With a flurry of some recent very public catastrophic reputation failures (Tiger Woods, Domino’s Pizza) Reputation Insurance has started to gain popularity. And I am not talking about the service, which would be like something that our company offers. A service that will protect the first few pages of Google from negative content from be exposed. I am talking about a legitimate insurance policy, like you would get for your car, health or life.

Reputation Insurance would be very similar to Errors & Omissions (E&O), professional liability or anything else that protects a company.

I will be really curious to see how/when an insurance company starts paying out. With E&O insurance, it is very black and white. You get an a lawsuit, E&O kicks in and pays most of the legal fees. With reputation insurance, it feels like that would be a little more subjective, so not sure where the line in the sand is drawn where they start kicking in money.

It will be interesting to see how this industry evolves, which it no doubt will be doing very publicly.

The new system, could have a positive benefit to your online reputation as well. There are several new tools that allow you to report objectional, inappropriate or copyright-infringed content. In addition to SEO Spam, you can now report:

1. Objectionable Content – This page is inappropriate.
2. Copyright and other legal issues – This page should be removed under applicable law.
3. Personal/Private – This page discloses private information.

This is an interesting step that Google laid out to allow people to report these types of issues online. Only time will tell how much influence these reports will have on their rankings, but I do think it is a step in the right direction

To start, let me give you a brief description of what is is. Google+ allows anyone with a Google account to “Vote” on a website, particularly a search result. If you vote on a website when a search result is displayed in Google, then it tells Google that a person actually liked a particular website. To compare it to current search engine algorithms, this vote would serve the same ranking factor as what an inbound link from another website would do. You like it, so Google wants to like it. If lots of people like it and vote on it, then Google will really like it.

If this works, it is very possible that Pagerank (Google’s search engine ranking scoring system) will be profoundly impacted by these votes (inbound links) from a person.

So why am I telling you this, and why does it matter to your online reputation?

Your reputation is impacted 95% of the time by what appears in search results.  Current user search patterns still point to going to Google first. What appears in Google about you or your brand has the biggest impact to your reputation. So when search engine ranking factors change, it is something you need to know and something you need to worry about.

If there is a negative result, and someone (ie, a competitor or an ex employee) had enough energy, they could get their friends to vote up negative results, which would then be highly visible to anyone searching for your brand. Just like review sites, you need to take proactive steps in order to protect these negative search results from being manipulated by people.

Here are several easy steps to be proactive about  the new Google+ Plus rollout:

1. Get out there and vote on all your sites. You can do this by logging into your Google account, search for your sites, then click “Plus 1″ sign. ->
2. Email all of your friends! About 25% of the people you know have a Google account, get them to vote!
3. Tell your customers. Make it easy for them to leave reviews and vote via Google. Send them an email or pass out physical post cards with direct links. Give them a coupon incentive for doing so.
4. If you have a website or a blog, add the plusone button to it. Here is the link: http://www.google.com/webmasters/+1/button/ (We will be adding this to our blog shortly, stay tuned and vote for us!)

Subscribe to our blog via Facebook or Twitter and we will keep you updated as Google Plus one gets rolled out.

What is Google Suggest
Google suggest is the feature that 90% of Googler’s have turned on. When you are on the Google site, and start to perform a search, Google will ‘suggest’ a search phrase. It looks a little like this:

According to Google, it enhances your search experience. For the most part, I think it works great and it allows for users to get to the information they are actually looking for quicker. It has some major negative implications however. I will get to those below.

How Does Google Decide what appears in a suggestion:
Just like most of Google’s algorithm, the actual technology sits in a black box. No one knows exactly how they come up with their result. There are a few items that definitely play a roll at some level, we have tested multiple theories against live results and have come up with these ones that are definitely involved:

1. Semantic Relevance – If someone is typing in “Las V” there is a 90% chance they are thinking of typing in Las Vegas, which Google will serve up. If they are trying to type in Las Vegas, there is a good chance they are looking for something in Las Vegas, which is why they then suggest terms like “Las Vegas Shows”, “Las Vegas Travel”, etc.
2. Previous Search Queries – If a majority of people who start a search phrase “Christina” always end up with “Aguilera” then they are going to use this history and Suggest “Aguilera” whenever someone is typing in “Christina”.
3. Anchor Text – Google looks at anchor linking (the text used in one of those blue underlined text links that you see all over the web) as a key indicator in their Google Suggestion. So the more times “Reputation Managers San Diego” pops up on the web, the more likely that suggestion will pop up in Google Suggest.
4. General Buzz – Google is now starting to look for consistent phrases that are generating buzz on Twitter, Digg, Reddit, etc.

