Data from 714 suppression campaigns reveals what actually works when pushing down negative search results

MARTECH reports on original research by Erase.com tracking 714 suppression campaigns launched between August 2024 and May 2026. The study found that where a negative result ranks—not the sheer volume of positive content published—best predicts whether a campaign will clear page one; campaigns whose worst negative started at position four or lower cleared page one 3.5 times as often as those starting at position one. Court records and mugshot sites typically leave page one faster than Reddit threads, news articles, and government pages. The analysis also flags a complication for reputation management: AI Overviews often cite URLs ranked beyond the top 10, meaning pushing negatives to page two may no longer be sufficient, and practitioners should track AI answer citations separately and aim to push the hardest negatives further down the results.