Where damaging Reddit posts come from
Negative Reddit links can cause real damage when they appear on the first page of Google and other search engines. At Nadernejad Media, we’ve seen these posts come from three distinct sources.
First, you have genuine Reddit users participating in discussions, sharing experiences, or asking questions about a product, service, or person. These are usually organic, community-driven posts.
Second, there are frustrated users who feel wronged or disappointed. They might post complaints or detailed reviews based on personal experiences.
Then there’s the most dangerous type: deliberate threat actors. These users intentionally publish damaging content on Reddit using your name alongside negative keywords like “fraud,” “scam,” or “spam.” Their goal is to trigger search visibility and make sure your name is associated with negativity on Google.
How to find if there’s a Reddit thread about you
Before taking action, you need to confirm whether a Reddit thread exists that mentions you by name or business. These posts can appear in Google results quickly, especially if they include negative language. Here’s how to find them:
- Use Google search operators
Search the following phrases directly in Google:
- site:reddit.com “Your Name”
- site:reddit.com “Your Company”
- site:reddit.com “Your Name” scam
- site:reddit.com “Your Name” fraud
- site:reddit.com “[email address]”
- site:reddit.com “CEO of [Company]”
These searches will show Reddit posts indexed by Google that include your name or business.
- Try alternate name variations
To catch indirect mentions, search for variations such as:
- First name with last initial
- Nickname or username
- Abbreviated business name
- Common misspellings
- Search on Reddit itself
Use Reddit’s built-in search at reddit.com/search and enter your name or company. Filter by “Top” or “New” to spot high-visibility or recent threads. - Set up Google Alerts
Create alerts using phrases like:
- “Your Name” site:reddit.com
- “Your Company” Reddit
This helps you monitor new posts the moment they’re indexed by Google.
- Use SEO monitoring tools
Platforms like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or BrandMentions can uncover Reddit links that rank for your name and show how they’re performing in search.
Why Does Reddit rank so high on Google?
Reddit consistently dominates search engine results because of its high Domain Authority (DA), a metric that reflects trust and credibility. With a DA over 90, Reddit competes with legacy media, Wikipedia, and government websites. Google treats Reddit as a trusted source for user-generated information, which gives its threads top billing across many search queries.
Beyond authority, Reddit content is indexed quickly due to its real-time activity and constant internal linking structure. Posts are grouped under subreddits with shared themes, increasing crawlability and relevance. Even low-vote posts can rank on Google simply because they’re published on reddit.com.
What makes Reddit even more dangerous from a reputation standpoint is its permanence and lack of moderation in many subreddits. Posts are rarely taken down unless they break strict platform rules, and even then, cached versions or reposts often persist. Threads often accumulate backlinks from forums, blogs, and other Reddit discussions, reinforcing their SEO weight over time. Since Google also prioritizes recency and user interaction, highly active threads—especially those involving negative keywords—can surge in visibility even years after their original posting.
Finally, Reddit’s long-tail keyword structure and user-generated titles often match exactly what people type into Google. This gives Reddit an organic advantage for reputation-damaging searches like “Is [Name] a scam?” or “[Company] fraud review,” making it a prime vector for digital defamation.
How Google favors user-generated content from Reddit
Google’s algorithm increasingly values authenticity signals. User-generated content (UGC) from forums like Reddit reflects real-world conversations, buyer intent, and experience-driven keywords. This aligns perfectly with Google’s helpful content updates, which aim to prioritize firsthand insight over corporate SEO pages.
Reddit posts often contain:
- Natural language questions and answers
- Keyword-dense conversations
- Long-form engagement
- Real opinions and controversy
Because this mirrors how users speak and search, Google sees Reddit as high-value content, especially for review-based or investigatory search queries like:
- “Is [Name] legit?”
- “Anyone dealt with [Company]?”
- “[Product] Reddit reviews”
As a result, even Reddit threads with few comments can rank high if they match searcher intent.
