Help me push negative references down my Google search list
September 18, 2011 10:01 AM Subscribe
Help me manage my scandalous past -- or at least figure out how to reduce its prominence on Internet/Google search results! Details within.
A while ago (more than six months, less than 2 years) I was involved in a business scandal that got major national coverage. My name was prominently featured in the stories in an embarassing way. It was a brief, flash in the pan type thing that was covered by all major press for a day or so but then faded quickly. Since then, I've managed to rebuild my career to a significant extent and have actually generated a fair number of more low-key but positive google references to my current work. But my first page of google results is still dominated by scandal references.
I know I'll never completely eliminate those references, but I'd like to get them off the first search page at least. To what extent will this kind of thing fade organically with time, especially if I continue generating positive output? Is it worth hiring one of those "reputation defender" type services like reputation.com? I did talk to them and they quoted me very high prices and explained that it's hard to drive down major references. Are there individual consultants who are good and reasonable on this kind of thing, or tricks I can use personally, or is it better to just sit it out and wait for scandal references to gradually move down the queue?
Thanks. I know there have been other references to SEO but as I understand it the scope and scale of coverage this got makes it a different issue technically then just handling a small local or personal thing.
A while ago (more than six months, less than 2 years) I was involved in a business scandal that got major national coverage. My name was prominently featured in the stories in an embarassing way. It was a brief, flash in the pan type thing that was covered by all major press for a day or so but then faded quickly. Since then, I've managed to rebuild my career to a significant extent and have actually generated a fair number of more low-key but positive google references to my current work. But my first page of google results is still dominated by scandal references.
I know I'll never completely eliminate those references, but I'd like to get them off the first search page at least. To what extent will this kind of thing fade organically with time, especially if I continue generating positive output? Is it worth hiring one of those "reputation defender" type services like reputation.com? I did talk to them and they quoted me very high prices and explained that it's hard to drive down major references. Are there individual consultants who are good and reasonable on this kind of thing, or tricks I can use personally, or is it better to just sit it out and wait for scandal references to gradually move down the queue?
Thanks. I know there have been other references to SEO but as I understand it the scope and scale of coverage this got makes it a different issue technically then just handling a small local or personal thing.
Have you considered buying your own name as a domain and blogging on that? Even if you don't write much you could have photos, links or short pieces for a while.
posted by infini at 10:14 AM on September 18, 2011
posted by infini at 10:14 AM on September 18, 2011
The only way to reduce the relevance of those search results is to provide other search results that are even more relevant, timely, and widely linked. So yeah, start blogging under your name, produce good content and promote your good content on social media sites.
k8t's suggestion is also right on. Public profiles on highly-trafficked sites will often be near the top of search results. (even more so if you actually use the sites). That said, if it's a major publication (like an NYT article), it's going to be quite tough to dislodge.
posted by chrisamiller at 10:53 AM on September 18, 2011 [1 favorite]
k8t's suggestion is also right on. Public profiles on highly-trafficked sites will often be near the top of search results. (even more so if you actually use the sites). That said, if it's a major publication (like an NYT article), it's going to be quite tough to dislodge.
posted by chrisamiller at 10:53 AM on September 18, 2011 [1 favorite]
I know a surgeon who elected NOT to hire the reputation fixers. He told me that they wanted to charge a fortune and they would not even guarantee results. (A disgruntled patient wrote a bunch of things about him on consumer websites, ranting and raving over poor results). Last I checked when I searched the surgeon's name these complaints appear on page 4 after 3 years.
Are you able to generate your own good news via press releases?
Someday (a while from now) I imagine you can suggest someone do a story on your "comeback"...because, clearly, you sound like you're in the midst of a good one!
posted by naplesyellow at 10:55 AM on September 18, 2011
Are you able to generate your own good news via press releases?
Someday (a while from now) I imagine you can suggest someone do a story on your "comeback"...because, clearly, you sound like you're in the midst of a good one!
posted by naplesyellow at 10:55 AM on September 18, 2011
Don't ever refer back, link to, explain or even mention your old identity on any of your new sites, ever.
posted by iamkimiam at 11:02 AM on September 18, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by iamkimiam at 11:02 AM on September 18, 2011 [2 favorites]
By 'identity' I meant anything that is traceable back to who you were, who you were associated with, or what you did back then.
posted by iamkimiam at 11:03 AM on September 18, 2011
posted by iamkimiam at 11:03 AM on September 18, 2011
Write a press release and have it put out on a wire service, or at least something like PitchEngine. Press releases get syndicated far and wide and are essentially link factories for SEO purposes. A couple of press releases on a good wire will compete with a lot of the stuff on your first page of results - though the major newspapers will be tough to compete with.
posted by CRM114 at 11:32 AM on September 18, 2011
posted by CRM114 at 11:32 AM on September 18, 2011
I've heard the best way to bury bad news on the Internet is to bury it. There are companies that will make hundreds and hundreds of real-looking fake people with slight variants of your name, background, and location all over the place, making it very confusing to a searcher. Of course this is only going to work if you have a reasonably common name ... if you have a weird name, this is a kind of obvious gambit.
