A White Label Reputation Mangement Case Study
A global insurance brand faced YouTube attacks, hostile blogs, and complaint sites — here is exactly how a white label ORM campaign turned it around in 13 months.
- If a negative video contains copyrighted material, a DMCA removal request is often the fastest resolution path.
- Removing a negative search result can cause Google to replace it with the next most relevant content you control.
- Suppressing a negative blog requires building and promoting multiple authoritative web properties to outrank it.
- Augmenting underperforming social profiles with search engine marketing can accelerate their rise in rankings.
- Once a negative result is pushed to page two, it tends to lose relevance and fall further on its own.
This case study details how a white label reputation management campaign cleaned up search results for a global insurance company over 13 months. A negative YouTube video was removed via a DMCA copyright claim, and a damaging blog post was suppressed through strategic content development and link building. New web properties, contributor posts, and augmented social profiles were used to push positive results above the negative content.
Our client is a global PR firm with clients in the US, Europe, and the Middle East. Over the years we have been tasked with a number of interesting projects, ranging from helping politicians succeed to boosting search results in Thai and improving search results to enhance hiring. This case study examines a project to clean up search results for a company with detractors using YouTube, blogs, and complaint websites.
Industry: Insurance Services (Global)
Entity: Corporation
Issue: YouTube, Bloggers, Complaint / Review Sites
Technique: Remove YouTube Video, Suppress Blog, Improve Reviews
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Duration: 13 Months
YouTube Video Removal
The YouTube video contained not only negative information about the company, but copyrighted material. This enabled us to petition YouTube for a copyright-based removal. The negative YouTube video was removed within three weeks. Google replaced the now-missing search result with the next most relevant result — a company-sponsored video favorable to the client.
Negative Blog Suppression
With the negative YouTube video removed, search results began to improve. But a negative blog post continued to occupy the fifth position of Google search results. Most people performing a branded search for the company saw the post, and many clicked on it — further reinforcing its relevance and strengthening its position on the first page. There was no way to remove the blog page as we had the YouTube video, so suppression was the only viable path.
Research
Suppression of search results involves developing and promoting better, more relevant web properties. We analyzed similar entities in the insurance industry and identified over fifty web properties — including blogs, industry sites, review sites, video, and slide formats — as candidates to leverage. A second pass defined which properties could realistically be harnessed, including contributors to online publications, social media profiles, bloggers, and news distribution services.
Content
Publication candidates included Forbes, Glassdoor, industry publications, and social media profiles like Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok. These were common among similar entities, but our client had not yet taken advantage of them. Platforms like Google Business Profile also warranted attention given their strong search presence.
After several brainstorming sessions internally and with the client, a content plan was developed. From there, an editorial calendar was created and web properties were mapped to the content plan and calendar.
The social media team already had things well in hand on the social front. Nevertheless, we augmented underperforming profiles with search engine marketing to encourage them to move upward and overtake the blog.
Development
Web profiles on the list that did not yet exist were developed. These included a website reflecting the company’s charitable contributions, a branch locator website, a more complete Glassdoor profile, and others. Development took three months.
Promotion
Casualty insurance blogs were the first element of an inbound link plan. We developed an outreach program to contact related industry blogs and request contributor post opportunities. Our earlier brainstorming and content planning had generated a number of headline ideas, many of which were accepted. Each post contained embedded links to relevant web properties according to the planned link structure.
Over time, organic inbound links strengthened web properties located below the negative blog, causing those positive properties to rise above it. The blog was pushed down in search results, eventually to page two — and once suppressed to the second page, it began to fall more quickly. Within a few months it reached page three. Because we used natural, organic search engine optimization, the results held.
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Improved Reviews
The client had issues with several review platforms, one of which was Glassdoor. Glassdoor was positioned on the first page of search results and therefore visible to all branded searchers. By claiming their profile, the client could add considerably more information to it.
It is worth noting that Glassdoor has evolved significantly over the years — now operating under the same parent company as Indeed (Recruit Holdings) — and its profile management tools, employer response features, and search footprint have all matured accordingly. This additional content enabled us to strengthen the profile while improving reviews in a natural manner. The client’s review profile indicated that a six-month upward trajectory would fall within normal parameters. We followed that same trajectory with a decidedly upward trend using standard organic in-house tactics.
Conclusion
This is a historical case study. Platform behaviors, algorithm logic, and tool capabilities have changed considerably since this campaign was executed, so current benchmarks and timelines may differ. That said, the strategic principles remain sound.
Early results appeared within a few weeks of initial engagement, with the removal of the problem YouTube video. Suppression of the problem blog took far longer, but Glassdoor reviews began to improve within two months. The upward trend continued for eight months, with an increase of one star.
For a broader look at how these tactics fit into a full program, see our complete guide to online reputation management or explore how to remove negative content from Google search results. If you’re dealing with a more acute situation, our ultimate guide to crisis management and reputation repair covers the full recovery playbook. For those managing reputation on behalf of corporate clients, the guide to corporate reputation online is also worth a read.
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