What Is Online Reputation Management? How to Protect, Repair and Monitor Your Reputation in the UK (2026 Guide)
Everything you need to know about managing what Google, review sites, social media and AI assistants say about you or your business — what can legally be removed in the UK, what can be fixed, and how long it really takes.
You type your name, or your company’s name, into Google. The first page loads, and your stomach drops. A one-star review that is not even true. A Reddit thread you never knew existed. An old news story that leaves out how it ended. And now, when someone asks ChatGPT about you, it repeats the worst of it in a calm, confident paragraph. That is exactly the problem online reputation management exists to solve.
If that feels familiar, you are not alone, and you are not powerless. This guide explains, in plain English, what online reputation management really is, what can be removed under UK rules, what can be repaired, how long it takes, and how to protect what people find about you from now on. It covers every channel we work on at United Press — from Google and Trustpilot reviews to LinkedIn, Reddit, Facebook, TikTok, news articles, Wikipedia and AI search — so you can see the whole picture in one place.
What is online reputation management?
Online reputation management (ORM) is the process of monitoring, protecting, repairing and building what people find about a person or business online — in Google results, review platforms, social media, news coverage and AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. In the UK it combines lawful removal of content that breaks platform rules or the law (for example under the Defamation Act 2013 or UK GDPR), honest responses to genuine criticism, and the creation of accurate, authoritative content — press coverage, profiles and reviews — that gives a truer picture.
- Reputation management has four parts: monitor, protect, repair and build. Most people only think about repair, after the damage is done.
- Content can be removed when it breaks a platform’s rules or UK law — fake reviews, defamation, harassment, privacy breaches, impersonation and outdated personal data are the most common routes.
- Honest criticism usually stays. Its impact is reduced by responding well and by publishing stronger, accurate content that outranks it.
- AI assistants now summarise your reputation for people before they ever click a link, so your visibility in AI search is part of reputation management in 2026.
- Most cases improve within weeks; deep search repair can take three to twelve months. Starting early changes everything.
- Avoid anyone who offers fake reviews or threatens critics. Since April 2025, fake reviews are banned outright in the UK.
Why your online reputation matters more in 2026 than ever before
For years, reputation was something that lived in conversations: what customers told friends, what colleagues said about you in meetings, what a local paper printed. It still lives there. But the first conversation now happens on a screen, before anyone has spoken to you — and increasingly it happens inside an AI assistant that reads the internet on their behalf.
Those numbers come from a survey of US consumers, but the pattern is the same in Britain: people check before they trust. They check before they book a clinic, hire a solicitor, accept a job offer, invest in a founder, sign a supplier or agree to a second date. And what they find in the first few seconds shapes everything after.
Three things have changed recently that make reputation management more urgent:
- AI answers come first. Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot now give people a summary of you or your company, drawn from reviews, forums, news and Wikipedia. One loud Reddit thread or an old article can shape that summary for months. Our guide to how AI assistants decide which brands to mention explains why.
- Recent reviews count more. Readers look at what happened lately, and so do platforms. A bad fortnight can weigh heavily on a business with years of happy customers.
- UK law has new teeth. The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 banned fake reviews from 6 April 2025, and the Online Safety Act 2023 now requires platforms serving UK users to tackle illegal content. Used properly, these rules make removal of genuinely harmful content more achievable than ever.
A reputation is built in years and questioned in seconds. Online reputation management is how you make sure those seconds tell the truth.
Online reputation management vs PR vs SEO: what is the difference?
