De-ranking/listing YouTube Video

[TheShuken]

I am a bit new to the world of reputation management, and have worked ranking up YouTube videos. But in the case of this client there is a very negative comment on YouTube. They are afraid to flag the video as defamation, because it could cause a retaliation with a 2nd video, causing more news sites to pick up the story again despite what is essentially a negative video promoting lies. Right now the goal is mostly damage control, getting the video off the front page when searching for the company name. There are a lot of positive videos but those aren't ranked as well because they aren't controversial. My only strategy is trying to promote those positive YouTube videos, but that may take a few months if it works at all. Does anyone have any advice on how to lower the rank or even get it delisted from Google for controversial content?

 

[chocrodrep]

I am a bit new to the world of reputation management, and have worked ranking up YouTube videos. But in the case of this client there is a very negative comment on YouTube. They are afraid to flag the video as defamation, because it could cause a retaliation with a 2nd video, causing more news sites to pick up the story again despite what is essentially a negative video promoting lies. Right now the goal is mostly damage control, getting the video off the front page when searching for the company name. There are a lot of positive videos but those aren't ranked as well because they aren't controversial. My only strategy is trying to promote those positive YouTube videos, but that may take a few months if it works at all. Does anyone have any advice on how to lower the rank or even get it delisted from Google for controversial content?

I am new at ORM and have wondered whether 2 or more YT videos (with a pos. or neg. review) can appear per subject? Meaning if there's complaints about company ABC as a YT video, can there be multiple (spammy) YT videos either as a positive or negative review? I am suggesting from multiple YT accounts.

 

[TheVigilante]

I am new at ORM and have wondered whether 2 or more YT videos (with a pos. or neg. review) can appear per subject? Meaning if there's complaints about company ABC as a YT video, can there be multiple (spammy) YT videos either as a positive or negative review? I am suggesting from multiple YT accounts.

I have seen the whole page dominated by YT videos for a product...so there are chances but still not sure.

 

[acidol2]

I am a bit new to the world of reputation management, and have worked ranking up YouTube videos. But in the case of this client there is a very negative comment on YouTube. They are afraid to flag the video as defamation, because it could cause a retaliation with a 2nd video, causing more news sites to pick up the story again despite what is essentially a negative video promoting lies. Right now the goal is mostly damage control, getting the video off the front page when searching for the company name. There are a lot of positive videos but those aren't ranked as well because they aren't controversial. My only strategy is trying to promote those positive YouTube videos, but that may take a few months if it works at all. Does anyone have any advice on how to lower the rank or even get it delisted from Google for controversial content?

Here's something you can do.

If you KNOW the video that's pushing the negative content, is full of lies. Then get an interview set up with some kind of small news media
website, or blog for that matter. Hell, you can even set up a meeting with the client yourself, and record him/her talking about the negative
content, putting down the lies with hard core facts and proof, while making it somewhat short and entertaining. Then, what you do is you
think of some keywords that are related to that specific video, and the client's company name. Buy a few press releases, and have them link
to the video, client's website, and the place where you initially posted the interview to dismiss the lies (your own website, or the blog/news
place you got it posted on).

Afterwards, this is where more work comes in. Buy views, and all that jazz for the video you just released with the interview, blast that bad
boy with good backlinks and everything for the client's business name, or keywords where that bad video is that you're trying to replace.

Make more spin offs of it as well, on multiple accounts. At least 5 or 10 videos that look like they were made by fans. Shit, make it easier,
get other small blogs or news media websites to hopefully schedule and interview or just report it themselves. It could be easier with the
small blogs im sure. Then take those videos, blast them with views, likes, comments, social signals etc. Also, send backlinks to the websites
where shit gets posted too along with the YouTube videos.

What you're trying to do is make a sort of viral effect like huge news has happened and the CEO of that business has released an important
statement. Get all those videos and other news sites/blogs to link to the original first video, and the original blog post about the interview.
If you can't get any related small blogs or news sites to report it, then set up your own small web 2.0's or websites yourself!

Now, this is where it get's harder. You'll need a few hundred negative comments (100 - 300), to post on that bad video. Shit like "Yo, this was
proved fake, you can watch the real video here:" or "Man, can't believe you guys posted this crap!" etc... Up vote some really good ones,
link to the new good video in the comments, etc. Start sending in dislikes as well.

Then, do the same for your new good video, except make the comments positive. You can write up some initial comments first, then use a
spin tax converter to spin the comments and re-write them all one by way, so they're unique but still make sense. You can also post some
comments on the other spin off videos too, but they don't have to have that many.

