Introduction to Online Reputation Management
Online Reputation Management Illustrative
Why Reputation Matters in the Digital Era?
It’s quite simple, actually. In today’s digital age the long-term development of companies interested in profitability and market growth is no longer simply related to the quality of the products and services commercialized. An e-commerce SEO strategy, in 2025, will need to be implemented alongside online reputation management strategies, which are utilized to build brand credibility, enhance online reputation and protect against online crises.
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Your firm’s Internet reputation will act as its calling card and influence the likelihood of people interacting with your products and services. More than 93% of customers read online reviews before settling on a purchase, and the reputation of your firm, according to studies conducted recently, can account for more than 60% of the company’s market value. Therefore, investing in online reputation management businesses, will not be optional, but rather a necessity.
What Is the Impact of Reviews on Customer Decisions?
Video about Online Reputation Management
9/10 of online users read digital testimonials before settling on the products or services commercialized by digitally-present businesses. Moreover, 50% of them trust online reviews, anonymous or not, as much as they do personal recommendations. In a study conducted by Podium, more than 70% of consumers declared that positive reviews impact their likelihood of buying services from a web-present business. Reviews, therefore, are intertwined with web reputation.
At the same time, a recent study conducted by PowerReviews states that products with five-star ratings are 270% more likely to be purchased than ones that don’t benefit from any evaluations. Reviews, in the digital medium, are essential, and so is the expertise of companies providing reputation management services. Top reputation management companies can help you build the digital presence of your firm, and also make it so your website follows the latest trends in SEO.
ORM vs. Traditional PR: What’s the Difference?
ORM vs. Traditional PR Illustrative
Well, it’s quite simple, actually. Web reputation management focuses on your brand’s digital presence, and it mostly handles reviews on websites, forums, search results, or other types of digital media that can be monitored in real-time. Traditional PR, on the other hand, is mostly concerned with the offline medium, and it’s slower to respond to crises while also harder to quantify its efficiency.
Top reputation management companies can measure the impact of their approaches through SERP rankings and digital engagement metrics. Plus, they provide a wide range of web services, can partially suppress negative web content, and can aid your digital presence after Google algorithm updates by ensuring that positive reputation signals remain visible to search engine crawlers.
Key Features of Top ORM Companies:
Review Monitoring and Management
Review Monitoring Interface Image
In the world of Web 2.0, the reputation management service provided by a top ORM firm will go beyond simply checking the discussions surrounding your brand in the digital medium. High-quality reputation management businesses can engage in continuous review monitoring on various digital platforms and utilize AI-assisted tools to gauge the sentiments of core audiences, even before the emergence of issues or new trends that you can commercially exploit.
Sentiment Analysis and AI-Driven Insights
AI Sentiment Analysis Dashboard
Sentiment analysis is a powerful digital tool, utilized by businesses involved in the ORM industry that can gauge not only the general discussion surrounding your brand, but also interpret the key rhetoric behind it and the impact that all this can have on your business’s long-term profitability and reputation.
AI-driven insights can scale with businesses digital presence, it’s a data-driven approach that can provide metrics for future digital marketing approaches that can benefit from a scan with a Google position checker, and are a tool to recognize trends in large volumes of texts that cannot be realistically looked over by humans.
Plus, AI-driven insight, in the business world, is interconnected with web content writing services, as ORM-driven AI tools can help businesses involved in reputation management services uncover sentiment-improving phrases with a direct impact on the SERPs.
Listings Management and Local SEO
In the digital business landscape, listing management refers to the process of optimizing and reviewing the information of specific businesses across multiple digital directories. Top reputation management companies will ensure that your NAP information is up-to-date, and will optimize your GMB profile by adding high-value media elements to your services descriptions.
Local SEO & Listings Management
At the same time, these businesses will also leverage local SEO and the latest SEO trends in order to encourage backlink generation and improve the credibility of the content indexed by Google’s crawlers. Local SEO strategies are essential to make your services known to regional customers and enhance the reputation of your local business in a predictable and sustainable manner.
Crisis Response and PR Strategies
One key component of web success is the rapidity with which web-present businesses can respond to crises caused by negative reviews or viral complaints that affect the reputation of commercialized products and services. In the digital medium, the crisis response provided by reputation management service businesses must include a complete draft of clarifications that can stop the spread of misinformation.