One of the most common questions people ask is how reputation management differs from SEO and from public relations. They overlap, but they are not the same thing, and the best results come from combining all three.
| Discipline | Main goal | Typical work | Where it fits in ORM |
|---|---|---|---|
| Online reputation management | Make what people find about you accurate, fair and positive | Monitoring, review and content removal, responses, search repair, AI visibility | The whole strategy |
| Public relations (PR) | Earn trust and attention through the media | Press coverage, interviews, thought leadership, crisis communications | Builds authoritative positive content that ranks and that AI tools cite |
| Search engine optimisation (SEO) | Rank pages for chosen search terms | On-page work, links, technical fixes, content | Helps the right pages rank for your name and push weaker results down |
| Legal and platform removal | Take down content that breaks rules or the law | Platform reports, legal requests, data protection requests | Removes what should never have been there |
Put simply: SEO decides which pages rank, PR creates trusted pages worth ranking, and reputation management decides what story those results tell — removing what is false or unlawful along the way. If a pure SEO agency promises to fix your reputation without ever touching reviews, platforms, the press or AI answers, it is only doing part of the job. If you want to understand the PR side in more depth, our guide to online reputation management PR covers it.
The four elements of online reputation management
People often ask what the main elements of reputation management are. In our experience since 2001, every good programme rests on four pillars. Skip one and the others work harder for less.
1. Monitor
Know what is being said, where, and by whom — across Google, review sites, social platforms, forums, news and AI answers — before a small issue becomes a big one.
2. Protect
Secure your name: claim profiles, set up a Google Knowledge Panel, build a strong website, prepare for a crisis, and make it harder for impostors and fake reviews to take hold.
3. Repair
Remove content that breaks platform rules or the law, respond well to genuine criticism, correct inaccurate articles and push misleading results down.
4. Build
Earn the content that tells your real story: press coverage, expert commentary, honest reviews from real customers, and a presence that AI assistants trust and cite.
Most people only arrive at stage three, in a hurry, after something has gone wrong. That is completely understandable. But the fastest repairs we see are for people and businesses that already had some protection in place — because there was something positive ready to rise when the negative content came down.
How do online reputation management services work?
Good reputation management is not a mystery, and it is not magic. It is a careful, evidence-led process. Here is how a professional programme works at United Press, step by step, so you know what to expect from any agency you speak to.
A confidential audit of your name
We search you the way a stranger would: Google and Bing (UK and international), image and video results, autocomplete suggestions, review platforms, social media, forums, news archives, complaint sites, and the answers given by ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews. Everything is mapped and scored by visibility and harm.
A lawful route for every item
Each piece of content is matched to the route most likely to work: a platform policy breach, a legal request under UK defamation or data protection law, a publisher correction, or suppression through stronger content. Some items have two or three possible routes; we choose the order carefully.
Evidence that reviewers can act on
Platforms receive thousands of reports a day. The ones that succeed are specific: the exact rule broken, the exact words, dated screenshots, proof of identity, and a clear explanation. We build that evidence pack for you.
Removal and correction
We file through the correct forms, follow up, appeal wrong decisions and escalate where UK rules allow. When content comes down, we also ask Google to refresh outdated results so the old snippet disappears too.
Repair and suppression
For content that legally stays, we reduce its reach: calm public replies where right, press coverage in trusted publications, optimised profiles and pages that deserve to rank above it.
Building and monitoring
Finally, we keep watch. Alerts, regular search and AI-answer checks, and a plan to keep earning genuine reviews and coverage, so the improvement lasts.
Every plan is bespoke. There are no fixed packages, because no two reputations are the same: a restaurant with a wave of fake reviews needs something very different from a founder facing a misleading article, or a parent dealing with a cruel Facebook post. If you want to see how this works for a whole organisation, our online reputation management UK page sets out the full service.
Reputation management channel by channel: what can be removed and what can be fixed
The question we hear most is simply: “Can you get this taken down?” The honest answer depends on where the content is and what it says. Below is a practical guide to each major channel, and the dedicated United Press service for each.
Google reviews and Google Business Profile
Google removes reviews that break its prohibited and restricted content policies: fake engagement, conflicts of interest (for example competitors or ex-staff posing as customers), off-topic content, harassment, hate, personal information and impersonation. A sudden wave of one-star reviews from accounts with no history is often a policy breach. Genuine negative reviews stay, but a professional reply and steady new reviews from real customers soon change how they read.
