I help MarketWatch understand why unethical reputation management is toxic

I help MarketWatch understand why unethical reputation management is toxic

MarketWatch investigated why those with a criminal background would use black-hat reputation and SEO strategies to try to cover things up. Just like any marketing practice, there are always those that offer black-hat tactics to help their clients. However, these toxic activities tend to attract toxic clients.

I shared a lot of information with MarketWatch, including:

Another black-hat tactic is to create positive fictitious personas with the same name as the person trying to bury their negative results, said Andy Beal, an author and reputation-management consultant who says he does not condone such tactics, to fool Google into elevating that content instead.

Some black-hat companies will also send criminal background-check sites bogus, “heavy-handed, legal-type notices” or even payment in an effort to get their client’s information removed, including made-up court orders, Beal said. “These companies will fall for it and take them down because they don’t have the resources to fight it,” he said.

“Eventually, black-hat anything gets called out and you end up with a worse problem than you were trying to fix,” said Beal. “Usually someone uses a black-hat firm because they have not changed who they are — they just want what was discovered to go away.”

Black-hat online reputation management is indeed something that I would never condone. I’ll keep helping the media if it means being one of the guardians of the ethical reputation galaxy!

ByAndy Beal

Andy Beal is The Original Online Reputation Expert™. A bestselling author of two critically-acclaimed reputation management books, a keynote speaker at dozens of events, and brand consultant experience with thousands of individuals and companies.