Is it possible to get rid of something in Google rankings?

mood

There is a article with my name in it online. The company did not break any law putting it on the internet but I'm not happy with it being there. I have asked them to remove it and they said no in a very nasty way despite me asking politely. Is there anyway I can remove it from Google rankings?

The Apprentice

Well yes and no ..

No u cannot delete the actual article itself

Yes, you can do a reputation management campaign that will knock that article off of the first page onto the second and it will eventually die down the ranks, but again you wont exactly delete it only people wont be able to find it easier...

Hope this helps.

mood

The Apprentice wrote: »

Well yes and no ..

No u cannot delete the actual article itself

Yes, you can do a reputation management campaign that will knock that article off of the first page onto the second and it will eventually die down the ranks, but again you wont exactly delete it only people wont be able to find it easier...

Hope this helps.

And can you tell me how I can do that?

mneylon

You'd need to get other content to rank better for the search terms than the article you don't like.

It's not easy to do

Pablo

Someone recently tried to sully my name by doing a post on Ripoff Report dot com , and by I don't think anyone actually took any notice of it. I did reply to the report, and then swiftly forgot about it.

There are a few ways you can try ::
1) threaten legal action (generally futile, esp. if facts are true)
2) complain to their host (generally futile as they shouldn't do anything without legal notices)
3) ask them nicely to make it a bit more anonymous it, like M. Higgins, instead of Micheal D. Higgins.
4) give them a sob story
5) offer to pay them off.
6) rank higher than them for your name (could take a lot of effort) perhaps offering to write on some blogs in your name could help it.
7) forget about it

Of course things could be complicated if your name is something obscure / unique like Hector Ó hEochagáin compared with John Murphy.

mood

Thanks for the advise. Any other suggestions?

Trojan

I think Pablo's answer is as comprehensive as you're likely to get. SEO-wise, your two options are reputation management, or negative SEO - the latter being morally and possibly legally questionable.

blue4ever

roughly where does it rank (1-10?)

C

The Apprentice

Ive seen methods utilizing duplicate content as a form of negative seo to Help with the reputation of the original site.

But as this method is proabably useless when it comes to your name being plastered all over the interweb :P

mood

blue4ever wrote: »

roughly where does it rank (1-10?)

C

Number 1!

blue4ever

Have you a website?

Is the search string your name alone or is it with another term?

jhegarty

How about posting an identical article all over the web , but with 100s of made up names replacing the ops.

mood

blue4ever wrote: »

Have you a website?

Is the search string your name alone or is it with another term?

I don't have a website. How can I tell if the search string is my name alone or with other terms?

mood

jhegarty wrote: »

How about posting an identical article all over the web , but with 100s of made up names replacing the ops.

How would that help? I don't have access to the site it is on so I can't post identical articles with different names on that.

blue4ever

Ok - when you search your name 'Joe Bloggs' in Google - does the offending website come up? Or do you have to add another term ie "joe bloggs cycling" (you get the drift)

C

mood

blue4ever wrote: »

Ok - when you search your name 'Joe Bloggs' in Google - does the offending website come up? Or do you have to add another term ie "joe bloggs cycling" (you get the drift)

C

Just the name. What do that mean?

Mrs OBumble

mood wrote: »

How would that help? I don't have access to the site it is on so I can't post identical articles with different names on that.

You post them on other sites, eg forums, dodgy sites that take any kind of press release, etc.

Eventually Google blacklists the original: it cannot tell what is the original, so sees the whole thing as spam.

mood

JustMary wrote: »

You post them on other sites, eg forums, dodgy sites that take any kind of press release, etc.

Eventually Google blacklists the original: it cannot tell what is the original, so sees the whole thing as spam.

But them the thing I want to hide will just be more visible until Google blacklist it. That could take ages so it's not a suitable solution I think.

a5y

Mood, the best solution I think would be to simply have you name in so many other places that show the positive things you do, that anyone reasonable would try and see the broader picture.

Contributing to crowdfunding projects on Kickstarter for example (a "your name on a thank you page, twitter feed" is a common low investment reward and entirely legit form of self publicity), or volunteering for local community projects that get written about by small newspapers (and large ones when a celebrity is involved for example).

Basically neither Google's ranking of your name nor that site defines what people will think of your name, at least not nearly as much as what you do to represent what you stand for. That site may have one page on you, you've your name and the entire internet potentially as leverage.

Mrs OBumble

mood wrote: »

But them the thing I want to hide will just be more visible until Google blacklist it. That could take ages so it's not a suitable solution I think.

Sigh.

You post it elsewhere with some other name in it, not yours.

The strategies being suggested here are not mutually exclusive, btw.

mood

JustMary wrote: »

Sigh.

You post it elsewhere with some other name in it, not yours.

The strategies being suggested here are not mutually exclusive, btw.

Have you any idea how long it would take for google to blacklist it? Would it happen quicker the more I post it on sites?

TsuDhoNimh

JustMary wrote: »

Eventually Google blacklists the original: it cannot tell what is the original, so sees the whole thing as spam.

Google will eliminate the duplicate content from the search results, in order to provide diversity of results and a better user experience, but it won't blacklist all content of that type.

It may not know for sure which is the original, but it will make a best guess based on the information they have at hand. Hoping that article submission sites/directories or any open submission sites, which are constantly the source of spam content due to their very nature, would eventually outrank an authoritative site (assuming the original site is authoritative given it can rank so easily for a term they certainly haven't optimised for) for this content is at best wishful thinking and more likely (as in extremely or certainly) a complete waste of time.