When the FBI announces an arrest, an indictment, or a conviction, that announcement goes up on fbi.gov and it stays there. It is indexed by Google, and because fbi.gov carries enormous domain authority, those pages rank well for the names mentioned in them. If you are dealing with an FBI press release in your search results, you cannot ask the FBI to take it down and you cannot ask Google to remove it. What you can do is suppress it.
Suppression means building enough high-authority positive content about yourself that Google's first page for your name shows something other than an FBI press release when someone searches for you. It takes time and it takes real work, but it is the approach that actually works.
What FBI press releases cover
The FBI's media office publishes press releases about arrests, indictments, guilty pleas, sentencing announcements, and other notable moments in federal criminal cases. These releases are written to inform the public about law enforcement activity. They describe the allegations in the strongest possible terms, which is by design. They are not written to be balanced accounts of the individuals named in them.
For people who eventually had their charges reduced, were acquitted, or cooperated with the government in ways that resulted in favorable outcomes, the original FBI press release often tells none of that. It captures the worst framing of the situation as it existed when the press release was published. That framing is what Google serves up years later.
Why FBI.gov ranks so well
Fbi.gov has been publishing content for decades. Every major news organization in the country links to FBI press releases regularly. The domain is trusted by Google as an authoritative, reliable source. Pages on fbi.gov inherit all of that accumulated authority. When a press release names you, you are effectively competing with one of the highest-authority websites on the internet for your own name search result.
This does not mean the press release is unbeatable. It means you need to build enough credible, well-optimized content about yourself from enough different authoritative sources that Google considers those sources collectively more relevant to a search for your name than a single FBI press release page. That is achievable. We do it regularly.
Building the content that displaces it
The assets that most reliably displace government press releases in name searches are the ones that carry genuine authority. A personal website is the first priority. Your own domain, professionally built and optimized for your name, typically claims a top position in Google for personal name searches because there is no more relevant source for information about you than a page you built about yourself. A personal website is both the highest-impact single asset and the one you have the most control over. Read our guide on why every professional needs a personal website for specifics on what makes one effective.
LinkedIn is the second major lever. LinkedIn profiles rank consistently well for personal name searches, and a complete, well-written profile is one of the fastest ways to claim a positive first-page result. If your profile is thin, outdated, or missing entirely, updating it should happen immediately.
Press coverage in legitimate publications creates additional strong results. A feature in a local business publication, an author byline in an industry journal, or even a quoted expert appearance in a news article creates a page that mentions your name in a positive professional context. These pages rank, and they accumulate over time. Our press placement services are built specifically for situations like this.
For people who have turned their experiences into advocacy, business, or community work, that story deserves to be told in ways that rank. Many people who have been through the federal criminal justice system have gone on to do meaningful things. That work is often inherently interesting to journalists and publications. We help identify those stories and get them told in contexts that carry SEO value.
The long game
The most durable answer to an FBI press release in your search results is a life and career that generates its own positive coverage. Every professional accomplishment, every media mention, every publication you author or contribute to adds another result to the first page of Google for your name. Over time, the press release is outcompeted by a body of content that accurately reflects who you are.
This is not a quick fix. Depending on the authority of the press release and the current state of your online presence, meaningful suppression may take 6 to 12 months. We give you a realistic assessment up front and track progress throughout. We also pursue any available quick wins, like direct outreach to news outlets that covered the original arrest story, in parallel with the longer-term content strategy.
For people returning from incarceration, we approach this work with the respect it deserves. See our resources for people who are justice-impacted. For the full picture of the government press release suppression strategy, see our complete guide to suppressing government press releases from Google.
If an FBI press release is affecting your ability to move forward, get in touch with us.
Related resources
- Complete Guide to Government Press Releases
- Suppressing DOJ Press Releases
- Building a Personal Website for Reputation
- Support for Justice-Impacted Individuals
Why authority is the only currency that matters here
Suppressing a government domain requires a content authority competition, and understanding how journalists and editors assign credibility online helps explain why certain placements work and others do not. The Muck Rack State of Journalism report consistently shows that journalists rely on a narrow set of high-trust digital sources when evaluating whether to cover or cite a person or organization. Getting into those sources, even once, produces a durable indexed page that carries real weight in a name search. A quote in a trade publication that a journalist found while researching a story is worth far more, in SEO terms, than a dozen self-published posts.
