In 2024, our team processed over 40,000 removal requests across a wide range of industries. This report highlights the key insights, statistics, and trends that defined our year in review, court record, and news article removals.
Key Themes and Findings - 2024 Removal Insights
- Review removals represented over half of all requests (20,647), with a high success rate of 89.05%. Google Reviews were the most commonly requested and most successful.
- Legal, Healthcare, and Real Estate were the most frequently served industries, with high success rates due to their sensitivity.
- 1,981 requests with a high success rate, primarily focused on court record sites like Trellis.law and Unicourt.com.
What you don't know about your online reputation could be costing you everything.
The 2024 data reveals a fast-evolving battlefield in online reputation management. Review removals dominated the landscape, reflecting how essential it has become for businesses to maintain a spotless online image. Google Reviews led the charge, with more removal requests and higher success rates than any other platform, proof of its outsized influence on public perception.
But not all content is created equal. Court records and news articles stood out as the most stubborn obstacles, with far lower success rates. These aren’t just bad reviews, they’re high-risk content tied to sensitive, sometimes damaging information. Removing them demands a different level of expertise, legal knowledge, and persistence.
The industries we served tell a story of their own. Legal, healthcare, real estate, and technology clients dominated our requests, but they were far from alone. From startups to established brands, businesses across sectors are realizing that their online reputation is a make-or-break factor for success. Today, every brand is vulnerable, and proactive reputation management is a must.
Methodology
The data in this report is based on proprietary records of content removal requests processed by our team in 2024. This includes review removals, court record removals, news article removals, social media removals, and forum removals. Each request was categorized by platform, removal type, and outcome, providing a comprehensive view of our success rates and performance across different content types.
The report does not include the data for our personal information removal service that scrubbed thousands of pieces of information for hundreds of clients from data brokers.
Success rates were calculated based on the total number of requests versus the number of successful removals, defined as cases where content was removed, de-indexed, or otherwise made inaccessible. We further analyzed data by platform to identify the most frequently targeted sites, the most challenging platforms, and the areas with the highest success rates. Specific removal methods and strategies were not disclosed to maintain the confidentiality of our proprietary techniques.
All data is proprietary and has been anonymized to protect client privacy. The insights presented in this report are designed to offer a clear, data-driven view of our content removal capabilities and highlight emerging trends in the field of online reputation management.
We removed 89.05% of all Google reviews for our clients in 2024.
1. Review Removal Platforms and Findings
In 2024, review removals accounted for more than half of our total requests, with 20,647 submitted and 18,386 successfully removed, a remarkable success rate of 89.05%. This high success rate underscores our expertise in handling the most common and impactful type of content affecting client reputations.
Google Reviews led the way, with 13,332 requests alone, reflecting their dominance as the world’s leading review platform. Yelp, Glassdoor, Indeed, and Trustpilot also saw high request volumes, but with varying success rates. Google Reviews were by far the most successful, while Yelp and Trustpilot proved to be the most challenging.
- Total Requests: 20,647
- Successful Removals: 18,386
- Success Rate: 89.05%
- Top Platforms by Requests: Google Reviews, Yelp, Glassdoor, Indeed, Trustpilot
Erase.com’s Google review removal service is designed to help you showcase your strengths and position you as a reliable and trustworthy partner.
We’ve helped over 5,000 businesses manage their online reputation and have removed 15,000+ reviews for our clients in 2024 alone.
Get started and take control of your online presence today.
Our client base in 2024 was diverse, reflecting a wide range of industries where online reputation is critical. Legal services and healthcare led the way, with law firms and medical practices making up a significant portion of our requests. Real estate and technology were also prominent, as businesses in these sectors increasingly recognized the importance of maintaining a clean online image.
We also saw notable demand from automotive services, fitness, hospitality, and education sectors. Each industry presented its own unique challenges, but our team’s expertise ensured successful removals for clients across these fields.
- Top Industries: Legal, Healthcare, Real Estate, Technology, Automotive
- High-Sensitivity Clients: Medical practices, Law Firms, Reputation Management Agencies
Learn more about how we can help remove negative reviews, or about how you can remove negative reviews on your own.
2. News Article Removal
News article removals were among the most challenging types of requests in 2024, with 2,879 total requests but only 552 successful removals, resulting in a success rate of just 19.17%. This highlights the difficulty of convincing news publishers to take down or de-index content, even when it is outdated or harmful.
Patch.com, Law360.com, CBC.ca, and Miamiherald.com were the most commonly targeted sites, reflecting the significant impact that news articles can have on individual and business reputations. Despite the challenges, our team successfully removed harmful articles from dozens of sites, protecting clients from damaging public exposure.
- Total Requests: 2,879
- Successful Removals: 552
- Success Rate: 19.17%
- Top Sites by Requests: Patch.com, Law360.com, CBC.ca, Miamiherald.com
Need help removing a news article?
Erase.com’s content removal service is designed to help you showcase your strengths and position you as a reliable and trustworthy partner.
