Tips For Fixing a Negative Search Result - Karan Bhalla PMO , Karan Bhalla Encompass

Emergency Tactics For Fixing a Negative Result

Even if you’ve gotten your Google diagnosis, set up your basic presence for Google and used our advanced  SEO techniques to raise them to the top , sometimes it’s just not enough. Sometimes, even if you do everything right, search engines make you their B*tch. This last part of the series is meant to provide effective tactics for people who have negative or unflattering content on the first page of results.

Bad Results Can Happen to Good People:

While this section may seem like it’s only relevant to politicians or criminals, negative content is something that can happen to anyone. All it takes is one bad blog post or status update from a pissed off ex, one disgruntled former client or employee, or one photo tagged in bad judgement after a night out with a friend. The point is, bad results can happen to good people, and this article is meant to walk you through the emergency tactics you can use to salvage your reputation.

Here’s what to do when negative results show up when you Google yourself:

Option 1: Get it Taken Down

This option is often the first step people take, however, there are a couple of issues with this route:

• The Person doesn’t have to take it down: Unless you own the content (what are you waiting for, go take it down!) this is highly unlikely and not as ideal as it sounds. For one, the web is like the Wild West, it is not governed by regulations and laws and it is very hard to have anything legally removed. Chances are there’s a reason the other person put it up in the first place, and they have no intention of removing it.
• The Result is Always Archived: Secondly, even if they do  remove it, that doesn’t necessarily remove it from search engines. Search engines archive (or cache) search results, meaning many times the result still shows up and people can read about the content right from the result page in Google. That being said, in some cases it is worth it to try and have the content removed, in which case: Submit a legal complaint to Google : Only do this if the content is clearly slanderous or illegal in some other way that can be proven in a court of law. For the vast majority of cases you’ll have to use our other tactics.

Option 2: Bury It

This is the whole idea we’ve been preaching in this series: raise positive content higher in search engines, essentially burying content farther down the page. While this doesn’t technically remove it from search engines, it does drastically decrease the chances someone searching for you finds it. In fact, 93% of people don’t even go past the first page, and even if they do, they’ve just gone through an entire page of positive content that lets them know who you really are. This means, you don’t only need one or two results on the first page, you need enough to bury the other content. Here are the best ways to create high ranking content that will bury the negative result:

Basic Tactics:

Make sure you have the basics covered before jumping to the more advanced tactics:

• Create a basic online presence: This includes buying your domain name, building a personal website, creating profiles like facebook, twitter and LinkedIn and joining online directories.

• Make sure that content is search engine optimized: There are certain things you can do with your content to make sure they are as search engine friendly as possible