You could register for a class at a major college or university, and put up a personal web page on the free web space they give to students. .edu domains have a ridiculously high page rank, and will almost certainly show up first in any Google search. People will just assume you're somehow affiliated somehow with the school.
Or you could just make a Metafilter profile under your real name, and post lots of witty incisive commentary. Metafilter has a very, very high page rank, and each one of those posts will show up as its own page, pushing old news articles down.
posted by miyabo at 11:45 AM on September 18, 2011
You could register for a class at a major college or university, and put up a personal web page on the free web space they give to students. .edu domains have a ridiculously high page rank, and will almost certainly show up first in any Google search. People will just assume you're somehow affiliated somehow with the school.
Or you could just make a Metafilter profile under your real name, and post lots of witty incisive commentary. Metafilter has a very, very high page rank, and each one of those posts will show up as its own page, pushing old news articles down.
posted by miyabo at 11:45 AM on September 18, 2011
Can you modify all your current profiles so that your name is slightly different from the one in the news? If the story refers to Suzie Hoehandle, you're now Suzanne A. Hoehandle, or S.A. Hoehandle or S. Angela Hoehandle and so forth. And yes, to domain name, more popular profiles, etc.
posted by Ideefixe at 1:16 PM on September 18, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Ideefixe at 1:16 PM on September 18, 2011 [1 favorite]
Google can, to some extent, help you out here within their own search engine via the URL Remover Tool (especially if the content is coming from pages that are no longer active, but cached). There is also an elevated removal option if you think you have legal grounds to remove this content.
That said, if you feel like this issue is always going to have an impact on your career and you are comfortable enough, I think something a lot of people don't want to understand is that transparency is everything and what people find out about and think of you online doesn't have to stick with them forever. Depending on your role in the scandal and your ability to speak on it; talk about it in your own words. Reddit's "IAMA" threads are popular for a reason, after all.
Obviously if this is truly water under the bridge and no one is going to think anything of it or it's deeply personal, don't bring it up. But if you find that due to lingering search results this thing is still haunting you: confront it (the scandal and the effect of the search results) at length in a blog post and allow comments so that you have the opportunity to officially quell or otherwise put context around the situation. On top of being an interesting post simply because managing one's negative search results are highly relevant right now, but it also does a good job of making other outlets and forums that reported on the issue less credible or otherwise dated, so long as you are being honest and keep up with responses (entries where the author just states their case and then vanish are pointless and oft even more damaging since it looks like you're just trying hide what has already been said).
It isn't fun, but candor can do wonders for making people see you as a human being.
posted by june made him a gemini at 4:03 PM on September 18, 2011 [3 favorites]
That said, if you feel like this issue is always going to have an impact on your career and you are comfortable enough, I think something a lot of people don't want to understand is that transparency is everything and what people find out about and think of you online doesn't have to stick with them forever. Depending on your role in the scandal and your ability to speak on it; talk about it in your own words. Reddit's "IAMA" threads are popular for a reason, after all.
Obviously if this is truly water under the bridge and no one is going to think anything of it or it's deeply personal, don't bring it up. But if you find that due to lingering search results this thing is still haunting you: confront it (the scandal and the effect of the search results) at length in a blog post and allow comments so that you have the opportunity to officially quell or otherwise put context around the situation. On top of being an interesting post simply because managing one's negative search results are highly relevant right now, but it also does a good job of making other outlets and forums that reported on the issue less credible or otherwise dated, so long as you are being honest and keep up with responses (entries where the author just states their case and then vanish are pointless and oft even more damaging since it looks like you're just trying hide what has already been said).
It isn't fun, but candor can do wonders for making people see you as a human being.
posted by june made him a gemini at 4:03 PM on September 18, 2011 [3 favorites]
I would not recommend "reputation defender" services. They are prey on people in need and are unlikely to provide you with valid results - it sounds like the scandal happened, there's no moral or legal way to get those references removed.
As others have said, the best way to deal with the situation is to own the conversation - create your own profiles under your own name and populate them with content. Start a blog with your name and business in the title. Write about topics likely to get syndicated.
Search engines vastly prefer recency in their results. By owning providing more up-to-date information and lots of it, the scandal will become a footnote.
posted by zemaj at 8:47 PM on September 19, 2011
As others have said, the best way to deal with the situation is to own the conversation - create your own profiles under your own name and populate them with content. Start a blog with your name and business in the title. Write about topics likely to get syndicated.
Search engines vastly prefer recency in their results. By owning providing more up-to-date information and lots of it, the scandal will become a footnote.
posted by zemaj at 8:47 PM on September 19, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
Run some marathons too.
posted by k8t at 10:14 AM on September 18, 2011 [2 favorites]