Crisis Response Workflow Illustrative
Moreover, crisis response plans must include both ongoing keyword research and the real-time monitoring of web sentiments that can spot digital complaints before they have a chance of going viral. Crisis response plans can prevent small issues from developing into something more pressing and can impact down-the-road PR strategies with an impact on business profitability.
How Did Our Agency Evaluate the Best ORM Companies?
ORM Dashboard Image
Criteria: Transparency, Technology, Results
How did our agency gauge the performance of the best online reputation management businesses active in the digital medium? First of all, our agency looked at the details presented in their services descriptions and the pricing structure presented on their site’s FAQ sections. At the same time, we evaluated their business rating by the case studies presented on their website, we looked at key performance indicators for the services provided and we analyzed the technological tools these businesses utilized to achieve the results presented to the clients.
The best reputation management services are characterized by their usage of AI tools that can aid in crisis responses, help with scalability and provide analytics that are useful for identifying web trends, relevant for the average Internet-focused consumer. The best online reputation management businesses can positively impact the ROI of the services commercialized by clients, are knowledgeable about search engine optimization practices and can prevent minor issues from developing into digital crises.
Case Studies and Client Performance
Case studies are the most efficient way to evaluate the impact of the digital modifications laid out by the best online reputation management agency available for a web-present business. Case studies can demonstrate how a reputation management agency handled the challenges faced by a client and highlight the strategies utilized to achieve positive and measurable metrics that boosted customer engagement and led to higher SERP ratings.
How can ORM businesses measure the performance of a client’s business after the implementation of reputation management services? Well, it’s all about the metrics. Did the client register a growth in the volume of positive reviews? Was there a visible shift in consumer sentiment scores, and has the visibility of the services in the SERPs risen significantly? In that case, the ORM strategy worked. A single positive review can boost conversion rates by more than 380%, while consecutive negative ones can lead to an almost 60% reduction in conversions.
Innovation and Scalability
The best online reputation management businesses active in the digital medium are the ones that can make use of creative strategies and AI-based tools that can enhance the ORM outcomes of clients interested in persistent financial growth and measurable brand sentiment improvements. A high-quality reputation management agency, with experience in digital marketing techniques, will make use of AI-based tools for sentiment analysis and negative reviews monitoring, while also automating the repetitive process of reporting social media engagements over multiple platforms.
The Top 11 Online Reputation Management Companies in 2026
Top 11 ORM Companies Summary
Thrive Internet Marketing Agency
Established in 2005, and now present in no less than 25 US cities, Thrive is a full-service digital marketing business, specializing in reputation management services that has so far collaborated with clients from all corners of the world, from Hong Kong and Germany to the US and Australia. Thrive is one of the best-performing ORM businesses active in the US digital medium, and their strategies combine both SEO elements with AI-based reputation monitoring, tailored to the specifics of the client’s requirements.
As for their case studies, Thrive, so far, has collaborated with almost one hundred separate clients, including Brazos Higher Education, for which they achieved a 300% boost in monthly site clicks, and Holyland Marketplace, for which they delivered a 280% boost in conversion rates and significantly improved their web reputation.
Sprout Social
Sprout Social is a social media administration tool suitable for both SMEs and large-scale businesses that want to increase conversions, web reputation and turn actionable insights into tangible results with a direct impact on the SERPs and profitability. Sprout Social is a fully integrated platform that offers premium analytics, allows clients to respond to consumer reports and reviews in real time, and can help users gain the insights required before engaging in a digital marketing campaign. Moreover, the standard Sprout Social plan starts at $199 and comes bundled with unlimited AI-generated alt texts and with keyword and location monitoring capabilities.
Reputation
Reputation.com is a comprehensive, fully-integrated reputation management platform that specializes in collecting consumer feedback across multiple digital avenues. Reputation.com provides a centralized dashboard for managing your product’s ongoing reviews, monitoring your agency’s social listening, and ensuring the accuracy of your NAP information across more than 80 directories. It is also a tool to gain AI-driven insights about recent industry trends, it can benchmark your business performance, and it’s one of the best Internet-present platforms to gain a rep score that can measure consumer sentiment.
Birdeye
Birdeye is an AI-based reputation management platform that was developed to help single or multi-location businesses enhance their web presence, increase the reputation of their services and improve customer satisfaction. Birdeye distinguishes itself from other reputation management businesses by focusing on AI-based automation and tailoring especially to businesses with multiple locations. By using their AI-driven insights, clients can gauge and manage reviews over more than 200 platforms, with some websites, according to Research.com, experiencing a 380% increase in conversions. However, Birdeye is also quite expensive, their Growth plan starting from $399 per month.
