links you have, the higher you'll rank.
Technically, Google isn't the one ruining your business...
Though I agree with the other commenters. Get a lawyer and go after the blog postings. If what they are saying is really "80% untrue" and it's causing you a loss of business, they may be guilty of libel.
Though I agree with the other commenters. Get a lawyer and go after the blog postings. If what they are saying is really "80% untrue" and it's causing you a loss of business, they may be guilty of libel.
I'm not a lawyer; but it's possible to charge someone for defamation. This may help: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defamation
Not sure Google (or any search engine) can help you much in this. If your clients are lying, its best to talk to a lawyer.
Don't wait, contact the lawyer.
This is not original but true.
This is not original but true.
What is the name of your company?
However, two clients that did not leave happy have made it almost impossible for me to continue. Why? Because they posted their experience (80% untrue), on blogs and now whenever somebody google's my name these terrible comments are in the 1 and 2 spot.
I am an MBA not a technologist, please tell me is there anything I can do to fight this and re-claim my good name?