Neil Patel

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The 5 Best Reputation Management Companies of 2023

Researchers at Womply analyzed 200,000 small businesses in every state, looking at a few dozen industries. 

They found that businesses with more than 82 total reviews earn 54 percent more money. It isn’t just about getting reviews either. Businesses achieved moderate to large jumps in revenue from the simplest tasks. Claim your profile on at least four review sites? You earn 58 percent more revenue. Businesses that reply to their reviews 25 percent of the time earn 35 percent more revenue. 

Here’s the problem many businesses run into. 

They don’t know what they’re doing. Most know how to ask customers for reviews, but they’re unsure how to handle the other important parts of reputation management. 

This is why it’s important to get help. 

If you have the right reputation management company, you’ll have the help you need to improve your company’s online reputation.

The 5 Top Reputation Management Companies in The World

Here’s a shortlist of some of the best reputation management companies in the world. You can use review sites like Clutch.co, HubSpot Agency Directory, or Sortlist if you’re looking for something more specific in the reputation management industry. 

1. NP Digital – Best for Local SEO and Reputation Management

NP Digital is my agency. If you’re familiar with my work, you know that I have a strong background in search engine optimization and digital marketing. I built an agency called Pronet Advertising more than 17 years ago, while I was still in high school. 

It’s hard to believe that I’ve been a marketer for more than 20 years! That’s given me a lot of time to learn how reputation management integrates with local search, content marketing, social media marketing, and advertising. I took all of the lessons I’ve learned from the companies I built — Kissmetrics, Crazy Egg,  Pronet, Quicksprout, NeilPatel.com, and now NP Digital.

My agency is a little bit different from other agencies. 

NP Digital ties all of our work back to revenue. It’s no different with our reputation management campaigns. If you’re going to put a dollar into your campaign, you want two dollars back, right? My agency focuses on driving real business results, so your company continues to grow; our work has to make money for your business. 

NP Digital’s client list includes:

  • Facebook
  • Viacom
  • Google
  • GM
  • eBay
  • NBC
  • Thomson Reuters foundation
  • TechCrunch
  • Cheezburger
  • American Greetings

2. NetReputation – Best for Reputation Management Services

NetReputation is best known for their specific focus on reputation management. While many other reputation management companies multitask and offer other services or segmented solutions NetReputation places all of its energy on improving their client’s internet reputation by offering full-service solutions.

As an expert online reputation management company, NetReputation uses its years of experience and team of experts to build a positive reputation for you or your business online. NetReputation is the fastest-growing reputation management firm to be featured on the INC 5000 2 years in a row. 

NetReputation creates a unique strategy based on the client’s needs. It offers guaranteed results and a realized positive impact in the first 30 days of service. 

Services include: 

  • Content removal – Complete removal of unwanted content from search engines.
  • Negative Content Suppression- Through content creation, optimization, and promotion the work to replace negative content with positive content to highlight your accomplishments. 
  • PR Crisis Management – Effective communication and mitigation strategies for negative PR events. 
  • Review Solutions – Management of review acquisition, negative review removal, local directory listing update, 
  • Wikipedia Editing & Monitoring – Services to manage and monitor Wiki pages. 
  • Brand Building – Solutions to build your brand’s authority and reputation online.

3. InboundJunction – Best for Reputation Recovery

InboundJunction online reputation management services are unique in the sense that they draw on the agency’s prowess in digital PR. 

InboundJunction’s offering is geared toward complete control of a business’ online presence and includes content marketing and amplification, thought leadership and influencer marketing, SEO, and review management. InboundJunction harnesses all these capabilities for their reputation management service.

They work on all fronts:

  • Promoting your brand with top-tier publications to land positive reviews and mentions of your brand to ‘replace’ in SERPs the negative ones
  • Monitoring your brand mentions to react immediately when a negative one emerges
  • Doing the legal legwork of de-indexing and removing content for legal violations

InboundJunction was established in 2013 and has served more than 500 companies, B2B and B2C, enterprise and startups. 

The combination of rich experience and an extremely wide network of connections with publications, editors, bloggers, and influencers makes Inbound Junction a very powerful player in online reputation management. 

As per compensation, InboundJunction works mostly success-based. As it says on their website: “If we succeed, you pay, if we don’t, you don’t.” 

InboundJunction’s client list includes startups post-funding round (often Seed, Round A and B), high network individuals as well as established businesses.

4. Thrive – Best for Small Business Review Management

Thrive is a full-service agency that offers reputation management and reputation repair services. Thrive offers reputation management and repair services on their website; take a closer look at their website, and you’ll find that they’re really focused on the online review side of things. 

If you’re looking for a reputation management firm with the legal and takedown chops to protect your business Thrive isn’t the reputation management company for you. If you’re looking for an agency that can generate a huge amount of reviews, Thrive may be a good fit. If you’re looking for an agency that’s oriented around small businesses, winning new customers over or burying negative press Thrive is a great place to start. 