The role of subreddit authority
Not all Reddit posts are equal. The authority of the subreddit where a post appears directly affects its ability to rank in Google. High-moderation, high-subscriber subreddits like the following often carry the most SEO weight, and certainly much more than obscure or inactive subreddits.
- r/Scams
- r/LegalAdvice
- r/PersonalFinance
- r/AskReddit
- r/Entrepreneur
Google gives more trust to these subreddits because they have more backlinks, are updated frequently and are moderated with community standards. In addition to that, they rank for many other queries already
A negative post in r/Scams will often rank faster and higher than the same post in r/UnpopularOpinion or a niche hobby subreddit. Understanding this can help you triage which Reddit links need to be suppressed first.
How comments and upvotes affect crawl frequency and ranking
Googlebots treat engagement as a freshness signal. Threads with lots of comments, upvotes, and traffic get re-crawled more frequently and are perceived as more relevant. If a Reddit post starts receiving ongoing attention—especially in the form of replies or link shares—it will maintain or even improve its ranking position over time.
In contrast, stagnant threads with no upvotes or follow-up tend to drop in rankings if stronger content emerges. That’s why engagement control (not responding, not sharing, not feeding the thread) is critical during the early phase of a suppression campaign.
To reduce visibility, you want the thread to appear inactive. Let it decay while you build stronger content around your name. Once it loses freshness and authority, it’s easier to suppress or replace with a positive Reddit post.
Suppression always comes first
At Nadernejad Media, we recommend suppression before removal. Suppression offers consistent progress. You can push harmful content off page one by strategically building and boosting high-authority links around your name or brand.
The goal is to take weight away from Reddit and overpower it with trustworthy, relevant, and frequently indexed content. Here’s how we do it:
- Press releases through EIN Presswire
We syndicate 1 to 5 stories per month across hundreds of trusted news sites. These press releases are indexed quickly and often flood the first few pages of Google. The distribution volume alone is enough to dilute the Reddit result in most cases. - Personal websites
We build 1 to 3 personal or brand-specific websites optimized for Google rankings. These sites typically appear in positions 1 to 5 when executed properly. They anchor your presence in search results and push Reddit links further down. - Social media pages
Reliable social profiles like LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram often rank on the first page. We optimize and connect these profiles with consistent metadata and backlinks to improve their ranking. - Independent guest posts
We publish 500 to 2500-word articles on independent websites. These are feature-style stories that highlight your achievements, reputation, or expertise. We buy these placements and structure them to outrank Reddit links based on keyword targeting and backlink strength. - Crosslinking Reddit and your content
Once suppression is in place, we publish positive Reddit threads and link them to your press and blog stories. We also link your content back to the Reddit thread. This increases domain association and may trigger a swap in Google’s indexing — replacing the negative Reddit link with a new positive one or pushing it down altogether.
Suppression doesn’t happen overnight, but it allows for consistent visibility improvements every week. Over time, this strategy can bury the negative Reddit post and replace it with neutral or positive coverage.
Case study: real estate professional removes damaging Reddit post in 90 days
A client in the real estate sector came to Nadernejad Media Inc after discovering a Reddit thread that falsely associated his name with fraud and unethical business practices. The post appeared in r/Scams and began ranking on the first page of Google in both Canadian and U.S. search results for his name.
The post was created by an anonymous user with no verified details. It included inflammatory claims and triggered immediate reputation loss and client concerns.
We launched a suppression campaign targeting that Reddit thread as the top priority.
Phase 1: Suppression strategy
We began by publishing a series of press releases through EIN Presswire, distributing 5 pieces across business and real estate publications. These stories were structured around the client’s community involvement and leadership milestones.
Simultaneously, we launched two branded personal websites, optimized them with SEO-rich copy, and indexed them with structured data. We also published long-form guest articles (1,000 to 2,000 words each) on real estate, investment, and entrepreneurship sites to build link diversity.
Next, we created a content calendar for short-form YouTube videos and social profiles, each embedded with the client’s name and optimized to appear on Google’s first page.
