How we closed and de-indexed a Trustpilot profile that was undermining a rebrand

Rebranding is supposed to be a fresh start. For this client it wasn’t, because the old brand’s Trustpilot profile was still very much alive:

• Negative reviews kept accumulating.
• The profile ranked on Google for the old brand name.
• Because the two brands were linked in the market, that reputation followed them into their new identity.

Prospects, partners, and potential clients researching the new brand were landing on a page full of negative reviews tied to a business the founders had moved on from. The rebrand was working everywhere else. This one page was undermining all of it.

There was no responding their way out of it. The old profile had its own history, its own reviews, and its own ranking. The only real solution was to close it and remove it from Google entirely.

Step one: close the Trustpilot profile. This meant proving to Trustpilot that the old brand was no longer operating and that the profile no longer served a legitimate purpose. It is not a process Trustpilot makes easy: without the right approach and documentation, these requests stall or get rejected. We handled the full submission, provided the documentation, and had the profile closed within two weeks.

Step two: de-index it from Google. This is the part most people miss. Closing the profile removes it from Trustpilot, but the indexed URL can keep surfacing in Google for weeks or months, still showing a removal notice and still tying the brand to that Trustpilot footprint. We started the de-indexing immediately, and within about a week the URL was gone from Google entirely.

The profile is gone. The Google listing is gone. The connection between the old brand’s Trustpilot history and the new brand’s presence has been severed. Anyone researching the company today finds nothing tied to that old page, and a search for the old brand name now returns no Trustpilot results at all.

The lesson applies to any business that has rebranded, merged, or restructured: the old digital footprint doesn’t disappear on its own. Old review profiles, directory listings, and content tied to a previous name can follow you indefinitely unless they’re actively closed and removed. Most people don’t know that option exists.