What is online reputation management (ORM)?
Online reputation management (ORM) is the work of monitoring, protecting and improving how a person or business appears online: in search results, review sites, social media and news. When someone searches your name before buying, hiring or partnering, what they find often decides whether they get in touch.
What ORM covers
- Search results for your name: what appears on the first page when people search for your business or your own name.
- Reviews: Google reviews, industry review platforms and marketplace ratings.
- Social media: comments, mentions, complaints and tagged posts.
- Media and forums: news coverage, blogs and community discussions.
Step 1: Monitor
You cannot manage what you do not see. Search your business name regularly, set up free alerts for your brand name, check your review profiles every week and use the notification tools built into social platforms.
Step 2: Respond well
How you respond to criticism is often seen by more people than the criticism itself.
- Respond promptly and politely.
- Thank the person and acknowledge the problem without arguing.
- Do not share private details in public.
- Offer to resolve it directly, with a contact name or number.
- If it is resolved, the customer may update the review on their own.
Reply to positive reviews too. It shows you are listening and encourages others to leave feedback.
What can and cannot be removed
This is where many businesses are misled. Honest negative reviews generally cannot be removed just because you dislike them. However:
- reviews that break a platform’s policies, such as spam, conflicts of interest, hate speech or reviews of the wrong business, can be flagged for removal through the platform’s own process;
- content that is unlawful, such as genuine defamation or private information, may be addressed through legal routes, which needs proper legal advice.
Be wary of anyone who promises to “delete all negative reviews” or uses fake positive reviews to bury them. That can break platform rules and consumer protection law, and makes things worse if discovered.
Step 3: Build a positive, accurate presence
- Keep your website, Google Business Profile and social profiles complete and up to date.
- Ask satisfied customers for reviews consistently.
- Publish useful content, case studies with permission, and news about your work.
- Create profiles on relevant, legitimate platforms so accurate information ranks for your name.
Step 4: Prepare for a crisis
Decide in advance who responds, how quickly and with what approval. In a crisis, a calm, factual and timely response matters far more than a perfect one.
Learn monitoring, review management and crisis communication in our Online Reputation Management Course.