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Your online reputation abhors a vacuum in Google search

In physics, horror vacui, or plenism, is commonly stated as "Nature abhors a vacuum". It is a postulate attributed to Aristotle, who articulated a belief, later criticized by the atomism of Epicurus and Lucretius, that nature contains no vacuums because the denser surrounding material continuum would immediately fill the rarity of an incipient void.[1] He also argued against the void in a more abstract sense (as "separable"), for example, that by definition a void, itself, is nothing, and following Plato, nothing cannot rightly be said to exist.
Cygnus X-1 is a galactic X-ray source in the constellation Cygnus, and the first such source widely accepted to be a black hole.
Cygnus X-1

Before you embark on a costly campaign to repair your first two pages of Google search results after you, your company, your brand, or your product have been slandered or besmirched online, understand that it’s a life sentence.  While your initial contract with me or another ORM shop will be expensive and lock you into a year, it doesn’t stop there.

If, after a year, you don’t maintain all the work that we have done over the previous three-to-twelve months, including website hosting, domain names, and the naturally-occurring activity and updates associated with the dozens of bespoke and hosted sites, the hundreds of social networking sites, thousands of links and millions of words, then your ORM provider might yank all of that content overnight. This results in not just a vacuum—which Google abhors—but in a black hole.

A black hole is a place in space where gravity pulls so much that even light can not get out. The gravity is so strong because matter has been squeezed into a tiny space. This can happen when a star is dying. Because no light can get out, people can't see black holes. They are invisible. Space telescopes with special tools can help find black holes. The special tools can see how stars that are very close to black holes act differently than other stars.A black hole is a powerful entity — it has such strong gravitational effects that nothing can escape. That’s one hell of a lot worse than a vacuum.  And what rushes into this reputational black hole when the entire superstructure isn’t maintained is catastrophic because it’s generally not as gentle and gradual as a vibrant city like Detroit slowly, over decades, going to seed and slowly decaying over time turning from a major metropolis into a ghost town. It’s more along the lines of the Chernobyl disaster—it’s the equivalent of getting completely nuked.

It’s what’s called in the online reputation management world as a China Syndrome Event.

A news reporter (Jane Fonda) and her cameraman (Michael Douglas) are unintentional witnesses to a SCRAM incident, an emergency core shutdown procedure at a nuclear power plant in California. The crew prevents a catastrophe, but the plant supervisor (Jack Lemmon) begins to suspect the plant is in violation of safety standards, and tries desperately to bring it to the attention of the public, fearing that another SCRAM incident will produce an atomic disaster.
The China Syndrome, 1979

Unless you’re older than I am, you might not know what a China Syndrome is. Well, according to Wikipedia, “the ‘China syndrome’ is a nuclear meltdown scenario so named for the fanciful idea that there would be nothing to stop the meltdown tunneling its way to the other side of the world, China.”

This is a compelling enough reason for most clients to honor their contract—sometimes. Getting nuked is a lot worse than getting the bends from garden-variety decompression sickness or another vacuum- and pressure-related diving injuries.

But it’s easy to prevent. It’s called maintenance mode and requires a maintenance fee. There are different levels. There are active and passive modes. Do you want us to continue to maintain and update all the content and use those social and blog and site platforms to continue to armor and defend your good name online? Passive is what it sounds like: just paying to keep the light on, the hosting fees paid, the platform software updated, the security of all the content maintained and protected.

After our contract is fulfilled, maintaining the hundreds of pages and dozens of sites and properties that have filled that vacuum that Google abhors, pushing down all the negative search results past page one, two, or three, is a small price to pay for peace of mind, for inner tranquility.

