Negative review or page deletion?

[dannyx]

Hello
The situation is this, a moderate review has been written about a certain very niche bookmaker. Everything seemed ok, I tested the site, however, at the end it turned out that they are scammers( both as an affiliate and as a bookmaker). However, in terms of keywords, position and entries it is one of the best pages on my site.
And now I am wondering what is the best solution.

1.Delete the site completely even though it is high and reasonably working

2.Write a negative review and try to redirect people coming to this site to better operators

3.Delete the content and/or page and set a redirect to another page, such as the main page.

It seems to me that it is better to delete because the rankings will probably drop anyway after changing the text on the page.

[chaumi]

Hard to be sure without seeing it, but I'd have thought you could restructure the content to introduce the 'new' negatives in such a way that might hold the ranking position.

" Our initial view after some extensive testing of xxxxxxx was as we've laid out further below. But recently some new evidence has come to light that xxxxxxxx is in fact a scam. We've seen that xxxxxxxx does not...................and therefore don't recommend you sign up. Bookmaker XYZ is a much better and suitably trustworthy alternative, as you'll see in our XYZ review."

Or words to that effect.

If you lead in with that, you still have the original content below. You might need to reword it in places.

[gm2891]

Find if you can a new casino site/bookmaker and take all the content from that ****** one and paste it on to your new page. Edit the content you have to suite your new casino, try keeping your H1, H2s similar (just change the name) and once it's done, 301 the ****** casino's URL to to the freshly made page. It works usually great.

[Oliver Cooper]

It`s difficult to advise something, but according to the description, num. 3 is more suitable

[xecutable]

Option 2 is the one you should go for, for several reasons:

A) Your work stays up, your serp places as well and so would be your traffic.
B) You will get to inform clueless searchers about the SCAM they are going to avoid, therefore you would be doing a good deed for which your traffic would be thankful, the true definition of HELPFUL CONTENT.
C) You would then redirect them to a trustworthy brand that's worth their time, and would have helped them dodge a bullet.

Why the other options aren't as good? Option 1, you delete your stuff, someone else takes your spot, the visitors never know what hit them. The affiliates will get scammed, the searchers will get scammed, it's a WIN only for that brand.

Option 3 is pretty much similar to Option 1. With you out of the picture nobody changes as there would be a new site taking your place.

[wonderpunter]

I usually add big red letters we do not advise to use this casino, blacklist it and offer a lternative and redirect all exisiting links

[PaulEchere]

I have a similar situation with a number of brands that I used to work with, and similar to you those pages have decent traffic.
I didn't delete those pages, but simply added (as wonderpunter said above) a bit red sign to stay away from this bookie and gave links to alternatives.
Rankings didn't drop and visitors are actually following those alternative links. So if you have a page with traffic and good rankings - don't delete it.

If everything goes well, you will still be the "last click" for those users (if that matters at all) as they will be directed to a different brand that they might be interested in.

[dannyx]

Thanks for the answers.
So the best option is to leave the negative side and present an alternative. Make it happen.

However, I just looked through your pages (posts above) and I don't see those negative reviews you are talking about. Do you keep them off the main table on the home page?
I myself was thinking to leave such reviews at the bottom of the table with a low rating.

[gm2891]

The key i guess for you is to decide what you actually want - save your SEO, or warn the world about a bad place to play at. If you're going to save the world from scammers than explain your visitors properly about what is what, it works better than simple stuff like we are not recommending you to play here and adding links to places you prefer better.

[PaulEchere]

Thanks for the answers.
So the best option is to leave the negative side and present an alternative. Make it happen.

However, I just looked through your pages (posts above) and I don't see those negative reviews you are talking about. Do you keep them off the main table on the home page?
I myself was thinking to leave such reviews at the bottom of the table with a low rating.

I personally do keep them off the home page, those pages might be still referenced here and there though. Nevertheless, if you wantt o have them on the main page you can introduce a "stay away" section or something like that.

[TheBoyMitchell]

I'm just thinking out loud so this might not work, but can you put your negative comments in image form and not put anything negative in the image description?

I've never tried it, but that way you aren't changing your text and risking your ranking changes.

Just an idea.

(I am not an Seo expert)

[Mattbar]

We add a notice to the top 'Not Recommended', 'Closed', 'Left The Market', 'Blacklisted', whatever with a small description underneath. The main review is left largely untouched apart from removing all links and CTA's. This way you can preserve any traffic and authority you have.

Also brands can always be sold in the future, new owners might be better, this way you haven't totally burnt that bridge and if that did happen you would be in a prime position to capitalise.

[Pokerface]

Would go with option 2. We will add comments for not recommended at a top line without too much detail and retain communication from provider/casino where possible to back up recommendation if required.

I have been asked to remove negative reviews/comments however stand true.

[martin88]

I agree with xecutable and other guys, option number two is the best solution for this situation. Removing something is always a radical solution and should only be done as a last resort.