How To Remove Negative Content From Google Search in 2022

Remove negative content from Google with our step-by-step guide.

Many people do not realize that unwanted search results can damage someone’s personal life or company. Articles are written daily, and many of them have been on the internet for many years. If they are targeted content, they can potentially destroy someone’s life.

Years after a blog post, video, or article is published on a web page, it can still have very destructive effects. Right now, you probably wonder how you can remove negative content from Google searches and many other places, like YouTube or some social media channels.

If the content is going against the law or Google’s privacy and terms, most of the time, this damaging and negative content can be blocked, taken down, or banned. However, in many situations, this content cannot be deleted from the internet space, and you will need to use a different approach to sort it out.

One of the best approaches is the Reverse SEO method. With this method, all negative search results that appear on Google searches can be suppressed, pushed down, and removed from the first page of Google searches and other search engines.

Once you do a Google search looking for your brand name, you may notice a lot of negative content on the internet associated with you or with your brand. At that moment, you may think that the easiest way is to give up and remove all your information from the internet.

You need to know that removing yourself from Google searches is not going to be possible simply because most of that information is taken from many public sources. It will be really hard to find people and make them stop posting negative content about your brand on the internet.

In this article, we will provide more information about processes and methods for removing negative content from Google searches, especially if it’s defamatory or fake information.

Why do you need to remove negative content from Google?

It can be a real challenge to decide on the right approach and online reputation management strategy. This kind of approach is usually ignored until the last moment, and reputation work is pushed back until you find yourself in the middle of some scandal.

If you are trying to take some proactive measures to protect your reputation in this situation, it will be too late because you are already in the middle of a mess, and you will need to take a different approach.

The most important thing is to keep calm, try to understand the problem, and then make a detailed plan and approach to sort out the problem effectively and lessen the impact of the situation.

That will be your first step when dealing with negative content on the internet. You will need to understand, identify, and try to resolve the problem that created the negative feedback in the first place.

You should take some time to realize what happened and what caused negative feedback. Once you determine the problem, you will be able to make some changes to prevent similar situations from happening again.

Removing negative search results benefits you and your business

We have already mentioned many reasons why you should remove negative results from Google searches. Right now, we will focus on some numbers and statistics so you can better understand how much negative articles can impact your business.

When people (potential customers) Google your name, what they see online will impact their perception. Do you wonder what impact will be left on those people if they see negative content once they search for your brand name or company?

You need to know that Google controls 93% of total search engine traffic. Another interesting fact is that 90% of these people only look at the first page of search engine results, and they form their opinions from the information they see there.

64% of users trust Google search results when they do research, and once you acknowledge this, you will understand why people, brands, and companies want to learn how to remove negative content from Google searches.

What is negative content suppression (Reverse SEO)?

The process of creating content that will rank high on SERPs and will outrank and bury negative search results and negative content on the internet is called negative content suppression.

For our full, in-depth process of removing negative Google reviews, click here.

From this explanation, we can see that the main goal of suppressing negative content related to your business is to remove the negative articles, content, search results, or videos from the first Google search results page.

We already mentioned that a very low percentage of people will click beyond the first page of Google search results, and suppressing negative search results serves to push the negative content off of the first page, so it is not going to be viewed that much.

Suppressing Negative Content on Google

We can bet you will not be happy if you see something bad written about you or your company online. Because of situations like this, people often wonder and want to learn how to suppress or remove negative content from Google search results.

Many people notice bad content or negative reviews left on the internet about their company or their products. Many people believe that this information is not accurate or reflects their brand or products and want that content removed from the internet.

In most cases, negative comments go against Google’s privacy policy rules and can be deleted quickly from the internet. For negative search results that cannot be deleted or removed from the internet, there is an option for you to hire a professional who knows how to apply reverse SEO strategies and suppress them.

Steps for suppressing negative content from the internet space.

• Try to build a personal and professional website for your brand and products.
• Promote your new website and the content you create (promoting and advertising can incur additional costs).
• Try to link all of your new sites and your social media accounts.

Importance of Google search results

Every problem on the internet has its own starting point. In this situation, a serious problem can begin with a single bad review, article, or blog post directed at an individual or business.

Once you are mentioned in a negative context on the internet, these articles are easily associated with your name, and a quick Google search will reveal them right away.

Search engines like Google have a job to match the keywords you use with online search results matching them. In seconds, Google can find the most precise information to help you with your search.

Right now, you must be wondering what happens when potential customers or hiring managers Google your name or the name of your business. If negative search engine results show up first, their ability to trust you or work with you will decrease a lot.

Deleting the search results

It will be very difficult and time-consuming for anyone who would like to remove negative search results from the Internet. Because of the Internet’s viral nature and content removal guidance, some of those search results cannot be removed entirely.

For all the negative content that cannot be removed, there are other approaches that you can take. As mentioned, the critical reputation management strategy will be suppression, also known as reverse SEO.

This method of suppressing negative Google search results is really effective because it pushes negative content off the first Google search page and down to the second page (at least), where only 10% of people or less are looking.

Because of the freedom of speech, some negative search results cannot be removed or deleted. If those results do not violate “Google’s policies against prohibited and restricted content,” they cannot be deleted, and you will need to take a different approach. In this case, your best option will be to create new and fresh content that will surpass the negative results appearing on Google.

