Black Ops Reputation Management
From New York to anywhere else in the world you should know about the secret hidden uncover world of Black-ops reputation management (BoRM) is also known as black hat reputation management in various circles around the internet. Organizations which offer this service can sometimes differ in what they’re
actually referring to. When the term was first thought up of, it entirely consisted of things that can be considered slimy, such as…
• Incessant spamming on websites which speak negatively about your brand in order to damage their search engine results (lower their legitimacy)
• Create dozens of poorly designed websites chock full with fake content that is riddled with keywords to push for higher search engine results
• Develop fakes of the brand or individual you’re doing business with to “muddy” the waters of what is true and what is false
Needless to say, black-ops reputation management used to be a pretty bad thing. No matter what way you look at it, the old practice worked, but it didn’t really improve the actual reputation of your company. For example, someone who was internet-savvy would be able to see right through the ruse and there are plenty of people out there who would make something like that public. In fact, that is exactly what happened, with one prominent case being published on the New York Magazine website and currently resting near the top of the Google search results when looking up black-ops reputation management. That’s a pretty harsh deal for something that does have legitimate uses but also provides some well-needed exposure for shady business practices.
The Changing Face of Black-Ops
The old habits of BoRM were from years ago before Google updated their algorithms. This update saw webmasters gain the ability to “disavow” links which they felt weren’t of high quality and also saw low quality websites plummet to the bottom of the search results because the content just wasn’t all that great if you really looked at it. In the fiasco that was published in New York Magazine, an online reputation company was seen creating websites that threw up quick, dirty content in order to get rid of negative content. In the long run, this company did not actually improve the reputation of anybody they worked with but instead simply covered up the bad stuff. If you put a rug over your dog’s dirty business in the yard, it is most certainly still there even if you can’t immediately see it.
Because of how much Google has switched things up, the old typical way of BoRM doesn’t work anymore. While there are still companies who will offer incredible results but provide a dirty service, black-ops reputation management has grown to have some legitimate uses, assuming the company providing the service is legitimate and does things by the book. There are many who would argue that BoRM is anything but the book, but it has certainly made a place for itself in the world of online reputation management and there’s no reason to discard the thought process entirely and then pretend it doesn’t exist.
Are There Any Benefits to Black-Ops Reputation Management?
The premise of black-ops reputation management is sound. You, the client, may understand that resolving a damaged reputation will take quite a bit of time. But, you also understand that your life hinges on the bad stuff disappearing as soon as possible because the negative things about you are so overly visible yet the positive things are nowhere to be found. Sometimes, you just need a solution that has quick turnaround but also leaves a foundation for legitimate improvement once the initial disaster has subsided.
With carefully planned black-ops reputation management, you can generate a significant amount of positive content about you that isn’t rubbish and also isn’t false or intentionally built up to have you placed along the glorious works of Carl Sagan and Isaac Newton. Chances are, there are some legitimate accomplishments you have under your belt that just aren’t been seen. On top of that, it’s probable that at some point there has been a positive story about you on the internet. This could be on something as
simple as a school website or maybe even a local newspaper.
Regardless of where and how the good stuff exists, it’s there, it just needs exposure. With BoRM, you can get that done quickly but there is also a missing link that has grown to be rather important in the past couple years: Social media. Most of us abuse social media or don’t utilize it. How many of us can truly say that we actively use Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, Google+… you get the picture. More often than not, we use two or three of these websites or we simply lurk without posting.
Since Google has started giving preference to social media results when looking people up, you receive the highest search authority bonuses when your name is actively participating on different social media websites in a positive manner.
While it’s not an immediate long term solution, it can fit you just right in a tight situation and in any case, having a social media profile that says you love kittens is probably better than that one blog post saying you supported the invasion of the Mongols.
