Guides, tools & glossaries for reputation decisions

Online reputation management (ORM) is the practice of monitoring and shaping what people find about a company or person across search results, reviews, social media, news and AI assistants, so the public picture matches reality. Modern ORM treats all of these as one risk surface rather than separate channels — the approach Reputation House calls Digital Risk Protection. See the full ORM definition.

Start with an independent, reproducible reputation audit, not with content removal. Then compare vendors on how they measure risk (not just "share of negativity"), their methodology, a sample report and who actually does the analysis. Treat any "guaranteed removal" promise as a red flag. The full checklist is in How to Choose a Reputation Management Company.

Treat them as a starting point, not a verdict. Many rankings are sponsored or affiliate placements, and the same agencies appear in a different order on every site. Check who published the list, whether the ranking criteria are disclosed, whether placements are paid and when it was last updated. The Vendor Scorecard turns this into seven checks you can apply to any list.

Run a fixed set of prompts — for example "What is [company]?", "Is [company] trustworthy?" and "Alternatives to [company]" — across ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, repeat them over time, and save each answer with its date and cited sources. A single reply is not a measure; the trend and the sources the models cite are. Improving how AI describes you (GEO) means strengthening those sources. See GEO / AI visibility.

Sometimes, but rarely by simply "deleting" it. Content can be removed when it breaks the law or a platform's policies, or when the publisher agrees to correct it. In most other cases the realistic options are correcting the record, publishing stronger authoritative content and responding publicly. Any vendor that guarantees removal of lawful content is a red flag.

Cost depends on scope: how many channels and markets are involved (search, reviews, media, AI), how serious the negative content is, and whether you need a one-off project or ongoing monitoring. A standalone reputation audit is the lowest-commitment starting point and does not require a long retainer. For Reputation House rates, see the pricing page.

A reputation audit is an independent, reproducible snapshot of what is visible about a brand across search, reviews, media and AI, with risks ranked by priority and a clear action plan. A first-level assessment is usually free; a deeper standalone audit can be purchased on its own. For a quick self-check, try the Risk Calculator or request an audit.

The guides are written by Reputation House, a reputation management and Digital Risk Protection agency headquartered in Dubai, with offices in Hong Kong and Riyadh. The frameworks — audit first, the questions to ask, the vendor scorecard — work for evaluating any provider, Reputation House included. Benchmarks and data come from the Reputation House Research Center.