ReputationDefender EMEA Director Tony McChrystal has a wealth of experience in digital privacy, online reputation management, crisis management and public relations. This article will look at Google’s autocomplete feature, exploring different tactics to influence it to produce more positive and accurate suggestions.
Most people who use Google will have noticed its autocomplete feature and been amused by its inaccurate and inappropriate suggestions. However, in some scenarios, this can be anything but funny. Take for example a business whose name is associated with the word ‘scam’ or another derogatory term. You can learn more about the growing problem of defamation on social media by viewing the attached PDF.
Where negative suggestions appear at the top of the list, this can have a catastrophic impact for a business or individual. Such suggestions fuel a cycle of negativity, with untrue or unflattering search predictions enticing people to click on negative items, in turn reinforcing Google’s more salacious suggestions and driving them to the top of the autocomplete list.
Fortunately, there are ways to influence Google’s autocomplete suggestions. The first step is understanding how the process works. While it is difficult to pin down Google’s autocomplete algorithms precisely, generally speaking, it tracks the most popular searches related to phrases, with more popular content rising to the top of the autocomplete list. The attached infographic contains an outline of how Google autocomplete can be used for brand SEO.
To ensure that Google autocomplete associates positive search results with a particular phrase, there are two possible course of action: employing reputation management tactics to improve search results, and reporting search predictions to Google that violate its policies.
Google will remove predictions that fail to adhere to its autocomplete policies. If a search term involves any of the following, there is a good chance that Google will remove it:
- Violence
- Profanity
- Sexually explicit language
- Hateful or disparaging language
- Language that may expose someone to the danger of fraud or identify theft
- Unfounded rumours
- Harassment
If Google declines to remove the offending phrase or word, another option is to employ reputation management techniques to influence the online conversation surrounding a particular search term. Reputation management is essentially the process of suppressing negative web content and driving traffic to content that searchers will find valuable. Over time, this new content displaces negative material, pushing old content off the first page into a realm where 9 out of 10 internet users never look. The embedded infographic contains an overview of ReputationDefender, the world’s leading online reputation management company.
