It is an undeniable fact that your online profile is crucial for creating and developing personal and career prospects. Unfavorable news articles, critical reviews or leak of personal information can harm your reputation and scare away potential employers, clients, and partners. Dealing with these problems as well as preventing their occurrence is very important for the positive image of the company. This complete guide provides practical methods to either delete or bury unwanted search engine results and includes preventive measures to protect your online identity.

Why Negative Search Results Should Not Be Ignored

Consequences of negative search results can be very severe. They often emerge from a variety of sources: This may include; old news articles, review articles, libelous information, or even information that is legally accessible to the public such as court records. This information can be ranked higher in search results and it can have a negative impact on the public’s perception.

For companies, it is the bad comments or unfavorable articles that can scare away the customers and this is not good for business. People may face difficulties in their job or their private life. Research indicates that the first page of search results attracts more than 84% of total clicks, meaning that the information that is first seen should be positive for you or your business. It is sometimes not feasible to completely eliminate negative content; however, the following may be useful in minimizing the effect:

Ways to Delete or Hiding the Negative Results

1. Demand for Content Removal from the Source

The most straightforward way of handling negative content is to have it removed from the source. It includes reporting the website owner or the webmaster of the site that contains the negative information.

First of all, one has to find out the owner of the site through domain tools, which can also give contacts. Some of the contact information is also provided on the ‘About Us’ or ‘Contact Us’ section of many websites. Compose a courteous and formal letter requesting why you think the content should be eliminated. For example, you may have a reason to say that the material is old-fashioned, inapplicable, or even wrong. It is more likely to get a reply if you follow up on the unanswered requests.

Nevertheless, the proposed method has some disadvantages. Of course, not all the webmasters will agree to do so, particularly if the content is factual or legal. In such a situation, other measures are required.

2. Remove your information by using Search Engine Removal Tools

Google and other search engines allow users to delete or demote certain content from their search results. This is particularly helpful when the content is in some way against the rules or the privacy policies for instance.

Search engine tools enable users to demand the deletion of URLs from search indices. For example, if you have been a victim of phone number or address leakage on the Internet, you can ask for a deletion. But what is crucial to understand is that these tools can only be used to delist content from search engines. The material will remain on the original hosting site unless removed by the owner of the site.

3. Negative content is the best countered by positive content

If you cannot remove the negative results directly, you should aim at suppressing the negative results by optimizing positive content. The idea here is to build up a positive online presence that will push the negative material down the search engine rankings.

The first step is the creation of relevant and quality content on blogs, websites, and social media pages with the target keywords. Here is the content that needs to be optimized for search engines in order to get better ranking on search engines. 

For businesses, this may mean articles that celebrate success or read like reviews. 

For people, having a good professional presence on linkedin or building a personal website can help shape the story.

If you post quality content on your social media pages on the regular, then the positive search results will be more recent than the negative ones, and therefore, appear first.

Some Guidelines on Content Suppression

• Create Authoritative Content: Concentrate on posts that are backed up by facts and figures or are insightful, and which are related to your brand.
• Engage on Social Media: Utilise active profiles to post updates, engage with the feedback and create a good impression online.
• Leverage Backlinks: Back linking to other reputable sites can help to enhance the search engine visibility of your positive content.
• Use Multiple Platforms: In order to diversify your content, you should use websites, social media, forums, and professional directories.

4. Report Defamatory Content to a Lawyer

Legal enforcement is a way out when the content is libelous, false or when it in some ways infringes on your rights. It is advised to consult an attorney to find out whether the content is actually libelous or not and whether legal action is feasible in the given case.

Legal means include writing letters of complaint to the owner of the content or approaching the court to have the matter removed. One should also note that legal procedures are very costly and can take long, and therefore the use of legal procedures is only appropriate where there is severe damage or where the offender acted out of ill will.

5. Hire Professional Reputation Management Services

For such problems or for those that are chronic, there are professional reputation management services that can help. These firms are involved in the management of undesirable search results and enhancing the positive ones through Search Engine Optimization, content development and marketing and PR.

It is important to look at the record and approach of the company you want to hire in managing your reputation. Ethical firms therefore focus on the disclosure of information and the achievement of sustainable gains.

Preventive Strategies to Ensure a Good Online Image

Prevention is always better than cure and this is true when it comes to negative search results. Regularly engaging in reputation management is important in ensuring that damaging content does not come up.

• Monitor Your Digital Footprint: It is advisable to search for your name or business online frequently to know when and if there is any bad stuff about you or your business out there. This means that you should set up alerts to track mentions.
• Engage Professionally: Reply to comments, reviews or criticisms professionally to show responsibility and gain trust.
• Protect Your Privacy: Don’t reveal too much of your personal details online. Opt for privacy options on the social media accounts and make sure that your personal information will not be shared.
• Build a Positive Narrative: Share content that would show success, culture, or specializations. To stay relevant, one needs to engage professionally more often on social media platforms such as LinkedIn.
• Secure Strong Backlinks: Quality backlinks can help to ensure that the positive content that you have on your website appears on the first page of search results, which will also help to bury negative content.

Challenges and Future Concerns

It is impossible to completely erase negative search results as not all content is unlawful or fake or posted by untrustworthy websites. In such situations, suppression and reputation management are the most effective ways of reducing the effects of such situations. Furthermore, having a good digital presence is not a one-time job because new problems can appear in the future.

Conclusion: 

In order to address negative search results, companies need to employ several methods, including direct removal of the adverse information to create new positive content. While some solutions provide the desired results in the short run, others may need to be implemented in the long run. This guide has provided you with some practical tips on how to take control of the online persona and avoid getting a bad rap online; you should be able to work on them and get the best out of your online reputation.

For companies or people in need of help in managing these issues, Brew My Idea provides reputation management and digital marketing services. Being an SEO company, we can also assist you in burying negative content, building and promoting positive content, and managing your online reputation. Visit Brew My Idea and see how they can help you turn your digital brand into something that can work in your favor.