Do cuss words on social media sites affect ranking?
-
This is a hard one, I'm sure. In regards to search, I've read that Facebook pays close attention to verbs and that Google takes into account related words close to anchor text and search terms.
Now I have the unique opportunity to work as the internet sales and marketing consultant for a company in serious need of brand reputation repair. The company has experienced a terrible fallout from a recent product recall. Unfortunately in this case, the company site has really strong reach, which means that our blog posts, product descriptions, and twitter comments can be found copied on hundreds of websites hours after they are posted.
The most recent incident has associated our brand name with words like cheaters, scam, phoney, copycat, and other words that will certainly get filtered here. All my attempts to assure unconditional refunds and offer phone support get labeled as a desperate attempt to save the brand. No doubt, the company has issues but will surely overcome them in time.
SEO Question: Should I close the Facebook page and set strong filters on a new page to delete the onslaught of negative comments or should we spend the time to clean up the current page? This is a difficult decision, as I know many companies like Hubspot, Mailchimp, and Rackspace actually look at Facebook pages to qualify business leads (no fans, go home).
Damage control suggestions also welcome, but the crux of this issue here is how our brand name and product names will be associated with cuss words or negative terms and how this will affect our ranking in SERPs.
-
Been spending a little more time in the Moz community recently and though to update this post. In case anybody finds themselves in a similar spot: http://googleblog.blogspot.tw/2010/12/being-bad-to-your-customers-is-bad-for.html
This company I mentioned did a fine job of pivoting and grew from $500K to over $8M since I asked this question.
-
Hello Kevin. Yes hard question to answer. When other sites pick up content related to you, you have little control. If someone likes to put a negative slant on everything you do, that is very hard to combat. You need to fix the issues that cause this ASAP and if you can, get people to tell their story about the company response. Then you need to stay out of trouble. After that you need truthful positive press with wise distribution and positive social signals.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Does a site with only one blog post a month rank alright?
I manage multiple websites and want to start new ones but want to know if one blog post a month is acceptable for SEO since I'm worried about rank.
Branding | | hssm20191 -
Backlinks in PDF's created on my site causing algo demotion.
I have a few questions. My website allows people to create custom 'puzzle' and education (i.e. "math") worksheets - enter your 'school spelling list' - I can make a crossword or many other puzzles (PDF form) from it. I recently realized that I was being penalized for the backlink I placed in each one. I placed in each PDF ("Created with mydomain.com Crossword maker") - I was linking the "crossword maker" back to my site. BAD! I am now aware of this. I have recently disavowed several hundred backlinks where people have posted those PDF's online - and have started to see a big recovery in ranking and traffic. My questions about my citation: "Created with mydomain.com Crossword maker":
Branding | | Addict
1. Moving forward, can I leave the same citation on each PDF - but just link 'mydomain.com' back to my domain (not the keywords, just the domain)
2. If not, can I just leave the unlinked text on the PDF: i.e. "Created with mydomain.com Crossword maker" -no embeded links at all.
3. Is it OK to assert that they must leave the "citation" (linked/unlinked?) to post them on their website as a part of my terms of use? If not, is there an acceptable way to get credit for giving away free custom content - other than asking for an 'optional' link back? I have thousands more of these that I would need to end up disavowing so knowing exactly what is permissible is extremely important to me moving forward. I have watched this whiteboard Friday: https://moz.com/blog/backlinks-maximize-benefits-avoid-problems-whiteboard-friday (I am looking for clarification on what I can put in the original content I essentially syndicate - the content is different on each and every PDF, except for the citation). Thank you so much for your time and help!0 -
Why is Google suddenly not Ranking my page in a second language in its appropriate target country?
Hi, One of my clients has company Facebook pages in several languages. The page in Arabic, which was targeted at Saudi Arabia, used to rank 5th place on the search for the brand name. The page has a steady growth of followers and a high engagement rate. for the past week it suddenly completely fell off ranking and instead the English page ranks #5 in the results for the brand name in Saudi Arabia. What could have caused this change and what can we do to bring the target language page back to its ranking?
Branding | | JonsonSwartz0 -
Changing Social Media Profiles Name
Hi Mozzers, A client is thinking about changing their social media handles to shorten them to just their brand name as opposed to brand name plus the word 'apparel'. What is the implications of doing this and does the link change from facebook/brand-apparel or does the URL stay the same? Thanks Gareth
Branding | | Bush_JSM0 -
Experience/suggestions in redirecting old URLs (from an existing site) to new URLs under a new domain
Please share your experiences/suggestions in redirecting a set of pages (10,000 or more pages/URLs) from an existing domain to new URLs under a new domain. Thanks in advance!
Branding | | esiow20130 -
Redesigning a Site - What Optimizations are "Must Haves"?
I'm psyched - a client has just approved a complete redesign of their site! Feel like a have a little bag of gold in my hand, and want to spend it wisely. My question to you, fellow Mozzers, is what elements would you make sure to include a site to make it as optimized as possible? A few details about the site: 1. It is an informational site, designed to generate leads for a medical product. No products for sale, no e-commerce functionality needed. 2. The site has approximately 250 pages. Last site update was in 2009. 3. Videos are an important part of their marketing strategy. In addition to shortening their URL structure (some URLs have 6-7 folders, ugh), I plan to utilize schemas and incorporate mobile responsive design. What other areas would you prioritize for optimization? Thanks, Allie
Branding | | Allie_Williams0 -
Press Release Best Practices - should I add the PR to my site?
I wanted to know the best practice for SEO when it comes to press releases. If I publish a press release through a site like PRWeb or PRNewswire, can I also add the same press release to my site in the "news" section or will that create duplicate content issues? Would it make sense to include a summary of the press release on my site and then add a link to the press release hosted on the PR service's site? I don't necessarily want to take people away from my site, but I'm not sure if putting the whole release in both places makes sense. Thanks!
Branding | | pbhatt0 -
Research into citation and it's effect on ranking
Hi I'd like to know if there has been any research into citation (brand mentions on external sites) and how it has / hasn't effected ranking, particularly Google Search? If any body can point me in the right direction, that would be great. Thanks
Branding | | NeilPursey0