Innocent companies and individuals won a great battle last week against competitors and former employees who saturate the Web with negative search term modifiers such as “scam” and “fraud”, resulting in Google’s Autocomplete suggesting the terms to unsuspecting users. A sigh of relieved was felt across the World Wide Web as Google removed the word “scam” from search suggestions. But was this good for everyone?

Does Scam Removal Mean Truth Removal?

Okay, so thousands of businesses are protected from wrong doing, but what about the consumers who may use the word scam as a signal to perform diligence? Will there be more users buying sunglasses from bullies or worse, more con artists appearing out of the woodwork to take advantage of innocent searchers?

Hope is not lost my friends, as this change isn’t a complete retraction of scam terms, but merely a way of not highlighting negative results. Call it “miserable failure part deux”, appealing to masses and fixing an exploit many brutal SEO Experts have leveraged against competition. Instead, you’ll still find the suggestion in the right margin of the search results as well as in the “Searches Related to” recommendations within the actual search results:

Ripoff Report Extortionists & ComplaintsBoard.com

Okay, I’m way out of line speaking on something I have no evidence on, only here-say. However, I’ve received enough feedback to have the personal opinion that Ripoff Report may be doing some very ugly extortion-like activity. For example, you cannot remove a RipoffReport.com page, but (and I say but with one finger way up in the air; I won’t say which one) you can work with them (pay them) to try to help get a retraction or….well, I’ll let you use your imagination here.

While we see no evidence of the word ripoff disappearing just yet, we have our hopes up.

What about those disgruntled ex-employees posting in destinations such as complaintsboard.com, the word complaints also haunts businesses both in Google Autocomplete and within Instant, organic and related search results. There are strategies to help push this content down, some of which are presented on my own study, appropriately titled Beat the Autocomplete, but it’s no easy task and definitely not one I’d wish on an internal SEO specialist (both the work and trying to read my somewhat complicated study results).

The best advice this SEO guy can give is to work your butt off to not give customers ammunition to use scam, complaints, and ripoff terms to describe you, your employees, or your company. Services such as RatePoint, GetSatisfaction, and RewardMe are popping up all over the place to improve customer loyalty, communication and customer service. My advice: if you predict issues based on your business practices, these definitely can’t hurt.

Update 4/11/11

So now we’re super confused. It appears that either Google isn’t updating all of the production servers with the change or they changed their mind. Take a look at the word SCAM reappearing in Google Autocomplete today:

What do you think is going on? Please share your feedback and insight below.

When a website like Chase.com goes down, a number of very critical concerns come to mind. For example:

• What does this do to a customer’s opinion of Chase.com security?
• What’s the social impact on the Internet, in terms discussions and blog posts?
• What type of online reputation management will be required to “clean up” negative search results?
• How many clients will leave Chase?
• How many prospects will now never choose Chase?
• and most importantly, which banks will Chase customers who leave decide to go with?

For the record, I have accounts with Chase and Citibank. I chose Chase because their business plans were affordable and integrated nicely with my personal accounts. I also have Citibank, because I’m a huge fan of the online tools; and because I am addicted to Slim Jim’s, which I can get at a 7-11 convenient store (all of which have Citibank ATMs inside). So this post is completely non-bias.

How Citibank Could Use Social Media Right Now

There’s a limited window right now for Citibank (or any bank) to take advantage of the high volume of pissed off Chase customers ranting and raving all over Facebook, Twitter, their personal blogs, niche networking websites, and commenting on news articles and blog comments across the World Wide Web. They need to do this TODAY, while the temperature is hot, to get the maximum benefit from the campaign.

