My client, X, comes up no.1 for their business name in a Google UK search. Website no.2 in the search is a website that profiles client X as a company (and singles out an individual) in a particularly bad light.

 

As you can imagine, this does not look good when their company name is their number 1 search term. This would be okay if the critical website was reputable, but it's a really negative website with very little opportunity for users to have their say (like Qype, for example.)

 

I think I have an idea of what they can do about it, but I wonder if anyone has had experience with this before, and how one might advise the client to proceed. I doubt there is anything they can do from an SEO point of view, unless you try hijack their possible search terms. Might be wrong though.

This is an element of digital marketing called reputation management!

 

Without knowing the full situation, I would suggest contacting the author to reason with them, and ask them to remove the post o0r atleast provide the company in question with the opportunity to respond to the accusation. This is probably the path I would take.