A single negative link can feel huge, but search engines look at many signals when deciding what to show. Your job is to stack better signals that are easier to trust than the bad link. Below is a practical kit with 18 signals you can ship this month, plus a quick score gauge and a 30 day plan.
18 signals Google likes more than a single bad link
Use these to tell search systems who you are today. The more of these you publish, the smaller the negative link becomes in the overall picture.
A single page that explains who you are, what you do, where you are based, and what your official channels are. Add your photo, your company, and your location. Link to your LinkedIn, company page, and any press page you control. This gives Google a clean anchor for your name that is more trustworthy than a random negative link.
Ship this first.
Write a page called Questions about [Your Name]. Add 5 to 8 short sections like Who is [Name], Is [Name] with [Company], What does [Name] do in 2026, and Does [Name] still run [Brand]. These match long tail searches that sometimes pull in the negative link. When your Q and A answers those same questions better and with dates, it can displace the negative or at least sit right next to it.
Use the exact phrasing people are searching.
Negative content is often old. A timeline with years, roles, launches, and major changes tells Google what is current. Add entries like 2022 Joined ABC Maritime as Director or 2025 Launched SUSA vendor program. Link from your Bio to this page. Fresh, dated info is a strong hint that this is the version to show.
At least 6 entries. More is better.
Create one home for official responses. Every time there is a story, rumor, or change, add a short entry with a date, a headline, and a two or three sentence explanation. Search systems like sources that look organized and stable. That often beats a single negative page that never gets updated.
Title example: “Statements from [Your Name or Brand]”.
Add a small line at the top of your key pages that says Last updated: Month Day, Year. Do it on Bio, Q and A, and Statements. This shows that your content is current. If the bad link is from 2023 and your pages show updates from 2025, yours looks more relevant.
Do not fake the date. Make an actual edit.
Anonymous content is weaker. Add an author section with name, photo, role, and a link to your LinkedIn or About page. This is especially useful if the negative link is a nameless piece or a forum scrape. Human written and human identified content tends to look safer.
Keep the same author format across pages.
Publish 8 to 12 approved images of you. Name them like chris-martin-shipuniverse-2025-houston.jpg. Add a caption under each one that says who, where, and when. Image search often pulls from sources with better photo labeling. If your images are cleaner than the bad link’s image, yours can appear first.
Link the photo kit from your Bio and Q and A.
Record a 60 to 120 second video that states your name, your role, and the current version of your story. Post it on a page that already ranks for your name. Add a text transcript right under it. Video plus text plus your name is a strong combination that searches can surface over a plain negative article.
Keep the tone calm and factual.
Link your Bio, Q and A, Timeline, Photo kit, and Statements to each other. Use simple anchors like About me, Full timeline, Latest statement. Clusters tell Google that these pages belong together. One bad link looks weaker against a connected group of accurate pages.
At least 2 internal links from every key page.
Use the same spelling of your name, the same job label, and the same location on every property you control. If you sometimes write Chris J. Martin and sometimes Chris Martin, search systems have to guess. Consistency makes your pages more certain than the negative link.
Update LinkedIn, company site, and your own site together.
If your name appears on an official site that has real traffic and real business purpose, that page is a strong signal. Ask to be on the leadership, team, or experts page. These often outrank low quality negative content because they look stable and serious.
Add your headshot and a link to your full Bio.
Get listed on an association, event, podcast, or directory that is on topic. Keep it short and factual. Link back to your site. Even a few of these give Google more safe sources to pull from, which lowers the visibility of unwanted content.
Aim for 3 to 5 of these over a quarter.
Add structured data that declares this page is about a person. Include your name, job title, organization, main image, and sameAs links. This gives search engines machine readable proof that this is the main source for you.
Keep the same image URL you use on the page.
If you keep changing slugs, search engines have to relearn each page. Keep important URLs short and permanent. For example use /bio, /timeline, /statements, /photo-kit. Stability often beats noisy or temporary content.
Update content in place instead of making new URLs.
If your pages load fast on mobile and the text is easy to read, visitors stay. When visitors stay, Google sees that as a healthy result for that name. The bad link might get the click, but if users bounce off it and stay on yours, your page wins over time.
Use 16px to 18px text and short paragraphs.
Ask customers or partners to leave current, specific reviews on the main profile that ranks for your name or brand. Specific reviews that mention the city or the project look real. Old negative links are easier to ignore when recent social proof is visible.
Aim for 3 to 5 recent reviews, not 50 at once.
Build a small gallery of wins on your site with cards like Vendor program reached 120 members or Process cut inspection time by 18 percent. When Google sees several good, dated outcomes, it starts to understand that this is the dominant story, not the old negative.
Link the stack from your Bio so it gets crawled.
If there is one exact phrase that keeps pulling in the bad link, make a page with that phrase in the H1 and answer it directly. Add three dated facts, a short timeline, and a contact route. This often jumps in right next to the negative link and gives people your version first.
This is the safety net for stubborn queries.
Stacking stronger signals is usually better than fighting one bad link head on. Publish small, verifiable pages with dates, keep your name and images consistent, and link everything together in simple ways. Add a short corrections page for stubborn queries and refresh a few items each month. Over time the set of accurate pages becomes the version people see first, and the negative link loses influence.
