Online reputation management changes what people find when they search for your brand. Prohibition PR monitors your search results, reviews and social mentions, responds quickly, and earns the press coverage and content that push misleading or outdated results down Google. Because we’re a PR agency first, earned coverage does the heavy lifting. We don’t buy reviews, and we never promise to delete lawful content.
Brands That Trust Us
Why brands trust Prohibition with their reputation
- Over 45 industry awards for Prohibition’s campaigns, including PRCA DARE and CIPR wins.
- Primula and The Kavli Trust: BBC Look North features, dozens of positive pieces and 12m+ campaign reach.
- A crisis and issues team that handles difficult media enquiries as part of the same service.
What does online reputation management include?
At Prohibition it covers six jobs: monitoring, review response, earned media, owned content, search suppression, and referral to solicitors where content may be unlawful. Most brands need some of each, in a different mix.
Monitoring always comes first in our process. We track your branded searches, review sites and social mentions, so a problem reaches you before it reaches a customer. Then we answer reviews and comments in your voice, quickly and without getting defensive.
The longer job is building better things for Google to show. That means coverage in respected titles, strong pages on your own site, active social profiles and, where it helps, interviews with your senior people. Each of those can rank, and together they push a damaging result further down page one.
Can negative reviews or articles be removed?
Sometimes, but only in narrow cases. A review that breaks the platform’s own rules can be reported and taken down. Content that may be defamatory is a matter for a solicitor, and we’ll refer you to one. Individuals may be able to ask search engines to delist some results under UK GDPR, depending on the circumstances.
Fair criticism stays up, and honest agencies will say so. Prohibition’s job there is to respond well, fix the cause if there is one, and make sure the bad result isn’t the first thing people see. Anyone offering to make lawful content vanish, or to fill your profile with fake reviews, is putting your brand at risk. Fake reviews are now unlawful in the UK under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024.
How long does it take to change search results?
Expect months rather than weeks for search results to change. New coverage and pages have to be published, indexed and trusted by Google before they outrank an older result, and a story on a strong news site can take a long time to shift.
We’ll give you an honest view at the start, based on what’s ranking and how strong those sites are. Then we track the position of each result on page one, so you can see movement month by month.
Why use a PR agency for reputation management?
Most online reputation firms are SEO shops. Prohibition’s media team gets clients onto BBC Look North and into regional and trade press, and coverage on trusted news sites is exactly what tends to outrank a negative story.
We also run crisis and issues work, so if a story is still live we can handle the media while we work on search. Our Reputation Guardian service covers that side, from risk planning to spokesperson training.
“When someone searches your name before a meeting, page one of Google is your first impression. You can’t argue with a bad result, but you can give Google better things to show. That means real coverage, real reviews and content worth ranking.” Chris Norton, Founder and Managing Director, Prohibition PR
Does reputation management affect AI search answers?
Yes, because AI tools draw on the same sources that rank in Google. Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity build their answers from news coverage, review sites and well-made pages. If those sources say something out of date about you, the AI answer will repeat it.
Prohibition already runs generative engine optimisation for clients, so we check what the main AI tools say about your brand as part of the work.
How much does reputation management cost?
It runs as a monthly retainer. The fee depends on how many results need to move, how strong the sites ranking against you are, and whether there’s a live story to handle at the same time. We agree scope after a first call and put the fee in writing.
How will you report progress?
Each report shows where every page-one result sits for your main branded searches, what we published, what coverage landed and how your review ratings have moved. You’ll see the negative result’s position alongside it, so progress is plain.
Who is this service not right for?
We’re not the right agency if you want fake or incentivised reviews, if you want lawful criticism deleted, or if you need a guaranteed result by a fixed date. Nobody honest can promise that last one.
If the problem is about you personally rather than your business, our personal reputation management service for CEOs and public figures is the better fit.
Other questions about managing your reputation online
What is online reputation management?
It’s the work of shaping what people find about a brand or person online, mainly in search results, reviews and social media. Done properly it relies on good communication and genuine coverage.
What is the difference between reputation management and crisis PR?
Crisis PR deals with a live story, usually over hours or days. Reputation management deals with what’s left behind online, often over months. Prohibition does both, which helps when one turns into the other.
How should a business respond to bad reviews?
Reply publicly, politely and quickly. Thank the person, deal with the point they raised, and offer to take it offline. Readers judge the response as much as the review.
Worried about what people find when they search for you?
Tell us what’s showing up and where. We’ll look at your search results, reviews and coverage, then give you a straight answer on what can change and how.
Or call the team on 0113 430 4160.
Our Latest Work
