Best Reputation Management Companies & Services (2021)

Why people hire reputation management companies

People are five times more likely to read content on the first page of Google than on page two. So, you get fewer than ten search results to tell customers and stakeholders your entire story. Left to chance, your search results could be unfavorable, out of date, or maybe even riddled with someone else’s story. Reputation management companies ensure that you control your online narrative.

That’s not just important when it comes to preserving your legacy, but also because reputation drives critical business outcomes.

In fact, negative search results can cost businesses hundreds of millions of dollars per year. Consider these alarming reputation management statistics:

Sadly, too many people do nothing hoping their negative online reputation just goes away. Others try to drown out the problem with ineffective internet marketing. But these issues rarely self-correct; in fact, they often get worse — sometimes much worse.

Of the few who do take action, many attempt to tackle issues by themselves rather than hire an online reputation management company. But DIY options require a profound understanding of SEO and public relations to be effective.

Beyond that, anything involving SEO simply demands major resources.

In short, enterprise companies as well as CEOs and executives hire internet reputation management companies because they don’t have the expertise or the bandwidth to manage their own online reputations.

So, once you decide to work with a reputation repair agency, you’ll need to figure out which services are best for you. I’ll elaborate more on that in the next three sections.

Types of reputation management offerings

Most reputation management companies have two distinct types of offerings: online reputation management for individuals and businesses. While the desired outcomes are the same, they often use different strategies to get results.

For instance, ecommerce businesses may want to focus on review management, while an individual may need to improve his or her online presence. Let’s dig deeper.

Online reputation management for individuals

It’s important to note that online reputation management isn’t for everyone. Even offerings on the cheaper side of the spectrum can be too expensive for most people. Then again, just because something costs a lot doesn’t mean it will be effective.

That said, individuals who will truly benefit from reputation management are those with the most to lose from a damaged image. This group includes: CEOs, executives, company founders, celebrities, philanthropists, politicians and financial services professionals. This list is far from exhaustive, but you get the idea.

The vast majority of people who look into ORM for individuals ultimately end up choosing a simplified DIY solution that costs less. However, those individuals who can afford an enterprise-level offering are primarily concerned with the following issues:

• Misrepresented legacy
• False or damaging negative news articles
• Public personal information
• Underrepresented digital presence

At the risk of oversimplifying things, here are a few common strategies reputation management companies might deploy to address those issues:

• Expand and improve the individual’s social media accounts
• Create additional websites, blogs and professional profiles
• Earn positive media mentions

ReputationManagement.com gets 11 points out of 10 from me. Their approach is so logical and they quite simply get results.

CMO, FORTUNE 500 COMPANY

Business reputation management services

Reputation management services for businesses are incredibly situational. For example, negative reviews require a very different approach to eradicate than, say, a flood of viral news articles on top-tier publications.

As a matter of fact, it may be best to refrain from aggressively publishing positive promotional content until a crisis has been resolved. Instead, agencies should build up digital assets that you control until the media frenzy dies down.

It’s also important to mention that while small businesses often look into internet reputation management, many eventually settle on lower-cost review management software. Then again, it really depends on your situation and how much you’re willing to invest.

Why do businesses need reputation management companies?

Businesses seek out reputation management companies for many different reasons, but these are the top issues:

• Bad reviews (Google, Yelp, Facebook, Ripoff Report or Glassdoor)
• Negative brand/product/service comparison articles
• Unfavorable press (about the business or executives)
• Underrepresented digital presence
• Brand ambiguity

Essentially, anything that affects customer trust, sales or revenue is worth fixing.

ORM isn’t just about repairing damage, though. Many companies opt for preventative solutions to protect their reputation from future issues. Personally, I recommend a sustainable, ongoing solution over a short-term contract that may lack permanence.

At this point, you probably understand that ORM isn’t a cheap quick fix. So what exactly do you get for your monthly check?

Top reputation management company solutions

The best reputation management companies don’t offer templated solutions. Instead, they draw from an arsenal of online reputation management strategies to solve search-related problems.

I’ll be completely honest: Some of our strategies are closely-guarded secrets, so I won’t discuss them in this article. Only our clients have complete visibility into our process. However, I can share the most widely-used strategies to get results, many of which we deploy at scale for our own clients through our proprietary software.

Content marketing and press release distribution

Most reputation management companies prioritize content. In fact, it’s used in so many different ways that I could write an entire article just about content strategy.

