How to Find Hidden Bad News In Corporate Search Results

Why did organic traffic for your branded searches just drop off? Was it a Google algorithm change, or did your search results change? It’s a nightmare when you find your brand ranking for negative phrases like “fraud” or “scam.” Prospects are fleeing, and your sales team is panicking.

Negative reviews ward off consumers like a leaky septic tank parked right in front of your storefront. You’re a legitimate company. You’ve been in business for years and do great work. But somehow, the internet has stamped a scarlet letter on your business’s brand, and it won’t go away.

You may never be able to remove negative online content completely, but you can mitigate the damage. First, you need to know which queries people are using to find the bad stuff. Then you can act.

Note: We provide a link to a simple reputation plan at the bottom of this post.

Search Your Brand’s Basic Search Phrases First

Start with your exact brand name — it’s the obvious starting place. Include common misspellings and any product or service names associated with your company. Document everything you find, both positive and negative, so you have a baseline to work from.

Uncover Search Phrases People Actually Use

Check Google Analytics and Search Console

Dig into your Google Analytics 4 (GA4) or other analytics dashboards. GA4’s organic keyword data is largely reported as “(not provided),” so pair it with Google Search Console to get meaningful insight into the search phrases people actually used to find your site. Neither tool will show the negative phrases that drove people to competitor sites — for that, you’ll need to dig deeper.

Use Related Searches for Additional Phrases

After you conduct a basic branded search, look for related search suggestions on the results page. Google’s layout has evolved — you may see these as “People also search for,” “Related topics,” or similar features. When these suggestions appear, they reveal what other phrases people use to find your business. For example, for the search term “Goddard School,” here are related searches:

If you own a Goddard School, these are examples of additional branded search phrases to target in a brand reputation campaign. To learn more about how these suggestion features work, see our post on People Also Search For behavior in queries about individuals.

Understand the Four Search Query Types

People perform four basic types of searches when interacting with your brand online.

• Navigational: They are trying to find your site or a specific page within it.
• Informational: They’re not looking for your site but for information it might contain.
• Commercial investigation: They’re researching products or services and comparing options before committing — this is where reputation matters most.
• Transactional: They want to buy something and may never have heard of you before.

Try different kinds of queries to see what your prospects see before they decide to do business with you. Understanding how search results appear differently to different people and locations is also critical — what you see logged into your own account may not reflect what a stranger in another city sees.

Search Across Multiple Engines and Platforms

Use Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo

Search your branded phrases in Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo, which has a substantial privacy-conscious user base. Bing now powers AI-driven chat results through Copilot, and Google’s AI Overviews can surface negative content in ways that traditional SERP reviews might miss. When you find something negative — a review site, a critical blog post, or an attack site — document the URL. The search phrases you uncover during ORM (online reputation management) research will reveal what your prospects are actually seeing.

Use Facebook, X, and Reddit

Not all reputation-damaging content shows up in Google and Bing. If pages are public on X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook, search those platforms directly. Reddit has become especially critical — Google significantly increased Reddit’s visibility in search results in 2023–2024, and Reddit threads now frequently appear on the first page of branded searches. LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram are also worth checking as part of any thorough ORM social search strategy.

Set Up Ongoing Brand Monitoring

Several tools can monitor your brand online and flag new mentions before you’d catch them manually. Free options include Google Alerts and Talkwalker Alerts — though Talkwalker was acquired by Hootsuite in 2024, so its free product’s feature set may evolve. For more robust monitoring, paid tools like Brand24, Mention, and Semrush’s Brand Monitoring tool offer stronger coverage and more actionable reporting. Ongoing alerts will surface new mentions far faster than periodic manual spot-checks. For a deeper look at available tools, see our overview of the top online sentiment monitoring platforms.

What to Do Next

If you found no negative search results, bad reviews, or damaging articles, your traffic drop may be due to an algorithm change rather than a reputation problem. To check for major algorithm updates, consult tools like MozCast, Semrush Sensor, Google’s Search Status Dashboard, or RankRanger’s Rank Risk Index while reviewing your GA4 data. Compare spikes in algorithm volatility with drops in your traffic to identify any correlation.

Once you know what people are seeing and have monitoring in place, your list of problem websites will help you determine what can be removed, suppressed, or promoted. Our guide on running an online reputation audit for your brand walks through this triage process in detail.

If you’d prefer to have someone else manage your brand’s reputation, you can review the various costs of reputation management on this page.