While we encourage all businesses to seek ORM services in order to keep their reputation at bay, a bad online reputation can either make or break small businesses. Think of it this way: You’re the owner of a restaurant, and you have spent several years working hard to deliver meals that your customers will hopefully learn to love and desire. Then every restaurateur’s nightmare comes to life as a viral video swarms the web about how your kitchen is infested with rats, or your ingredients are old and rotten. Or perhaps the issue is not that severe. Maybe a harsh food critique discouraged all consumers from visiting your restaurant as your competition offers better quality and more affordable options. You may notice a great slump in your sales for the weeks that follow, but don’t get tricked into thinking that you’ll miraculously swing back from this reputation damaging claim. You need an ORM expert to assist you in suppressing the bad news that will only continue to damage your restaurant’s hard-earned reputation.

At internetreputation.services, we serve clients from Fortune 500 companies all the way to the small mom and pop shop that resides in your local neighborhood. The difference between Fortune 500 companies is that they have more capital to use for marketing when all hell breaks loose. A polished campaign about your company’s new social responsibility initiative may help detract the public’s mind from the news you wish wasn’t circulating around, although you still shouldn’t lose focus of your long-term goals. A small business doesn’t have the same financial means as a corporation, and thus cannot keep their breathe above water for long before they must file for bankruptcy.

Here’s our first golden rule if you are a small business with an online reputation problem: Whatever you do, do not click on the unwanted press release. The more you look up the bad news concerning your company and send it around to all your friends and family in dismay, the more Google sees the article as relevant. Google will thus begin to rank the result higher up on the SERP, meaning it will take longer for ORM experts to suppress it.

Oftentimes, we will get calls from potential clients who are hasty to suppress the bad news by the next month. Unfortunately, ORM doesn’t work that way—especially if you’ve waited too long to get an ORM agency on board to help your case. Say the supposed controversial article that you wish to be eradicated was published in 2015. It could take up to up to 3 years for the article to fully vanish after repeated work on the issue. That’s why if you’re a small business with bad reviews on Pissed Consumers or Yelp, then you must act quick and get help before you end up in a zone of no return. The longer you wait to connect with an ORM expert, the longer it’ll take for you to see viable results and the more your bottom line will diminish.

If you or someone you know is in this predicament, please reach out to one of our ORM experts today for a free consultation.