Related: Google review removal service UK · remove Google reviews · Google review removal in London · how many reports does it take to remove a Google review? · Google reputation management UK
Trustpilot reviews
Trustpilot allows businesses to flag reviews that breach its guidelines — for example reviews that are fake, not based on a genuine experience, contain personal information, are harmful or illegal, or are about a different company. A flagged review can be hidden while it is assessed, and the reviewer may be asked for proof of their experience. Understanding which guideline applies, and what evidence to supply, is what makes the difference.
Related: remove Trustpilot reviews UK
Glassdoor, Indeed and other employer reviews
Employer review sites protect anonymous employees, so they are careful about removal. Even so, reviews that name individuals, reveal confidential information, contain threats or discrimination, or are clearly fake can be challenged under the site’s guidelines. Where a review names a manager or colleague, privacy and harassment routes may apply too. A considered public response from the employer is often the most powerful repair tool for recruitment.
Related: remove Glassdoor reviews · Glassdoor review removal in London · fake Glassdoor reviews · a Glassdoor review naming me · how to respond to negative Glassdoor reviews · remove Indeed reviews
LinkedIn posts, comments and profiles
LinkedIn’s Professional Community Policies prohibit harassment, false and misleading content, fake profiles and impersonation, and sharing private information. A post accusing someone by name, a fake profile using your photos, or a coordinated comment pile-on can often be reported successfully when the evidence is clear. Because LinkedIn content ranks well on Google for people’s names, it matters even after the conversation has moved on.
Related: LinkedIn post removal · LinkedIn reputation management UK
Reddit threads and comments
Reddit threads rank highly on Google, and AI assistants quote them often. Reddit’s rules forbid harassment, sharing personal information (doxxing), impersonation and content that breaks the law, and each community has moderators with their own rules. Removal can come from Reddit’s safety team, from moderators, or through legal routes for defamation. Where a thread stays, a well-judged response and stronger content can stop it defining your name.
Related: Reddit post removal · Reddit reputation management UK
Facebook posts, groups and fake profiles
Meta’s Community Standards cover bullying and harassment, privacy violations, impersonation, intimate images shared without consent, fraud and hateful conduct. Facebook also has dedicated forms for defamation, privacy and intellectual property. Posts inside groups add admins and moderators to the picture, so the approach is different again.
Related: Facebook post removal · Facebook group post removal · Facebook reputation management UK
TikTok, Instagram, X, YouTube and Quora
Short videos and image posts spread fast and are easy to screenshot. Each platform has rules on harassment, impersonation, privacy, nudity and misinformation, plus copyright tools if your own photos or footage have been reused. Speed matters most here: early, accurate reports and evidence give the best chance of removal before copies multiply.
Related: TikTok post removal · TikTok reputation management UK · Instagram reputation management UK · X (Twitter) reputation management UK · Quora reputation management UK · Medium reputation management UK
Negative news articles
Reputable publishers rarely delete accurate journalism, but they do correct errors, update stories when cases are dropped or overturned, add your side, and sometimes anonymise or de-index older stories about private people. Where an article is inaccurate and seriously harmful, complaints to the publisher and to the press regulator IPSO, or legal routes, may apply. Where it is accurate but outdated, UK data protection law can sometimes remove it from search results for your name.
Related: news article reputation management UK · how to remove a negative article from Google
Google search results, images and autocomplete
Google can remove certain results for your name under UK GDPR (the “right to be forgotten”), where information is inaccurate, outdated or no longer relevant and there is no strong public interest. It also removes personal contact details, doxxing, non-consensual explicit images and some content about minors. Images and videos need their own strategy, because they appear in separate tabs and often outlive the page they came from.
Related: right to be forgotten UK · images and videos in search · Google reputation management
Complaint sites, directories and forums
Some complaint and “scam warning” sites exist mainly to attract traffic from angry posts. Many are hosted outside the UK and ignore polite requests. Even so, hosts, search engines and the sites themselves can often be reached through the right legal, data protection or policy routes, and their visibility for your name can be reduced.
