How can we stop an article ranking so highly?

[HeatherBakerTopLine]

We secured an article on national newspaper site for a client which now ranks number one for its own branded search term. Since we secured the article (over two years ago) the client has changed the direction of its business so the article is now no longer relevant and is actually causing a lot of trouble for the client. When people search for their business the article is telling readers one thing when their business actually does something else. How can we stop this article ranking so highly?

[DougThePieGuy]

Have you tried organization schema to markup the brand, company name, etc?
http://schema.org/Organization

I second the suggestion to try Adwords if you can't retake the first ranking. Should be pretty cheap if you're bidding on branded keywords with low competition and high-quality score for the client's site.

[KeriMorgret]

The OP doesn't have access to the site, so that's not an option.

[KeriMorgret]

The OP is actually asking about a post on another site that is not under their control.

[EricaMcGillivray]

One thing you might consider doing is building some goodwill with people who are searching for that service and those who provide it. When Moz (then SEOmoz) decided to stop doing SEO consulting, we were still ranking really high for it and people thought that's what we did. Instead of just 404, we created our recommended companies page, which gave some goodwill and helped people out.

[CommT]

Have you (or the company in question) tried contacting the newspaper to ask for the page to be updated/a new page/article written as the original version is so completely different to what the company now does?

[Bryan_Loconto]

Hi Heather!

There are some strong suggestions here, but I really like Donna's suggestion about the Barnacle SEO. Makes a lot of sense and the WBF was great!! Definitely look into that

[donford]

Wow that sure does make things tricky. I like Monica's suggestion that you contact them directly. They  maybe more receptive to doing an addendum to the article. Some web-masters are a tad jiggy about removing content or adding noindex tags when content is performing on their site well.

Best of luck, and since this is a unique question I gave you a thumbs up on the original question.

[DonnaDuncan]

That's a tough one Heather. I've had a surprising number of people ask me that same question.

You have some good suggestions so far. I can think of one more. It's called Barnacle SEO. It's referencing an analogy where you make like a barnacle on a ship, attaching yourself to a higher authority site to outrank the one that's above you in search results.

Rand did a whiteboard Friday on it last summer. It's still not a quick or easy solution, but it could help.

[Highland]

I see you're in the UK. While I'm not a fan of the court decision, there's always Right to be Forgotten. While it doesn't affect other Google indexes (i.e. google.com) or the article itself, it would let you at least have the article de-indexed in your local European market. It might buy you breathing room and maybe get the attention of the publisher so you can have the record corrected (I don't think any press organization likes having bad info out there).

I would focus more on marketing to make up the shortfall. There just isn't any other guaranteed solution. Buy ads, Pay-Per-Click and media time if necessary. Be louder than this article is.

[MonicaOConnor]

Have you reached out to the newspaper and asked them to no follow/no index the page? This is an extremely high authority kind of link that is usually best handled directly with the webmaster of the other site. They should be able to take the page down for you no problem. I wouldn't recommend removing it completely as the brand mention is good for your SEO, but if you can ask them to remove the indexation it will stop out ranking your branded searches.

This might seem like a silly question, but are you searching for this while you are signed it? Your search results might be a little off if you are. Try using the keyword analysis tool here to see if that article truly outranks your branded search. I would make sure of that before I remove the link completely.

If you cannot get in touch with anyone at the newspaper to remove the link the other thing you might be able to try is sending feedback to Google. You can do that at the bottom of the page. It will allow you to send a message to Google and show them exactly which SERP you want moved/ removed.

[LynnPatchett]

Hi,

If you can do as recommended above and get rid of the page completely then this would be the way to go. Since it is on a national newspaper site and a couple of years old I am guessing this might be tough to do (although worth a shot).

Otherwise you can try to boost your own rankings and grab more real estate by:

1. Making sure all your on page data is branded (page titles, company schema etc).

2. Use verified social channels and link to them from your site (especially google+ but fb, twitter, linkedin, youtube are all good).

3. Get a few more branded links into the site (I assuming you are in 2nd position, it is a bit unusual for a branded search to not return the brand as the first option - you might just need a few more (honest) links).

5. Short term solution: Adwords on your brand's search. You should get a 4 pack of site links + descriptions in it also so should give a fair amount of real estate above the newspaper article and should be inexpensive.

[HeatherBakerTopLine]

Thanks for your responses - unfortunately because the article is on a national newspaper site, we have no control over redirecting it or removing it. So I'm really after other ways of stopping it rank so highly. Thanks!

[donford]

Yes, this is another option.

[TheZenAgency]

you could use a noindex tag so the bots do not index it

More info from Google can be found here https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/93710?hl=en

[donford]

Hello Heather,

If the article is completely irrelevant then the best thing to do would remove the content from the site which would prompt a 404 error. In time the article will stop ranking as it no longer exist.

However, it may make more sense to capitalize on its success if at all possible. One possible way is to 301 redirect the page to a different page explaining the change of direction from what was previously stated in the article. This way you still get the initial traffic, and maybe convert those viewers to the new business model.

My thoughts, hope it helps,

Don