Afterwards, you should hopefully see that new video and maybe some of the other ones ranking and replacing that bad video. You have just
successfully created an artificial viral news buzz, that sparked good content, and fixed your client's reputation.

This could take months like you said in your post, but if you truly have no other route, then this would be a good approach.

Because if it were me, I'd do this exactly.

 

[TheShuken]

Acidol2,

Thanks for the thoughtful reply. So my initial thoughts were somewhat similar, make a positive video essentially saying the truth of the situation. The problem is, they already issued a press release a while back when the initial incident occurred. The client felt there only two options were direct confrontation, potentially through legal action (though who wants to sue a customer), and ignoring it and letting the initial bad pr pass over. A press release was created, and only given to those media outlets which inquired for comment, or so I am told. I can only find it twice myself. Anyway, this issue has a little bit of time on it now, and the news sites have moved on within 4 days or so of the initial video which sparked the bad pr. The only remnant is the original news coverage, which is low on page 2 and 3, and the video referenced in the original post on page 1 of google. If we were to make a new video it could get greater attention to the original video which isn't happening now. I like the idea of appearance of organic conversation, but realistically this client isn't big enough to draw, or have the appearance of drawing that level of organic comments. They feel and I tend to agree a big PR campaign at this point would not be well timed, and has more potential to do harm than good.

I realize this doesn't leave many options (that I am aware of) to move forward, though that is why I asked here to see if anyone has experience with this. If it does help many of the positive videos actually have more total views than the bad pr video, they just aren't as actively linked or commented on.

 

[BHopkins]

Here's something you can do.

This is a very dangerous strategy and very bad advice in my opinion and experience. Here's why...

1. A rebuttal video causes people to search for the original video so they can see all of the drama. You're sending people back to the negative video and they'll search Google or Youtube and click the negative video increasing it's CTR.

2. Get "news media websites" to interview the client? Do you do any ORM? This isn't as easy as calling up a newspaper and scheduling a time to meet. This is great in theory, but not likely to work in practice. If you offer a rebuttal they might take the bait, but then you're at their mercy of what they write and how it sounds. You could end up with a second negative and possibly cause people to search for the original issue (see #1).

3. Send "hundreds of comments" to the negative video?!? This tells google that people are watching and commenting on the video, exactly what I would do if I were trying to rank a video. Give it social media, backlinks, and comments, that's how you increase the rank of a page/video.

4. Spintax positive comments on your video? Where will OP get hundreds of Youtube accounts, how will you log into them without getting banned? Most people who are admittedly new to ORM like OP don't have access like someone experienced will.

I'm not trying to put you on blast, just calling to your (and anyone else reading) that this strategy is likely to blow up on you.

 

[acidol2]

Acidol2,

Thanks for the thoughtful reply. So my initial thoughts were somewhat similar, make a positive video essentially saying the truth of the situation. The problem is, they already issued a press release a while back when the initial incident occurred. The client felt there only two options were direct confrontation, potentially through legal action (though who wants to sue a customer), and ignoring it and letting the initial bad pr pass over. A press release was created, and only given to those media outlets which inquired for comment, or so I am told. I can only find it twice myself. Anyway, this issue has a little bit of time on it now, and the news sites have moved on within 4 days or so of the initial video which sparked the bad pr. The only remnant is the original news coverage, which is low on page 2 and 3, and the video referenced in the original post on page 1 of google. If we were to make a new video it could get greater attention to the original video which isn't happening now. I like the idea of appearance of organic conversation, but realistically this client isn't big enough to draw, or have the appearance of drawing that level of organic comments. They feel and I tend to agree a big PR campaign at this point would not be well timed, and has more potential to do harm than good.

I realize this doesn't leave many options (that I am aware of) to move forward, though that is why I asked here to see if anyone has experience with this. If it does help many of the positive videos actually have more total views than the bad pr video, they just aren't as actively linked or commented on.

Ah I gotchu, well let me revise my "quick thought" course of action. It was like 4am when I typed that.

What you could do is basically just make a bunch of fluff YouTube videos about the business, including
the business name and maybe some keywords from the original bad video.

Which is what you originally thought.

But take part of my original idea, by sending in a few hundred comments, some likes, favs, subs, etc to
those fluff videos, to increase their attention, then send in backlinks. I'm positive they'll start to rank.

Maybe build some web 2.0's and fluff sites as well.