The positive implications (suggesting keywords that people may not be privy to) is obvious, the negative implications are not as obvious, but I will provide some detail around it.

You may have seen it before, but if you ever type in a company name, there are a lot of times that Google ads the word “Scam, Rip Off, Complaints” to the list of suggestions. This is a very unfair and slanderous suggestion. If you are a company with any volume, you are going to have an unhappy customer here and there. But even if your unhappy customers is less than 1% of total happy customers, you have a high probability of having these negative suggests attached to your brand. Is this fair? I don’t think so.

Google experimented a couple of weeks ago and removed the word “Scam” from their suggestion. It was for only about a week, and it is back now, so no one is quite sure what it means. Google has been successfully sued by France and Italian governments and they are barred from using negative suggestions in their results. There are too many good companies out there that Google is otherwise telling the public that they are rip off artists.

In case you have not seen it, traditionally, any company with any type of volume, and a few complaints, Google suggests words Scam, Complaints, Rip Off would accompany the search phrase. This was extremely unfair to businesses, and instantly lost them credibility when people were searching for them.

Kudos to Google for (Finally) doing the right thing!

Here is a summary of the good points:

SB 1411, Simitian. Impersonation: Internet.
Existing law makes it a crime to falsely impersonate another in
either his or her private or official capacity, as specified.
Existing law also makes it a crime to knowingly access and, without permission, alter, damage, delete, destroy, or otherwise use any data, computer, computer system, or computer network in order to devise or execute any scheme or artifice to defraud, deceive, or extort, or wrongfully control or obtain money, property, or data. For a violation thereof, in addition to specified criminal penalties, existing law authorizes an aggrieved party to bring a civil action against the violator, as specified.

This bill would provide that any person who knowingly and without consent credibly impersonates another actual person through or on an Internet Web site or by other electronic means, as specified, for purposes of harming, intimidating, threatening, or defrauding another person is guilty of a misdemeanor. The bill would, in addition to the specified criminal penalties, authorize a person who suffers damage or loss to bring a civil action against any person who violates that provision, as specified. Because the bill would create
a new crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local
agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

SECTION 1. Section 528.5 is added to the Penal Code, to read:
528.5. (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any person who knowingly and without consent credibly impersonates another actual person through or on an Internet Web site or by other electronic means for purposes of harming, intimidating, threatening, or defrauding another person is guilty of a public offense punishable pursuant to subdivision (d).
(b) For purposes of this section, an impersonation is credible if
another person would reasonably believe, or did reasonably believe, that the defendant was or is the person who was impersonated. (c) For purposes of this section, “electronic means” shall include opening an e-mail account or an account or profile on a social networking Internet Web site in another person’s name. (d) A violation of subdivision (a) is punishable by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, or by both that fine and imprisonment. (e) In addition to any other civil remedy available, a person who suffers damage or loss by reason of a violation of subdivision (a) may bring a civil action against the violator for compensatory damages and injunctive relief or other equitable relief pursuant to
paragraphs (1), (2), (4), and (5) of subdivision (e) and subdivision (g) of Section 502.
(f) This section shall not preclude prosecution under any other
law.

When someone it typing your name into Google, it is likely that they are close to a purchasing decision. A brand name search is the highest-converting search across the entire web.

Now, when someone starts a search for your company name, it is quite possible they get the results for the suggested result, versus what they originally intended to search.

What does your Google Suggest say about you?

The real time search has a little bit more of a problematic impact. The issue now is that if someone is typing in a brand, and simply hover over one of the negative suggestions, the results display.

We don’t think this is a huge change from standard suggestions, but it will have a slight impact. Our estimation is that searchers will see the negative results 10% more of the time than before. Not huge, but still an impact.

The most important thing is that you are controlling your brand for all combination’s of search. If you do not currently have “complaints, scam, rip off” attached to your brand, we suggest you get proactive and start to control those results as if you have any type of volume as a company at all, you will most likely fall victim to this as well.