Ismael Ahmed, a perfect candidate for defensive/reverse SEO
Adam Henige
July 21, 2009
What is the purpose of search engine optimization, or SEO? Traditionally, someone would hire an SEO company to use specific keywords to build links to their site, so they may be ranked highly on a search engine to drive more traffic to their site. However, what happens when you have the rankings you desire, but a false and harmful article surfaces at the top of the list?
This is a serious problem in the internet world, and this problem can be solved with what is called reverse SEO, or reputation management. Reverse SEO comes into play, when, instead of promoting an article or site, you want to bury it. So, for example, if a harmful site surfaces, instead of trying to make it number one or two on the search engine ranking, you now want it to be number 27.
A recent example of reverse SEO involves Michigan's Department of Human Services (DHS) leader, Ismael Ahmed. Ahmed was born in New York in 1947, and then moved to Dearborn where he attended the University of Michigan-Dearborn. Ahmed went on to co-found the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS) and later became executive director.
As head of the DHS, Ahmed has implemented a variety of child welfare system reforms, including a consortium of Michigan Schools of Social Work to perform research and evaluate and train social workers; public-private partnerships to enhance child welfare services; and a task force dedicated to developing measurable outcomes for foster care, adoption, juvenile justice and homeless and runaway youth.
How does this pertain to reverse SEO? Recently, a while back a politically charged blog post was published claiming that Ahmed has terrorist ties. However untrue the article may be, it was a top listing for Ahmed's name for some time. This type of situation calls for some serious damage control, and reputation management is key. As a course of action, Ahmed's public relations crew might now hire an SEO company to apply reverse SEO to "bury" this article.
Reverse SEO is very tricky, because the hired company does not own the rights to the website which they are trying to remove. So, instead of changing that article, they need to create web property with more flattering information and use SEO and link building tactics to rank them above the negative articles. Over time these properties will be recognized by search engines, causing the negative article to be bumped down the list.
Blogs and social media sites are a new and very powerful way to implement reverse SEO. Creating a blog, which can be updated daily with interesting posts, can gain readership and recognition from search engines. With this two-way form of communication, people can read an article, then post a comment relaying their opinion.
Social media sites such as Mixx, Delicious and Stumbleupon also provide valuable outlets to gaining links. One can post a self-written article, or a link to another interesting article. This link is now available for the public to read, and in-hand be picked up by search engines. When an article is well-liked, readers can give it a "thumbs up" or "Digg it." This can provide more readership, and is valuable because posts can be re-posted many times, creating multiple links.
When all is said and done, it can take a lot of hard work and patience to succeed in reverse SEO, but it is the best way to get rid of the bad press and protect an individual's or an organization's reputation.
This is a serious problem in the internet world, and this problem can be solved with what is called reverse SEO, or reputation management. Reverse SEO comes into play, when, instead of promoting an article or site, you want to bury it. So, for example, if a harmful site surfaces, instead of trying to make it number one or two on the search engine ranking, you now want it to be number 27.
A recent example of reverse SEO involves Michigan's Department of Human Services (DHS) leader, Ismael Ahmed. Ahmed was born in New York in 1947, and then moved to Dearborn where he attended the University of Michigan-Dearborn. Ahmed went on to co-found the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS) and later became executive director.
As head of the DHS, Ahmed has implemented a variety of child welfare system reforms, including a consortium of Michigan Schools of Social Work to perform research and evaluate and train social workers; public-private partnerships to enhance child welfare services; and a task force dedicated to developing measurable outcomes for foster care, adoption, juvenile justice and homeless and runaway youth.
How does this pertain to reverse SEO? Recently, a while back a politically charged blog post was published claiming that Ahmed has terrorist ties. However untrue the article may be, it was a top listing for Ahmed's name for some time. This type of situation calls for some serious damage control, and reputation management is key. As a course of action, Ahmed's public relations crew might now hire an SEO company to apply reverse SEO to "bury" this article.
Reverse SEO is very tricky, because the hired company does not own the rights to the website which they are trying to remove. So, instead of changing that article, they need to create web property with more flattering information and use SEO and link building tactics to rank them above the negative articles. Over time these properties will be recognized by search engines, causing the negative article to be bumped down the list.
Blogs and social media sites are a new and very powerful way to implement reverse SEO. Creating a blog, which can be updated daily with interesting posts, can gain readership and recognition from search engines. With this two-way form of communication, people can read an article, then post a comment relaying their opinion.
Social media sites such as Mixx, Delicious and Stumbleupon also provide valuable outlets to gaining links. One can post a self-written article, or a link to another interesting article. This link is now available for the public to read, and in-hand be picked up by search engines. When an article is well-liked, readers can give it a "thumbs up" or "Digg it." This can provide more readership, and is valuable because posts can be re-posted many times, creating multiple links.
When all is said and done, it can take a lot of hard work and patience to succeed in reverse SEO, but it is the best way to get rid of the bad press and protect an individual's or an organization's reputation.
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