Podium
Podium is an AI-based lead generation platform that can help businesses manage their customer interactions and respond to reviews from a single, integrated digital platform that can streamline the communication between your firm’s management and clients while also significantly boosting sales. Podium’s digital platform allows customers to send payment links via text messages for secure transactions, utilizes AI-powered responses, which you can use for reviews/reputation administration, and it’s a way to unify your messages, regardless of medium, into a single inbox. As for pricing, Podium does not disclose its subscription costs on the website.
ReviewTrackers
When it comes to reputation management services, ReviewTrackers is a choice that has risen somewhat in popularity in recent years. Providing a reputation management and comprehensive marketing solution that’s suitable for both SMEs and large-scale businesses alike, ReviewTrackers allows customers to analyze client’s feedback, provides real-time notifications alerts for new reviews, uses NLP models to engage in sentiment analysis and it’s potentially also one of the most affordable reputation management businesses on this list, as their pricing, according to TrustRadius, starts at $49 per month for the Professional Plan. However, pricing is location-based, and ReviewTrackers does not disclose its subscription plan costs directly on its website, so that information could no longer be accurate.
Yext
Yext is a digital presence and reputation management business, that provides businesses with a comprehensive platform to enhance their presence across various web channels. Are you a multi-location business and do you want to unify your brand experience? In that case, Yext can allow you to monitor AI search visibility, manage your location information across the web, amplify your brand’s social position across all geographical locations, drive CRT improvements with SEO-optimized pages, and manage the reputation of your products and services from a unified platform. Pricing is not disclosed on the website.
Brand24
Brand24 is a comprehensive media monitoring and web reputation administration tool that permits companies to analyze client sentiment by using AI-based insights and track online mentions all from a unified platform with a beginner-friendly dashboard. As far as web marketing goes, Brand24 is one of the best tools available to monitor business mentions across the web. As for the pricing, the individual package, suitable for small brands starts at $149 per month, and allows for the investigation of 2000 mentions. The Pro subscription, on the other hand, costs $299 per month and comes with a bundle of advanced features like real-time updates of customer reviews and up to 40k mentions tracking per month.
| Aspect | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
|
AI Integration
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AI enhances sentiment accuracy and prediction
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Not all companies use AI effectively
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Affordability
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Flexible plans available for SMEs
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Top-tier plans may be costly
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Scalability
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Can adapt to enterprise-level needs
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Some tools lack multi-language scalability
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Transparency
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Reputable ORM firms disclose case studies
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Hidden pricing common in ORM industry
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Platform Accessibility
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Accessible from mobile and desktop
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Certain platforms are region-limited
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Automation
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Reduces manual monitoring and reporting time
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Automation may reduce personal engagement quality
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GatherUp
GatherUp is one of those reputation management businesses in which the focus is on permitting customers to leverage clients’ feedback without necessarily breaking the bank. GatherUp is a way to send personalized review requests via SMS or email, permits the gathering of first-party surveys directly from your clientele, and provides customers with AI-assisted responses for received reviews, which are available from a unified and easy-to-use dashboard. As for price, GatherUp is rather affordable, as their subscription for businesses with one location starts at only $99 per month.
Trustpilot
Trustpilot is a web platform on which digital users can leave unbiased reviews for companies active in the online medium. Founded in 2007 in Denmark, TrustPilot is different from other online review platforms, as any online user can review businesses, as long as their comments follow the content guidelines imposed by the website.
For businesses focused on their online reputation, TrustPilot can be both a curse and a blessing in disguise. TrustPilot reviews can have a positive impact on the SERP potential of indexable websites, and companies get dashboards to manage reviews and respond to client testimonies. Plus, the reviews are public and transparent. As for price, their Plus plan starts at $299 per month, while their Premium subscription is an eye-watering $629.
NiceJob
NiceJob is an all-in-one reputation marketing platform that utilizes AI-assisted technologies to automate its online presence through reviews and enhanced social signals. NiceJob allows customers to send automated review requests via email or text messaging and also to send referral invitations to customers who could then, in turn, attract more visitors willing to engage with specific products and services. Pricing is affordable as the basic subscription starts at $75 per month, while the most expensive Pro package is only $125 per month.
