If you need to bury negative Google search results, in some cases, you can, get the negative search result taken down directly. Remember, this won’t work in every case, but in some it is step one to building an effective personal brand online.

 

Knowing the pitfalls of negative stuff on Google, don’t panic! Take a deep breath and read ahead the ways of removing this obstructive stuff about your business.

 

• First, you can ask the reviewers the take down the negative content. If it does not work, go to Google and tell them your story. Google helps if they found the content really illegal and false. Though you will have little chance to succeed this way, you can try this method.

• The next best option is to cover or fight negative reviews with positive reviews. Promote positive reviews about your business on the web and try to decrease the visibility of negative content as much as possible. Although this is not an ideal method, it is a valid option that you can use. Raise your positive content, but remember, don’t compose positive content yourself. Try to gain positive reviews on your best products and increase your visibility for same.

• Release the best PR statements for your business and let the top websites to notice your statements. This will automatically knock down the impact of poor reviews against your business on the web.

• Try to improve your exposure by creating profiles on local establishment pages, for instance: local school or local government. It will minimize the visibility and impact of negative reviews and complaints.

• Last, but another best idea: use Google’s Public URL removal tool. In case, you want to delete any confidential or private information that can harm your business, from Google, this method works the faster. Using Google’s Public URL Removal tool, you can flag the offending URLs for Google crawlers and will automatically drop-out them from search results. This approach is largely ineffective to remove negative content from reputed sites like Google+.

 

Why can’t I remove my information by myself? Why do I need to pay a company to do it?

This is a common question and one that deserves due attention, as it’s an answer that is complex and depends on the type of information and on what website(s) that the information is published.

There are a few circumstances where you’ll be able to get Google to delete an item from its index and, by doing so, remove it from Google search results.

In most cases, however, people find that it is easiest to simply use a single service to remove unwanted information from the internet and clean up private search engine results than take the time necessary to learn the internet privacy strategies and online reputation management techniques needed to do it yourself.

 

There can be serious downsides to removal requests, so ask yourself these questions first:

 

• Did you post the content?   Does this negative search result stem from a blog post, tweet, status update, etc that you posted?  Or does it come from an account that you control or have access to? If so, DELETE IT! You don’t need to bury Google results if you control them. Remove everything associated with this content that you possibly can. While there is still a chance that content could appear elsewhere (screenshots/cached searches, uploaded on other sites or profiles, etc), start by removing anything you can.

• Did your friend post this content? Did your friend post something about you that could hurt your professional, academic or personal opportunities? If so, just ask them to take it down. As mentioned above, this could still resurface elsewhere, but this is a great first step. And try to push for full removal. For example, if your friend just de-tags you from something, your image is still associated with whatever is potentially damaging.  

• Did an acquaintance or someone you’re on good terms with post this? Feel free to reach out to this person as you would a friend. Just be polite and explain the situation logically. If someone isn’t focused on their own personal brand, (or has different boundaries than you do) they may be oblivious to how this content can negatively affect your personal reputation.

• Would The “Right to be Forgotten” apply to this scenario? If you live in the E.U.or Argentina, check if this content falls within the standards of removal based on Google’s Right to be Forgotten.

• Does this content fit Google’s standards for Takedown Requests? If you’re based in the US, look up Google’s legal causes for removal, and follow the steps necessary for submission.

 

While a “YES” to the questions above bodes well if you want to remove or bury negative Google results, keep in mind, you’re not necessarily in the clear. The search result is still archived. If you are lucky enough to have your content removed through emailing the webmaster directly, filling out a request form or through legal channels, it’s still likely that the negative search result will be archived somewhere and continue to show up when your name is searched.

 

When bad press hits the Web, it can begin to tear into your reputation, your credibility and even your livelihood almost immediately. To stop the bleeding, it’s important to take action quickly.

Failure to resolve the problem fast could result in immeasurable damage for you, and your loved ones, well into the future.

 

Our negative news removal solutions mitigate the impact of bad news on your online reputation, as well as to put you at the helm of your online conversation. As leaders in removals and online reputation management, we’ve helped thousands take on the threat of bad news, and to successfully build online reputations that are resilient to future attack.

There are a few more questions you still should ask yourself in your takedown request. Unfortunately, if you answer “YES” to any of the questions below – you should focus your energy elsewhere while attempting to improve your personal brand.

 

• Is the owner of this content anonymous or spiteful? It would be great if you could just email someone and they would immediately remove this negative content, no questions asked. That’s obviously the ideal situation, and while it is possible to get content removed, there are some known risks and issues associated with taking this route. If you’re dealing with an anonymous or spiteful troll, then proceed with caution. Asking this kind of person to remove the offending may not go as planned. There is always the chance that the owner not only refuses to take the content down… but could make the situation worse for you. Depending on the particular circumstances regarding your negative results, if you are dealing with somebody who has it out for you, there is always the chance that this person will choose to make it worse for you by becoming even more active and retaliate against you online. We have seen this happen many times, so it’s a smart idea to take a moment and analyze the situation. Sometimes it’s better left alone when it comes to contacting the site owner, and spending your time on other strategies to bury negative Google results.

• Is the owner of this content a government website or news outlet? If you’re dealing with a government site, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to get documents that are of public record removed. However, you should feel free to do a bit of digging on the government website (or by calling them) to see if there are any processes in place to maintain your privacy. And when it comes to dealing with a news outlet – if something is factually inaccurate, you can of course email them to write a retraction or correction. However, that may just give even more authority to a link or story that already looks damaging based on the title or URL.

• Does this negative content fall outside of the realm of the Right to Be Forgotten (EU) or Google’s takedown policy (US)? If so, it’s unlikely you can have the search engine de-index this result for your name. This means you will have to push down the negative Google result if you want it to stop being an issue.

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What needs to be pointed out is that many people jump to this option, but don’t think about the possible downsides of requesting content removal.

 

Paying to remove your name and personal details from all data brokers and third party people finder websites

 

A number of reputable online privacy protection and identity management companies now offer services that effectively wipe the internet clean of any and all personal details.

What’s more, is that by enrolling in one of the top personal information removal and identity protection services you will continue to reap the benefits of the service for years into the future.

Why? Because each such a service includes advanced features that monitor search results and public background record sites to make sure that when a new occurrence of your personally identifiable information (PII) data or other info you don’t want made public on the web and appearing on Google, you’ll be able to easily identify where the information came from and have it deleted before it is scrapped and published to other sites.Getting negative content off Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) of Google, Bing and other well-known, conventional web search engine providers, is among the most common service offered by offered by reputation management firms to remove, hide or displace information online.