Call center workers and trainee lawyers turn to reputation management companies to clean up their digital past

He said: "These are keyboard warrior trolls that have put this material in place and shared it on social networks. People read it and some people believe it. For three years, I did not know what to do. It was horrible. "

There is already a well-established industry in which certain companies or websites rank as high as possible in Google's search results. This is done through techniques known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which consist of ensuring that websites contain keywords, that they refer to other credible or relevant sites. and that they have an established audience.

Simon Leigh, director of Pure Reputation, based in London, describes his company's services as a "reverse referencing", which essentially consists of diverting negative results from the list by making the positive results more interesting for Google's algorithm.

Among the many clients who have used his services are a member of the House of Lords, a television presenter during the day, an African "prophet" and a televangelist.

"We get the negatives on the front page," said Leigh. "We take all the positive things and put them on top. We are like their minister of propaganda. "

Mr Leigh indicates that the process is taking a gradual campaign of building new websites and optimizing existing sites over a period of six months to a year, so the process seems more organic to the algorithm from Google. He added that Pure Reputation could also hire another company to direct traffic to their sites in order to make them more credible to Google.

Google told the Sunday Telegraph that he was aware of reputational management companies.

A spokesman said: "We all want to be able to find accurate information online."

However, people are not just looking at damage control. Simon Wadsworth, founder of Igniyte in Leeds, said he saw more and more leaders in sectors such as oil, gas and pharmaceuticals asking him to create a digital profile worthy of their leading roles or what they are looking for.

"You have those who have fled online and that's a big problem too," said Mr. Wadsworth

"If I apply to be a digital marketing professional and I have no online presence, what does that say about me? A lot of what we do is building reputations rather than trying to clean things up. "

This process leads customers to make down payments ranging from £ 1,000 per month to over £ 10,000, while his company creates websites and content that maximize their digital reputation.

And for Igniyte, business is booming. Mr. Wadsworth said, "I receive inquiries every day of the year, including Christmas Day, and in recent years I would say that they have tripled."