Reputation management is the ongoing work of monitoring, shaping and protecting what people find and read about a business online, from online reviews and social media comments to the results that appear when someone searches the business’s name. Done properly, it is mostly about earning and showing genuine feedback, not hiding the unwelcome kind.
How reputation management works
It starts with knowing what is out there. That means searching your business name, and your name alongside words such as “reviews” or “complaints”, the way a cautious customer would, and setting up alerts for new reviews and mentions on Google, Trustpilot, trade sites and social media.
The day-to-day work usually covers:
- collecting reviews steadily from real customers, so your rating reflects normal service rather than the occasional angry outlier
- replying to reviews and comments in a way that reassures future readers
- reporting content that breaks a platform’s rules, such as fake reviews from competitors or reviews containing abuse
- strengthening the pages that rank for your name, such as your website, Google Business Profile and genuine directory profiles, so accurate information fills the first page
- fixing the operational problems that cause complaints in the first place
Serious cases, such as a defamatory article or a sustained run of false reviews, may need legal advice. That is a job for a solicitor rather than a marketer.
Why it matters
People check a business before contacting it, often more than once. The star rating in Maps, a Trustpilot snippet in the search results and the tone of your replies form a first impression before anyone reaches your website. For a high-value purchase, such as a kitchen fitting or a legal matter, buyers dig deeper and read the critical reviews first.
In the UK the rules on how you manage that impression tightened when the consumer review provisions of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 came into force on 6 April 2025. Fake reviews, commissioning or buying them, concealed incentivised reviews and presenting reviews misleadingly, such as suppressing negative ones, are all banned. The Competition and Markets Authority enforces these rules directly and can fine businesses up to 10% of global turnover. Some tactics once sold as reputation management, such as burying bad reviews under bought good ones, are now plainly unlawful.
Common mistakes
- Paying a company that promises to remove negative reviews. No legitimate service can make Google or Trustpilot delete honest reviews.
- Arguing in public replies, or revealing details about the customer.
- Only paying attention after a crisis, when there is no base of genuine positive reviews to put a complaint in context.
- Filtering who is asked for a review so that only happy customers reach the review site.
- Treating a repeated complaint as a communications problem when the real fault is in the service.
How to act on it
Search your business name on Google in a private window, on a phone and a computer, and note everything on the first page. List every platform where customers can review you and check that each profile is claimed, accurate and looked after. Then set a routine: invite every customer to review, check new reviews weekly, and reply within a few working days.
Keep a record of reviews you believe are fake, with your evidence, and report them through each platform’s process. If a fake review campaign becomes serious, keep copies and take legal advice. Reviews are central to the local SEO work I do, because they affect both where a business appears and whether searchers choose it.