This is a very dangerous strategy and very bad advice in my opinion and experience. Here's why...

1. A rebuttal video causes people to search for the original video so they can see all of the drama. You're sending people back to the negative video and they'll search Google or Youtube and click the negative video increasing it's CTR.

2. Get "news media websites" to interview the client? Do you do any ORM? This isn't as easy as calling up a newspaper and scheduling a time to meet. This is great in theory, but not likely to work in practice. If you offer a rebuttal they might take the bait, but then you're at their mercy of what they write and how it sounds. You could end up with a second negative and possibly cause people to search for the original issue (see #1).

3. Send "hundreds of comments" to the negative video?!? This tells google that people are watching and commenting on the video, exactly what I would do if I were trying to rank a video. Give it social media, backlinks, and comments, that's how you increase the rank of a page/video.

4. Spintax positive comments on your video? Where will OP get hundreds of Youtube accounts, how will you log into them without getting banned? Most people who are admittedly new to ORM like OP don't have access like someone experienced will.

I'm not trying to put you on blast, just calling to your (and anyone else reading) that this strategy is likely to blow up on you.

Appreciate the reply haha It was 4am when I typed that up, and I just wanted to help with an idea.
Even if it wasn't that good, its always good to post something helpful anyway. Might spring up other ideas.

Anyhow...

1.) You're right about that. That didn't cross my mind at all. But seeing all the negative likes and comments
on that video might deter people from taking it serious, both after watching the new video with proof that
the lies on the negative video were fake, and seeing the negative comments towards that video as well.

2.) Again, just a random idea. I know it won't be easy to get news media sites to report on it. Both because
its hard, and OP himself said his client is that big and well known to really start controversy like that. Which is
why I said he had the option of contacting small blogs related to his Client's industry or to just make fluff
websites himself. I don't do ORM myself, but I'm always learning and looking for criticism before I start.

3.) I get that. I know about ranking youtube videos, and sudden influx of negative or positive comments might
seem good in Google's eyes, in terms of SEO juice for that video. But seeing as OP would also send in dislikes,
that might balance out in Google's algorithm and they might see that video as "Hey, its getting comments, but
also dislikes. And some of these comments contain negative words. Maybe we should rank it lower since its
getting negative attention?" Again, just a theory. OF course, he doesn't have to send in neg comments.
Could always just bomb it with dislikes themselves.

4.) Yes, spin tax comments. I said after he makes a list of comments to post. Spin them to make more "unique"
ones, read them and fix them so they make sense. He doesn't need the accounts themselves lol. There's plenty
of services to post custom comments on here, Fiverr, SeoClerk, etc.

I really do appreciate the reply though.
I know it was just an idea, and secretly I was looking for feedback on it.

 

[chocrodrep]

Thank you for these valuable tips. I've made a fictitious company name to test my SEO skills. From 5 different YT accounts, from different computers, I can get 1-2 of my videos to rank on the web search results but then the other 3 videos only appear in video search results (which are really invisible unless someone sees the video results). Any opinions please?

 

[BHopkins]

Thank you for these valuable tips. I've made a fictitious company name to test my SEO skills. From 5 different YT accounts, from different computers, I can get 1-2 of my videos to rank on the web search results but then the other 3 videos only appear in video search results (which are really invisible unless someone sees the video results). Any opinions please?

That's very common. Google assumes that if you don't click on one of the two videos that you're not likely to click on video 3, 4, or 5 so why show 5 videos when you can show stuff from another domain that the searcher is more likely to click on.

 

[chocrodrep]

That's very common. Google assumes that if you don't click on one of the two videos that you're not likely to click on video 3, 4, or 5 so why show 5 videos when you can show stuff from another domain that the searcher is more likely to click on.

Thank you for your reply. That seems logical. So how to get the videos to move from the rarely used video tab to the web tab search results? Thank you.

 

[BHopkins]

Thank you for your reply. That seems logical. So how to get the videos to move from the rarely used video tab to the web tab search results? Thank you.

That's where a lot of testing would come in. I typically deal with videos that are already ranking rather than videos not in the organic SERPS.

 

[chocrodrep]

If anyone is curious, please try posting 3-5 different videos to YT from 3-5 different YT accounts for a fictitious company and see how many actually rank on page 1 of google of the 3-5. I'm lucky if even 1 gets posted at times. Sometimes all 5 get posted. I can't understand the algorithm. Anyone want to try and post their results please? Thank you.