Why won’t RipOff Reports Owner Ed Magedson Remove A Rip Off Report from the site?

Because they don’t have to….There is a law that safeguards RipoffReport.com, ComplaintsBoard.com, PissedConsumer.com and other similar sites that are built using user driven content. The law is called The Communications Decency Act, and even though it wasn’t written to guard websites like to Ripoff Report, it did just that. Allowing these site owners to be treated as 3rd party individuals and not directly accountable for the content contained within the websites they manage.

It is the writer’s accountability. So even if the complaint is a false, incorrect, and possibly even written namelessly, it’s going to stay on ripoffreport.com forever.

Is This Fair? Not in most cases.
Is this Legal? Yes and No
Can I sue ripoff report? Sure (The question is will you win? Not likely.)
Can I sue the author? Yes and you have a better chance wining. (But What?)

What Should I Do If I have a RipOff Report?

Don’t panic and DO NOT go on the site rambling on about how the author is so and so, and they did this and that… Do not add fuel to the fire or you will find that it will make matter much worse! By posting a rebuttal on ripoffreport.com you will that page (link) stronger and rank higher on search engines like Google, and that is the true problem anyway, the fact that the ripoff report page about you ranks so well on search engines.

DO NOT RETALIATE against the author and get in to a comment or complaint posting war. This will cause you more problems, but it might make you feel better for a moment.

The best thing you can do about this is be smart and invest your time and energy in forcing the ripoff report further down search results. By using quality content and scores of domain names and social profiles you can bury a rip off report link. This process can take time and money, but it works if done right.

Hire a reputation management firm like PositiveBoost.com – W can help you with these issues and in some cases even have bad links like rip off report removed from search engines completely. In most cases we must put our efforts in to getting the rip off report links off the first few pages of Google and Bing.

There are many Reputation Risks online in the form of online complaint sites and review sites. This is a list of sites you do not want your company name to show up on in a negative light. All of the sites below are websites that rank very high and can pose a serious Reputation Risk for your name or business name.

Complaint Sites:

1. RipOffReport.com – Risk Level High
2. ComplaintsBard.com – Risk Level High
3. Complaints.com- Risk Level High
4. CompanyNameSucks.com – Risk Level High
5. PissedConsumer.com Risk Level High
6. Yelp.com – Risk Level High
7. ComplaintNow.com – Risk Level Medium
8. Scam.com – Risk Level Medium
9. ShamScam.com Risk Level Medium
10. My3Cents.com Risk Level Medium
11. WikiScams.com Risk Level Low

Review Site:

1. Google Places (Google Maps)
2. Yahoo Local (Reviews)
3. MerchantCircle.com
4. CitySearch.com
5. UrbanSpoon.com
6. InsiderPages.com
7. Yelp.com

The sites listed above are sites that you may find negative reviews and complaints on about your business. It is important to keep an eye on these sites. It is also a good idea to sign up for Google Alerts and monitor your company name online.

If you find yourself or your company listed on a website in a negative way and need help removing the bad links or reviews, please contact PositiveBoost.com

What does your websites design say about your reputation? Does your website design reflect who you are and who you want people to perceive you are?

A bad website design or an outdated website design may be sending your potential clients the wrong message. Having an outdated web design with “Old School” layouts and free templates or templates that are used by others may make your company look bad.

Take a look at your website! Do you really like it? Would you buy from someone that had a website like yours?

Have a look at the most successful websites and businesses online and see how they design their websites and how they change that design with changing trends. It is a good idea to join a webmaster forum like Forums.DigitalPoint.com and post a message asking others to evaluate your website layout and design. You should welcome criticism and feedback from other internet users and make changes based of their feedback.

Your website usually gives someone their first impression about you and your business. Make sure your website represents your company the best way possible.

Reputation Management For $29.00? No Way! Not even $99…

I have talked to a lot of our new clients and businesses that call in and shoot the breeze, and a few of them have signed up for what I consider to be underpriced online reputation management services.

There are companies online claiming that they can administer a full blown online reputation management campaign for $29.00-$99.00. This is almost impossible even if the fee is monthly.

The fact is, Search Engine Reputation Management is not cheap. Even if you launch and run a search engine reputation management campaign on your own or in-house, it will cost you a lot more than $99 a month in hard costs.

Why is Real Reputation Management not cheap? Well, you (and us) have to spend money to achieve the results expected on search engines. You must buy paid reviews, blog posts, press releases, domain names, backlinks (link building), scripts, ancillary SEO fees, hosting, domain registration, and sometimes graphics, web design, and more. Factor in the time spent to manage all this and you have your answer.

Reputation Management is never Free, no matter what route you take. You will have to spend money to get the results you want and reach the goals you want.

