When the FBI announces an arrest, an indictment, or a conviction, that announcement goes up on fbi.gov and it stays there. It is indexed by Google, and because fbi.gov carries enormous domain authority, those pages rank well for the names mentioned in them. If you are dealing with an FBI press release in your search results, you cannot ask the FBI to take it down and you cannot ask Google to remove it. What you can do is suppress it.
Suppression means building enough high-authority positive content about yourself that Google's first page for your name shows something other than an FBI press release when someone searches for you. It takes time and it takes real work, but it is the approach that actually works.
What FBI Press Releases Cover
The FBI's media office publishes press releases about arrests, indictments, guilty pleas, sentencing announcements, and other notable moments in federal criminal cases. These releases are written to inform the public about law enforcement activity. They describe the allegations in the strongest possible terms, which is by design. They are not written to be balanced accounts of the individuals named in them.
For people who eventually had their charges reduced, were acquitted, or cooperated with the government in ways that resulted in favorable outcomes, the original FBI press release often tells none of that. It captures the worst framing of the situation as it existed when the press release was published. That framing is what Google serves up years later.
Why Fbi.gov Ranks So Well
Fbi.gov has been publishing content for decades. Every major news organization in the country links to FBI press releases regularly. The domain is trusted by Google as an authoritative, reliable source. Pages on fbi.gov inherit all of that accumulated authority. When a press release names you, you are effectively competing with one of the highest-authority websites on the internet for your own name search result.
This does not mean the press release is unbeatable. It means you need to build enough credible, well-optimized content about yourself from enough different authoritative sources that Google considers those sources collectively more relevant to a search for your name than a single FBI press release page. That is achievable. We do it regularly.
Building the Content That Displaces It
The assets that most reliably displace government press releases in name searches are the ones that carry genuine authority. A personal website is the first priority. Your own domain, professionally built and optimized for your name, typically claims a top position in Google for personal name searches because there is no more relevant source for information about you than a page you built about yourself. A personal website is both the highest-impact single asset and the one you have the most control over. Read our guide on why every professional needs a personal website for specifics on what makes one effective.
LinkedIn is the second major lever. LinkedIn profiles rank consistently well for personal name searches, and a complete, well-written profile is one of the fastest ways to claim a positive first-page result. If your profile is thin, outdated, or missing entirely, updating it should happen immediately.
Press coverage in legitimate publications creates additional strong results. A feature in a local business publication, an author byline in an industry journal, or even a quoted expert appearance in a news article creates a page that mentions your name in a positive professional context. These pages rank, and they accumulate over time. Our press placement services are built specifically for situations like this.
For people who have turned their experiences into advocacy, business, or community work, that story deserves to be told in ways that rank. Many people who have been through the federal criminal justice system have gone on to do meaningful things. That work is often inherently interesting to journalists and publications. We help identify those stories and get them told in contexts that carry SEO value.
The Long Game
The most durable answer to an FBI press release in your search results is a life and career that generates its own positive coverage. Every professional accomplishment, every media mention, every publication you author or contribute to adds another result to the first page of Google for your name. Over time, the press release is not just suppressed. It is outcompeted by a body of content that accurately reflects who you are.
This is not a quick fix. Depending on the authority of the press release and the current state of your online presence, meaningful suppression may take 6 to 12 months. We give you a realistic assessment up front and track progress throughout. We also pursue any available quick wins, like direct outreach to news outlets that covered the original arrest story, in parallel with the longer-term content strategy.
For people returning from incarceration, we approach this work with the respect it deserves. See our resources for people who are justice-impacted. For the full picture of the government press release suppression strategy, see our complete guide to suppressing government press releases from Google.
If an FBI press release is affecting your ability to move forward, book a consultation and we will tell you exactly what is realistic for your situation and what a suppression campaign would involve. You can also get started directly.