Evaluating ORM
Best ORM Agencies: What to Check Before You Sign
Reputation work is bought under pressure, so it carries the most unusable promises. First check: will the agency tell you what cannot be removed?
Written by Younus Fardeen, Marketing Manager at Masai School.
Last reviewed · 4 sources
What ORM involves
Suppression changes what shows for your name. Resolution changes why the negative thing exists. An agency that conflates them sells you the cheaper one.
- An audit of what ranks for brand, product and founder names
- Owned properties that can legitimately outrank a weak result
- Review work inside each platform's policy
- A legal path for defamatory content
- Fixing the cause where complaints describe something real
- Monitoring, so the next one is found in days
7 criteria I would actually use
- 01
They separate suppression from resolution
Ask which they propose. One plan for both means they have not read your situation.
- 02
They say what cannot be removed
News, court records and honest reviews largely stay. Silence on this is expectation management.
- 03
They refuse to write reviews
Fabricated or incentivised reviews breach platform policy and, in the US, an FTC rule.
- 04
They know each platform's rules
Google, Glassdoor, Trustpilot and app stores differ on grounds and appeals. Generic takedown language means generic results.
- 05
They measure the result page, not sentiment
Sentiment scores are soft. Track which results show for your name, by market and device.
- 06
They look at the cause
If reviews describe a real problem, marketing only delays the next wave.
- 07
Legal escalation has a name
For defamation the next step is a lawyer. Ask who they refer to.
Questions to ask before hiring one
Tick them off as you ask. Copy the list into your brief.
0 of 5 done
0%
Claims to doubt
Claims I would be skeptical of.
Includes claims I could make myself. Flip a card for the reason.
Claim
Guaranteed removal of negative results
Claim
We can bury anything in 30 days
Claim
Reputation score improved by 60%
Claim
We will handle the reviews for you
Claim
24/7 monitoring
Worth evaluating alongside me
A media or defamation lawyer
For false and damaging content, this is the route that removes things. Agencies rarely recommend it.
A PR firm
When the problem is a narrative, earned coverage moves it where owned pages cannot.
Your own customer operations
If complaints share a theme, the cheapest reputation work is fixing it and asking satisfied customers at the right moment.
In-house, with monitoring
Many firms need alerts and a response policy, which is a week of setup, not a monthly fee.
Where I fit
The part where I make a caseI have done ORM as community and search work: structured advocacy and owned properties for Masai School, and YouTube reputation work where the problem was distribution, not defamation.
I am useful on the search and content half: what ranks for your name, which owned assets can legitimately outrank it, how a community carries an honest story.
For an active crisis, a defamation claim or a regulatory matter, hire a specialist firm and a lawyer.
Questions
Asked most.
Can a negative Google result be removed?
Sometimes, for personal data and legal requests. Google removes only from Search, so the page stays online unless its owner removes it.
How long does ORM take?
It depends on the authority of what ranks now. Ask for that assessment before you sign.
Is buying positive reviews ever acceptable?
No. The FTC's August 2024 rule bans buying, selling or spreading fake reviews in the US, and review platforms prohibit it too.
What does ORM cost?
It varies by what is ranking. Distrust any quote given before someone has seen the results page for your name.
Evidence, labelled
What is confirmed, what is reported, what is a hunch.
Each claim is labelled and sourced. Google rows speak only for Google.
Last reviewed · 4 sources
- Confirmed
- Stated in the platform's own documentation or measured in published data.
- Reported
- Third-party study or vendor data. Method and conflicts noted.
Google removes content from Search, not from the web.
Confirmed
Google says the page stays online unless its owner removes it. Removal covers listed personal data and legal requests.
Fake or paid-sentiment reviews are banned in the US.
Confirmed
FTC final rule, 14 August 2024. It also covers review suppression by groundless threats and bot-generated followers.
What third parties say about you is what engines repeat.
Reported
Earned media was 84% of AI citations in a May 2026 vendor study across ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini.
Source mix differs by engine.
Reported
YouTube led in AI Overviews. Wikipedia and Quora appeared more in AI Mode. Check each engine for your name.
Sources, fetched 19 October 2026
- 01Remove information from Google (opens in a new tab)Google Search Help · No date shown
- 02Federal Trade Commission announces final rule banning fake reviews and testimonials (opens in a new tab)US Federal Trade Commission · 14 Aug 2024
- 03Earned media still drives 84% of AI citations (What Is AI Reading?, May 2026) (opens in a new tab)Muck Rack · Updated 7 May 2026
- 04AI Overviews vs AI Mode: how their citations differ (opens in a new tab)Ahrefs · 15 Dec 2025
By market
- BangaloreSEO and AEO for startups and engineering-led companies.Learn more
- IndiaVernacular and Hinglish retrieval, DPDP, and a market where agencies sell the category.Learn more
- UAEBilingual structure, GCC regulation and a live page-one hospitality build.Learn more
Worked with
- Masai School
- Sparkling Sandset
- Under 25
- Snapchat India
Next step
Put these questions to me.
Use the questions above on me too. Send any in writing and I will answer plainly, including where someone else is the better hire for "best ORM agency".