Negative online content is bad enough without it targeting you and trying to pull you down. If you have made mistakes and they’ve been noticed, you might currently be struggling in such a situation.

Do you need help to drag yourself out of this hole and fight back against those who would mean to cause you harm? This article will help you understand the ins and outs of how to recover from a public scandal, starting with getting all the bad press to disappear.

Read on to discover what it takes to get Google to shut up about your controversy and show people what makes you a positive figure instead. 

Why Google is Obsessed with Bad News

One of the most difficult things about cleaning up a digital persona is the fact people never seem to want to forget the most negative things about you. This isn’t helped by the fact that Google’s algorithms are tuned to boost things that people get more excited about. In many cases, that is negative and controversial news.

Precedents have shown that controversy and scandals tend to be more prominent in search results. This is because Google has learned that people engage with it more. Humans tend to be drawn to drama and negativity, clicking on negative news much more than positive stories.

Online Engagement and Negative Content

This is also reflected in social media, where people get rewards such as “Likes” for creating relatable content. Opening or refreshing one’s social media feed can even trigger a dopamine hit not unlike that of a slot machine, where the “win” is more engagement. As people gain more attention from anger, hatred, and frustration, they are rewarded for making people react in such ways.

Altogether, this can lead to a whirlwind of reactive content where people dogpile on any mistake someone makes, no matter how innocent. When compounded with news sites creating clickbait to draw in views, there is almost no stopping such a problem snowballing.

When to Fight Back and When to Let It Slide

Ok, so you have some negative press. It might be very important to bury it, but maybe that’s not what’s best for you right now.

Assess the impact of what you’re seeing online. It can be emotional to see negative things said about you, but you need to be clearheaded. Is it affecting your business’s bottom line, or is it just pissing you off?

If it’s looking like it’s going to cause you or your business issues in both the short and long term, it’s time to take action. Otherwise, just let it be for now, lest you give it even more attention than it deserves.

How to Remove Negative Articles from Google Without Consequence

If you’ve decided to take action, it’s important to understand that this is going to take some work and you do have a difficult battle ahead of you.

Figuring out how to remove false information from the internet is harder than simply outranking it. In essence, you need to create online content that is both positive and more appealing than negative news. You also need to start making much more of it.

Hacking Google's Algorithms: How to Bury Bad Press

Flood the internet with content that provides value to your customers or anyone who searches for you. Also, use keywords that are likely to increase the ranking of it on the search engine results page.

Use these keywords naturally and in various places, mixing them up with synonyms. This will make your content look sincere rather than an attempt to manipulate Google’s search results.

Build up backlinks from other sites to your positive to improve your reputation and online authority. This will push the idea to Google that the content that speaks highly of you is a much better source of information than others. Work with external sites, for example, and write valuable guest posts that link back to you, giving you a sense of importance.

Also, don’t give up! Dragging your opponent’s content further away from the front page takes vigilance, as fresh content is much more appealing to an audience. Thus, you may need to continuously create new content moving forward.

If this all seems like too much, there are options available. Engaging with a professional content and SEO expert can take a lot of the weight off your shoulders. That way you can continue to focus on your business while they repair your reputation behind the scenes.

The Long Game: Keeping Your Online Image Spotless

Removing negative articles is not a one-and-done piece of work. Even if you get rid of one area of content, people can always make more in the future. For this reason, you will need to conduct frequent checks online, especially in the months following the issue’s reemergence.

If this happens enough, develop and maintain a specific crisis management plan. It will help you respond in the future without stress. 

It will also help to have a consistent stream of high-quality content online. If this exists, it will be easier to hide other content, as those search results will have to beat out the pages that already exist first.

Don’t Let the Haters Define Your Brand

Managing your online presence involves understanding how Google’s algorithm works and planning for it. So, don’t let the bad press and negative people online define how your brand appears online. Instead, take control, remove negative articles from Google, and manage your reputation.

If you want to start the process, we can help you take your first steps toward a better image online. Contact Don’t Be a Little Pitch to get started with cleaning up your online persona today. Make your brand unstoppable!