1. Citibank needs to get a license for Techrigy, Radian 6, or other social monitoring tool
2. They need to “listen” to what is being said across the Internet and extrapolate important themes
3. They need to construct a marketing campaign for each main theme they pickup (work through the night if needed)
4. They need to respond with a “we feel your pain and want to help” message EVERY TIME a complaint is heard
5. The campaign emphasis should revolve around 99.9% uptime on their website PLUS the response (“Your money and online transactions are safe again and accessible from your home or mobile device”)
6. They need ads on TV TONIGHT with the message and a special offer that ends in ONE WEEK
7. They should be bidding on Chase terms in Facebook, AdWords, YSM & AdCenter with the message
8. They should be bidding on terms extrapolated from (1.) above in Facebook, AdWords, YSM & AdCenter with the message (some of which are blog tags and meta keywords)
9. They should be tweeting the message, writing blog posts with the message, and commenting on blog posts with the message

When the dust has settled, users will remember the downtime and there’s still opportunity to convert upset Chase clients over. Citibank, Band of America, WellsFargo, if you’re listening, you’ve got an opportunity to reach people who are talking about their negative experience with Chase.com, using internet marketing tools, and earn a lot of new business by being sympathetic and responsive (and authentic).

Question is, are you too big to come down to our level? I guess we’ll find out. I know I’ll be watching.

What Would You Do If You Were Chase or a Competitor?

In light of Chase.com going down, how you use Internet marketing tools and resources to respond to the recent online banking crisis? Share your feedback below.

I finally beta launched my new Blog Marketing Toolkit and offered up 50 free Premium Memberships to get some feedback. We’ll see how well I did in the first go-round. This new education site is basically a place for me and my peers to pour out all of our knowledge in a protected membership site (of course there is teaser content).

For those of you who know me, you know I’ve been working on this in the back of my mind for years. It’s been called several things over the year. Each time I start it, someone close to me blindsides me and takes it away. This time, it’s all mine baby! I busted my you know what for the last week to get this new training website up. Today and going forward I’ll be adding one page per day (it’s a goal not a promise – calm down), spilling everything I know about internet marketing into streaming video and article content.

SEO agencies and SEO companies are going to hate me for giving out all the DIY tips to online marketing – trust me on this one (I use hate in a very literal way). Wow, emails are coming in while I’m typing in response to the 50 free Premium memberships – nice! Okay, if you’re reading this and want a free 1-year membership, you better hurry, I’m only giving 50 away.

See you at http://www.blogmarketingtoolkit.com!

#1 Ranked SEO Expert Steve Wiideman Leaves Relevant Ads

Wiideman Leaves Local Search Agency to Teach Search Engine Optimization to Business Owners

Fountain Valley, Calif. – May 21th, 2010 – Search Engine Guru Steve Wiideman has spent over 5 years working with friend and colleague David Rodecker of Relevant Ads (aka: “Local Splash”) and as of May 20th, 2010 has left the company he helped pioneer to teach his craft to others.

Wiideman’s Comment:

“There’s a lot of talent at Relevant Ads between David Rodecker who played a major role developing the first version of Local.com and now Steve Yeich, former General Manager of Yahoo! Local. I learned a lot while working in the local space, but it’s time to get back to what I enjoy: teaching. I’m sure they’ll do great things in the future.”

Wiideman says his focus with the transition will be shifting toward educational events and workshops, micro-websites for small businesses, and additional information products, such as his recent SEO in a Day free digital download.

Business Speaker Bodine Balasco’s Comment:

“Steve is the most incredible guy – a real genius at this SEO stuff. He has a real talent for teaching and is just an all around genuine person. This transition will be good for him and people like me who really believe in what he can achieve for himself and others.”

The SEO Expert has already corralled a number of new and previous consulting clients and has reportedly launched a business selling WordPress powered websites based on his digital work “SEO in a Day” and an SEO membership website where he’s reportedly sharing his knowledge of Search Engine Optimization.

About Steve Wiideman, SEO Expert

Steve Wiideman holds a Bachelor’s Degree in E-Business Management and earned Congressional Recognition for his contribution to peers and small businesses, in addition to the CCA G.R.E.A.T. Award for his post-graduate achievements. Wiideman has been featured in several major publications discussing Internet Marketing and SEO, including Entrepreneur Magazine, CNN Money, Response Magazine, Visibility Magazine, National Journal and others. He is most recognized for his website Top10SEOTips.com and his background working with companies as large as Disney, Expedia, IBM, and Ticketmaster. To reach Steve Wiideman for questions or comments, contact Melissa Wiideman at (562) 732-4417 or media@seosteve.com.