When you, a family member or your business is hit by a negative news article online, you’ll need to know how to remove negative news articles as quickly as possible. Whether the harmful content is in a small local news publication or on the front page of a national one, you’ll want those negative headlines gone from Google search results immediately.
No matter where the original article was posted, once it’s indexed by a search engine, it can pop up every time someone searches your name. And Google doesn’t simply remove harmful news stories simply because you ask it to.
While you can always make removal requests or appeal to the source directly, these paths are rarely successful. Harmful content has to meet certain criteria to be removed. Most of the time, even if what’s posted is unflattering and damaging to your online reputation, it’s perfectly legal. Unless you have legitimate legal claims against the content being public, it will stay online for anyone to find.
However, that doesn’t mean you’re powerless. Even when damaging news articles can’t be taken down entirely, there are proven strategies to push them down in search results, limit their visibility and rebuild a stronger online presence than before. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the most effective ways to remove or suppress unwanted news articles so you can take back control of your online reputation.
NetReputation provides information and services to help you remove news articles online. Call us at 844-461-3632 to learn more about legal content removal, or fill out the contact form below for a free consultation.
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Why Is Negative News So Bad?
Search results influence our online reputations. When people are looking for information about a person or business, they typically turn to Google for answers. A quick search on Google can find links to social media profiles, news articles, reviews, and so much more. It is the quality of these results that influences a person’s next moves.
Negative news isn’t only embarrassing — it can also damage your reputation. If you’re a business owner, unflattering news stories can drive your potential customers away, resulting in lost revenue. If the news is bad enough, it will erode the trust you’ve built between you and your customer base, eventually impacting your bottom line. Here are other ways that harmful content can impact your life:
- Considerable stress and anxiety
- Lower chance of finding a job
- Rejection by the schools you apply to
- Unintended harm to your loved ones
To make things worse, Google and the other major search engines place more value on negative news items than neutral and positive content. In other words, these negative articles have a tendency to rank at or near the top of search results, especially when they’re newly published. If the first results in a given search are negative, consumers are more likely to spot them and move toward your competition as a result.
Negative news articles can have long-lasting and far-reaching effects on your reputation. While bad headlines once came and went with the daily newspaper, online headlines can stick around forever. And once indexed by the major search engines, bad news ends up dominating every search of your name, business or brand.
You can take control of your online reputation, whether you’re working on your personal reputation or your professional digital presence. Call us at 844-461-3632 for more information about submitting removal requests to news outlets.
Possibility of Being Turned Down by Schools
Colleges and universities commonly review the online presence of applicants as part of the standard admissions process. When negative Google search results appear, they can raise concerns about an applicant’s character, judgement or risk profile, regardless of the full context of the situation. Even one unfavorable result can influence how admissions officers perceive an applicant, potentially limiting their opportunity to further their education.
Impact on Employment Opportunities
Like admissions officers, employers also research job candidates online during the hiring process. Harmful articles can quickly become a deciding factor, especially in competitive situations. When candidates have similar qualifications, the one without damaging Google search results is much more likely to move forward. This is especially true for roles that require discretion, public visibility or trust.
Even if no conviction occurred, an article that simply references a criminal allegation can mean missing out on a job. Employers may not investigate past the initial headline and make their decision based on a single search result.
Lasting Reputation Damage
On top of impacting immediate, short-term opportunities, negative content can also shape long-term perceptions. These stories can influence how you’re viewed by business partners, clients and lenders, not to mention acquaintances, friends and family members. With time, the persistent visibility of negative articles can erode your credibility and make it harder to build new relationships or access opportunities.
Unintended Harm to Others
The effects of negative coverage can extend beyond the person who’s directly involved. Business partners, colleagues and family members can also be impacted, especially when they share the same name or are mentioned in the article. In niche industries and small communities, this overlap can be especially pronounced.
Unnecessary Stress and Anxiety
Being the subject of negative online content can take a serious emotional toll on the victim. Ongoing visibility in Google search results can lead to anxiety, chronic stress and even fear. This gets worse when you feel like you have no control over the situation. With time, this can impact your mental well-being and your quality of life.
