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Building a strong brand means recognizing potential reputation crises and knowing how to handle online articles that misrepresent you or your business. Negative press on Google can erode customer trustand disrupt your operations.
Burying negative search results can be complex, time-consuming and cost a fortune that in the long run will negatively affect the financials of your company or your career. Fortunately, there are branding experts who specialize in removing or burying unfavorable articles from the Google search engine. Whether you’re an individual or a business, it’s important to have a good reputation by removing any negative content as soon as possible.
Related: 5 Tactics to Bury Bad Press and Reclaim Your Brand Reputation
Benefits of deleting negative online articles
The public perception of your brand greatly depends on your ability to know how to remove bad search results. False reviews and misleading articles damage your credibility in many ways. Harmful content can even lower your search rankings when it increases your bounce rates and decreases click-through rates.
This means you’ll have fewer people visiting your site, which can significantly affect purchases and revenue. A lot of customers who may have wanted to do business with you may no longer want to after they read a bad article about your company. And the longer the bad information stays up on the internet, the worse the reputation damage will be.
Reach out to the website to report a breach of its content policies
Many websites enforce strict rules for the content they publish. If you discover an article about your brand that contains false or incorrect information, first review the site’s content policy. If the article appears to violate its rules, you may request its removal by providing proof that the article breaches a specific policy that they have.
Contact the site by providing clear facts why this article breaches the policy, and ask that they update it or remove it completely from the site.
Related: How to Remove Negative Reviews Online and Protect Your Online Reputation
Ask Google to take down the content from the search results
If you reach out to the website administrator and have no luck getting the content taken down, you can always ask Google to remove it for you. Google does a great job of helping users delete negative links that contain false information, fake content, or serious defamation, if the content qualifies for removal. You’ll have to explain your case and provide proof to support it.
Get in touch with the writer directly to discuss the issue
In many cases, contacting the author who wrote a specific piece directly is the most effective approach. Look up the email on the website, craft a nice email and explain what part of the article you believe is unfair or untrue. Make sure to include lots of facts and screenshots to back up your request. The writer might agree to edit or remove the article to maintain accuracy and credibility.
Related: The 5 ‘Cs’ Approach to Conflict Resolution in the Workplace
What does it mean to remove negative online articles?
Suppressing negative online content is much different than having it deleted, but it can still help you