Reputation management
Also called: online reputation management, ORM
Online reputation management (ORM) is the practice of monitoring, earning, and responding to the reviews, ratings, and search results that shape how people and search engines perceive a business. For local businesses it feeds directly into Google's prominence signal and local rankings.
Reputation management sits where two things Google cares about meet: what other people say about you, and how you respond. On the local side Google names three ranking factors (relevance, distance, and prominence). Prominence is “how well-known a business is,” and Google states it is based partly on “how many reviews you have,” adding that “more reviews and positive ratings can help your business’s local ranking.” Replies count too: “positive reviews and helpful replies can help your business stand out.”
Earn reviews the way Google allows
There is a safe way and a risky way. Google’s review policy bans fake reviews, paying or offering incentives for reviews, and review gating (selectively asking only happy customers, or discouraging negative ones). The clean play is to ask every customer for an honest review and reply to all of them, good and bad. A plumber who requests a review after each finished job, then answers the one-star complaint with a real fix, builds prominence that holds up.
In 2026 reputation is no longer only a Google problem. When someone asks ChatGPT or Perplexity for “the best plumber near me,” those systems draw on the same reviews, ratings, and mentions spread across the web. A thin or negative review profile can quietly keep you out of an AI answer the same way it keeps you out of the map pack. According to BrightLocal’s Local Search Ranking Factors, reviews are now the second most important factor for both the Local Pack and AI results.
How it affects your traffic
A weak review profile caps how often you surface in the map pack, which is where most local clicks, calls, and direction requests come from. Fixing the review engine (steady volume, fast replies, no policy violations) lifts prominence, and prominence lifts ranking, impressions, and conversions. Our Local SEO service treats reputation as a ranking input rather than a vanity metric, wiring review generation and responses into the same workflow that manages your Google Business Profile, so the same work that reassures customers also feeds Google and AI answers.
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