This means that instead of trying to delete or remove the negative comment, your main focus should be suppressing the negative content from the first page of Google search results.

Suppression process and steps

If you are looking to do this suppression process correctly, we have some tips and a guide with a couple of steps that you will need to follow so that this process can be successful.

Find the phrases that trigger negative content

It is normal to look for positive search results related to your company or brand on the first page of Google search results. In this process, you will need to check the negative search results and see the issues that you need to sort out.

Once you determine what needs to be done, you can start developing a plan and strategy for approaching this problem.

Boost positive results

After you have identified all the positive content appearing on search pages, you will need to start optimizing your own content so it appears higher on Google search results pages.

In this process, you will need to use SEO tactics such as link building or keyword targeting and optimize your content so it can outrank bad results.

Creating new optimized content

At some point, you will notice that you cannot do much if you only optimize and rank your old content. Because of this, you will need to create new, great, optimized content that can rank high. We suggest you create new blogs, websites, and social media accounts to make the suppression method even more successful.

Tracking your progress

After you successfully complete the previous steps, you will need to spend some time tracking your progress. Be sure to monitor the keywords or search terms that you are trying to rank to see if they are giving the desired results.

Meanwhile, you will need to keep track of negative search results and to check regularly if they are moving down. The best outcome for you will be when this negative content falls from the first Google search page to the following pages with very low attendance.

Suppressing Negative search results with High-quality content

After you decide that the suppressing method is your best option to deal with negative comments on the internet you will need to know that creating high-quality content will be the key factor for you to have success. A great starting point is when you create your new content with good SEO (Search Engine Optimization) in mind.

You will need to pay attention to some crucial factors whenever you decide to create highly optimized content. If done properly, this process will require competition research, keyword research, and other techniques, as well as some additional software.

The high-quality content you create will not only push bad content down but can also be a great boost for your business. High-quality content that ranks high can add a lot of benefits to your business and can attract many new customers.

Removing negative content from the Internet

If you notice negative Google search results, defamatory comments, or bad reviews about your company, you will probably want to remove them completely and forever from the internet. If you are able to remove them, you need to make sure they don’t appear again on internet searches.

By removing negative search results from the internet, you also break the links that associated your business with those bad reviews or comments. After you successfully make this step, there will be no fake news on the internet that can cripple your business.

When we talk about complete removal, you need to know that only content, reviews, or comments that violate the law or Google’s privacy policy can be removed.

Because most of this content is posted on websites that you don’t control, you will have a hard time removing it. We will show you a couple of options that you can use to remove bad content posted on third-party websites.

Removing negative content from websites you don’t own

Initially, you must locate the primary source where that harmful content was originally posted. After you make the first step in this process, you will need to start tracking other possible sources of lousy content related to your business.

It would be a nice option for you to use Google Alerts to monitor all the negative content about you or your company that is published on the Internet. After you locate and research the sources of bad content, you will need to carefully plan your next steps.

Try contacting publishers directly

Always remember that this method is for removing bad content from third-party websites, and you shouldn’t contact Google in situations like this. Google does not create content and is not responsible for negative content that can be posted about you by third parties.

Once you find the main source, you can contact the webmaster. We suggest you remain calm and ask politely if the negative content related to your business can be removed.

If the posted information is based on facts, the web owner is not obligated to remove it. Because of that, you should be polite and try to explain why that harmful content should be removed.

A conversation with the webmaster can go a long way

While having a conversation with the webmaster, always remember to take screenshots. If things get more serious, you must have those records. For example, if you decide to take legal action against someone while you work with an attorney, having these screenshots can significantly help you win that case.

If you are having problems finding the webmaster, try looking for a contact form, which is usually at the bottom of the page, and try to collect a phone number or email from there.

You can also perform a domain lookup using Whois and then try to find some of those people on social network platforms. Additionally, Whois can give you information about the website hosting company, and you can try and contact them to get more info about the webmaster.

They do not always reply, but if they do, you will get useful information and the right contact information.

If the webmaster refuses to remove the negative content or is unable to, you can always ask them to add a no-index tag on the content. This process will de-index the content from Google but will not remove the content, which means that people will not be able to see that content in search results anymore. However, if they have a direct URL address, they will be able to visit that page and see the negative content.

Another option webmasters have is to remove the brand name associated with their business and replace it with a more generic description.

Be sure to always read the content removal policies of specific websites before you request a content removal. If contacting the publisher is not working, you need to know there are more options to consider before you decide to give up.

Reporting a website that violates Google Policies

Any website that violates the rules and publishes defamatory or vindictive content or gives away sensitive personal information about someone can be reported to Google.

Published content that discloses sensitive and personal information is being de-indexed and removed from internet searches because it violates Google’s user privacy policy guidelines.

Remove negative content from google search results to protect your brand and reputation

Ultimately, we can all agree that no one wants to see negative content related to his brand or business. People who don’t have time to deal with these things can hire an online reputation management agency that can take care of their internet reputation and take some action to remove harmful content from Google search results.

There are plenty of online reputation management companies, and they can help you bury negative search results and negative online content. They can push negative search results down and take care of your online reputation.

We hope our guide will help you deal with harmful content posted on the internet.

Do you need help getting those negative search results off the first page? Click here to contact us now!