Phase 2: Monitoring and persistence
Within 45 days, the Reddit link dropped off the first page in most Google results. However, it intermittently returned in Google.ca and Google.com depending on device type and location.
To address this, we expanded the scope and added more content clusters around the client’s name, including Medium posts, Quora answers, and LinkedIn long-form posts. Our team adjusted anchor text ratios and internal linking to reinforce the new content.
We used Google Search Console and third-party tools to track fluctuations. Each time the Reddit post reappeared, we responded by increasing publishing frequency and refreshing old assets to trigger recrawls.
Phase 3: Threat actor tracking
Due to the malicious tone and repetitive wording across platforms, we suspected the Reddit user might be targeting our client across multiple sites. Using a Grabify link disguised as a document viewer, we attempted to trace the user’s IP address and device metadata. The data indicated a VPN was in use, but we were able to narrow down the region and browser type for further pattern-matching.
Final outcome
By Day 90, the Reddit post had disappeared entirely from both Canadian and U.S. search results across desktop and mobile. We had built more than 40 indexed assets across platforms, with a combined domain authority network that fully displaced the original Reddit link.
While the case required multiple suppression waves, our team successfully met all client KPIs, proving that even persistent Reddit posts can be removed from public visibility when the strategy is precise, aggressive, and scalable.
Reddit post removal: what to know
Removing harmful Reddit content is significantly harder than with most platforms. Reddit values free expression and decentralized moderation, which means there’s no central authority to quickly take down a post. Unlike platforms with more uniform reporting systems, Reddit relies heavily on individual subreddit moderators and strict legal standards. As a result, takedown success depends less on platform policy and more on strategy, persistence, and timing. Below are the main pathways for removal, each with its own limitations and leverage points.
Reddit removals are more complex and less reliable. Here are your primary options:
- User deletion
If the original poster deletes their content, it disappears. This typically requires outreach, diplomacy, and often a legal or reputation strategy to engage them. - Reddit moderation
Every subreddit has its own moderators. If a post violates subreddit rules — for example, if it’s defamatory, contains personal information, or spreads misinformation — you can report it directly to the mods. - Reddit admin escalation
If moderators don’t act and the post violates Reddit’s Content Policy (harassment, doxxing, impersonation, etc.), you can escalate it to Reddit admins. This requires documented evidence and persistence. - Legal takedowns
In extreme cases, a DMCA or legal defamation claim can be submitted through Reddit’s legal request portal. These are reviewed by Reddit’s legal team and require substantial proof. A lawyer may need to be involved.
Important: Reddit will not remove content simply because it’s negative or hurts your reputation. They protect user speech, so removals should only be pursued when suppression has failed or when legal thresholds are met.
FAQ: Removing Reddit links from Google
Can I just ask Reddit to remove the post?
Only if it violates Reddit’s rules or policies. Being negative or damaging doesn’t qualify on its own.
How long does suppression take?
Most suppression campaigns take between 30 and 90 days to show major results. We usually see link movement within the first 2 weeks.
Do Reddit links always show on the first page?
Reddit has high domain authority, so its links are favored by Google. But they can be suppressed with stronger or more relevant content.
Can positive Reddit posts replace negative ones in Google?
Yes. With the right linking strategy, positive Reddit threads can take the place of older, negative ones in search results.
What happens if the post goes viral?
If a Reddit post is getting engagement and links from other sites, it becomes harder to suppress. In this case, we increase content volume and may pursue moderator or legal action if removal is possible.
Should I respond to the post?
Usually, no. Engaging often revives the post and sends signals to Google that it’s still relevant. Let us handle it silently in the background.
What if the Reddit user is lying?
If the post is provably false and harms your reputation, a legal approach may be possible. However, we always recommend trying suppression first.
If you’re dealing with a damaging Reddit post, contact Nadernejad Media. We’ll show you exactly how to suppress it, rebuild your reputation, and help you own your name in Google search.
