Delete Bad Press: ORM Strategies That Actually Work

James Dooley: Online reputation management — how to remove bad or harmful content on the internet. People always ask: “I don’t want this displayed to anyone. What’s the best way to get it removed?” The best time to start your positive reputation work is right now. Today I’m joined by Kasra, and our topic is how to remove bad content online. Kasra Dash: This is one of the most common questions we get. Someone has a piece of content they don’t want visible — so how do we remove it? There are a few rules of thumb. First: reach out to the person who published the article. Tools like hunter.io let you plug in a domain and get emails of the journalists or site owners. For example, if it’s johnxyz.com, you can email John and ask for the content to be removed. In that email, explain how it affects your life — like job opportunities. That increases the success rate. You can also do DMCA takedowns, especially if the image or content isn’t owned by the journalist. But it’s not 100% guaranteed. Sometimes, the best option is to outrank the negative content with more positive articles about you. James Dooley: Exactly. You can publish positive-sentiment articles and images that outrank the harmful ones so they drop to page two on Google — which is basically the “dead zone.” Also, top ORM companies have lawyers who can check articles for misinformation and send legal letters. Kasra Dash: Yes — doing it yourself is tough because you might not know what to write. If the article contains slander or misinformation, lawyers can push for removal. The best ORM agencies will both try to remove the content AND push it down to page two or three with positive sentiment articles. There are two sides to ORM: personal and business. Personal ORM - If someone has mugshots or past issues online, they should: - Keep personal Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. active - Post updated images Have a personal website This helps Google rank your profiles above older negative articles. Business ORM Businesses should: - Have many business profile accounts and directory listings - Respond to negative reviews politely This builds trust with potential customers. James Dooley: So, do you think all business owners should be proactive instead of reactive? Kasra Dash: Definitely. If negative press comes out in two years, the best time to build positive content is now — you're building a protective moat around your name. Most entrepreneurs have very few articles about them. If you create 15, 20, or even 100 positive mentions — awards, achievements, press — it becomes much harder for someone to sabotage your name. James Dooley: If anyone wants proactive ORM, or needs harmful images, mugshots, or Google autosuggest cleaned up, get in touch with FatRank.com. Fill in the form, and we’ll analyse how you look online — both personal branding and corporate branding. We offer full online reputation management services.