Every brand dreads bad publicity. It can damage their business and cause irreversible effects that will impact their sales. Worse, some small businesses succumb to bankruptcy due to negative PR. To prevent this from happening, you can maximize various methods. One of which is search engine optimization.

SEO may seem like unfamiliar waters for business owners. But with the help of experts, you can use it to fight off bad publicity. Aside from that, SEO will also bring a ton of high-quality traffic to your website. This makes it a very fruitful investment.

Regardless if you’re facing bad publicity or not, SEO is a must. Here’s what you need to know.

Bad publicity is a big concern

Every business should consider bad PR as a concern, no matter how big or small it is. Bad publicity is still a negative thing that can impact your business. Worse, if you let it sit without any actions done, you’re fueling a bigger problem.

Bad publicity can be the negative reviews on your GMB account, a RipOff Report, or a blog post with negative things about your brand. All of these will see the light of day on the internet. Worse, it will rank up and be seen by hundreds of people.

When this happens, your business’ reputation will be on the ringer. You have to do something, or it will blow out of proportions. Before you know it, your business’ reputation has been damaged irreversibly.

Acting properly is the key

Never underestimate the power of bad publicity. You should always act upon the discovery of the content. However, you should avoid any form of retaliation as it will only branch to more unintended consequences.

Instead, try to mitigate the problem as much as you can. If someone got hospitalized due to your business, you should offer to pay the hospital bills. For irate customers, offer the best solution so they can be appeased. In some cases, a negative review can be converted into a neutral or positive one with the right solutions.

Always use a positive approach when dealing with any negative feedback on your business.

Use SEO for your advantage

Unknown to many business owners, search engine optimization can be used to combat the negative effects of bad publicity. Aside from saving your business’ behind, you will also reap other benefits like increased traffic, higher conversion rates, and better visibility.

Through this, you can outrank the pages that contain bad publicity. Just take brands Coca-Cola and Target, for example. These brands occupy the first page of the search results when you Google their name. So even if someone is publishing negative content about them, it will be buried on the SERPs.

Instead of trying to peel off the pages from the internet, you can simply bury them so no one will see it.

Conclusion

Some say that bad publicity is still publicity. However, you should know how to flip it to your favor. You need to be smart with your moves and always approach the problem with professionalism.