Best Online Reputation Management Strategies for 2026 (James Dooley Interviews Charles Floate)
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What Does “Best Online Reputation Management Strategies for 2026 (James Dooley Interviews Charles Floate)” Talk About?
This episode of the Fatrank Podcast features host James Dooley in conversation with SEO expert Charles Floate, diving deep into online reputation management strategies that are actively working in 2026. The two cover a range of tactics designed to help individuals and brands suppress negative search results and control their online narrative. Topics include the use of parasite SEO to leverage high-authority websites, the importance of building consensus through volume of positive assets, and how to handle situations where a large number of negative pages are ranking around a brand.
The conversation also explores the nuances of Google Images rankings, including how mugshot suppression works, why image file size matters, and which platforms like Flickr and news websites tend to perform best in image search. James and Charles additionally discuss how Google News freshness signals can be used to push older negative articles down the rankings, and why publishing positive stories on larger national publications at volume can shift the overall sentiment consensus in search results.
The episode wraps with a practical tip on powering up existing positive sentiment articles that may already rank but sit below negative content. Rather than starting from scratch, this approach involves building backlinks to those positive pages to leapfrog them above the damaging results and push the negative content to page two of Google.
“If you can use high-authority sources, they can normally bury other pages very quickly just based on their root authority.”
— Charles Floate
Who Are the Guests on “Best Online Reputation Management Strategies for 2026 (James Dooley Interviews Charles Floate)”?
Charles Floate is a well-known figure in the SEO industry, particularly recognized for his expertise in parasite SEO and blackout SEO techniques. Beyond those more aggressive tactics, he also works with white hat brands to improve their search visibility and online reputation. His deep understanding of how authority signals, topical relevance, and consensus-building work within Google's ranking systems makes him a sought-after voice on reputation management strategy.
James Dooley is the host of the Fatrank Podcast and an experienced SEO professional who regularly interviews industry experts on a range of search engine optimization topics. His practical, scenario-based questioning style helps draw out actionable insights from his guests, making complex SEO concepts accessible and applicable for listeners looking to solve real-world problems.
What Are the Key Takeaways From “Best Online Reputation Management Strategies for 2026 (James Dooley Interviews Charles Floate)”?
Here are the key points discussed in this episode:
- Parasite SEO using high-authority websites like Wikipedia and DR90 platforms is the number one strategy for suppressing negative search results quickly.
- When a brand has a large volume of negative pages ranking, building an overwhelming number of positive assets across niche and topically relevant parasite websites is necessary to shift the overall consensus.
- Google Images rankings behave differently from organic rankings, with image file size, hosting platform, and source diversity being more influential than alt text or file names alone.
- Freshness is a significant ranking signal in Google News, and publishing positive stories on larger national publications at high volume can suppress older negative articles.
- Powering up existing positive sentiment articles through backlinks is a cost-effective ORM tactic that can leapfrog those pages above negative results without building new content from scratch.
“If the negative story appeared on five websites, you might want 50 positive stories covering positive sentiment around the brand so the overall consensus changes.”
— Charles Floate
Is “Best Online Reputation Management Strategies for 2026 (James Dooley Interviews Charles Floate)” Worth Listening To?
This episode is a genuinely useful listen for anyone who needs to understand how online reputation management actually works in practice rather than in theory. Charles Floate brings a candid, technical perspective that cuts through vague advice and gives listeners concrete mechanisms, such as the relationship between domain rating and suppression speed, why image file sizes matter in Google Images, and how freshness signals in Google News can be deliberately leveraged. The real-world examples, including the Florida mugshot scenario and the local newspaper negative coverage situation, make the strategies easy to understand and apply.
What sets this episode apart is the layered approach it presents. Rather than offering a single tactic, Charles and James work through multiple scenarios and explain why different situations require different solutions. Whether you are dealing with a handful of negative results or dozens of damaging pages, the episode gives you a framework for thinking about authority, volume, and consensus in a way that is immediately actionable. It is a compact but information-dense conversation that rewards listeners who are serious about understanding search reputation at a strategic level.
Who Should Listen to “Best Online Reputation Management Strategies for 2026 (James Dooley Interviews Charles Floate)”?