For starters, firms use content marketing to dilute negative topic density in Google’s index. They do this by publishing tons of high-quality positive material, whether through press releases or paid placements. But it’s not just about brute force. Here are a few examples of how the top reputation management companies creatively leverage content marketing for their clients:

• Expert article writing
• Microsite creation
• Video production
• Image publication
• Posting to social media sites

I bet you thought positive content creation solely meant articles. Here’s the thing: In order to build an unshakable online presence, you need to diversify your search landscape. As an added bonus, images and videos take up a lot of real estate on the first page of Google.

Picture it like this: Each piece of positive content in your search landscape is like a brick in your digital fortress.

Search engine optimization

The primary difference between online reputation management and public relations is SEO. No amount of content in the world will improve your reputation if it doesn’t rank on page one of Google, Bing, Yahoo or any other search engine.

Reputation management companies use search engine optimization in several ways. First, they make sure the content you control is optimized properly so it performs well in search. That means they’ll meticulously craft your meta descriptions, title tags and even the page copy on all your websites and blogs so it ranks for your branded keywords.

A word of caution, though: Some back-alley online reputation management firms use black hat SEO techniques for quick wins. We firmly advise against these tactics because they can get your websites into hot water with Google. If you get hit with manual actions, your sites could be deindexed completely. We won’t let that happen to you.

Online review management

You can actually look at online review management as three separate strategies:

• Earn new reviews – Did you know that it takes as many as 12 positive reviews to offset the reputational damage of a single bad one? But don’t let anyone talk you into faking favorable reviews. I’ll explain more on that in the “worst reputation management firms” section.
• Remove or bury negative reviews – You may be able to delete a Google review if it violates their company guidelines, and the same goes for Yelp. On the other hand, sites like Ripoff Report won’t remove complaints at all. Experienced reputation management consultants will know how to map out the best course of action to bury negative results.
• Manage customer feedback – Potential customers read your company’s reviews, so it’s critical that you stay on top of them. If you can’t keep up, you’ll need to work with a firm that provides that type of service. For example, some software companies only offer tools that discover and organize reviews. ReputationManagement.com, on the other hand, will manage them for you.

Brand monitoring

If an agency doesn’t provide brand monitoring as part of their offering, you should probably walk the other way. Reputation monitoring can range from manual searches to Google Alerts or even fully-automated web crawls using proprietary technology.

Here’s the bottom line: Whichever reputation management company you choose to work with, make sure they’re constantly watching your back. The more quickly you uncover negative pockets of information, the easier they are to deal with.

Social media management

Social media is key to brand reputation management. Strategies deployed by reputation firms vary quite a bit by situation. For example, individuals may need to expand their social presence while brands might be missing opportunities on niche platforms.

Good reputation managers won’t establish random online profiles on a bunch of obscure social sites, though. We work with you to understand where your brand belongs. Then we optimize your profiles and either recommend content to post or actually manage it for you.

For individuals, firms will establish a robust profile on LinkedIn, complete with professional bios, headshots and thought leadership.

Here’s the deal: the more profiles you have, the more work it is to maintain them. I’m not just talking about posting content, either. You’ll need to engage with your followers, answer questions and maybe even put out some fires. If you’re not personally up to the challenge, make sure your reputation management service is.

Public relations & crisis management

This is where things get a little dicey. There are tons of reputation management companies that claim to offer crisis management solutions. But in reality, what they’re really offering is online reputation management to mitigate the digital impact of a crisis.

It’s crucial that business owners understand that difference. Crisis management firms and public relations teams will help you execute communication strategies and resolve any incidents. Once a situation is no longer active, reputation management companies will help you remove search results from Google.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t work with an reputation management company until a crisis is resolved. On the contrary, there are still plenty of things that we can do to strengthen your online presence and mitigate reputational damage while a crisis is still active.

Best reputation management companies for you

Now I’ll help you figure out the best online reputation management companies for your situation. Most firms tend to work with a range of customers with a focus on one segment in particular. So be wary of reputation marketing companies that claim to work with everyone. As the saying goes, “jack of all trades, master of none.”

DIY reputation management companies

If you can’t afford a managed service, DIY software may look attractive. But BE WARNED — most of those solutions are only designed to monitor your search results, not improve them.

Think about it this way: Reputation management is basically search engine optimization on a larger scale. If one person could influence Google search results using DIY software, do you think Fortune 1000 companies would pay hundreds of thousands of dollars per month for similar services? If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Review management companies

The next tier of reputation management companies includes review monitoring and management. Again, these firms may range from DIY to white-glove, so do your homework before signing on. You’ll probably find that managed services are more worthwhile in the long run.

White-label ORM software solutions

This is an interesting group. At first glance, it may seem like these firms cater to individuals. But many of them are actually Software as a Service (SaaS) models marketed to other online reputation management consultants. “White-label” simply means that you can personalize their software with your own logos and branding.

