Before anything else
Finding something unwanted about yourself on the first page of Google is a horrible feeling, and the instinct is to do something, anything, right now. Almost everything that instinct suggests makes things worse. Today is for recording, understanding and not reacting.
Two things that are true and worth holding on to. First, far fewer people have seen it than you fear: most people never search your name at all. Second, search results are not permanent. They move, and they can be moved.
If this is affecting you badly, talk to someone. Lifeline is on 13 11 14, any hour. If someone is threatening you or you are in danger, call 000.
Hour one: record what you see
Whatever happens next, you will want a clear record of today. It takes ten minutes.
- Open a private or incognito window and make sure you are not logged in to Google. Your everyday results are personalised and will mislead you.
- Search your name exactly as someone else would: your name, your name plus your city, your name plus your job. Write down the exact searches.
- Save a picture of the first page for each search, on your computer and on your phone. Note the date and where the result sits.
- Open the page itself, save the address, and save a copy of the whole page. If it is later edited or deleted, you will want to know what it said.
Then stop searching. One person's clicks will not move a result up or down, but checking every hour will wear you down and tell you nothing new. Once a week is plenty.
What not to do today
- Do not reply. No comment on the thread, no rebuttal post, no review of your own. New activity tells Google the page is fresh and gives readers a reason to keep talking.
- Do not contact the author or the publisher in anger. A heated message can end up published beside the original. If a legal letter is the right move, it should come from a lawyer.
- Do not pay anyone who promises removal by tomorrow. Nobody controls Google or someone else's website. Some who say they do rely on fake takedown notices, which can come back on you.
- Do not create fake accounts or fake reviews. They get found, and then that becomes the story.
- Do not delete your own profiles. The accurate pages you already have are the strongest thing you own. You will need them.
Work out what kind of problem it is
What you can do depends on what the thing is. Be honest with yourself here, because the routes are very different.
- It is abuse. Intimate images shared without consent, threats, serious harassment. This is not a search problem, and the official route is free and faster than any company. Go to the next section.
- It is false and damaging. That may be defamation, which is a legal question with strict time limits (generally a year from publication in Australia). Talk to a lawyer this week, not next month. Nothing on this page is legal advice.
- It exposes private information. Your home address, phone number, ID documents, bank details. Google will often remove these from results on request.
- It is out of date. The page has changed or gone, but Google still shows the old version.
- It is true, legal, and unwelcome. An old news story, a court record, a bad review, an ex with opinions. Nobody is going to delete it for you. This is the situation suppression exists for.
The free routes, in order
Try these before you spend a dollar with anyone, including us.
- eSafety Commissioner (esafety.gov.au). For intimate images shared or threatened without consent, and for serious online abuse. eSafety has legal powers to have material taken down, it is free, and it is faster than any company. If you are under 18, start here, or with Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800.
- Google's removal requests. Google has forms for removing results that show personal contact details, ID or financial information, explicit images, and content about minors. Search for "Google remove personal information" and use the official support.google.com page.
- Google's Refresh Outdated Content tool. If the page has been deleted or changed and Google still shows the old text, this asks Google to update it. It takes minutes.
- The platform's own report form. If a post breaks the rules of the site it is on (harassment, doxxing, impersonation), report it to the site. Report once, calmly, quoting the rule.
If one of these applies and works, you are done, and you do not need a reputation company.
Look after the pages you own
Whatever you decide later, the accurate pages you already have are worth an hour today. They are yours, they cost nothing, and they are what people should be finding when they search your name.
- Complete your LinkedIn profile properly: full name, photo, headline, a real summary. It is often the single strongest page a person owns.
- Make sure your name is spelled the same way everywhere. Consistency is how Google knows the pages are all about one person.
- If your employer or business has a page about you, check it is current and uses your full name.
- Claim your name on the main platforms even if you do not plan to post. An empty but claimed profile can still rank.
Tell the people who should hear it from you
If there is someone whose opinion matters and who might search your name soon (an employer, a business partner, family), it is almost always better that they hear it from you first, briefly and calmly, than find it themselves. You do not need to tell everyone. You need to tell the one or two people for whom finding it cold would be worse.
Decide what happens next
By the end of the first day you have a record, you have ruled the free routes in or out, and you have not made it worse. Now there are three honest options.
- Wait. News results in particular often sink by themselves within a few weeks as the story ages. If it appeared in the last fortnight, waiting a month costs you nothing.
- Keep your own pages in order. The steps above cost time rather than money, and they are worth doing whatever else you decide.
- Get help. If it has been there for months and it sits on the first page for the searches that matter, that is what we do: our method, a date written on your order, and you only pay for what moved. The price list is public and the intake takes about three minutes.
This guide is general information, not legal advice. For what we do and do not do, see how it works.