When you have multiple negative articles online—mugshots, arrest stories, or outdated court records—it’s natural to wonder whether total removal is realistic.

The good news? In many cases, it is.

At National Security Law Firm (NSLF), our online content removal lawyers achieve permanent removal or deindexing of all articles for many clients, even when the content is scattered across several news sites, blotter pages, and public databases.

Our overall success rate hovers around 70%, but that number includes every case we take—no matter how challenging. For straightforward cases or those with cooperative platforms, full removal is absolutely achievable.

And in the rare event any articles remain, we build a second-phase strategy that ensures those few lingering links don’t define you online.

Step 1: Start With Permanent Removal

The first and most important step is to target legal removal—getting the articles permanently deleted, de-indexed, or anonymized.

That’s where NSLF’s content removal attorneys excel. We use a combination of:

  • Legal authority (expungement and dismissal orders, privacy and mugshot laws)

  • Ethical journalism arguments (based on the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics)

  • Policy reasoning (leveraging “Fresh Start” initiatives at major publications)

  • Human impact storytelling (showing rehabilitation, family effects, and public interest considerations)

This mix of law, ethics, and persuasion works. In many multi-source cases, we secure removal from every publication involved. And once an article is gone, it’s gone for good.

Step 2: If Anything Remains, Complete the Clean-Up With Suppression

While most clients see complete removals, there are instances—like hardline national outlets or platforms with “no-removal” policies—where some articles may remain online.

That’s when Step 2 comes in: suppression.

Suppression doesn’t delete an article, but it pushes it down in search results so it’s effectively invisible to the public. When suppression follows a successful removal campaign, the process is faster, cheaper, and far more effective because:

  • Fewer negatives = less competition. SEO teams have fewer harmful links to outrank.

  • Lower cost. The scope and duration of suppression campaigns drop dramatically when most of the content is already gone.

  • Better results. With the biggest offenders permanently removed, your positive or neutral content dominates Google’s first page.

In short: the more we permanently remove, the stronger your suppression results—and the less you’ll spend maintaining them.

Why the Two-Step Strategy Works

The smartest reputation recovery strategy combines the permanence of legal removal with the visibility control of suppression.

  1. Hire NSLF to eliminate as many articles as possible through legal and ethical negotiation.

  2. Then, if needed, hire a reputable suppression firm to handle any leftovers.

This approach gives you the best of both worlds:

  • Permanent removal of what can be deleted

  • Strategic management of what can’t

  • Lower long-term costs

  • Complete peace of mind

And since removal is permanent and suppression is not, you always want to start with removal first. Once those links are gone, they’re gone forever.

Example: From Dozens of Articles to Digital Freedom

A recent client came to NSLF with nearly twenty articles across different regional news outlets. Within 60 days, our internet content removal lawyers successfully removed or de-indexed seventeen of them.

The remaining three were on a national site that refused all takedown requests. By starting with removal, the client reduced the suppression load by over 85%—cutting costs and time to full cleanup by more than half.

Today, none of the remaining links appear on Google’s first page, and the client’s professional results fill the top ten spots.

Why NSLF Should Be Your First Call

Our process is built for success—and fairness.

  • Flat, success-based fee: $3,000 per source

  • Full refund guarantee: If we don’t succeed on any particular source within six months, you get your money back

  • Flexible financing: 3–24-month plans through Pay Later by Affirm

  • Attorney Review Board: Every case is reviewed by multiple senior lawyers to ensure strategy precision

When you work with NSLF, you’re hiring real attorneys—not SEO contractors or sales reps. Our team, led by Matt Pollack, combines deep media-law expertise with practical negotiation experience that gets results others can’t.

The Takeaway

Most clients who come to us with multiple articles achieve total removal. In the few cases where something remains, we create a second-phase plan that guarantees full reputation repair through suppression.

So yes—sometimes it takes two steps. But by starting with permanent legal removal, you’ll always end up with a cleaner, stronger, and more cost-effective result than if you skip straight to suppression.

Think of it this way: remove what you can forever, then suppress what you can’t.

Either way, you win.

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National Security Law Firm: It’s Our Turn to Fight for You.