Four defamatory websites were damaging a client’s online reputation. One ranked first on Google, ahead of the client’s own website. Through a strategy of regular publishing on the client’s blog and social media, including YouTube, we pushed all four websites beyond the tenth page of the relevant search results. They also disappeared from the client’s Wikipedia page.
This case study is presented anonymously to protect the client’s confidentiality.
The situation: defamatory content ahead of the official website
A Google search is often someone’s first contact with a person or a business. The results can influence trust before any conversation has taken place.
For our client, that first impression was being compromised by four defamatory websites. One ranked first on Google, ahead of the client’s official website. Someone searching could therefore encounter the allegations before reaching the client’s own account.
These websites were also referenced on the client’s Wikipedia page, providing another route to the damaging content.
The problem lay as much in their visibility as in their existence: they occupied a disproportionate place in the way people discovered the client.
The challenge: taking action when removal was out of reach
In this case, securing the removal of the four websites through legal action was out of reach. We therefore needed a way to improve the situation while the websites remained online.
Our objective was clear: push the defamatory websites down Google’s results by strengthening the client’s digital presence.
The starting point was particularly difficult. In particular, we needed to displace a website that ranked first, ahead of the official source.
The approach: publishing regularly to regain visibility
We implemented a strategy of regular content publishing on the client’s blog and social media, including YouTube.
The blog formed the foundation of this editorial approach. Social media and YouTube publications complemented that presence, developing content associated with the client across several platforms.
The aim was to give more prominence to content the client controlled and gradually push the defamatory websites further down the search results.
Consistency was central to the strategy. This meant building a sustained presence rather than relying on a single publication to change an established situation.
This approach directly addressed the problem: when damaging content dominates search results, developing your own presence gives you a way to influence what people discover first.
The results: all four websites pushed beyond the tenth page
At the end of the intervention, two major changes were observed:
- All four defamatory websites had been pushed beyond the tenth page of Google, for the searches concerned.
- They no longer appeared on the client’s Wikipedia page.
The most striking change involved the website that had initially ranked first: it had moved from a position ahead of the official website to beyond the tenth page.
The websites had not been deleted, but their visibility had changed substantially. They no longer occupied the first results people encountered for the relevant searches.
Their disappearance from the Wikipedia page also reduced the opportunities to discover them. This is a separate observed result; it does not mean that we edited that page ourselves.
The lesson: build your presence to protect your reputation
This case shows that being unable to secure the removal of damaging content does not close off every opportunity to act.
A consistent editorial strategy combining a blog, social media and YouTube can help regain visibility and reduce the prominence of defamatory content.
In this case, that approach pushed four websites beyond the tenth page of Google, including one that had initially ranked ahead of the client’s official website.
These results describe the situation observed at the end of the intervention. Google rankings and Wikipedia content can change, so they are not a permanent guarantee.
Protecting your reputation also means building a presence strong enough that others do not get to tell your story alone.