How to remove mugshots from Google

Mugshots appear on Google for various reasons. Maybe you landed your first DUI or you were busted in college for doing something you’re not proud of. Regardless, if you’ve found your mugshot online it can cause you to lose that perfect job you’ve always wanted, or cost you tens of thousands of dollars in lost business for the business professionals.

Here are a few scenarios for you to consider when evaluating options to remove mugshots from Google:

• Pay them off [Expect $500 to $1,000 + Low Risk]. Most of the mugshot websites are basically legal extortion. They will guarantee the removal of your mugshots for a large fee, let’s say around $1,000. They can guarantee it because in most cases, they own the websites.
• Suppression [Expect $2,500 to $12K+ Low Risk]. The more known term for result suppression is reputation management. Essentially, what reputation consultants like me optimize positive results about you which will slowly start to bury the negative content. While this technique is highly effective, it can take some time (6+ months) and can be costly. The more authoritative the source is, the most costly suppression can cost. For example, moving down an image that appears on a major network news website is substantially more difficult and time-consuming than bumping down an image that appears on a spammy mugshot extortion website.
• Legal action [ Expect $$$ + High Risk]. Because your mugshot is likely public record, you likely won’t get very far with legal action. However, you can sling a few cease and desist and see if that gets you anywhere. Ultimately, if enough people filed Attorney General complaints against these companies, perhaps the states will at some point be able to shot them down for extortion.
• Negative SEO [ Expect $500 to $2500 + High Risk ]. Negative, or reverse SEO, can be highly effective but comes with substantial risk. Essentially what we’d do is build a less than ethical SEO campaign towards the offending content. The idea is to trick Google into thinking that it’s a legitimate attempt to optimize the image that violates their Webmaster Guidelines resulting in the link being penalized.

So there you have it! Not sure what’s best for you? Feel free to drop me an email at sean (@) seanhakes.com or call me at 303-731-6588 for some friendly free, confidential advice.