The Problem
A founder and CEO with a long track record in B2B technology came to us with a problem that was quietly costing him business. A personal bankruptcy, and a related civil case with a fraud allegation in the complaint, had been picked up by legal-aggregator sites and a handful of news write-ups. When prospects, partners, and investors searched his name, that was the first thing they saw.
For someone whose entire credibility rests on running companies and handling money well, a bankruptcy story on page one is poison. It did not read as "had a hard year." It read as "do not trust this person with your business." Deals stalled mid-conversation. A couple of promising prospects went quiet after a strong first call and never came back. He was not losing clients to a competitor. He was losing them to a search result.
The Solution
Sorted removable from non-removable
We mapped every result and split it in two. The legal-aggregator sites republishing the bankruptcy and case filings were removal targets. The coverage on real news outlets was not removable, so that became a suppression job. He knew exactly which was which on day one.
Targeted the legal aggregators for removal
We filed takedown and de-indexing requests with the court-listing and legal-aggregator sites carrying the filings, and cleared the ones that were eligible. Every copy we removed was one less way for the story to surface.
Promoted positive content to outrank the rest
For the news coverage that could not come down, we built and ranked authoritative content about his companies, his results, and his expertise, pushing the bankruptcy stories off page one. We monitor it on a recurring schedule so it stays down.
- Justia Removed
- CourtListener Removed
- UniCourt Removed
- Trellis Removed
- PacerMonitor De-indexed
- DocketBird Suppressed
- Bankruptcy news coverage Suppressed
The legal-aggregator sites republishing the bankruptcy and case filings are third-party databases, so most respond to direct takedown and de-indexing requests. The news coverage on real outlets cannot be removed, so we outranked it. Each result was sorted into the right bucket on day one.
The Results
| Metric | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Legal-aggregator listings | Republishing the filings | Removed where eligible |
| Bankruptcy news coverage | Top of page one | Suppressed below the fold |
| First impression on search | The bankruptcy | The founder and his work |
Representative results. Aggregators removed, news suppressed. Client specifics under NDA.
A bankruptcy does not have to be a life sentence on Google. The aggregators that pile on can often be removed outright, and the news that cannot be removed can be outranked. The goal is not to hide it. It is to make sure it is not the first thing a client decides about you.
Details anonymized to protect client privacy.