Building your business’s online reputation takes time, dedication, and a great deal of hard work. It pays off when you see your website rise in the search engine results and know your brand and your messaging reach a wider audience than ever before.

Unfortunately, a slew of websites exists, such as Gripeo, whose sole purpose is to allow anonymous users to post complaints about businesses and professionals in their area. These claims are unsubstantiated, and there’s generally no way to tell whether the person making the complaint is actually a patron of your business. That said, Gripeo posts can really damage your online reputation if you let them sit unaddressed.

Keep reading for a closer look at Gripeo and its effect on your online reputation, including how The Reputation Management Company can help you overcome negative posts about your business.

What is Gripeo?

Gripeo.com has been around since 2014 and was originally based in Buffalo, New York. The people who run the site encourage irate customers to share their feedback through public posts that are then displayed on the website for all to see. These complaints are also delivered to the business, usually through a social media platform such as Twitter.

Gripeo posts often target professionals such as lawyers, doctors, and dentists. Auto repair mechanics and car dealers are also heavily represented, which makes sense; the subject most complained about by American consumers in 2020 was auto repair services.

How Do Users Post on Gripeo?

Users who want to write reviews on Gripeo can submit their complaints through the website or the Gripeo app. There is no moderation or vetting process, so anyone can make a post on Gripeo regardless of whether or not they actually partook in the service or visited the business they’re reviewing. Gripeo posts are anonymous, and there’s no way for an individual or business to reach out to consumers who have complained about them to try to resolve the situation or have a conversation about how to improve going forward.

Since the website’s introduction in 2014, there have been many allegations of bullying from small business owners. They claim that the managers of Gripeo have tried to get them to pay exorbitant amounts of money to have their negative reviews removed.

How Can Gripeo Affect My Online Reputation?

Negative reviews about your business on the internet are detrimental, particularly if those reviews show up on the first few pages of search results. Gripeo has a strong domain authority, which means poor reviews posted there tend to show up higher in online searches. This can be especially distressing for professionals such as dentists, lawyers, and doctors who typically practice under their own names rather than a business name.

The worst part about negative reviews on Gripeo is that the system is designed so the businesses targeted by negative posts can’t respond to customer complaints. That leaves no room for a business owner to explain what went wrong, connect with the client, or defend their business or practice to potential consumers, either privately or in a public comment.

Here are some of the ways that posting about your business on Gripeo can damage your online reputation.

1. Lowers Credibility

Your website’s credibility and authority determine its position in search engine rankings. After you’ve gone through all the hard work of optimizing the content on your web pages for search engines, your backlinks and blog posts start to generate more authority for you and your brand. These cement your position as an expert in your field and generate more traffic to your webpage.

Negative reviews damage credibility by suggesting to potential consumers that you don’t have that much authority or expertise. If a Gripeo post shows up before your own website or blog does when customers search your name, they will be far less likely to click on any links that belong to you.

2. Scares Away New Customers

Widening the audience your brand attracts is one of the main reasons for developing an online reputation in the first place. Ideally, it becomes a self-feeding system in which new clients spread the word to other customers and continue increasing your business’s online recognition. 

Unfortunately, studies have shown that negative reviews have a negative impact on the average consumer’s purchase intention, and that impact increases the higher the number of negative reviews. That means that clients will be much less likely to purchase goods or services from you if your business has received more than one negative complaint on Gripeo and similar websites. As interest in your brand wanes, your business’s online reputation will suffer, and you’ll have a more difficult time getting links or endorsements from desirable websites with high domain authority.

3. Damages Search Engine Rankings

One of the major services offered by The Reputation Management Company involves improving websites’ search engine rankings through SEO and customized digital marketing strategies. Improving your business’s search engine rankings is a crucial part of creating and maintaining a strong online reputation, and it takes a great deal of time and attention to achieve it. As previously stated, some complaint-oriented websites have strong domain authority, and Gripeo is no exception. 

Part of the reason for this is that the human brain has a demonstrated negativity bias, which means we are more naturally drawn to negative situations and stories rather than positive ones. This means that, whether they realize it or not, potential customers are often on the lookout for negative reviews when they’re researching a new brand, which increases the likelihood that they will notice and click on a Gripeo post if it comes up when they search your name or the name of your business.

If multiple potential customers search your name and click on a Gripeo post instead of your personal content, the algorithm will eventually decide that the Gripeo post is a better match for those keywords than your business is. Your position in the search engine rankings will fall, while the position of the Gripeo post will go up.

4. Dissuades Potential Collaborators

Having high-authority websites add links to their content that sends readers to your brand’s homepage is a key aspect of online reputation management. Digital advertising is another important way to get your website more hits and increase your search engine rankings. Both of these endeavors require a strong online presence, and positive reviews can go a long way toward convincing potential collaborators that working with you and your business will benefit them.

Conversely, negative posts on Gripeo can make other websites think twice before agreeing to host your backlinks or advertisements.  Losing access to high-level websites for your backlinks is extremely detrimental to your website’s domain authority, damaging your online reputation.

Targeted Assistance from The Reputation Management Company

Are you wondering, “How do I get rid of Gripeo?” There isn’t a simple answer; every situation is different, and this type of reputation management requires a specifically tailored strategy designed by experts.

Gripeo has a history of ignoring business owners that reach out to them to try to have posts removed. Sometimes, the website’s managers have actually gone on to court further negative reviews from other “customers,” leading a smear campaign against professionals and business owners who try to combat the original post through digital marketing strategies.

The best way to address negative reviews on Gripeo is to contact a professional agency such as The Reputation Management Company. Our team comes from a wide array of different backgrounds, and we have the experience and the knowledge to address the problem directly and confidently. When you hire our services, an analyst will look at your specific situation and create a plan tailored to you and your company’s needs to help improve your online reputation.

In Conclusion

Discovering bad reviews about your business or practice can be devastating, and many people struggle to keep a level head when responding to online attacks. It’s important to stay objective when you’re dealing with Gripeo posts about your brand or business and to avoid doing anything that might worsen the situation.

If you’ve recently suffered damage to your online reputation due to negative posts on Gripeo, don’t let the situation spiral out of control or continue to hurt your bottom line. Get in touch with a friendly and experienced agent at The Reputation Management Company and start building a strategy to address the situation and maintain your business’s domain authority.