Google Knowledge Panel and Wikipedia
The box that appears on the right of Google for well-known people and organisations is one of the most trusted pieces of information about you — and AI assistants lean on the same sources. Claiming and improving your Knowledge Panel, and where you genuinely meet Wikipedia’s notability standards, having an accurate, neutral, well-sourced article, gives people a reliable summary first.
Related: Google Knowledge Panel service · Wikipedia page creation UK · how to get a Wikipedia page
ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews
You cannot file a takedown against an AI answer in the same way as a review. What you can do is change what it reads: remove or correct the source pages, earn coverage in publications that AI tools trust, fix your Knowledge Panel and Wikipedia presence, and make sure accurate information about you is easy to find and consistent everywhere.
Related: what ChatGPT says about your business · get mentioned by ChatGPT · AI SEO agency UK · what is AI SEO? · best publications for AI visibility
UK law and online reputation: your legal routes to removing harmful content
Platform rules are the fastest route for most content, but UK law sits behind them and gives you real rights. You do not need to become a lawyer, but knowing these laws helps you understand what is possible. This is general information, not legal advice; for formal legal action, always speak to a qualified solicitor.
| Law | What it covers | How it helps your reputation |
|---|---|---|
| Defamation Act 2013 | False statements that cause, or are likely to cause, serious harm to reputation (for a business, serious financial loss) | Supports takedown requests to platforms and website operators, and court orders to remove statements. Claims usually need to be brought within one year of publication. |
| UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 | Personal data, including the right to erasure (Article 17) | Underpins “right to be forgotten” requests to Google and requests to sites holding inaccurate or outdated personal information. The ICO explains your right to erasure. |
| Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 | Consumer protection, including a ban on fake reviews from 6 April 2025 | Fake reviews, and concealed incentivised reviews, are now banned practices. Platforms must take steps to prevent and remove them, enforced by the Competition and Markets Authority. |
| Online Safety Act 2023 | Duties on platforms serving UK users, overseen by Ofcom | Since 17 March 2025, platforms must tackle illegal content such as threats, harassment, fraud and intimate image abuse. |
| Protection from Harassment Act 1997 | A course of conduct that amounts to harassment | Repeated online attacks may be a crime and a civil wrong, strengthening reports and police involvement. |
| Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 | Your photographs, videos, writing and creative work | Copyright notices can remove content that reuses your images or material without permission. |
Most of our cases never go near a courtroom. A well-evidenced report that cites the right rule, and where necessary the right law, is usually enough. Where legal action is needed, we work alongside your solicitor so that the reputation side — search, press, social and AI answers — is handled at the same time.
How to fix your online reputation yourself: a step-by-step plan
You can do a lot on your own, today, without help. If you want to try first, follow these steps in order. They are the same first steps we take with every client.
Search yourself properly
Use a private browser window and search your name, your name plus your town, your job title and your company, on Google UK and Bing. Check the Images, Videos and News tabs, and note the autocomplete suggestions. Then ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity “Who is [your name]?” or “Is [your company] trustworthy?” and save the answers.
Save the evidence before you act
Take dated screenshots and copy the exact links of every harmful item. Content sometimes vanishes and reappears, and evidence disappears with it.
Sort what you found into three groups
Breaks the rules or the law (fake, defamatory, harassing, private, impersonating); fair but painful (honest criticism); and outdated or irrelevant (old news, old addresses, old roles). Each group needs a different response.
Report the clear breaches
Use each platform’s own reporting tools, choose the most accurate category, and report every item separately. Keep calm, precise language, and attach your evidence.
Reply to genuine criticism — once, and well
Thank the person, acknowledge the issue without arguing, explain what you have changed, and offer to continue privately. Future readers judge you by the reply as much as the review.
Claim and strengthen what you own
Claim your Google Business Profile, update LinkedIn, make sure your website has a clear “About” page, and secure your name on the main social platforms so no one else can.
Ask happy customers for honest reviews
Ask every genuine customer, in the same way, with no incentive. Never filter for only happy ones, and never write or buy reviews.
Set up monitoring
Create Google Alerts for your name and company, check your search results once a month, and repeat your AI-assistant questions every quarter.
