Two problems that look alike
From the outside, every bad search result is the same problem: something about you is on the first page and you want it gone. From the inside there are two problems, and they are answered in completely different ways.
One is a removal problem. The page should not be there and there is a route to have it taken down, because it is unlawful, or it breaks the rules of the site it sits on, or it is abuse, or it is yours to delete, or the publisher will change it if they are asked properly. The work is finding the right route and using it.
The other is a suppression problem. The page is lawful, someone else owns it, and it is staying. Nobody is going to delete an accurate news article or a published court decision because you would rather they did not. The work is about where that page sits when a person searches your name.
Getting this wrong is what costs people. Some spend months on takedown requests for pages that were never going to come down. Others pay for suppression when a free form would have settled it. Ten minutes of honesty here saves both.
What removal means
Removal means the page, or the result, is gone. There are two versions of it and they are not the same thing.
- Removal at the source. The website itself takes the page down or edits it. Only the publisher can do that, or a court can order it.
- Removal from Google. The result stops appearing in Google while the page carries on existing. Google says this on its own help pages: taking a result out of Search does not take the information off the internet, and people may still reach it through a link, a social post or a different search engine.
The routes that lead to a real removal are mostly free and mostly official. Google's own tools cover personal contact details, identity and financial information, explicit or intimate images, and pages that have already been changed or deleted. Google's legal process covers court orders, defamation findings and copyright. In Australia the eSafety Commissioner has power under the Online Safety Act to direct a service or platform to take down image-based abuse and serious online abuse. Platforms take down posts that break their own rules.
Our guide to Google's own removal tools sets out what each of those covers and where each one stops. If one of them fits your situation, use it. It costs nothing and it is the better outcome.
What suppression means
Suppression does not touch the page. It changes what people find first.
Google shows about ten results on the first page for a name, and it chooses them by how relevant and trustworthy each page looks. The result you are worried about holds its place because nothing better has taken it. Suppression is the deliberate version of what happens naturally over time: accurate, positive pages about you take the first-page places for your name, and they are kept there. The unwanted result moves down as they move up.
Two honest facts come with it. The page is still published, so anyone who goes looking hard enough, or who searches very specific words, can still reach it. And it is measured in months rather than days, because search engines move slowly, and a result that jumps in a week usually jumps back.
What changes is what an ordinary person sees. Most people who search a name read the first few results and stop. How it works explains the engagement end to end.
Four questions, in order
Answer these honestly. The first yes is your answer, and you can stop there.
- 1. Is it false, or unlawful? Statements that are false and damaging may be defamation, and defamation time limits in Australia are short. That is a conversation with a lawyer this week rather than next month. If a court has already found content unlawful, Google's legal removal process is where the order goes. Nothing on this page is legal advice.
- 2. Is it abuse? An intimate image or video shared or threatened without your consent, or severely abusive content aimed at you, is a matter for the eSafety Commissioner, which can direct a platform to take content down. That is not a search problem and it should not wait behind one. Our removals pages set out how that work runs when you want help with it.
- 3. Is it yours, or does the platform have a process? An old profile, a post you wrote, a page your own business published: change or delete it yourself, then ask Google to refresh the result. A forum post that breaks the forum's rules, or a review that breaks a review site's policy, can be reported to that site at no cost. Report once, quote the rule, and leave it.
- 4. Is it accurate, lawful, and staying? A true article. A court or tribunal decision published the way such decisions are published. A review from a real customer who did not enjoy dealing with you. Nobody is taking those down. This is where suppression is the honest answer, and what we suppress lists the kinds of pages it applies to.
What suppression is not
Said plainly, once, so you can decide with your eyes open.
- It is not removal. The page stays published. If somebody has the link, they still have the page.
- Nothing is fabricated. No invented reviews, no invented people, no made-up history. Everything published about you is accurate and is yours.
- Nobody is contacted. Not the author, not the publisher, not the person who posted. No demands, no notices, nothing that tells anyone you minded.
- It is not instant. How long it takes depends on the kind of site the result sits on, and the date is written on your order before you pay.
- It does not cover every search a person could type. Your name plus the subject of an article is a different search from your name on its own, because the article is the right answer to it. Which searches are covered is written down before you pay.
What it costs
Suppression is priced per search term: the name or business name people actually type. Under each term you list the results you want moved and choose one of two outcomes. The result is pushed out of the first five, so it is not the first thing people see. The result is moved off the first page of Google altogether.
- Above the fold, standard sources: $1,665 per search term.
- Above the fold, hard sources: $2,775 per search term.
- Off page one, standard sources: $4,440 per search term.
- Off page one, hard sources: $6,660 per search term.
Standard sources are the ones in the first band: forums, review sites, social media posts, directories, old or outdated pages, local and trade press. Hard sources are the ones that hold their positions: major news mastheads and broadcasters, court and tribunal records, government pages, reddit threads. A second or third search term is charged at 50 per cent of its own price. Prices are in Australian dollars and include GST. The full list, with the payment options, is on pricing.
Then the part that matters most when you are deciding: you only pay for what moved. On the date written on your order every result you listed is measured, the price is worked out again on the results that met the outcome, anything you paid above that comes back and anything not yet paid is never charged.
Removal work is a different service and priced differently: $999 a month including GST, 3 months minimum, then month to month until you cancel, with the scope confirmed in writing before it starts. Nothing is ever promised to come down, because a removal is a request to a platform and the platform decides.
When it is both
Plenty of situations are both, and the order matters. Use every free route first, because a result that comes down does not need moving and you should not pay to move it. Then look at what is left.
Often what is left is smaller than the thing you started with: one article rather than six pages, or a court record that was always going to stay put while everything around it went. A smaller job is a cheaper job, and it is a faster one.
Where to start
- If you found it today and have not done anything yet, the first 24 hours is the order to do things in.
- If you have not tried the official routes, Google's own removal tools covers each one and what it does not do.
- If it is intimate images, harassment or abuse, start with removals.
- If it is accurate and staying, what we suppress and pricing are the next two pages, 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.