Before the information age, a negative article may have hurt your reputation for a month or two, only to slip out of sight and slowly disappear like yesterday’s news.
But now, one bad news item is all it takes to smear your good name forever, particularly when that negative press is given front-page treatment during Google searches of your name.
And with anyone from your employer and coworkers to first dates, friends and family searching your personal brand at any time, that bad article could be doing unspeakable damage to your image and reputation each day you don’t take action.
Here’s a look at the impact bad news can have on your online presence, how long those items stay on the web and how to get a negative news article removed from the internet.
How do negative news articles on Google affect my reputation?
Negative news items and blogs appearing on Google’s first page search results can have a significant and damaging impact on your online reputation. Local and national news sites tend to have high domain authority in Google search, meaning negative news articles featuring your name are likely to rank highly in SERPS, have greater visibility and receive more traffic than other items making up your digital footprint.
Left to its own devices, bad press can affect your personal brand by:
1. Cultivating a negative association with your name for anyone searching your name
2. Damaging your credibility and integrity among employers, hiring managers, college admissions officers and more.
3. Undercutting your ability to build trust and collaborate with colleagues.
4. Leaving a bad first impression on first dates and making it hard to establish meaningful, lasting connections.
5. Hurting lifelong relationships with friends and family.
And without an online reputation management strategy for removing negative news articles from Google, that bad result will dig a little deeper into your personal brand every day. The longer a negative article sits in SERPS, the more entrenched it becomes—and the more likely it gains traction in:
- Comment sections, where people can validate that bad news and drag your name through the mud even further.
- Follow-up news articles, blogs and opinion pieces that keep that bad conversation about you alive.
- Social media sites, where the story gets amplified, shared and spread across a nearly endless online community.
- Search engines, which push the article up even further in rankings and increase the link’s visibility and authority.
- Personal circles, where friends, relatives and coworkers share what they’ve found and point each other toward your negative result.
Together, these elements create an ugly cycle that ensures malicious news articles forever dominate your online presence. Without a solid online reputation management strategy, you’re unlikely to break that cycle.
How long do newspaper articles stay online?
Most newspaper articles will remain on the web and in search results indefinitely. This is usually due to one of three reasons:
- News sites and journalists are under no obligation to remove news items from the internet unless it is proven the offending information is misleading, unverified, false or libelous.
- News publications and blog platforms have little reason to remove a bad news article if that item is getting views, which often translates into ad revenues for the publisher.
- News articles are often shared and reposted on other sites across the web, meaning even if the post is removed by the original website, it’s likely still out there.
What’s more: each news and blog site have their own strict, step-by-step process and criteria for requesting the removal of a bad online article. This can make removing even the most salacious or unfounded of negative news articles nearly impossible.
How do I get a news article removed from the internet?
In most cases, getting a news article removed from Google is extremely difficult. This is largely because publications have little-to-no incentive to remove a harmful item unless it’s shown to contain false information or to be in violation of your privacy.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t try. To remove a negative news article from the internet and Google’s homepage:
Contact the Owner
Though few news organizations will remove an article by request, they might if you can prove that the information is falsified, plagiarized or violates your privacy. Head to the website’s FAQ and Contact sections, check for existing removal policies and contact them with your inquiry.
Keep in mind that many publishers will not respond or will refuse to remove the content. Some may even charge a hefty fee for removal.
Contact Google
If your attempts at contacting the owner have been unsuccessful, the next step is to ask Google to remove the negative link from search. Google doesn’t remove much, but they will consider it under strict situations that fit within their removal policies.
There’s no harm in asking Google to remove a link affecting your personal brand; just don’t bank on a positive response.
Hire an Attorney
Hiring an attorney to help remove newspaper content from the web can a costly endeavor, but it’s sometimes the only way to get libelous articles removed for good. If there’s a true reason why the post should not be online, an attorney might be able to successfully fight for your case in court or negotiate a deal that helps you begin the process of online reputation repair.
What is the best way to remove negative news articles from the web?
If outright removal proves impossible, your best solution may be online reputation management (ORM). An SEO-powered ORM campaign centered on your personal brand can help push negative news articles out of search engine results pages and begin the process of building a healthier, more positive online presence.
An effective ORM campaign is designed to help you clean up your first page Google results—the bad news, blogs, reviews and social items having the most impact on your online reputation. With ORM, negative news articles are pushed out of high-visibility search results through content suppression and replaced with positive, optimized assets that reflect the best your personal brand has to offer.
A long-term ORM campaign is often your best bet for dealing with bad news online. When removing negative articles from Google and the internet becomes a nonstarter, online reputation management that includes a healthy dose of content suppression may be exactly what you need to retake control over your personal brand on the web.
Online Reputation Management Q&A
Q: How does online reputation management suppress negative news in search?
A: A robust online reputation management strategy attacks bad news in Google from multiple angles. This includes the development and curation of SEO-optimized content that moves up in search and nudges negative info out of sight. By giving you ownership over the assets in first page results, ORM eliminates the impact of negative articles and delivers a positive image you can be proud of.
Q: How long does it take to push a bad article down in Google?
A: The time it takes to suppress a negative news article depends on the site it’s on and how long it’s been online. Because news sites tend to have significant authority in SERPs, a customized ORM strategy built around your personal brand can take anywhere from 3 months to 2 years to get movement on a negative link.
Q: Does ORM work with negative items other than news articles?
A: Absolutely. Effective reputation management strategies work to clean up your personal brand in Google search no matter what’s hurting your online image.
Remove negative news articles from search today
If a harmful news article is hurting your ability to get a job, get into college, connect with old friends or attract new customers, we can help.
BitReputation.com specializes in complete online reputation management solutions to help remove and suppress negative newspaper articles threatening your personal brand—and build the online presence that gets results and enables your success. Our customized ORM services help remove the sting of bad news online and create a Google search resume that empowers a better future on the web.
BitReputation uses the latest in search engine insight and ORM technology to build an online profile you can be proud of, one that puts your best foot forward when it comes to getting that next interview, earning that promotion and making a strong first impression before that first date.
