How to Push Down Negative Results for Your Louisiana Brand or Name

Written by Edmond Major on Nov 13, 2017

Have you ever Googled your name or brand and found some “not-so-positive” results appearing in the 1st-page results? The links could be negative or fake reviews of your business, or even attributed to someone else or another business with the same or similar name. Potential clients might associate an unrelated issue with you or your brand and take their business somewhere else, a potential Louisiana based employer might trash your application after someone in HR Googles your name, someone in town for a day on a business trip might find a fake negative review about your restaurant and pick another location to eat, a lawsuit against your business (that you won) might show up and deter people who don't read past the displayed headline. There are endless ways these issues can create frustration, cause a company to lose business, and be troublesome for any brand or name.

When someone Googles your name or brand, you want to make sure they find the “real” you and the returned info is positive and accurate. This process is called Online Reputation Management or ORM.

What if this happens to you or your brand name?

Don’t worry. Sometimes all it takes is a bit of work to bump the offending results down in the search engine results page by building up new content on authoritative sites that allow you to sign up, post related content, and start ranking your new positive content. The "Domain Authority" number is an SEO ranking metric, created by Moz, that evaluates multiple criteria and rates a domain's "authority" on a scale of 0-100. The higher the number, the greater ability to rank across multiple search engines.

I’ve listed 21 local and not-so-local websites that frequently show up for various Louisiana name and business related queries that I have tracked over the past several months. You can use this list and get a jump start on protecting your brand and name for free.

Simply sign up, verify your email, post your content and build a few quality backlinks to your profile ( or business page) URL.

Top 21 Sites To Help Push Down Negative Results

	TigerDroppings.com Domain Authority: 100 Mainly centered around sports, this is one of the most active Louisiana forums out there. TD features the infamous O-T Lounge section that can get pretty wild and chatty. A great property to drop links to your website in relevant threads. Tread carefully as this crowd can get rowdy, especially if they find out you're a Bama fan.
	Reddit Domain Authority: 99 Has a subreddit for every major Louisiana city or area (/r/batonrouge, /r/neworleans, /r/acadiana, etc.). Try to not be too "market-y" on this site. Mods and admins are quick to catch on to blatant self-promotion and will ban/delete your account.
	Topix Domain Authority: 82 The Louisiana Forum section here is great for dropping a question or answer about your business. Be warned that discussions here quickly devolve into unrelated topics and colorful debate.
	TripAdvisor Domain Authority: 95 If you own a business that frequently gets a lot of tourists or travelers, you'll want to create some buzz about your brand here in the Louisiana Travel section. Additionally, make sure to Claim or Create your main business listings on TripAdvisor.
	LouisianaSportsman.com Domain Authority: 46 It's no secret that we love our outdoors activities here in Louisiana. If your brand attracts that type of crowd, you'll want to build up some buzz and attention here.
	Yelp Talk Domain Authority: 94 Make sure your business listing is Claimed here. Additionally, every Louisiana city has a 'Talk' section on Yelp. Subliminally drop links to your brand here that will generate genuine interest in your business.
	Facebook Groups Domain Authority: 100 Type in your city name and join as many related FB Groups as possible. If your brand or business is mentioned here, chime in with a helpful answer. Also, I shouldn't have to tell you this, but make sure your business has a Facebook Page created for it.
	Nextdoor Domain Authority: 91 An app that’s certainly on your parents phones! Nextdoor is a great place for service related industries (AC repair, fence builders, babysitters, etc.) to get referrals and recommendations. Google indexes every question posted to Nextdoor.
	LinkedIn Domain Authority: 100 With LinkedIn, you can not only rank for your name and brand, but also get real qualified leads in the process.
	Nola.com Domain Authority: 88 We've all seen this website come up in our Facebook feeds. Make sure your business is listed on their BusinessFinder section in order for it to rank for your brand.
	VisitBatonRouge Domain Authority: 58 With over 4,000 pages indexed in the SERPs, Visit Baton Rouge is a powerful property to have your business listed.
	LafayetteSports Domain Authority: 51 This is a popular sport-centric site, hosted on tapatalk, in the heart of Acadiana, drive some direct traffic from the off-topic section.
	Crappie.com Domain Authority: 37 Not that kind of crappie, the good kind. Another outdoorsman-related property to drop links to your tier-2 properties in the Louisiana subforum section.
	YellowPages Domain Authority: 89 Yes, it's still around. YellowPages has rebranded as YP and still considered a powerful player when it comes to local business listings. It’s an easy property to get ranking for your business name.
	CitySearch Domain Authority: 86 Add your business here and easily get it ranking for your name and brand.
	NewOrleansWebsites Domain Authority: 37 This dated-looking paid business directory wields an authoritative sword when it comes to rankings. A $35 one-time fee gets your business listed—a small cost that can translate into big gains.
	VisitNewOrleans Domain Authority: 29 Much like Visit Baton Rouge, Visit New Orleans is a powerful property to get your NOLA business listed on that will translate into an easily ranked listing for your brand.
	Twitter Domain Authority: 100 A quick and easy property to get ranking for your brand or name—one of the ORM basics.
	About.me Domain Authority: 91 The name of this website pretty much explains what it's used for. Throw up a quick profile and get it ranking for First and Last name queries.
	Keybase Domain Authority: 71 This is a public directory of people that uses a variety of methods to verify you are who you say you are. It’s a relatively new site that packs a lot of power when ranking for first/last name queries. I highly recommend linking this property with as many of your social profiles as you can.
	Glassdoor Domain Authority: 91 Easily rank for your business name with this property—another ORM basic for businesses.

 

Let us know in the comments if we may have missed any sites or your experience in setting up new content on the list we provided above.

If you or your business is facing a unique ORM situation where you need some help or guidance, we would love to assist. Our new Digital Presence as-a-Service team is equiped with powerful tools to invigorate your ranking, and bury the links causing trouble. 

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