A couple days ago I purchased AroraHost.com. Just a minute ago I went to google and searched "site: arorahost.com" just to see what was in there... Just tinkering around.. I found multiple pages, threads and blog posts all stating that the previous owners of AroraHost.com ripped them off, have horrible hosting and sell other peoples templates! When people see these, they're going to think my new company is horrible, and I didn't do anything wrong. What can I do? I posted replies to these topics asking for them to be deleted, but other than that am I just screwed as far as "word of mouth" repuation? Thanks, McCoyH
You are too late. You should've checked before you bought. Don't close the book yet though. You should try to go in those sites and request that they articles that are discriminating to your company be removed and kindly explain that you are the new owner of the network or You can do a bunch of backlink building and try to bury it. I did a google search and only found two and they were from 2009, and then this topic which is ranked 6th. Obviously your hosting network has not backlinks. You can easily bury it.
Or, you could put some kind of sticky note at the upper right side of your web site and explain a few things about yourself. Something like "Note To Ex-Host Customers..." to get their attention.
There isn't any competition for the keyword that is your own domain. Just join 10 webmaster forums and advertise the host and be sure the own the domain name in the title and it'll be gone the end of the week.
You should find all the negative posts you can, and then post back, using them as an opportunity to post positive things about your new company.
"You should try to go in those sites and request that they articles that are discriminating to your company be removed and kindly explain that you are the new owner of the network" Forget it because I was in similar position about 5 years ago. Nobody will bother to comply with your request.
Surely it can't be too hard to find a new name for your company? I wouldn't bother contacting the site owners or burying them. Put your effort instead on building up a new name.
Sadly i agree with others - think it will be a better use of your time to find a new name and work on that then to spend your time trying to hide the domains previous history. As Dave Zan said - a last ditch effort could be to contact all current customers if you bought them and explain the site is under new management, or put a big obvious message on the site homepage stating when you aquired the site and what you're going to do to prove your different. Everyone loves a guarantee, so perhaps a 30/60 day money back guarantee, for example. Good luck.
Actually you can turn it to your advantage. You can post a reply to each and every one, and say that you are now the new owner. You can direct them to check the information at Whois.
That's actually a good idea if you really like your domain name. As the saying goes, "Any publicity is good publicity"
True. I've replied to a few of the negative topics, and we're hoping to just be able to start a whole new customer base, and eventually the negative topics will "go away"