How to remove negative search results from Google in the UK
Google does not decide whether something about you is fair. It indexes what is published. That means there are four real ways to deal with a negative result, and the best plans usually use more than one:
- Remove it at the source. If the review, post or article is taken down by the platform or publisher, Google will drop it from results — you can speed this up with Google’s tool for refreshing outdated content.
- Ask Google to de-list it. Google accepts requests under UK data protection law to remove results for your name that are inaccurate, inadequate, irrelevant or excessive, and separate requests for personal contact information, doxxing and explicit images shared without consent. Its “Results about you” tool helps you find and request removal of results showing personal contact details.
- Use the law. Defamatory content, copyright breaches and court orders can lead to removal from Google even when a site will not cooperate.
- Suppress it. When content is lawful and stays online, you can still push it down by publishing and promoting stronger, accurate pages — press coverage, profiles, interviews and your own website — so the first page of Google tells a fairer story.
Our detailed guide to removing a negative article from Google walks through each route, and our right to be forgotten UK service handles de-listing requests for you.
Can you fix a ruined online reputation?
Yes. We say that carefully, because people who ask this question are often exhausted and frightened, and they deserve honesty rather than hype.
A reputation can feel ruined when the first page of Google is full of one story. But online, “ruined” almost always means “unbalanced”. There are usually only a handful of results doing most of the damage, and each one has a route: removal, correction, de-listing, a fair reply or simply being outranked by better content. We have helped people rebuild after false accusations, viral pile-ons, business failures, old convictions that were spent, divorces that went public, and fake review attacks by competitors.
What takes longer is when the negative story is accurate and recent. In that case reputation repair is about context and time: showing what has changed, earning new coverage, and making sure the full story is told. That is slower, but it works — and it lasts, because it is true.
How long does online reputation repair take?
It depends on what you are dealing with. These are realistic timelines from our own casework, not promises; we give you a timeline for your specific case in your free assessment.
| Situation | Typical timeline | What drives it |
|---|---|---|
| Clear policy breach (fake review, harassment, impersonation) | Days to a few weeks | Quality of the evidence and the platform’s review queue |
| Defamation or privacy request | Two to eight weeks | Legal forms, responses from the poster or publisher, appeals |
| Right to be forgotten request to Google | A few weeks to a few months | Google’s assessment of public interest; appeals to the ICO if refused |
| Correcting or updating a news article | Two weeks to three months | The publisher’s editorial process |
| Suppressing lawful negative results | Three to twelve months | How strong the negative result is, and how much authoritative content we can build |
| Changing what AI assistants say | One to six months | How quickly sources are updated and re-crawled |
The single biggest factor is speed. Content that is challenged in its first days has fewer copies, fewer links and less time to shape what people think. If something has just appeared, act now.
Online reputation management for individuals vs businesses
The principles are the same, but the stakes, the content and the routes are different. Here is how reputation management changes depending on who you are.
For private individuals
Private people have the strongest legal and platform protections, and they often need them most. Common situations include a cruel post by an ex-partner, a fake profile, old photos, a news story from years ago, or a review site naming you personally. Privacy and harassment routes are usually powerful here, because you are not a public figure. Our personal reputation management UK service is built for exactly this, discreetly.
For executives, founders and public figures
Leaders are judged by investors, boards, journalists and future employers, who all search first. Criticism of your public role is harder to remove, so the focus shifts to accuracy, context and authority: correcting false claims, building a strong Knowledge Panel, earning interviews and expert commentary, and keeping your personal and company reputation aligned. See our executive PR services and thought leadership PR.
For small and medium-sized businesses
For a local business, reviews are everything. A handful of fake one-star reviews, an angry ex-employee on Glassdoor or a Facebook post on a local page can change bookings within days. Our SME reputation management UK and local business reputation management services focus on reviews, Google Business Profile and local search. We also run specialist programmes by sector, including hospitality, medical and healthcare, professional services, property and estate agents, retail, trades, education, childcare and family services and technology start-ups.