This episode is ideal for:
- SEO professionals looking to add online reputation management services to their skillset
- Business owners or marketers dealing with negative press or damaging search results
- PR and communications professionals who want to understand the technical side of search suppression
- Digital agency owners who want to better serve clients facing reputation challenges
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What Are Listeners Saying About This Episode?
“The breakdown of parasite SEO for ORM was exactly what I needed. Charles explaining the difference between DR90 sites and niche topical authority sites depending on the volume of negative pages was a lightbulb moment for me. Compact episode but packed with usable information.”
“I had no idea Google Images worked so differently from organic search. The tip about image file sizes and using platforms like Flickr and news sites was something I had never considered before. Really practical advice that I can apply straight away.”
“The point about powering up existing positive articles rather than always creating new ones was a great reminder not to overcomplicate things. James and Charles work well together and the real-world examples like the mugshot scenario kept the whole conversation grounded and easy to follow.”
James Dooley is joined by Charles Floate to discuss online reputation management strategies that are working in 2026. The conversation covers parasite SEO, ORM tactics, suppressing negative search results, Google News freshness, image suppression strategies and how high-authority websites can be used to bury negative sentiment content.
Charles Floate explains how parasite SEO and topical authority websites can help brands dominate search results, suppress damaging articles and improve online reputation. The discussion also covers Google Images optimisation, mugshot suppression strategies, freshness signals in Google News, consensus building and how brands can use positive sentiment articles across authoritative media sources to control their online presence.
James Dooley: Online reputation management strategies that are working in 2026.
Today I'm joined with Charles Floate. A lot of people in the industry know him for parasite SEO and blackout SEO, but he also ranks a lot of white hat brands as well. If someone is struggling with online reputation management and they are wanting to suppress some content, what would you say is the number one strategy for ORM services?
Charles Floate: It has definitely got to be parasite SEO.
If you can use high-authority sources, they can normally bury other pages very quickly just based on their root authority. If you imagine you have some local newspapers talking negatively about your brand, they are probably DR50 or DR60 websites. If you can immediately start putting DR90 parasite pages into the SERPs, especially things like Wikipedia pages or other high-authority entity-based platforms, then you can very quickly bury and suppress content sitting on lower-authority sites. Now, if those negative sentiment pages are in large volume, so maybe you have 50 or 60 pages ranking negatively around your brand, then you need to build an overwhelming number of positive assets to offset that consensus. At that point, there are not enough DR90 sites in the world, so you need to start looking at parasite websites with niche authority and topical authority that are relevant to your industry.
James Dooley: There are situations in places like Florida where someone might get arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct and a mugshot ranks in Google Images.
What would you do for image suppression? Is it still a case of creating positive sentiment articles on high-authority websites and using different images?
Charles Floate: That definitely works well.
However, image rankings behave differently from organic rankings. There are certain sites, image sizes and file structures that rank better in Google Images. If you are trying to rank a huge five megabyte image file, good luck. But if you can start getting images published on news websites, Flickr and large image-sharing platforms, they tend to rank very well in Google Images. The more diversity you have across those image sources, the more chance you have of pushing positive images higher in the rankings. There are also image optimisation elements like alt text and file names which help, but they are not nearly as important as people think.
James Dooley: What about old negative articles?
Let’s say somebody had a bad news article written about them five years ago. Maybe it still ranks in Google News or organic search. Can freshness from new articles suppress the older one?
Charles Floate: Yes. Freshness absolutely works in Google News.
If your SERP has a Top Stories section, freshness becomes a major ranking signal. Generally, freshness matters most when content is days or weeks old rather than months old. If the negative story was published on small local news websites, then you want positive stories published on larger national publications. You also want volume. If the negative story appeared on five websites, you might want 50 positive stories covering positive sentiment around the brand so the overall consensus changes.
James Dooley: We hope you enjoyed the discussion on online reputation management strategies working in 2026.
Make sure you check out the links in the description because there are other videos with Charles Floate covering topics like powering up backlinks, which is another great ORM strategy. Sometimes you already have positive sentiment articles ranking below the negative content. By powering those pages up, you can leapfrog them above the negative results and push the bad content onto page two. Charles Floate, it has been an absolute pleasure.
Creators & Guests
Host
James Dooley is the founder of FatRank which is a UK lead generation company. James Dooley is the current CEO of FatRank that provides high-quality leads for UK business owners.