pierre-zarokian

Pierre Zarokian of Submit Express speaks at Pubcon

Pubcon , which takes place during October 5-8th in Las Vegas, is the largest gathering of search marketing professionals in North America. Its speakers represent some of the biggest brands and names in marketing, including names like Disney and Guy Kawasaki. On the subject of reputation management, veteran search marketing professional and CEO of Reputation Stars and Submit Express , Pierre Zarokian will cover how to handle negative reviews on Yelp. Yelp has become the first point of contact many consumers use when they search for local businesses. While unethical, it’s not uncommon for one business to practice negative SEO in the form of leaving poor reviews on a competitor’s website. While Yelp has done some work cracking down on this behavior, it’s also been revealed that Yelp has some unflattering practices with regards to selling ads. Those who refuse to pay say negative reviews begin to appear, sometimes in greater numbers than before.

Pierre Zarokian interveiw with Search Engine Journal

Pierre Zarokian interview by Search Engine Journal about Yelp

Recently Pierre Zarokian, our CEO, wrote an article for Search Engine Journal about how a Restaurant with negative reviews decided to take on Yelp and just ask everyone to leave them negative reviews in return for food discounts. When Yelp was first conceived, the idea was to find local hot spots based on the tastes of your friends. Yelp’s founders had hoped they could create a network of reviews that would help to source such lists. The Yelp of yesterday doesn’t face the same problems that the massive network of today faces. Transparency Problems Yelp is the winner of a recent appeals case that gives the company rights to order reviews posted on its page as it pleases. Yelp has argued that it requires this right in order to perform its basic service, namely to offer trustworthy reviews. It argues that the star rating system benefits restaurants, which see a significantly larger bump in revenue for each star increase in ratings. The conflict of interest appears when Yelp sales people try to sell businesses higher visibility an more customers through advertising. This creates a transparency problem for the company

Yelp Sting Aimed at Fake Reviewers

The integrity of Yelp is about the only commodity the site has to attract repeat visits. The authenticity of the reviews posted there is important to consumers looking for new destinations for products and services. With a recent surge of fake and ineligible reviews hitting the site, CEO Jeremy Stoppleman has decided to speak authoritatively on steps Yelp has taken to stop these reviews from becoming commonplace. Yelp has begun issuing citations in the form of modal popups. These messages warn potential customers that the business they are viewing was caught faking reviews.

Yelp Ordered to Surrender User Data by Virginia Court

A new ruling from the Virginia Court of Appeals is forcing Yelp to reveal the names of seven anonymous users that left bad reviews of a carpet care business. The ruling looks at the legitimacy of online reviews that cannot be verified through traditional means. Yelp currently allows users full posting rights as anonymous, believing that everyone should have the right to express their opinions without identifying themselves personally. The courts, apparently, disagree. Drawing on a pre-existing statute, the Virginia court ruled that the reviews presented significant enough risk to the business that the owner was justified in requesting the user data. This case falls under well defined laws in the state of Virginia, but the rest of the US is still reeling from the verdict. Will this ruling forever jeopardize a user’s right to post a negative review of a business anonymously

Details on Bing’s Policy to Remove Defamatory Content by Our CEO

In a new article published in SearchEngineWatch.com, our CEO Pierre Zarokian writes about the supposed change in Bing’s policy on removing URLs from its search engine. Published on August 23, Bing No Longer Complying with Court-Ordered Defamatory Content Removals? , the article reveals that several reputation management attorneys have told Zarokian that Bing refuses to remove certain content from its search engine, even after a court of law declares the content defamatory. This can be significantly harmful to many website owners and businesses. Has Bing truly stopped accepting court orders to remove defamatory content from its search index? The article includes insightful interviews with the lawyers, Bing’s response to the recent claims, and interesting commentary by Eric Goldman of Ripoff Report.

Reputation Management Can Help Small Businesses Succeed

Your online reputation is now protected by the new launch of Reputation Fighters. Founded by Pierre Zarokian of Submit Express, Reputation Fighters will offer the same quality service offered by the parent company for the last 14 years. Deeply involved in the operations of Submit Express, Pierre is known for assuring great work for his customers. Online reputation is incredibly important for small businesses because it reflects the amount of time, money, education, equipment, staff training and marketing you have invested. Unfortunately, many businesses fall victim to angry staff and crazy customers ranting about them online, whether the content is true or not. Most customers use online review sites like Amazon and Yelp to determine if they want to even set foot in your door to buy your products and services. 83% of consumers report that online customer reviews helped them formulate their decisions. Even one false review can dramatically decrease your sales, especially those placed on high ranking sites like RipOff Report. Reputation management helps reduce the impact of negative reviews showing up in search results

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