For larger companies and brands
At corporate level, reputation management joins up communications, HR, legal and customer service. It includes media relations, issues management, employer brand, review programmes across many locations, and crisis planning. Our corporate reputation management UK team works with in-house teams and their advisers. For businesses based in the capital, our reputation management London team is a short walk from Bond Street.
Online reputation management in AI search: ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews
This is the biggest change to reputation management in a decade. When someone asks an AI assistant “Is this company legitimate?” or “What do people say about this person?”, they get one confident answer — not ten blue links. That answer is drawn from the sources the assistant trusts most: established news publications, Wikipedia, review platforms, Reddit and forums, and well-structured company websites.
So the questions become: what is the AI reading about you, and is it accurate? We see three common problems:
- Old negative content given new life. A story from years ago, long resolved, is presented as if it is current.
- Forums treated as fact. One angry Reddit or Quora thread is summarised as “some users report…”.
- A missing positive story. If there is little authoritative coverage of your achievements, the AI has nothing good to say, so it says the negative thing it can find.
The fix is generative engine optimisation (GEO) combined with reputation repair: remove or correct the bad sources, and earn new coverage in the publications AI tools cite most. Our guides on how to rank in AI search and the best publications for AI visibility explain this in detail, and our AI PR agency UK team does it for you.
How to build a positive online reputation that lasts
Removal clears the ground. Building is what keeps it clear. The most effective way to protect a reputation is to make sure there is a strong, accurate, positive story about you in the places people — and AI assistants — trust most.
Earned press coverage
Coverage in respected publications is the most powerful reputation asset there is. It ranks well, it is trusted by readers, and it is heavily cited by AI tools. The difference between earned and sponsored coverage shapes how we place every story, and our PR agency for media coverage service secures interviews, features and expert comment.
Guaranteed publication
When you need positive, authoritative pages quickly — for example, to balance a damaging result — guaranteed press release publication gives you certainty. Placements go live within 14 days of your approval, or you receive a 100% refund. Read what a media placement is if you are new to this, or see our results-based PR model.
Thought leadership and expert commentary
Regular, useful commentary on your industry builds a reputation for expertise that one negative post cannot undo. It also earns the kind of links and mentions that help your own website rank for your name.
A strong owned presence
Your website, LinkedIn, Google Business Profile and verified social accounts should all tell the same clear, current story. Consistency helps Google, and it helps AI assistants recognise which information about you is reliable. See our digital PR agency UK for how we connect press and search.
Genuine reviews, consistently requested
The best defence against a bad review is a steady flow of honest good ones. Ask every real customer, in the same way, at the right moment. Fresh genuine reviews quickly outweigh an old complaint.
When a reputation problem becomes a crisis
Sometimes it is not one review or one post. A story goes viral, journalists start calling, staff are worried, customers are asking questions and the comments will not stop. At that point you need crisis communications, not just removal.
In the first 24 to 48 hours, the priorities are: establish the facts, decide who speaks for you, prepare a short holding statement, brief staff, monitor every channel, and avoid saying anything you may have to take back. Removal work continues alongside, but the message matters more than ever. Our crisis PR agency UK and crisis communications teams handle this, and they work closely with our removal specialists.
Best online reputation management tools in 2026
People often ask which reputation management tools are best. Tools do not fix a reputation on their own, but the right ones help you spot problems early. Here are the categories we recommend, with well-known examples:
| Need | Examples | What they help with |
|---|---|---|
| Name and brand alerts | Google Alerts, Talkwalker Alerts | Emails when new pages mention your name or company |
| Social listening | Brandwatch, Brand24, Mention, Talkwalker | Tracking mentions and sentiment on social media, forums and news |
| Review management | Google Business Profile, Trustpilot Business, review platforms’ own dashboards | Reading, replying to and flagging reviews; inviting genuine customers |
| Search visibility | Google Search Console, Semrush, Ahrefs | Seeing which pages rank for your name and how that changes |
| Personal information | Google’s “Results about you” | Finding and requesting removal of results with your contact details |
| AI visibility | Manual prompts in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot | Seeing what AI assistants say about you, and tracking it over time |
Tools tell you what is happening. They cannot write the evidence pack, choose the right legal route or earn coverage in a national newspaper. That is where people come in.
