How to Remove Negative Search Results

One of the most harmful things that can happen to businesses and individuals alike is a negative search result on Google. This result could occur because of a poor review or unflattering news story or article, and perhaps the negative views of others are uncalled for. Maybe your business has learnt from their mistakes and adapted. However, these negative search results can hinder your business’s integrity, authority and trustworthiness.
What’s a person to do, though? Google can seem like a force to be reckoned with, but that doesn’t mean your business has to suffer from the poor opinions of others, especially when you’ve tried your best to please your customers and employees. Fortunately, there are a handful of strategies to make such negative content dissipate from the digital world.

Remove All Negative Content

By removing links from negative content, the internet disassociates your business from this said content, and although this is an effective means of removal, it’s a hard process. Links to negative content will either be in your own content or the content of others and while removing a link from your content is simple and straightforward, it’s a lot more difficult when it comes to someone else’s work.

Removing Your Own Web Pages: Perhaps a web page on your business website has an unsightly review in the comments section, or maybe your Facebook page brings in many negative remarks. While you can always handle such remarks with a professional and helpful response, this isn’t always enough. When circumstances become too dire, you could remove your profile or the web page altogether, leaving you the option to create another.

Removing Content Beyond Your Control: Usually, negative reviews happen on pages you have no control of, and can, therefore, be much harder to rectify. Nowadays people are less afraid when it comes to divulging a negative review on companies, and in such a connected and influential world, this can have serious repercussions. People can take to Twitter and Instagram and bombard your profiles with undesirable comments, damaging your business’s brand.
While this type of negativity usually requires the assistance of a professional in digital marketing, there are other ways to lessen the effects of a negative search result. You could, for instance:

- Contact Google if it’s a site that violates their policies.
- Contact and speak to the website owner and ask to rectify this issue at hand.
- Take legal action if the nature of the post is unlawful and acts as slander, discrimination or copyright infringement.

Use Reverse SEO

Contacting the website owner and ironing out any issues may work some of the time, but sweet talking and offering discounts isn’t always going to work. To minimise the damage that has been done, enlisting the professional help of a trusted freelance SEO consultant can serve you well. With their knowledge and expertise, they can suppress the negative content by creating more positive content, which also helps to build and strengthen your online branding and marketing – a win-win situation.
There are many ways to go around suppressing and burying bad links, you can:

- Set up a company blog on your website and post relevant and insightful content.
- Be active in your chosen industry and become a trusted industry leader.
- Create active social media pages.
- Monitor any negative press.
- Keep on top of your website’s ranking through regular SEO audits.

When your business garners negative press, it can be difficult to think rationally. However, if you’re experiencing bad reviews, whether they’re warranted or not, you need to put a plan in motion to counteract such harmful content. The best advice, though, is to learn from your mistakes and move on by putting your best foot forward.