How to manage your reputation on Google: a guide to SERM for businesses in 2025

Your brand is what Google says about it. Even if you don't run social media accounts, buy press releases, or respond to reviews, Google still shapes the user's impression. And this affects sales, trust, and even the company's market value.

SERM (Search Engine Reputation Management) is a technology that influences what people see in search results for brand queries.

“What is SERM?” - in simple terms

SERM is not just a “cover-up” for bad news. It is a full-fledged strategy for controlling Google search results, which includes SEO, copywriting, linkbuilding, monitoring and PR.

How SERM differs from ORM, PR, SMM:

SERM vs. ORM

At first glance, it may seem that SERM (Search Engine Reputation Management) and ORM (Online Reputation Management) are the same thing. But in practice they have different tasks, implementation channels and tools.

The main difference:

• SERM is “technical SEO image management”, that is, working only with search engines (most often Google) to drive out negative results and promote positive ones.
• ORM is “strategic reputation management across all online channels” including social networks, media, forums, video and even messengers.

Comparison of SERM and ORM

In simple language:

SERM = “We want Google to have only good things about us in the first positions.”

ORM = “We want everywhere we are remembered to be positive - Google, Facebook, news, TikTok, Telegram, Reddit…”

How reputation in rendition is formed

Google ranks information based on relevance, site authority and behavioral factors. If the negative news is well optimized or has a large number of mentions - it will appear in the TOP.

What affects rendition:

1. Branded queries:

• [Company name]
• [Company + reviews]
• [Company CEO]
• [Product + negatives].

2. Types of resources in the issue:

• Official website (your home page).
• Google Maps reviews.
• Catalogs and aggregators (Clutch, Amazon).
• Discussion forums (Reddit, Quora, Facebook).
• Blogs, articles, media (e.g. for Ukrainian geo - MC.today, AIN.ua).
• YouTube and video reviews and video reviews.

3. Behavioral factors:

• Frequency of clicks on negatives.
• Comments and activity on publications.
• Distribution in social networks.

When a business needs SERM

Most common situations

• Negativity in the top 5 searches

For example: a forum with a breakdown of a mistake, an “investigative article” or posts by dissatisfied customers.
Leads to loss of customers even before the first contact.

• New brand launch / rebranding

Old “plume” of issuance such as previous unsuccessful brand attempts.
Need to form a new positive basis of extradition.

• Finding investors or B2B partners

Investors are Googling you, and negative results reduce the likelihood of a deal.
Even one hate-comment in a prominent place is minus a deal.

• Media activity or the CEO's public stance

A top manager's personal branding affects the corporate image.
You need to protect the CEO's name as much as the company's name.

Who especially needs SERM

• Financial services, banks, microcredit organizations

People actively share negativity, and complaints have high CTR.
High competition and criticality of trust, negativity affects the decision immediately.

• E-commerce and marketplaces

Reviews in search often determine the choice of a product or store.
Users don't visit a site if they see “scam,” “divorce,” “scam,” or reviews with “1★.”

• B2B companies looking for partners or investors

Google is a key source of due diligence.
One mentioned “conflict” on the forum is a 20-40% decrease in conversions.

• Educational, medical, legal services

A high level of distrust is formed if there are no authoritative mentions in search.
Often negative comments are posted by competitors or former employees.

How SERM works: a step-by-step strategy

STEP 1. SEO Audit of rendition and Google My Business

1. Identification of all brand queries:

• Brand name, CEO, top products.
• Queries with additional languages: “reviews”, “scam”, “scam”, “opinion”, “forum”.
• Analysis of Google My Business reviews: account availability, creating or updating, responding to negative reviews, if any.

2. Google Top 20 Analysis:

• Each position is checked for content type.
• Determining who authored the material: you, competitor, media, user.

3. Tools:

• Serpstat / Ahrefs / SE Ranking - positions, frequencies, competitor analysis.
• Google Alerts / Mention / Looqme - tracking mentions in real time.

STEP 2: Classify content

• Positive content

Own websites, positive publications, affiliate reviews.
Actions: amplify with links, update, promote to top 3.

• Neutral content

Catalogs, unagented mentions, “dry” news.
Actions: update headlines, optimize for branded queries, add content.

• Negative content

Hate, criticism, disgruntled customers, fake news.
Actions: supplant SEO-ma

STEP 3. Content creation and promotion

1. SEO articles on external platforms

• Articles with the keys: “[Brand] + reviews”, “[Brand] + experience”.
• Platforms like: MC.today, Medium, Reddit, AIN.ua, hubs on DOU.

2. Cases and stories of clients

• Section “successes of clients” on the site.
• Publications with real results.

3. Google-maps and reviews

• Request for feedback from customers.
• Handling complaints: responses, support, redirection.

