It pays to do a thorough online search of your name and organisation's name frequently, because highly visible positive and negative reviews and search results on the first page of a search engine can really influence or damage your reputation; the perception of you and your business, as well as affecting consumer behaviour. 

Many organisations spend little or no time in researching ‎themselves on the internet because why would they? What could possibly be out there that they don't already know? It is precisely this dismissal of the notion that defaming negative reviews or information is out there on the internet about your business, that could be causing damage because defamation undetected can turn out to have a devastating effect on the reputation of your business.

Your online reputation can be your strongest asset or a huge liability and negative reviews and defamatory results on the internet are a huge concern for organisations as well as individuals because most people only look at the first page of a search engine result to form an opinion about you. Many of those people trust what they read on online search engines and review platforms. People can post information about you online on social media, which can then be shared and linked hundreds of times in very little time, which escalates the damage and can cause elements of distrust, even if your company is a large and trusted one. It could cause you great suffering. 

People read online reviews and information and believe them, rightly or wrongly, just as much as they would if the information came from a friend, so the power of online results about your business and your reputation is not to be dismissed. With the popularity of review sites and forums and how many anonymous users post negative reviews and hate speech before they think and the unaccountable operators of such, what the world has to say about your business online has never mattered more.

Doing an online search of your company name frequently, has never mattered more.

One pointless operation is asking a review site to remove negative reviews about your business. To save you time, they won't remove your negative review online because these review sites insist that they exist so that people can share their honest opinions about your business, so others can make educated decisions based on that information. This is so unfair to businesses because many online reviews are not true, but as the review site operators have found out when we have got involved, the vast majority of online review platforms are liable for defamation themselves by allowing the defamation to remain on their site. 

Cohen Davis are here, to fix the unjust imbalance between UK business owners and unaccountable operators of review websites.

For businesses and brands, negative, defamatory or libellous content has a devastating effect on customer and shareholder trust in your business and on your sales. The longer negative reviews and defaming content stays online, the greater the damage. And if the site it is shared on is high authority like a Social media platform, it further increases the number of people who will potentially see it and even share it.

It’s a real worry because so many businesses say that negative reviews that have been shared on social media has damaged their business and almost half are worrying about the impact of negative content on the future of their business value.

That is why we have clients who regularly employ us to keep an eye on their online reputation. 

So, an important thing to remember is that just because negative reviews may have already been posted, it doesn’t mean that it’s the end of the story because we can remove that online defamation as well as the links and we can also advise you on the legalities of taking an online harassment/defamation case to the courts, if necessary. Cohen Davis were the first UK internet law firm to obtain injunctions against the big tech giants on the internet. We have been doing it a long time and we don't waste time. 

We can give you back your credibility and reputation, so that you don't have doubting customers, employees, peers and stakeholders. It's what we do, every single day, assisting our clients and alleviating any stress that has directly resulted from internet related harassment issues. 

In one of our consultations, we can discuss with you about your business reputation concerns, do a comprehensive search about your company and provide a very revealing analysis of all the options that are ‎open to you to have negative reviews and anything else that is damaging, removed from the internet, have website operators made accountable, advise you on the strategies about rescuing your reputation‎ and give you tips on how to ensure that your telephone keeps ringing.

Cohen Davis: 0800 612 7211.

If you and/or your business has become a target of online defamation on a review site, don't rush with your response before reading this.