In short, most of these companies may not even have a consumer offering.

Enterprise reputation management companies

At the upper echelon of the industry you have enterprise reputation management companies. Although the name suggests that these firms only work with businesses, they also service high-profile individuals. As with the other groupings, there’s a range of agencies that run the gamut from “technically” full-service to the absolute pinnacle of white-glove ORM. As you can imagine, there are only a handful of companies at the tip of that pyramid.

This is the category we’ve dominated for nearly two decades.

You have all done incredible work. Of all of the vendors we’ve worked with, ReputationManagement is by far one of our favorites.

MARKETING LEAD, CONSUMER ELECTRONICS MANUFACTURER

Clients seeking enterprise reputation management solutions at this level are most concerned with shaping sentiment, defining their legacy and protecting brand reputation. They include Fortune 1000 companies, C-Suites and executives, A-List celebrities and financial services firms.

Collectively, our clients control hundreds of billions of dollars in market capital.

Worst reputation management companies

Of course, this post wouldn’t be complete without a list of the worst reputation management companies, would it?

I’m certainly not going to name names here. That would be unprofessional and antithetical to the nature of online reputation management. But I will help you spot the bad apples. Here’s an important list of red flags to keep in mind while researching firms.

Legal threats and court orders

Some reputation management companies threaten websites with legal action unless they remove negative content. While this may work with a small personal blog, it will almost certainly backfire with large media outlets like the New York Times.

It’s also extremely difficult to obtain a court order to remove content. For this reason, back alley operators may actually attempt to forge such documents in order to make the process quicker and cheaper.

Trust me, this will amplify your problems 10X. Stay away from so-called “flat-rate guaranteed removal” type reputation management businesses.

Lack of transparency

Maybe I’m a little biased due to our industry-leading transparency, but you should be suspicious of a reputation management company (or an SEO agency) that won’t tell you how they plan to get results for you.

If an online reputation management service says they can’t share their “proprietary secrets” with their clients, what they’re really saying is they use black hat techniques they don’t want you to know about.

Low-quality link building

I can’t tell you how many clients have shown us toxic links that other firms have built for them. In fact, I’ve read even descriptions on reputation management service pages that actually state three “quality” tiers of backlinks. Why would any company intentionally execute a sub-par strategy — especially when the stakes are so high?

Everything we do for our clients is top-tier.

Generating fake reviews

This is another harbinger of a bad reputation management company. All online review platforms strictly prohibit purchasing or fabricating reviews to manipulate ratings. A trustworthy firm knows this and will actively help you earn legitimate positive reviews.

If you work with a firm that suddenly generates dozens of reviews overnight, you deserve to know where they came from.

Spammy, automated content distribution

As we previously mentioned, content is king for reputation management. You’re trying to improve your online image, so do you really want to flood the internet with poorly-written copy that’s tied to your name? Of course not.

While volume is certainly important to shift the narrative and dilute negative information, don’t cut corners. It’s critical to maintain integrity when publishing everything, including social media posts, articles and press releases.

Promised removal of negative content

There are two problems with this. There’s no way you can guarantee anything with 100 percent accuracy when it comes to Google. Beyond that, you can’t actually remove most negative content from search results unless you personally control the site.

So either these firms have relationships with the sites that published negative information about you (which would be extortion) or their “guarantee” is conditional. In the end, would you rather work with a reputation management company that gets results or one that promises not to charge you when they fail to resolve your issue?

The problem with reputation management company reviews

Nothing is more frustrating to me than reading online reputation management company reviews. Why? Because none of the companies were actually put through a real-world test to see if they are actually effective.

That’s not just wrong, it’s also dangerous.

If you write an article reviewing the best reputation management companies, the least you can do for your readers is test them out for a full six to twelve months in real-world scenarios. Otherwise you’re just pulling descriptions from a bunch of reputation management websites and crowning one the top service.

Additionally, many comparative reviews are actually sponsored placements or affiliates. That means the website owners receive kickbacks from at least one of the firms they recommend.

So what does this all boil down to?

Essentially, digital marketing and public relations aren’t enough to maintain a positive reputation these days. You also need to have a diversified search landscape supported by positive content.

There are a ton of factors you need to consider when choosing the best reputation management company for your needs.

• Who do they help — local businesses, large enterprises, individuals?
• What type of clients do they typically represent?
• Does the firm offer solutions for my problem?
• Are they within my price range?
• Will their solutions be effective?
• Is the firm considered an industry leader?
• Is the company trustworthy?

If you can answer those questions, you should be able to find the best reputation management company for your needs. If you think that’s us then contact our team to set up a call.