We’ve helped over 5,000 individuals and businesses manage their online reputation and removed over 10,000 harmful news articles for our clients since 2009.
Get started and take control of your online presence today.
What Makes a Successful News Article Removal Request?
Not all news article removal requests are created equally. The success of a request depends on the site and the reason behind the removal. Here are the key factors that go into creating a strong case:
- Proving Inaccuracies or Misidentification
If the article contains false information or incorrectly identifies you, providing documentation to show the error is essential. This could include court records, personal photos, or official documents that prove the article’s claims are incorrect. - Demonstrating Harm and Defamation
If the article is damaging your reputation or causing emotional distress, you’ll need to demonstrate how it has affected you. Testimonials from friends, family, or colleagues can help back up your claims, and citing defamation laws can strengthen your request. - Legal Grounds and Dismissed Cases
If the article references a legal case that was dismissed or expunged, include court documents that show the case has no standing. This is key for cases where legal information is misused.
For difficult cases where removal isn’t possible, suppression and reputation management tactics can help reduce the article’s visibility, allowing you to maintain a positive online presence. These strategies often involve SEO techniques and creating positive content to push negative results down in search rankings.
In 2024 we removed 23,586 negative links for our clients
3. Court Record Removal
Court record and mugshot removals were among the most challenging types of requests in 2024, with 1,981 total requests and only 834 successful removals, resulting in a success rate of 42.11%. This highlights the complexities involved in convincing platforms to remove legal or arrest records, even when these records are outdated or no longer relevant.
- Total Requests: 1,981
- Successful Removals: 834
- Success Rate: 42.11%
- Top Sites by Requests: Trellis.law, Unicourt.com, Casetext.com
Trellis.law, Unicourt.com, and Casetext.com were the most commonly targeted sites for court record removals. However, some sites proved virtually impossible to work with.
Plainsite.org, Pacermonitor.com, and Leagle.com consistently resisted removal requests, with zero successful removals despite multiple attempts. Platforms like FindLaw also posed significant challenges, often requiring legal intervention to have content removed.
These difficult platforms demonstrate the challenges that come with managing sensitive legal content online. Despite these obstacles, our team worked tirelessly to find solutions, employing specialized strategies to successfully handle removals from the more cooperative sites.
Need help removing a court record?
Erase.com’s content removal service is designed to help you showcase your strengths and position you as a reliable and trustworthy partner.
We’ve helped over 5,000 individuals and businesses manage their online reputation and removed over 1,300 harmful court records for our clients in 2024 alone.
Get started and take control of your online presence today.
4. Social Media Removal Insights
While we primarily focus on review and legal content removal, social media removals represent a smaller portion of our work. In 2024, we received 817 total social media removal requests, with a success rate of 15.18%.
Social media platforms like Facebook (380 requests), Instagram (115 requests), and TikTok (104 requests) were the most targeted. However, social media removals tend to be more challenging due to the automated nature of these platforms, which often rely on algorithms rather than human intervention to filter and remove content.
Our involvement with social media content is typically limited to extreme cases, such as defamation, where legal action or direct intervention may be required. For most other situations, the reliance on platform-specific automated systems makes it difficult to achieve consistent success.
- Total Social Media Removal Requests: 817
- Successful Removals: 124
- Success Rate: 15.18%
This illustrates the complexity of managing social media content, where automated systems control much of the process, and our efforts are focused on the most severe scenarios.
5. Forum Removals
Forum-related removal requests made up another key portion of our 2024 work. We handled 452 forum-related removal requests, with an overall success rate of 22.8%. These requests largely involved popular forums like Reddit, Quora, and other community-driven sites.
Reddit, in particular, remains a significant platform for reputation management, given its vast user base and frequent discussions that can negatively impact an individual’s reputation. However, like social media platforms, forum removals are often hindered by the reliance on community moderation and automated systems.
Despite the difficulty, we saw success in tackling extreme defamation cases, where posts contained false information or malicious content. For less severe issues, it is often challenging to achieve removal due to Reddit’s self-regulating nature and lack of consistent human oversight.
- Total Forum Removal Requests: 452
- Successful Forum Removals: 103
- Forum Success Rate: 22.8%
- Top Forum Site by Requests: Reddit
What These Numbers Mean
The 2024 data highlights a complex and rapidly evolving landscape in online reputation management. The high volume of review removal requests reflects the growing importance of maintaining a positive online image for businesses across industries. Google Reviews continue to dominate, both in demand and success, highlighting their influence on consumer perception.
Court record and news article removals, while smaller in volume, reveal a different challenge. These types of content are more resistant to removal, with significantly lower success rates. This shows the need for specialized strategies and expertise to handle sensitive, high-risk content.
The variety of industries we served, spanning legal, healthcare, real estate, and technology, demonstrates that reputation management is no longer a niche concern. Businesses of all kinds face online risks, and their ability to maintain a clean online presence is now critical to their success.