At NetReputation, we can help you remove news articles online and take control of your online reputation. Give us a call at 844-461-3632 to learn more about improving your Google search results.
What Are Your Best Options To Remove Negative Press?
There are two primary techniques used when you want to remove news articles:
- Content suppression
- Hiring a lawyer
As you might expect, hiring a lawyer to handle the situation for you can get expensive. Plus, much of what a lawyer can do, you can do yourself, given enough time and resources. Suppression, however, is one of the best ways to remove news articles. This is especially true when requests to publishers and search engines have been rejected. First, though, you can try contacting the source directly in the hopes that they remove the content without requiring further steps.
Let’s go over each of these options.
Contact the Website Owner for News Removal
In an ideal world, asking the site owner to remove negative content would be all that’s needed. Unfortunately, your plea is not likely to work unless you have significant grounds for removing a negative news article from the site.
When contacting the site to have your article removed, provide as much information as needed to convince the site owner that the information shouldn’t be publicly accessible. For example, if the content includes private information, like your medical records or a photo of your signature, you could have a legal argument.
You could also show the site owner proof that the information is untrue or that the situation has been resolved. For example, if your arrest records appear online, you could send the site owner your record expungement court order, which is often enough to have them remove the content.
Submit a Removal Request to Google
If the content violates Google’s guidelines, you may be able to have the link removed from Google search results. While this won’t remove a news article at its source, de-indexing it will make it much less visible.
There’s certain personal information that Google commonly removes from search results. For example, if you’re requesting to have an article removed from search results because it includes your financial information or Social Security number, it’s likely that Google will comply. Additionally, you can also ask Google to remove a news article that contains content that violates the law.
Hire a Lawyer To Pursue Legal Content Removal
Pursuing legal measures may seem a surefire way to remove a news article online, but the reality is far different. Lawyers often have little success when tackling negative news article removal, especially when compared with what you can do on your own.
Here’s why: If valid legal grounds exist for removal, you can present the case yourself. A lawyer may do this on your behalf, but that’s an expensive way to achieve the same outcome. Your lawyer will likely take the steps we’ve already outlined. Those include contacting the source, providing reasons to remove the content, and requesting de-indexing by Google.
The only time it’s reasonable to hire a lawyer is if you’re positive you have legal means to have the content removed, and the website didn’t comply with your request. Otherwise, this option is a waste of time and money.
Influence Search Results With Content Suppression
By far, search engine suppression is the best way of removing negative content from key search results. When you can’t completely remove a news article from existing online, suppression pushes those negative results so far back that they’ll rarely be found. In their place, neutral and positive content will show up to further strengthen your online reputation.
The top organic search result on Google is 10x more likely to be clicked than the No. 10 result, and the top 3 organic Google search results get more than 68% of all clicks. Here’s what’s most important when it comes to content suppression, though: Most users don’t go past the first search engine results page (SERP). Less than 1% click on a result on the 2nd page.
In other words, by pushing problematic results down to page two or three, you reduce the likelihood of them ever being seen or of impacting your reputation.
To successfully suppress negative content, you need to publish positive news, stories and other information to replace it. You can do this on personal blogs or your personal website, your social media platforms, and third-party sites.
Some of the content you post will gain traction, and some of it won’t. However, with consistent effort, you should be able to influence search results with time and create a better presence online.
Contact Our Content Suppression Experts Today
Removing or suppressing negative content isn’t always straightforward. Yes, the strategies we’ve outlined can help you take meaningful steps on your own. However, the truth is that effective online reputation management takes consistency, time and an understanding of how search engines rank.
If the stakes are high or if you need fast results, working with an experienced ORM team can make all the difference. Professional content suppression strategies push negative articles down in search results and replace them with positive, authoritative content. This restores control over how you’re perceived online.
You don’t have to go through this process alone. Contact us today at 844-461-3632 to learn how we can help you protect and build your digital reputation.
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