Dorry Segev is the Marjory K. and Thomas Pozefsky Professor of Surgery at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Professor of Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Associate Vice Chair of the Department of Surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He has made significant contributions to the field of transplantation, including developing a mathematical model to facilitate a nationwide Kidney Paired Donation program, both in the US and Canada. He is also known for his role in getting the HIV Organ Policy Equity Act (or HOPE Act) signed into law.
Dr. Dorry Segey transplanting a kidney

It’s like needing to take anti-rejection drugs—Immunosuppressants—religiously, every day, for the rest of your life after you get heart, kidneys, brain, liver, lungs, pancreas, intestine, and thymus organ transplant surgery. Or the insulin you need to take until the day you die resulting from your Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes.

Using online reputation management (ORM) strategies to repair negative search results on Google is a life-long commitment: you’re taking insulin every day, forever. But it’s a much-needed commitment, as you’ll be in trouble without it.

So, this article is a little bit of a warning. There are no half-measures in online reputation management.

D. B. Cooper is a media epithet popularly used to refer to an unidentified man who hijacked a Boeing 727 aircraft in the airspace between Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, on November 24, 1971. He extorted $200,000 in ransom (equivalent to $1,210,000 in 2017) and parachuted to an uncertain fate.
Parachute used by hijacker DB Cooper to escape after stealing $200,000

You either commit 100% or you might as well just simply work on filling the vacuum of who you are online organically and by yourself or using internal resources. Because if you hire an ORM company and can’t keep up with the payments, or decide to bail out halfway like D. B. Cooper, then you might do much more harm to your online reputation and Google search than if you just suffered through the negative search results on your own.

So, if you want some help with simply working on filling the vacuum of who you are online organically and by yourself or using internal resources, then I have stated that Google, your reputation, and nature abhors a vacuum (horror vacui) in Why You Must Armor Your Online ReputationWinning an Online Reputation “Land War in Asia”Dominate Your Personal Brand on Google ImagesSearch + Social = Online Reputation ManagementAre There Nudie Photos of You Online?Online Reputation Management (ORM): Don’t Forget Google When You’re in Crisis Mode, and Google Search is More Rain Man than Beautiful Mind—seven times in seven separate articles on search, Google, SEO, and reputation management.  These posts might really be a lot of help for you.

However, if, after all of the warnings and caveats, you need someone to clean your top-two pages of organic Google search, then you should give me a call or reach out to me by email so I can help you pilot your vessel now, in the tranquil blue-green shallows of the Caribbean, as well as in the roughest seas and into — as well as out of — the storm. If you’d like to chat more, call me at +1 (202) 869-3210 Ext 0001  email me, or feel free to self-schedule a 15-minute call, a 30-minute call, or a 60-minute call with me.

Chris Abraham

Chris Abraham, digital strategist and technologist, is a leading expert in digital: search engine optimization (SEO), online relationship management (ORM), Internet privacy, Wikipedia curationsocial media strategy, and online public relations with a focus on blogger outreachinfluencer engagement, and Internet crisis response, with the digital PR and social media marketing agency Gerris digital. [Feel free to self-schedule a 15-minute call, a 30-minute call, or a 60-minute call with me] A pioneer in online social networks and publishing, with a natural facility for anticipating the next big thing, Chris is an Internet analyst, web strategy consultant and adviser to the industries' leading firms. Chris Abraham specializes in web technologies, including content marketing, online collaboration, blogging, and consumer generated media.  Chris Abraham was named a Top 50 Social Media Power Influencer by Forbes, #1 PR2.0 Influencer by Traackr, and top-10 social media influencers by Marketwire; and, for what it’s worth, Chris has a Klout of 79 the last time he looked. Chris Abraham started doing web development back in 1994, SEO in 1998, blogging in 1999, influencer engagement in 2003, social media strategy in 2005, blogger outreach in 2006, and Wikipedia curation in 2007. Feel free to self-schedule a 15-minute call, a 30-minute call, or a 60-minute call. If you want to know the services that Chris offers check out Services If you want to work with Chris use the Contact Form You're welcome to follow me via Social Media You can learn more about Chris over in About Chris writes a lot so check out the Blog Chris offers webinars so check Events

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