Dealing with a former associate's bad behavior
-
A former associate (law firm) has gotten into hot water since leaving the firm. The problem is that he has numerous profiles across the web that are still associated with the firm's address and website. A search for his name in Google often leads directly to the law firm or their profiles.
Is there anything that can be done to dis-associate the firm from this person?
Thanks
-
Thank you very much for you for your feedback. I'm dreading all of this manual work.
-
This is very helpful. Thanks for taking the time to provide really good information.
-
I agree with Patrick - ORM is neccessary to overcome that and it`s always a lot of manual work... wish you all the best!
-
Eric,
Sounds like you need Online Reputation Management (ORM) services or a company which can actually take on this project, since it will require the efforts to contact each of the websites, directories, social sites, etc to communicate with them that the Associate is no longer with the firm and may create more bad than good for the firm's website and reputation.
Unless you can get this Associate to login and remove their information from the profiles (if he actually created the profiles), then I would consult with some local companies who provide this service. We used to provide it, but it is a lot of work and not all the time beneficial and effective. Meaning, it doesn't always work as you need to get the site's owners/webmasters to get in and physically remove the links which are showing in the SERPs. It's a lot of work for you, the ORM company and the actual company who's hosting the link.
Hope this was helpful, but that's the route I'd go and recommend.
Patrick
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
-
When should i use 'Generated search clicks'?
Dear MOZ Community, When should i use 'Generated search clicks' (Links to google site results with your site results) in my content? Instead of direct links or ads to my site? For instance: I'm posting on social media or in a newsletter about a Top 5 OLED tv's.
Branding | | TimThijsse
Should i use a direct link to my Top 5 OLED page or should i use a link to search results on my page? https://www.plattetv.nl/categorie/top-5-oled?utm_source=social&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=Top-5-OLED
or
a search-click generator: https://www.google.com/search?q=plattetv.nl+top-5-oled Best regards, Tim Thijsse1 -
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 -
SEO for Facebook's search bar?
Hey everyone! Had a quick question for ya'. Does anyone know if there are currently SEO tactics that are in place to help a company's Facebook page rank in their search bar? For example: When I search "Idaho Auctions" into the facebook search bar, there's a multitude of results - ranging from groups, to events, to businesses. How do these get ranked above each other?
Branding | | TaylorRHawkins1 -
Backlink Badges - Good or Bad
One of my free tools for creating web pages automatically inserts a back-link to my home page as a footer, or 'badge' from the free web pages it creates. Hence there are tens of thousands of low quality sites out there linking back to my home page. While this was great ten years ago, Google looks on things differently these days. So the question is, will Google penalize me for this? Does the negative outweigh the positive - should I remove the insertion of back-link badges from the product? Thanks, Peter
Branding | | virtualmechanics2 -
Competitors' dummy websites --- What SEO (or other?) strategy is this?
I work for an e-retailer. I've noticed that at least one of our competitors (and, I think, a second as well) has set up a neutral "third party" website that attempts to provide unbiassed information about different manufacturer's products. Of course, their products always win out over the competitor in these comparisons. But this one site (and another whose corporate backer I can't seem to figure out) is keyworded so poorly, and not branded at all. There are very few (if any) links to the corporate sponsor, or links, period. It's definitely not serving to have "Little Brand x" appear next to "Big Brand Y" in search results, either (again, really poorly keyworded). Other SEO seems really minimal. What do you think their strategy is? Is it a dumb waste o' money or something really smart that I'm not picking up on? Your insights most appreciated!
Branding | | Novos_Jay1 -
Using mlm and 'scammy' websites to identify brand/reputation management opportunities
I think this almost warrants a youmoz post, but I was wondering if anyone has used MLM or 'shady' industry companies to see where they place their reputation/brand links to dominate the first 2-3 pages of google for things like 'company name + scam' 'company name + reviews'. On a side note what is your opinion of a company that goes to great lengths to create a very strong push to control those keywords? Would you recommend your clients dominate the first 2-3 pages with 'honest review about company x' and 'the truth about company x' fakeditorials? Do you guys think people see right through them. Take any MLM..for instance legal shield scam (not my company, but an MLM that I am very wary of) as professionals what do you think of their reputation management build out......what do you think consumers would see when they read this? is there such a thing as going to far to refute false claims and building sponsored reviews? I'm personally against doing sponsored reviews and spamming with them, but maybe I am naive.
Branding | | ilyaelbert1 -
Company name in TITLE tag first have an impact on user behavior?
Does anyone know if there any sort of study or have an opinion on the following: Does the company name appearing the browser tab have any affect on how a user interacts with a site from a branding perspective or a TITLE tag / meta description in SERP "paying off" perspective? That is, optimizing titles COMPANY NAME | KEYWORD instead of vice versa so that when the title shows in the browser tab, the company name is displayed but not much else.
Branding | | hunchfree0 -
Is it good/bad to place a press release on a third party website as well as your own?
I have read that if a Company issues a press release via a third part service (e.g. PR Web) it is best not to place the release on the company’s own website due to negative SEO effects. Is this the case? I‘d really appreciate others thoughts on this.
Branding | | E2E0