Companies 'have poor search engine control of brand'
November 25th 2009
Universal Search Marketing News
Major companies have little control of how their brand is portrayed via search engines, it has been revealed.
Research carried out by online image preservation company ReputationManagers.com found that just nine per cent of firms had control over their brand in the search engines, with 23 per cent having damaging material on their first page as a result.
A further 11 per cent were found to have negative press on their top five search results, which will be seen by 80 per cent of internet users.
The company added that 75 per cent of consumers do research online via one of the main three search engines before interacting with a company.
A company representative for ReputationManagers.com commented: "We were quite surprised at the lack of brand control these large Fortune 100 companies have over their own brands. Most of the issues can easily be averted with standard online reputation management practices."
This month, Google's Matt Cutts told WebProNews that page speed will be the buzzword for search engine optimisation(SEO) in 2010.