The Problem

A popular athlete approached our team for assistance with negative articles published about them. These articles appeared prominently in search results for their name and their name combined with their sports team. To effectively manage this issue, we treated each search query as a separate campaign, focusing on pushing down the negative articles.

Our assessment revealed three negative results on the first page, featured on high-authority sites such as Yahoo Sports, Bleacher Report, and several news outlets. Recognizing the competitiveness of these sites and the negative impact on the athlete's career, we immediately began our efforts to address and resolve the issue.

The Solution

We began the campaign by documenting the current rankings for the negative articles to establish a benchmark. Next, we identified any positive content ranking below these negative articles that had the potential to outrank them. By cataloging existing positive content, we determined the number of new pieces needed to push the negative articles off the first page. Here's what we did:

  • Created a backlink and traffic campaign for existing positive content. Increased links and traffic signaled to Google that this content was favored over negative articles.
  • Launched an outreach campaign to high-authority news sites, resulting in 8 new positive pieces about our client.
  • Optimized the athlete's website and social media profiles to ensure a clear and consistent message across all platforms, aligning all new content with this message.
  • Acquired several fan page websites using the athlete's name in the domain, making it easier to rank these pages on Google. These sites linked to the athlete's main website, social media profiles, and positive press.
  • Acquired several scholarship sites in the athlete's name. These sites allowed the athlete to offer $1000 or more scholarship to the student of his choosing. This site was then submitted to all of the top colleges quickly getting high-quality .edu links for the colleges to power this site up to the first page of Google. We then linked the athlete's site, socials, and positive press on this site to help power all of them up as well.
  • Added schema markup to the client's official website, connecting their site, social media accounts, and positive press.
  • Began a link building and traffic campaign to all the new assets we created.
  • Began a link building campaign to the athlete's Social Media profiles.
  • Additional strategies were also implemented, but some remain proprietary.

The Outcome

Over the course of twelve months, we successfully pushed all negative articles off the first page of Google. The campaign required extended effort due to the high organic traffic and links that kept these negative articles prominent. Now, these articles have dropped to lower pages where they receive minimal clicks and links, ensuring they continue to drop in relevance.

The athlete's search results are now dominated by positive and accurate content that truly reflects their personal brand. This transformation not only improved their online presence and restored their reputation but also provides a more authentic representation to anyone searching for them on Google—an essential outcome of effective Online Reputation Management for Athletes.

Results based on actual campaign data over a 12-month period. Individual results may vary based on specific circumstances and industry factors.