Want to Remove Criminal Record From Google? Here’s How: In today’s increasingly well-connected online world, searches for ‘remove criminal record from Google‘ and similar terms are at a record high.
Becoming the subject of any one or more pieces of negative content can be highly distressing. It can also be extremely damaging to an individual’s reputation. Rarely is this more apparent than in cases of online arrest details, mugshot images, and criminal records.
If you or someone you care about has succumbed to such activity, you’re probably looking for help.
At NetReputation, our team of analysts, removal specialists, and legal professionals can help you remove criminal records from search results fast. Call us today at 844-461-3632 to get started.
Ready to learn more? Get an updated look at how to remove a criminal record from Google in 2023.
Why Remove Criminal Records from Google?
Whether you are aware or not, people are looking for you online. Typically, people use Google or other popular search engines to find information about you. If you’ve applied for school, tried to secure a bank loan, or applied for a job, chances are that someone has conducted an informal background check on you.
What information is available about you in a Google search? You might be surprised. Positive information can open new doors of opportunity. Negative information, such as mugshots, criminal records, or even embarrassing news can derail your plans.
In order to protect your online reputation, removal of the offending negative information is crucial. With a solid content removal plan in place, you can restore a reputation damaged by negative information — including the criminal record that continues to haunt you in the digital environment.
Getting started
Removing one or more criminal records from Google starts with two important considerations:
- Are you looking to remove a search result from Google?
- Are you looking to remove it from the web altogether?
If it’s the former, are you looking to have the search result removed (known as de-indexing)? Or do you simply want to suppress it from view?
Alternatively, you may be looking to wipe it off the web completely. However you choose to approach the matter, a relatively small number of actions make up at least part of any successful criminal record removal.
Removal from Google search results and so-called de-indexing are more or less the same. Succeeding on either front largely comes down to the search engine.
Complete criminal record removal and search engine suppression are your other leading options.
What not to do
First, let’s look at what not to do.
Two of the first considerations many people have in this situation center on paying for removal. This could be directly (paying a website to remove a criminal record) or indirectly (paying a lawyer to achieve successful removal.
You should never consider the first method (for reasons we’ll explain in a moment). Similarly, paying a lawyer often isn’t a cost-effective solution either (we’ll also touch on shortly).
Paying mugshot, arrest, and criminal record websites for removal
Paying sites like Mugshots.com, MugshotsOnline.com, BustedMugshots.com, Rapsheets.org, or JailBase.com to remove an arrest report or criminal record is usually a bad idea.
Mostly a form of extortion, you may end up paying hundreds or thousands of dollars to remove your information from these sites. What’s more: there’s no guarantee that your mugshot or criminal record won’t simply reappear on another platform.
The owners of such websites are known for their unscrupulous behavior. They also often operate multiple domains. Once you’ve paid to remove your info, your details could simply reappear on another owned by the same team of people.
It’s for this reason that you should never pay so-called mugshot sites for removal.
Turning to your lawyer for help
While turning to a lawyer for help can sometimes be the sensible option, it’s often not the best, particularly at this stage.
As we’ve already discussed, the process behind removing criminal records generally involves one of just a small handful of choices. This is the same no matter who is handling it.
At this stage, much of what your lawyer might do may be done by yourself. Read on to find out more.
How to remove a criminal record from Google
Of course, removing your criminal record completely from the web would be the ideal solution.
And as we’ve shown, paying website owners to remove records shouldn’t be considered. After all, there are more effective ways to approach this goal.
These include:
- Reaching out to less unscrupulous website owners
- Using new laws to tackle removal, and
- Turning to search engines for help
Reach out to a website owner
Not all websites involved in sharing mugshots, arrest reports, and criminal records are run by questionable characters.
In fact, some websites will honor requests to remove such information. While those some almost certainly won’t, other sites—those not in the business of extorting the public—are sometimes open to discussion.
This is especially true if you’ve your case has been dismissed or expunged.
Learn the law on paid removal
Good news! In a growing number of states, various new laws are popping up to protect the public from extortion-based website owners.
That means when an appeal to the site owner isn’t successful, the law may be on your side.
To start, learn where the law stands on paid removal in your state.
In 2021, many states are banning website owners from charging the public to remove arrest information, mugshots and criminal records from their sites.
Instead, many must simply remove this information whenever they’re asked. Check if this applies to you. If so, you’re on to a winner.
Search engine de-indexing
If you’re unsuccessful in removing your criminal record from the source, it may be time to contact search engines about de-indexing the link.
Information doesn’t appear on Google search unless it’s hosted somewhere on the internet. If you can’t remove it at the source, you may be able to remove that link from Google results pages themselves.
This approach has varying degrees of success. For example, Google will often remove links to pages with personal information or content with legal issues. Yet, they’ll only do so when there’s an inherent risk posed to the individual.
Still, you’re always entitled to report any content you believe violates the law or your rights, so it’s generally worth a shot. When successful, search engines will look to block, limit access to or remove one or more offending results.
More recently, Google has promised to look at removing links to websites posting mugshots, arrest details, and criminal records. These include any site where paid removal is the only option to remove information.
If you find yourself in this particular position, reaching out to Google is advisable.
Remove criminal record from Google via suppression
Finally, let’s look at how to remove a criminal record from Google using search engine suppression.
Suppression is best when removing a listing or de-indexing a link on Google or Bing falls short of the mark.
Each of these approaches rests on various factors, ranging anywhere from current state laws and site owner disposition to the search engine’s decision-making process.
Suppression, however, is proven to produce fantastic results for those looking to remove a criminal record from Google.
Suppression works by replacing negative results when searching for your name with positive ones. Chances are when you search your name, things like arrest details, mugshots and other criminal records will appear somewhere in the top 3 results.
That’s because these results are deemed the most relevant. And when you add more relevant content, these results are likely to be replaced.
You can start on this simply by managing an up-to-date LinkedIn, Pinterest, or Tumblr account. You may even be able to push down mugshot images by posting nicer photographs of yourself to Instagram – or by uploading vlog-type videos to YouTube.
The ultimate aim is to push down results concerning your criminal record until they’re not visible on the first page.
Once they’re relegated to page two, fewer than five percent of web users are likely to see them in search results, according to reports.
So, while the information still exists online, its links are no longer prominent on Google. This means it’s unlikely to be seen by most people, even when they’re actively searching for your name.
Other considerations
In terms of some of the above, a lawyer may be able to expedite matters.
But in cases where an individual wants to suppress rather than remove a criminal record from Google, time is the most significant factor.
A successful suppression campaign can sometimes take hundreds or even thousands of hours. If you’d rather be spending this time on important work commitments or with your family, you may wish to call in reinforcements.
At NetReputation, we have over a decade of first-hand experience removing and suppressing harmful online content.
We’re equipped in both the direct removal of criminal records from Google and their suppression. This is thanks to our skilled team of analysts, removal specialists, software gurus, and legal professionals.
You may be asking yourself:
- Can criminal records be removed?
- Does your criminal record clear after 7 years?
- Will Google remove mugshots?
- How long does it take for a criminal record to clear?
We can provide the answers to all these questions and more. As the web’s #1 reputation management service, we’ve helped thousands of clients around the world remove criminal records from Google.
Ready to get started? Contact NetReputation now at 844-461-3632 for a free, no-obligation consultation.
by Net Reputation