The public dimension of this problem is real. Pew Research's Americans and Privacy study found that many American adults are concerned about how companies and government entities use data about them, and they feel they have little control over what information is available about them online. An FBI press release sitting on page one of a name search is a sharp illustration of that feeling. The FTC's privacy and security guidance addresses commercial data practices but is clear that public government records fall outside the categories subject to correction or removal requests. That is why content strategy is the path forward.
The editorial standards behind the publications that actually move search results are worth understanding before you pursue placements. Poynter's reporting and editing resources document how news organizations think about sourcing, corrections, and the permanence of published records. A placement in a publication that follows those standards signals legitimacy to Google's systems in a way that self-published content simply cannot replicate. The Columbia Journalism Review has written extensively about the tension between permanent digital archives and the real-world consequences for individuals named in old stories. That tension is exactly what suppression work addresses by giving Google enough competing context to change what it surfaces first.
What this looks like in practice
When commercial contractors or business owners come to us after a federal indictment leaves an FBI press release as the first result for their name, the approach is methodical. Even if a case resolves with a significantly reduced plea or dismissal, the original indictment press release remains. It is written in the FBI's characteristic language of allegations at their strongest. We build a new personal site optimized for the individual's full name. We update their LinkedIn profile with detailed project history. We secure bylined pieces in regional trade publications. Over several months, these new assets begin to compete with the FBI press release. Eventually, they often push the press release down the page or off the first page entirely.
Founders and executives face similar challenges. A federal case involving a former employer might name an executive as a co-defendant. Even if they cooperate with prosecutors and have their charges dismissed, the FBI press release surfaces whenever investors search their name. Fundraising conversations stall when diligence turns up the old result. Our work focuses on their professional identity as it exists today. We build a personal website with a detailed founder bio. We place guest posts in B2B software publications and secure podcast appearances with well-indexed tech outlets. Within several months, the top results for their name shift toward their current company and professional work. The FBI press release moves down the rankings.
By the numbers
The scale of the problem is significant. According to Pew Research's journalism portal, people regularly use search engines as a primary information source to look up individuals they are considering doing business with or hiring. A single FBI press release sitting at position one or two on Google is a major obstacle. It is the first substantive thing a potential employer, investor, or client reads about you, often before a conversation ever happens.
Government domain authority is a documented reality. Google's own Helpful Content documentation describes how demonstrated expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness factor into ranking decisions. Fbi.gov benefits from decades of inbound links from every major wire service, broadcast outlet, and local newspaper in the country. The Muck Rack State of Journalism report notes that journalists frequently cite government sources and official press releases as starting points when covering legal stories. Every subsequent news article that picks up the FBI announcement adds another layer of inbound authority to the original fbi.gov page. That compounding effect is why press releases from minor cases continue to outrank thin personal profiles years after the fact.
The suppression strategy we use is grounded in how media ecosystems function today. Columbia Journalism Review has documented the shift toward digital-first publishing, with editorial content now indexed rapidly. That speed works in your favor during a suppression campaign. A bylined article, a podcast appearance transcript, or a profile in a regional business publication can be indexed and ranking within days of going live. We place content, it indexes, and it begins accumulating authority almost immediately.
The clients who see the fastest results are usually the ones who already have some presence online, even a thin LinkedIn profile or an old company bio. Google can surface those pages as immediately relevant to a name search while we build stronger assets alongside them. If your current presence is near zero, the 6-to-12-month timeline we describe elsewhere on this page reflects the time it realistically takes to build enough authoritative content from scratch to move a high-authority government page down. That timeline is drawn from outcomes across dozens of cases. It is the honest number.
Another client situation
When professionals come to us years after an FBI press release announces an indictment, they often have already rebuilt their lives. They may have cooperated with prosecutors, received a reduced sentence, and operated a legitimate business for years. Yet, the press release still ranks first for their name. Prospective clients who search them before signing contracts find the old indictment announcement before anything else. Over several months, we build and optimize a personal website, secure bylined pieces in regional trade publications, facilitate profile features in small business outlets that cover their reentry story, and ensure their Google Business Profile is complete and generating reviews. Over time, the FBI press release moves down the page for their name. They report a measurable improvement in client conversion rates, specifically that fewer prospective customers raise the legal history during initial consultations.