Thrive offers most of the services a full-service agency provides. If you’re looking for a Jack of all trades, their agency has experience in several areas; this works especially well for inexperienced small business clients who need help with multiple services. 

Thrive Agency’s client list includes:

  • Nationwide Construction
  • Ready Seal
  • Bonds Ellis Eppich Shaffer Jones
  • Max Mechanical
  • Quick Roofing

5. Reputation Rhino – Best for Individuals

Reputation Rhino specializes in online reputation management; they serve small- and midsize businesses and individuals. Since then, they’ve expanded to create a range of brand management and internet marketing services that they offer to companies and individuals. 

All of the services they now offer — SEO, PPC, Social media, Web development — they’re all geared around their reputation management services. 

It’s not as common, but Reputation Rhino offers clients a money-back guarantee.

They offer reputation management and repair services; One thing that’s surprising about their business is the fact that they’re able to remove negative reviews from online review sites like Glassdoor, Ripoff Report, Google Images, and more. 

Their agency is small but so is the price; campaign pricing starts at $1,000. 

Reputation Rhino’s client list includes:

  • Colleges
  • Reputation management companies 
  • Law firms
  • Local businesses 
  • Retail storefronts
  • Tech companies

4 Characteristics That Make a Great Reputation Management Company

When you’re vetting an agency, you’ll want to find a company that displays the right characteristics. The last thing you want is to choose a reputation management company that makes your reputation worse. When you’re searching for the right agency, here are some attributes to keep in mind. 

1. Their agency approach is proactive and reactive 

The industry has matured quite a bit since reputation management of the 90s. Back then, agencies were focused on simply burying negative content. That’s still doable, but it’s much easier to guide the conversation from the start. 

Asking customers to share their feedback via online reviews. Creating, claiming, and optimizing your review profiles; responding to customer feedback, these are all proactive  methods you can use to improve your reputation. Deleting or burying toxic, inaccurate, or misleading content, sending out legal takedown notices, and working with law enforcement are reactive strategies. 

You need both, but these strategies don’t provide a complete picture of online reputation management campaigns on their own.

2. They focus on building relationships

Old-school campaigns are focused primarily on silencing critics, enemies, and opponents. New-school agencies still have those skills if they need them, but they choose to focus their attention on building relationships with customers. 

  • Helping you take care of your customers
  • Requesting reviews from customers 
  • Building reviews up on the right platforms
  • Generating publicity and increasing visibility
  • Responding to unfair attacks
  • If you’ve made a mistake, they’ll help you earn a fresh start

You need an agency that understands both sides of reputation management. 

3. They realize reputation management is ongoing

This doesn’t mean that your agency is trying to lock you into an unnecessary contract. Customers feel reviews older than three months are irrelevant. Agencies realize customers want to see consistent proof that you’re still performing well. 

Reputation and reviews, they decay over time. 

Your agency should provide you with an ongoing service that’s optional; they should provide you with the people, processes, and tools you need to manage your reputation well. They should have a team in place to manage outreach with customers, publications, and press. 

4. They’re local search experts

Your reputation management agency should have experience in running and managing local search campaigns.

You want this because local searches are growing 50 percent faster than mobile search. As far as Google is concerned, online reviews are part of the local ranking factors that determine your rank and performance. 

When it comes to local search, your reputation management company should have expert-level knowledge. They should know how to increase search engine and social media visibility. The easier it is for them to integrate local search, the better your reputation management campaigns will perform. 

What To Expect From a Great Reputation Management Company

Here’s a shortlist of the things you should expect from your agency. 

  1. They’ll show you the plan ahead of time: Your agency will provide you with an A to Z plan, outlining the macro and micro level components of your campaign. You should know exactly what you’re getting into — what your campaign costs, what their goals are, how long it will take to reach those goals and the reports they’ll provide. 
  2. Openness and complete transparency: Your agency should answer all of your questions and concerns; this isn’t optional or negotiable. Your agency isn’t writing copy or designing a website. They’re working with your reputation, so the impact on your business is huge. You need to know exactly what they’re doing and how they’re doing it. 
  3. Consistent communication: Your agency should provide you with constant communication, feedback, and reporting. You’ll need to provide them with the decision-makers and influencers who need to be part of the conversation. 

You should see evidence of this before you sign on the dotted line. If agencies hide behind proprietary software or secret processes, you’ll want to walk away. 

Conclusion

Reputation management is easier when you have the right company behind you. Many businesses don’t know what they’re doing. Most know how to ask customers for reviews, but they’re unsure how to handle the important aspects of reputation management. 

If you feel the same way, it may be a good idea to get help. 

Businesses that handle reputation management will see consistently large jumps in revenue. Completing simple tasks — claiming your review management profiles, responding to customers online, and requesting reviews — good reputation management leads to more revenue. 

Use our guide to find the reputation management companies that are right for your business. Set your values, expectations, and needs ahead of time, and you’ll find choosing the right company is easy. 

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