Comparison Table of ORM Companies
Services, Pricing, Pros & Cons
| Company | Key Services | Pricing | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Thrive
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SEO, AI-based ORM, review monitoring
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Custom (varies by client)
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Strong case studies, custom ORM strategies
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No fixed pricing available
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Sprout Social
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Social media analytics, ORM, AI insights
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From $199/month
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Scalable, data-rich AI insights
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Focuses more on social analytics
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Reputation.com
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Review management, sentiment analysis, NAP editing
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Not disclosed
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Centralized dashboard, AI analytics
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Hidden pricing structure
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Birdeye
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AI automation, multi-location review management
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From $399/month
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Excellent multi-location management
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Expensive for small firms
|
|
Podium
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Unified inbox, review requests automation, AI responses
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Not disclosed
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AI-based reviews, secure payment options
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Unclear subscription details
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ReviewTrackers
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Sentiment analysis, alerts, feedback dashboard
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From $49/month (est.)
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Affordable, great for SMEs
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Location-based pricing variability
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Yext
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AI search visibility, brand management
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Not disclosed
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Perfect for multi-location firms
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Pricing hidden on site
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Brand24
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Mentions tracking, sentiment insights, media monitoring
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From $149/month
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Real-time updates, intuitive dashboard
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Limited review replies on lower plans
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GatherUp
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AI review responses, SMS/email review requests
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From $99/month
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Affordable and easy to use
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Limited to SMEs
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TrustPilot
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Public review platform, dashboard response tools
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Free to $299/month
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Highly reputable, transparent platform
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Expensive for business plans
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NiceJob
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Automated reviews, referrals dashboard
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From $75/month
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Budget-friendly, automation-focused
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Limited features for enterprises
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Comparison Table of ORM Companies
Choosing the Right ORM Company for Your Business
How to Choose the Right ORM Video
Small Business vs. Enterprise Needs
Choosing the right marketing & reputation management firm for your business will often come down to the scale of your operations and the investment budget you have at your disposal. Small businesses should typically prioritize the affordability of the contracted reputation management companies, and should seek a platform, with easy-to-understand dashboards that emphasize the management of local search engine optimization signals in platforms like Google or Yelp.
Large, enterprise-level businesses, on the other hand, will require more scalability and will make better use of advanced AI-insights, multi-channel monitoring, and automatic crisis management tools with built-in, real-time notifications for viral, negative comments. One single negative review will not tank their reputation. But the risks for escalation, in their case, are higher.
Local Businesses-Reviews & Visibility
In this Internet-dominated age, most consumers rely on online reviews before deciding on whether to engage with the products or service offerings of locally present businesses. The best reputation management companies make use of AI-based tools that can automate the process of NAP information updates on multiple online directories, gather citations from various digital channels and automate the responses to positive or negative reviews. Reputation management services can enhance the credibility of commercialized services, increase online inquiries, and also result in better visibility in the SERPs.
Global Brands – Scalability and Consistency
Pricing is not really an issue once your firm reaches a threshold at which international expansion is possible. But once you reach that level, the most important element of a successful reputation management service will be scalability. Global brands receive thousands of reviews and mentions across multiple digital channels, and they will require the service of reputation management companies that can 1) scale their AI-based platform in accordance with market developments and 2) offer multi-region reputation management for businesses active in countries with linguistic differences between them.
Benefits of Hiring an ORM Agency
Benefits Illustrative
Improved Brand Trust and Credibility
In 2025, the reputation of your brand is pretty much your firm’s digital fingerprint. Without managing and properly responding to your online reviews and brand mentions, the company you manage could eventually start going on a downward slope that will end in negative financial perspectives. A reputation management agency could work wonders for your online reputation and help you expand your online presence in ways never seen before.
Increased Customer Retention and Revenue
The high-quality reputation management services provided by a professional marketing and digital reputation-enhancement company could help streamline your PR strategy, aid you in the monitoring of your reviews, and lead to measurable improvements in CTRs and SERP visibility.
Protection Against Online Crises
Nobody likes to respond to a negative, online review or viral post that draws an unflattering picture of your services. But, in the digital sphere, your reputation is everything, and how quickly you respond could represent the difference between business success and commercial failure. Reputation management companies benefit from the resources to monitor your online presence 24/7 and can create predefined strategies that will allow your business to respond swiftly in negative reputation-altering situations.
