Online reputation management is the work of changing what people find when they search for your business or your own name, once something damaging has reached the first page. It might be a run of one-star reviews, an old local news story, a forum thread, a complaint site or a wrong answer from an AI assistant. I help UK businesses and professionals work out what can lawfully come down, what deserves a public answer, and what can be outranked by accurate pages they control.
I do not sell removal. Most negative content is lawful and will stay online, so the honest job is to make sure it is no longer the loudest thing on the page.
What changes when your search results are under control
People judge a business on the search results page before they reach its website. A prospective client who types your company name and sees a two-year-old complaint in third place, a poor score on a review site you never claimed and a knowledge panel with an old phone number has often decided before your homepage loads.
When the work is done well, the first page for your name is made up mostly of pages you own or influence: your website, an accurate business profile, active profiles on the review platforms your customers actually use, and coverage that describes what you do now. Fair criticism may still appear. The difference is that it sits beside a calm reply and plenty of other evidence, rather than standing alone.
Who this suits, and who it does not
It suits:
- Owner-managed businesses whose brand search shows a complaint, a hostile article or a cluster of bad reviews that is costing enquiries.
- Directors, consultants, clinicians and other professionals whose own name returns something outdated or misleading.
- Companies that have fixed the underlying problem, such as a service failure or a change of ownership, and need search results to catch up with the facts.
- Businesses hit by fake reviews from someone who was never a customer.
It does not suit anyone who wants accurate reporting of real wrongdoing hidden, or who wants invented praise to drown out genuine customers. If the content may be defamatory and is doing serious harm right now, speak to a solicitor first. I can work alongside them on the search side.
What the work covers
An audit of what appears for your names
I search your business name, the founders’ names and the obvious combinations, such as your name followed by “reviews”, “complaints” or “scam”, on desktop and mobile, signed out, from a UK location. I record the first two pages, the autocomplete suggestions, the knowledge panel and what assistants like ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews say about you, which overlaps with my AI search optimisation work. Every result is classed as yours, neutral, positive, negative but fair, or negative with a possible removal route.
Removal and correction requests
Some content can come down, and I prepare each case with the evidence a platform needs. Google, Trustpilot and most UK review sites remove reviews written by people who were never customers, by competitors, or in return for a reward. Since 6 April 2025 the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 has banned fake reviews and concealed incentivised reviews in the UK, and the Competition and Markets Authority expects review platforms to take reasonable steps to find and remove them.
Individuals, though not companies, can ask Google to delist some results about them under UK GDPR, and Google has separate processes for exposed personal contact details. Many UK newspapers and magazines are regulated by IPSO, whose complaints process is the route to a correction when a story is inaccurate. Where something may be defamatory, I give your solicitor an organised evidence pack rather than offering legal advice myself.
Replies a later reader can trust
A reply to a bad review is written for the next customer who reads it, not to win an argument with the reviewer. I draft review responses that acknowledge the specific complaint, say what has changed and move the detail to a private conversation, and I write a short reply policy that whoever handles reviews can follow.
Accurate pages that earn a place on page one
Most of the lasting work is building pages that deserve to rank for your name: a proper About page, founder and team pages, a complete and verified profile through Google Business Profile optimisation, claimed profiles on the directories and review sites in your sector, and genuine coverage from digital PR. I plan these with the same content SEO discipline as any other page: one clear purpose, written to be the most useful result for that search.
Monitoring
I set up brand mention monitoring for your business, people and product names, with alerts for new reviews on the platforms that matter, so the next problem is spotted in days rather than discovered by a customer.
How I run it
- Scoping call. You tell me what you have seen, how it came about and what outcome you would accept. I tell you whether search work can help, or whether this is first a legal or operational problem.
- Audit. The recorded results for each name, classified, with a note on every item that has a realistic removal or correction route.
- Quick actions. Platform reports, profile claims and fixes to your own listings come first, because they cost little and sometimes settle the matter.
- Content plan and build. New and improved pages, prioritised by which negative result each one is most likely to push down, then written and published on your site and profiles.
- Tracking. I re-run the same recorded searches each month and report what moved, so you are comparing like with like.
Problems I see most often
- Nobody has claimed the business on Trustpilot or the main review site in its sector, so a handful of angry reviews defines it.
- The website has no About or team pages, so a complaint thread is the most detailed page about the business that Google can find.
- Defensive replies that argue with the customer in public and do more damage than the original review.
- Asking only happy customers for reviews, known as review gating, which breaks Google’s review policies and leaves the profile thin when a bad review does arrive.
- Paying a “removal” firm that files copyright complaints over content it does not own. Copies of such complaints are often published in the Lumen database, which can put the original story back in front of people.
Lines I will not cross
I will not write or buy reviews, set up fake accounts, or offer customers discounts for reviews without clear disclosure. Under the 2024 Act those practices are unlawful, and the CMA can now fine businesses directly for consumer law breaches. I will not file false legal or copyright notices, build sham websites to crowd out a story, or promise that any genuine review or article will disappear. If a firm tells you removal is certain, ask which policy or law it will rely on before you pay.
What you receive
- A written audit of the first two pages for each name searched, with screenshots and a classification of every result.
- A request log showing each removal or correction submitted, the policy or law it relied on, and the outcome.
- A review reply policy and drafted replies for any reviews still waiting for an answer.
- A content plan, and the pages and profiles built from it.
- Tracking of the same searches at an agreed interval, plus mention alerts.
Cost
I quote in GBP after the scoping call, once I know how many names, platforms and results are involved.
Next step
Tell me the search that worries you and what it shows, and I will give you a straight view of what can realistically change. Book a free 30-minute call or email contact@sudeshnathapa.com with the details.