Examples of online reputation management in practice
What does reputation management actually look like? These are illustrative scenarios based on the kinds of cases we handle every week. Names and details are not real clients.
A restaurant hit by fake reviews
Twenty one-star Google reviews appear in a weekend, from accounts with no history. The reviews are flagged as fake engagement with evidence of the pattern, the owner replies calmly to the few genuine complaints, and regular customers are invited to share honest reviews. The rating recovers within weeks.
A founder and an old article
A news story about a dispute that was later settled still ranks first for a founder’s name, and ChatGPT repeats it. The publisher is asked to add the outcome, new interviews are earned in business titles, and the Knowledge Panel is updated. The article drops to page two and AI answers now include the full story.
A private person and a cruel post
An ex-partner posts private photos and accusations on Facebook and Reddit. Both are reported under privacy and harassment rules with a full evidence pack, a Google de-listing request is filed, and monitoring catches a repost the following month.
An employer and Glassdoor
A review names a manager and shares confidential details. It is challenged under the site’s guidelines, the employer responds thoughtfully to the fair parts of other reviews, and a recruitment-focused content plan rebuilds trust with candidates.
What to avoid: reputation management mistakes that make things worse
- Fake reviews. Writing, buying or commissioning fake reviews is a banned practice in the UK since April 2025. It also tends to be detected, and can lead to warnings on your profile.
- Threatening the poster. Aggressive legal letters to ordinary customers often end up screenshotted and shared, creating a bigger story — the so-called Streisand effect.
- Arguing in public. Long, defensive replies make the original complaint more visible and make you look worse to the next reader.
- Mass reporting from many accounts. Platforms treat coordinated reporting as abuse. One accurate report with good evidence beats a hundred angry ones.
- Agencies that will not explain their methods. If someone cannot tell you, in plain words, how a piece of content will be removed, be cautious. Hacking, fake legal notices and bribing moderators are illegal and can leave you exposed.
- Waiting for it to go away. Online content rarely disappears on its own, and the longer it stays, the more copies and links it gathers.
How to choose the best online reputation management company UK 2026
If you decide to get help, you are trusting someone with something very personal. These are the questions we would ask, if we were in your position, when looking for the best online reputation management company UK 2026 has to offer:
- Do they explain every route in plain English? You should understand what will be filed, where and why.
- Do they work only within platform rules and UK law? Anything else risks making the problem worse.
- Do they cover every channel? Reviews, social, search, news, Wikipedia and AI answers are connected. A specialist in only one will miss the rest.
- Can they build as well as remove? Genuine press relationships matter, because positive coverage is what keeps a reputation strong.
- What happens if something is not removed? Look for a clear written promise, not vague talk of “best efforts”.
- Are they discreet? Confidentiality should be standard, from the first message.
- Is the plan bespoke? Fixed packages rarely fit real situations.
- How long have they been doing this? Experience with platforms, editors and UK law takes years to build.
Our article comparing guaranteed PR agencies is useful background if you are weighing up several firms.
How United Press manages reputations
United Press has protected and built reputations since 2001, from our office at Brook’s Mews, off Bond Street in London. We work with private individuals, public figures, founders, professionals and businesses of every size across the UK and worldwide.
- Removal booked upfront, with a full refund for any item in your plan that is not removed.
- Press placements live within 14 days of your approval, or a 100% refund.
- Every channel under one roof: reviews, social media, search, news, Wikipedia, Knowledge Panels and AI answers.
- Bespoke plans, never fixed packages, built around your situation.
- Lawful, discreet and honest: we tell you what can and cannot be done before you commit to anything.
- Award-winning work recognised across the industry, including PRWeek, CIPR Excellence, the UK Agency Awards, PRCA DARE, The Drum Awards and the UK Social Media Communications Awards.
