Wondering which industries received the largest number of Better Business Bureau complaints in 2009?

In 2009, the Better Business Bureau received almost one million complaints, which is an increase of about 10 percent over 2008.

The largest number of Better Business Bureau complaints, according to the Wall Street Journal excerpt from Real Time Economics, was against wireless carriers; there were an astonishing 34,477 complaints against these companies in 2009 alone. This industry was also ranked first in the number of complaints in 2008.

The industry that received the second most complaints was the cable and satellite television industry; banks were number three, with the bureau receiving 42 percent more complaints about the financial industry when compared to 2008.

Here’s how to lodge your own Better Business Bureau complaints – and otherwise state complaints – to get results.

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Internet reputation protection benefits your bottom line.

Internet reputation management is a growing niche service in the world of search engine optimization. And it is no wonder. A single negative comment that appears in the top 10 positions for a search for your company name can cost you thousands, even millions, of dollars in lost sales and leads.

Saving your name and reputation online is crucial to being successful online. The benefits of protecting your reputation online can be seen in both retained customers and your bottom line.

How do I defend my reputation online?

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SEO for Internet Reputation Management

We field a lot of questions around Reputation Management. They range from:

• What is it?
• How do you do it?
• How fast can you get this @#$&!*% handled?

So when we see someone doing a bang up job after they’ve experienced a semantic attack online we have to applaud, and share.

Disa is living her life and serving clients, just like the rest of us. A blogger wrote about her… and got it wrong. And that blogger’s post is ranking top 10 for her name. Check out Disa Johnson and her new blog at AirDisa.com. There you’ll see a narrative of what happened and learn how she’s dealing with it.

What do you do when you see something you don’t like about you or your company online?

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Hey! Thanks for attending the seminar on Internet reputation management at the SMX conference!

We have a terrific bunch of speakers and attendees at SMX, don’t we? I’m thrilled to have been able to meet some of you before and during our presentation on Internet reputation management and its ethics – but I wish that I could have spoken one-on-one to everyone here. Read an overview of our presentation at The SEM Blog.

Here’s the next best thing: post your questions and comments about Internet brand management at The Search Guru blog.

If you had a question that didn’t get answered at SMX or if you want to pursue it further – or if you want to discuss Internet brand management techniques that have worked for you and your company, we’d love to hear about it.

Thanks for posting! I hope to meet more of you at the SMX conference!