4. YouTube influence

• “about the company” videos.
• Video testimonials from customers.
• Optimizing video clips for the same queries that are in the giveaway.

5. Directories/services

• Creating profiles on Clutch, GoodFirms, G2, IT-rating.
• Optimization of descriptions.

STEP 4. Optimize your own resources

• Optimize Title/Description for additional queries

Use phrases like “[Brand] - official website”, “testimonials”, “experience of cooperation” in descriptions and titles.

• Internal links

Linking between brand pages, case studies and services.

• Schema markup

Schema.org (Organization, Product, Reviews) - to improve the appearance in the Google search results.

STEP 5. Continuous monitoring

• Google Alerts, Mention

Customized for key phrases with the brand name.

• Seranking Position Tracker

Weekly monitoring of changes in the top 10.

• Reviews on Google My Business

Monitor and respond to your customers' reviews

• Collect feedback

Try to automate and systematize the collection of feedback from customers - via messenger or email newsletters, QR in e-invoices and receipts if offline.

Tools that are used

For serious negativity, it is also worth considering the source and authority of the resource:

• Comments on forums - are pushed out better than media news.
• Sites with high trust (TrustRank) - are displaced with difficulty, especially if they have backlinks.
• Pages on .gov.ua, .org.ua, .edu - often have a higher priority in the Google search results.

Therefore, when categorizing the negative, the evaluation of “displacement difficulty” is added:

How to measure the effectiveness of SERM

A successful SERM strategy doesn't end with creating content or pushing out negativity. The key task is to measure whether the image has improved in the digital environment.

The main KPIs we use at iConsult.agency are:

1. Dynamics of search results

• Changes in the top 10 for branded queries.
• Appearance of new positive results.
• Disappearance of negative pages from the first pages.

2. Improvement of content tone

• Part of positive, neutral and negative results in SERPs.
• Analysis of key phrases accompanying the brand (“scam” → “reviews”, “scandal” → “case study”).
• Reducing toxic queries in related keywords.

3. Quantity and quality of reviews

• Number of new reviews on Google Maps, Clutch, etc.
• Average rating.
• Decrease in frequency of mentions with negative ratings (1★, 2★).

Method: automated monitoring + manual moderation/responses.

4. CTR in search for branded queries

• Whether the number of clicks to your site is increasing with the same number of impressions.
• The presence of attractive meta descriptions in your publications that drive out negativity.

5. Traffic from branded queries

• An overall increase in organic traffic from a company name, product name, CEO.
• Increase in users coming to the site after searching for [name + reviews].

6. MASS MEDIA mentions and trusted sites

• Number of new mentions of the brand on third-party sites.
• DA/DR domain authority and the amount of organic traffic the mention appears on.

7. Integral Reputation Index metric

This is the approach Serpstat recommends for reporting to management.

How it's formed:

1. Each result in the SERP is assigned a score:

• Positive - +2
• Neutral - 0
• Negative - -2

2. The sum of scores in the top 10 = reputation index

Goal: to move the index to a positive value and gradually build it up

Typical mistakes

• Ignoring the issue
  Losing customers for no apparent reason.
• Fake reviews
  Google is adept at identifying template/similar comments.
• Attempting to “delete” a negative comment
  Even if successful - it will come back in the cache if it is not dislodged.
• Lack of SEO in reputation strategy
  Without SEO, negativity will quickly return to the top.

What are the risks of ignoring your Google reputation

• Loss of up to 70% of potential customers
  If a negative is in the top 5 of the issue for a branded query, the user will choose another one.
• Negative in the rendition “walks” for years
  A forum or complaint from 2017 can still rank in 2025 if no one has displaced it.
• The rapid spread of “bad news”
  One post or review is easily picked up by aggregators, forums, social networks - the “snowball effect”.
• Forming a false opinion about a brand
  If the first 5 links are criticism, the user decides that the brand is bad without even going to the site.

Example of a table for SERM audit

Questions and conclusions

Which is more important: SEO or reviews?
Both - work in synergy. Reviews build sentiment, SEO builds visibility control.

How long does SERM take?
On average - 2-6 months. The speed depends on the complexity of the situation and budget.

Is it possible to work with an agency on your own?
Yes. For example, the agency controls technical SEO, and you - the collection of reviews.

The SERM strategy should be customized to the type of business and the level of risk in Google results.

It is important not just to “cover up” negativity, but to work systematically with content and SEO.

Search engine results are a new level of publicity, and it is formed independently of your will. But it is your responsibility to influence it.

SERM is not a fire engine. It is a system that prevents fires in branded rendition. At iConsult.agency, we know how to build a reputation so that clients are not afraid to Google your name.

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4 responses to “How to manage your reputation on Google: a guide to SERM for businesses in 2025”

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