You can see everything we do on our services page, read more about United Press, or email our team in confidence.
Online reputation management FAQ
What is online reputation management?
Online reputation management is the process of monitoring, protecting, repairing and building what people find about a person or business online — in Google, review sites, social media, news and AI assistants. It combines lawful removal of harmful content, honest responses to criticism and the creation of accurate, positive content.
How do reputation management services work?
A specialist audits what appears for your name, matches each harmful item to a lawful route (platform policy, UK law or a publisher correction), builds the evidence, files and follows up the requests, then repairs and protects your results with positive content and ongoing monitoring.
What are the four elements of reputation management?
Monitor what is said about you, protect your name before problems arise, repair damage through removal, correction and suppression, and build a strong positive presence through press coverage, genuine reviews and authoritative profiles.
What is the difference between SEO and online reputation management?
SEO is about ranking chosen pages for search terms. Online reputation management is about the story your results tell. ORM uses SEO techniques, but also includes review and content removal, legal routes, PR, crisis communications and AI visibility.
How do I repair my online reputation?
Search yourself properly, save evidence, report content that breaks platform rules or the law, reply calmly to genuine criticism, claim and strengthen your own profiles, invite honest reviews, earn positive press coverage and keep monitoring. For serious or complex cases, a specialist can speed this up considerably.
Can negative content be removed from Google in the UK?
Yes, in many cases. Content removed at the source drops out of Google. Google also de-lists certain results under UK data protection law, as well as personal contact details, doxxing and non-consensual explicit images. Defamatory and copyright-infringing content can be removed through legal routes. Lawful content can be pushed down with stronger results.
How long does online reputation repair take?
Clear policy breaches can be resolved in days or weeks. Legal and data protection requests usually take weeks to a few months. Suppressing lawful negative results typically takes three to twelve months, depending on how strong they are.
Can you fix a ruined reputation?
Yes. A reputation that feels ruined online usually depends on a small number of damaging results, each of which can be removed, corrected, de-listed or outranked. Where the negative story is accurate and recent, repair takes longer and focuses on context, change and new positive coverage.
Can I remove a bad review that is honest?
Usually not, and it is rarely wise to try. Honest reviews are protected by most platforms. A calm, helpful reply and a steady flow of new genuine reviews reduce their impact far more effectively.
Are fake reviews illegal in the UK?
Yes. Since 6 April 2025, under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, writing, commissioning or publishing fake reviews, and hiding incentivised reviews, are banned practices. Platforms must also take steps to prevent and remove them.
How do I change what ChatGPT says about me or my business?
AI assistants summarise the sources they trust. To change the answer, remove or correct inaccurate sources, earn coverage in respected publications, keep your website, Knowledge Panel and profiles accurate and consistent, and check the answers regularly as sources are updated.
Is online reputation management legal?
Yes, when it works within platform rules and the law: reporting genuine breaches, making lawful legal and data protection requests, responding to criticism and publishing accurate content. Fake reviews, fake legal notices, hacking and harassment of critics are not legitimate reputation management.
Do I need a reputation management company?
Not always. Many small issues can be fixed yourself with the steps in this guide. A specialist helps most when content has been reported without success, when it involves legal routes, when it has spread across several platforms or into AI answers, or when you simply need it handled quickly and discreetly.
Do you help people outside the UK?
Yes. We are based in London and the UK is our main focus, but we help individuals and businesses worldwide, working with platforms and publications in many countries.
Your name should tell your real story
Somewhere tonight, someone will type your name into a search bar. A future client, an employer, an investor, a new neighbour, someone you have not met yet but would like to. You deserve for them to find the person you really are, not the worst day you ever had, and not a lie someone told about you.
You do not have to keep refreshing the page and hoping it changes. And you do not have to handle it alone. Tell us what you are facing, and a specialist will review it in confidence and explain, honestly, what can be done.
The story is not over. It is yours to write.
Written by United Press reputation and media specialists in London, drawing on casework since 2001. This guide is general information, not legal advice. Last reviewed 9 October 2026.