The Jeffrey Epstein controversy has caused worldwide panic because nothing can be more unethical than the things revealed in the Epstein files. What’s more disturbing is that Epstein was not alone in those heinous acts and was accompanied by big names like Bill Gates, US President Donald Trump, and more. Now, it has been unveiled that Jeffrey Epstein was in the habit of googling himself on a regular basis. The reason behind this was that he didn’t want the factual information related to his crimes do the rounds on the internet.
Epstein constantly asked Al Seckel (a fixer who appears multiple times in Epstein files) to bury news and articles or any other content that mentions his abuse. And Al Seckel partnered with more than a dozen of SEO consultants, contacts in the sciences, and unrelated acquaintances in removing all the files that talked about Epstein’s past. His network even supported him when he pleaded guilty to procuring a child for prostitution and was classified as a registered sex offender.
What Is Digital Clean Up, And How It Is Executed
Basic digital cleanup means reducing what shows up about a particular individual on the internet. However, in the case of Jeffrey Epstein, things were pretty complex. Here, digital clean up meant reputation management with superpowers focused on, if not improving, cleaning his image online, especially when someone searches for his name on Google.
His associates were controlling search results and burying all the negative information or flattening it all with neutral content. Emails in the Epstein files revealed that he was asking fixers and SEO consultants to clean up his Wikipedia page and eradicate all the derogatory articles and push content based on his wealth, scientific associations, and more aggressively. In simple language, this process is called reverse SEO or reputation SEO, where you focus more on pushing the negative results down instead of publishing a lot of positive content.
What Is Reverse SEO?
Reverse SEO is a reputation management strategy used to push negative search results related to a query down on Google by aggressively pushing high ranking controlled content on the internet. For example, let’s say a media house has published an article on the Jeffrey Epstein case that maligns his image. Now, the article cannot be deleted for sure (until the media outlet is a sold out one), but yes, the SEO team of Epstein started pushing articles around Jeffrey Epstein talking about his philanthropic side or his scientific contributions to push that article down.
This could be done with the help of publishing high authority content on the same keywords. For example, if the article talking about the matter is ranking on the Epstein files, then the SEO people will create a personal website, a LinkedIn profile, press releases, Medium articles, and more. And all of the content will be optimized for that particular search term. Moreover, the content is not limited to articles, but it spans around news features, interviews, podcast mentions, and more.
Wikipedia manipulation is also something that can be done to clean the page of a particular personality. Things like editing the negative reports or adding balanced language could be executed on Wikipedia, but it is more than risky and often gets reversed by the Wikipedia moderators.
Did Reverse SEO Work For Jeffrey Epstein?
Jeffrey Epstein first tried to clean the slate in 2008 after his conviction, and his fixers started working on a few elements – push down articles related to his sexual offences, improve his Wikipedia page tone, promote stories highlighting Epstein’s philanthropy, wealth, and scientific connections. Now, in the period between 2010 and 2018, these things were working enough to keep his reputation intact.
In this period, he was not trending online as a predator and was being portrayed online as a financier with connections to the elitists. However, things changed heavily after 2019 when the topic resurfaced due to investigative reporting, federal charges, and humongous media coverage. After his arrest in 2019, the negative opinions around him have only amplified to date and with the release of the Epstein files, things are becoming messier with each passing day. On a concluding note, the crux here is that you just cannot commit heinous crimes and rely on reverse SEO to play pure soul while being a predator at core.
