We all want great listings and high placement for keywords on search engines. Companies and individuals are all fairly eager to research keywords and spend some effort (some more than others) and money (also some more than others) on targeting keywords and optimizing webpages. This is time and money well spent.
But there is a negative side to listings that is equally important to consider. When a company has had an internet presence for a number of years, all sorts of links begin to accumulate on the search engines. This is especially true for searches on the company's name. It is to be hoped that when someone searches for a company name, the top listing on any of the search engines will be the company website.
This is frequently not true. Sometimes old websites pop up, links to old pages, broken links, link farms inappropriately listing the company, old social media accounts and a host of other irrelevant links. These all can present a negative view of an internet presence and represent problems that need to be solved.
Search your company's name. What comes up? If it isn't your current website, active social media sites or "good" inbound links, you need to get your listings scrubbed and find ways to get the search engines to get rid of the inappropriate listings. This can be difficult and time consuming. But the downside to not doing it is potential damage to your company image.
