Google Malware: the importance of brand reputation

According to a recent analysis made by Google on its search results, 10% of 4.5M pages audited got a “drive-by downloads” label, this means that 10% of searches you do on Google would install a spyware or malware on your machine. In the same audit, another 15% of pages could be considered as potentially malicious.

Adding up the results, 25% of Google search pages could be harmful. 

What does it mean for advertisers?
As people will get more and more aware of spys and spams issues, you need to differenciate yourself by building your reputation online. Internet marketing now goes beyond brand awareness and ROI.

There aren’t any simple ways to build your reputation but you can start with the following:
- Be Site Advisor friendly (for more info on site advisor click here ), software similar to site advisor can be found with Symantec or other software provider. I tested a few of them and liked Site Advisor as it is a non invasive and reliable tool.
- Continue to develop your understanding of what people thing about your brand and how the market sees your brand (through blog, reviews, forums…)
- Interact with your community, a bad comment or a bad review is not the end of the world, unless you are not doing anything about it.
- Optimise your social media reach by engaging with your comminity and detractors

For the time being, Google is taking the issue really seriously and is working on finding ways to solve the problem.