PositiveBoost.com has priced their reputation management packages low enough to be affordable yet high enough to be effective.

My point in this post is to remind you that Reputation Management may sound expensive, but so is losing business because of your negative online reputation. Also as the old adage goes (and I hate to say it) “You Get What You Pay For”.

Point In closing – Cheaper is not better and in some cases real cheap is actually worthless.

Blogging is easy, inexpensive, and can help you repair your online reputation. Almost every reputation management company employs the power of blogs to help control what Google shows on the first page about their clients.


Blogs usually rank well on Google and are very search engine friendly. Every link you can control on the first page of Google about your name or business name is very valuable.


Creating a blog is simple and is even easier to maintain. The most common and user friendly blogging script to use is wordpress.


Installing wordpress on your own domain will require a domain name, a hosting company, and the free blogging “software” from wordpress.org. Wordpress has several easy to follow installation tutorials. It literally only takes 10-15 minutes to install wordpress and have it running on your domain name.


You can also use a free web based blog, however these “free” blogs” will have a harder time ranking high on the first page and may take longer to reach the top. Try blogspot.com or wordpress for a free web based blog.

If you do not use Google Profiles yet – You should sign-up and link to other pages about your personal name. It only takes a few minutes and will help! Remember Google Profiles is for your individual name, not your business name.  Google Profiles will act as a hub for your other social sites and should rank on Google’s home page about you!

Create a blog on the company website- update it regularly with content that is relevant and compelling to your visitors. Utilize the blog to receive invaluable responses from your customers and/or keep them informed on company or industry news. Blog posts can also rank high in search engine results. PositiveBoost administers countless blogs for our clients, while also (obviously) maintaining at least one of own.

Beware of filing a rebuttal on complaint sites


While it may seem tempting to file a response to a complaint, PositiveBoost recommends steering clear of this tactic. When a rebuttal is posted on a complaint site it only adds to the link’s search engine “juice”. In the eyes of Google and other search engines, the more user generated content on a site the more relevant it seems to the topic. Pages that are frequently updated with fresh user generated content (like Ripoff Report) rank higher in search engine results.


The only circumstance in which filing a rebuttal is recommended is when there is no intent to undertake a reputation management like plan of attack.

Create a company or individual blog using wordpress. If you are trying to create some strong links on Google and other search engines like Bing and Yahoo, try installing a blog using wordpress on your-name.com or your-companyname.com. Blogs are very easy to install and even easier to manage. If you can type an email, then you can blog!

Go to wordpress.org and download the wordpress install files and install them on your site. Wordpress has very easy to read and understand instructions. You will need a domain name, web hosting company or account, and the wordpress files (Free).

I have complaints! What do I do?

First, do not panic! The web is not a static place and everything is undoable in one way or another. Second, do not start a war with whoever filed the complaint against you (do not retaliate), this will only add fuel to the fire. Do NOT file/post a rebuttal or a comment on a complaint or negative press about you; this will only make the “bad” page about you rank higher or stronger on search engines. 

If you are listed on websites like RipOffReport.com, ComplaintsBoard.com, or PissedConsumers.com, do not bother threatening them or contacting them to ask for removal of the complaints. They will not and do not have to remove complaints that others post on their websites. Websites that host consumer complaints and comments are not legally responsible for the content that others place on their website. They are protected under a law called the communications decency act (CDA). This law basically states that in internet service provider (like them) is not responsible or liable for the content that a user posts on their website.

What can you do? You can fight back with online reputation management. You need to create new content and make it out rank the negative content. You can also push up (boost) existing content about your name or company name.

There are hundreds of ways to out-rank negative links and hundreds of tips that we do not have room in this article to share, so we will stick to the most common and basic examples and tips.

1. Create micro-sites like YOUR-NAME.com – Add content about you or your company to these new domains.
2. Create complete social profiles on sites like linkedin.com, facebook, peopile.com, Twitter, and others.
3. Get bloggers to blog about you or your business and link from the blog posts to your new sites and profiles.
4. Add your company to industry directories and become active on industry forums.
5. Get people and other websites to link to your sites (link building).
6. Do not spam search engines with the same content over and over. Use unique content on each new site you create.
7. Create a youtube account and add videos weekly. These videos may rank well for your company name.
8. Create a new press release weekly and submit it to press release sites like PRWeb.com and other.
9. Add your blog to blog directories and use your company name or name in the description areas of the pages.
10. Do not threaten any blogger or website owner. They have control not you.

 

These are just a few tips that we would like to share with you. PositiveBoost.com has hundreds of tactics that will help knock negative links about you back and boost positive information about you higher within search engine results. Be patient with reputation management and do not rush the process or you may make it worse in the long-run.

Contact us if you think you need professional help with reputation management and removing online complaints.