Additional Tools and Resources
Free Online Reputation Management Tools
| Tool | Developer | Type | Main Features | Limitation | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Google Alerts
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Google
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Keyword Alert System
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Monitors mentions of chosen keywords
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Limited analytics and coverage
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Free
|
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SEMrush Social Inbox
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SEMrush
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Brand Monitoring
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Monitors social channels and reviews
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Only trial version available
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Free trial / Paid
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Media Monitoring
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Independent
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Media Tracking
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Tracks news & online mentions
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Limited automation
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Free trial / Paid
|
Free Online Tools Table
How about we start with the basics? Google Alerts is an online tool, developed all the way back in 2009, that allows users to monitor specific keywords and receive alerts when a particular one is indexed. Do you want to go for the non-Google route? In that case, you could choose SEMrush’s social inbox, which represents a way to monitor your brand’s online presence from a single platform, or applications like Media Monitoring. That said, outside of Google Alerts, which is quite limited in functionality, the market for 100% free reputation management services is quite restricted, as most tools only come with a free trial period.
Software Alternatives vs. Full-Service Agencies
Reputation management all-in-one platforms, like Brand24 and Sprout Social, are typically more cost-effective than a full-service firm focused on custom marketing and ORM solutions for enterprise clients. These applications get the job done if you are looking to automate the digital review process of your brand mentions or if you are trying to manage your organization’s review monitoring in-house.
However, full-service reputation management companies are better suited for large-scale businesses, and they will handle all the backend elements specific to custom, in-depth ORM monitoring. Full-service reputation management companies are more expensive than a software platform. That said, they offer a comprehensive approach to holistic reputation management.
Case Studies and Success Stories
Client Case Study Prezentation
Enterprise-Level Transformation
Let’s take, for example, the case studies of ReviewTrackers, which implemented reputation management services for both Solotel Group, in 26 venues across Sydney and Brisbane, and Yo-chi, a frozen yogurt chain based in Australia, that eventually grew from 25 locations to no less than 37. How did they do it? Well, for Solotel Group, it was a matter of implementing micro survey prompts after each booking, which in turn increased the number of public reviews and enhanced the SERP visibility of the commercialized services. Moreover, the responsibility to respond to online reviews was passed down to GMs.
All in all, the result was a 45% increase in response rates and a 129% enhancement in review volume per the last 12 months. As for Yo-Chi, the solution was to utilize a unified digital reputational management platform that made use of AI-generated prompts to respond to reviews and maintain the brand’s voice. The result was a 92% increase in clicks from Google Maps and a 303% growth in review volume. But what about a success tale for an SME?
Small Business Success Story
The success stories attributed to a high-quality reputation management service don’t necessarily have to apply only to companies active internationally or that have branched into multiple locations. Let’s take, for example, Spa World, a company founded in 1985, that became a Birdeye customer in 2023.
Spa World is a large retailer by Aussie standards, and it has showrooms in multiple Australian cities. However, in the world of reputation management services, it is a medium-sized player. They needed a way to centralize the reviews received from their locations and also required a way to automatically update their NAP. By using AI-related tools, Birdeye managed to bring in 359 new Google reviews, which resulted in a 10% increase in total revenue.
FAQs about Online Reputation Management
1) What Is ORM?
AReputation management services represent the complex practice of monitoring and continually maintaining the reputation and digital presence of a business across multiple digital channels. In other words, it is the practice of making sure that your online reputation stays in line with the quality of the products you commercialize.
2) Can ORM Remove Negative Reviews?
AYes and no. Reputation management services cannot be used to delete genuine reviews that follow a transparent structure and offer a fair assessment of the products you sell. However, for fraudulent reviews, the reputation management firm you utilize could write a takedown request to the review platform or even escalate the matter with a cease-and-desist letter.
3) How Long Until Results Appear?
AIt will depend on the complexity of the case and the circumstances surrounding the client’s industry. In the first three months, reputation management services should lead to better public responses to fraudulent negative reviews and lead to an increase in the number of positive ones. However, in order to see a decrease in negative content in search results, you will typically need to wait at least 6 months.
4) Is ORM Necessary for Small Businesses
AReputation management services are especially required for a small business, as the profitability margins encountered by SMEs are typically more restrictive than is the case for large-scale enterprises. For small businesses, even one negative review could permanently affect their digital reputation and impact their visibility in local searches.
About Author
Loredana Mihai
Loredana is our project manager. She supervises each step of your project and ensures everything is kept on schedule. Implementing content ideas, managing processes, editing, and reporting are part of her daily activities.
