The online reputation management cost, or fees, for personal ORM or business ORM (Online Reputation Management) and the actual cost varies widely, depending on who you hire–an agency or a consultant, such as myself.
If you’ve searched Google lately for someone to handle your online reputation, you’ll quickly see that many others are posting their actual costs and prices. Honestly, every online reputation management case, like yours, is different. It’s unique. You are a unique person or have a unique company. The actual fees cannot possibly be clearly defined in a price-sheet. They need to be defined based on your situation. Get a unique quote based on your situation.
While I do provide some example fees are below, understand that every situation is unique. There is no set-in-stone price sheet for online reputation management. There can’t be. It doesn’t work that way.
Pricing Chart
The following is a chart that I put together that details the online reputation management pricing and cost of my services:
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Remove Offending Domain Name or Website |
$4,000 one-time fee or more |
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De-Index Report or Review from Review Website |
$19,000 one-time fee |
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Protect Search Results |
$1,750 per month or higher |
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Remove a Video |
$9,000 one-time |
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Suppress Major Media Article |
$4,750 per month |
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Suppress a Minor Blog Post |
$2,750 per month |
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Build a Personal Reputation |
$4,750 per month |
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Clean Search Results in language other than English. |
$9,750 per month or more |
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Alter Search Results Pages for a Large Company. |
$19,000 per month or more |
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Alter Search Results for Medium Company. |
$5,250 per month |
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Alter Search Results Pages for a Small Company. |
$1,000 per month or more |
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Alter Search Results for a SMB Company. |
$500 per month |
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Alter Search Results Pages for an Individual. |
$1,000 per month or more |
Explanation of Fees
As you can see from the above table of our fees, there are at least 13 different scenarios where the fee for online reputation is different. The cost varies greatly, and it all depends on:
— the issue that you want to be fixed
— the complexity of the reputation management problem
— the goals of your reputation management project
It all comes down to the amount of time involved. I charge for my time and my expertise. What makes me different than an online reputation management company is that you’re paying for MY time, and you work only with ME. Period. I do not outsource the work to others. The reputation management cost could ultimately be a lot higher–especially if you go with a reputation management company who doesn’t know what they’re doing and who outsources the work to others.
Online Reputation Management Definition
Reputation Management, as defined by Wikipedia, is the “practice of consistent research and analysis” of your personal or professional, business or industry reputation as represented” by the all of the content across that appears anywhere online (on the internet) on all types of online media. If someone has mentioned your name or your company name, and that comment is not a very positive one, your reputation could be at stake. Nowadays, online reputation management is very key, especially from a public relations standpoint. If someone says something that’s not positive about you or your company, then you need to respond quickly.
How Much Does is Cost for ORM?
So, how much do ORM services cost? That’s a question that, unfortunately, can really only be answered with an “it depends” type of answer, just like I mentioned earlier. Let me explain this further.
As someone who provides online reputation management services, I can tell you that the cost of online reputation management really depends on how much time is required to manage your online reputation. Just like a lot of other services, a lawyer may charge a certain fee as a one-time fee to handle your case. And a lawyer may charge another fee as a retainer: a fee that you must pay every month. Some fees are higher than others.
Online Reputation Management Techniques
When it comes to the cost of online reputation management, I must look at your individual situation. I must take into account what is going to be required (how much time is involved) in order to do the very best job of managing your online reputation. Let’s take, for example, a financial services firm that recently hired me to manage their online reputation. When you searched for their company name, there were some search results that were not favorable to them showing up in the top 10 rankings in Google. So, they wanted to “change” the search results and effect what showed up: there was one website in particular that showed up in the search results for a search on their company name that had misinformation: they wanted that information removed. In this case, there were several hours’ of work involved over a period of a few months, to remove that information. I was able to handle that for them, and ultimately it cost them a few thousand dollars to handle their online reputation management. That generally was a one-time issue, which took a few months to complete.
There are also cases where people want a Ripoff Report web page removed or “bumped down” in the search results. I am fully aware of how a web page on Ripoff Report can be removed from the web entirely. However, that is more costly in nature. Again, this is a one-time deal to take care of.
It’s Not Always A One-Time Removal Fee
But like I mentioned earlier, online reputation management is not just about the one-time removal of certain web pages from the search engines. In fact, proper online reputation management could include other services such as monitoring a company (or your) reputation online. You may have a large brand to protect: I can provide services that will monitor every single reference of your company’s brand online. The cost of that type of online reputation management will vary, depending on how often your company’s brand is mentioned online. Let’s take, for example, the Toyota brand. You are probably aware by now of all of the issues that Toyota has had lately with their cars. If an influential blogger were to write something that was false or malicious, and hundreds of thousands of people may read what they wrote, then Toyota would want to respond very quickly. The fees just to manage the number of people “monitoring” Toyota’s brand online would be rather expensive, and proper online reputation management may cost tens of thousands of dollars every month.
There are some great tools out there that can help you manage your online reputation. You may need to do it yourself if you are on a budget and you have the time to deal with each online reputation management issue when it comes up. However, if your time is more valuable, you may need to turn to an expert who can handle your online reputation management swiftly and appropriately.
So, to answer your question, how much does it cost? It depends. It could range from a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands of dollars every month. How much does online reputation really cost? It could cost you your reputation.
But how much do other websites cost?
While I cannot speak directly for other websites such as reputation.com, I can tell you that they may be higher, as you’re dealing with an agency (company) that provides these services, and not directly with someone who provides the services. You’re dealing with me, and I don’t have a lot of the overhead and cost of expensive office space and a fancy building. I can tell you about the average cost of online reputation management and how it all works.
Average Cost of Online Reputation Management
Monthly Retainer Cost
Typically, for a reputation management project, because these projects take time (usually months to over a year) to complete, there is a monthly retainer charge. Work must be done every month, on a regular basis, for several months, in order to be successful. So, whoever is doing the online reputation management work, they will expect to be paid every month for the work that they do. That’s a monthly retainer fee.
Small Business or Individual
If you are a small business, an individual with a unique name, or business that is limited geographically, you may be able to get away with paying $250-500 per month for a monthly retainer. The fees in this price range for online reputation management tend to be for building a reputation, and not dealing with a reputation issue that already exists.
Medium Sized Business or Individual Reputation Management Problem
If you are a medium-sized business with more than a few locations (or a few locations) in a mid-sized market geographically, the monthly retainer fees are more substantial. Or, if you are an individual that has an online reputation management problem, then fees can break substantially more. If you had a few articles that were showing up in the search results that you do not like (or show you or your business in a bad light), then most likely monthly retainer fees are going to range from $1,000 to $2500 per month.
Larger Businesses or Complex Individual Reputation Management Problems
Monthly retainer fees can easily exceed $2500 per month or even $10,000 per month for complex reputation management issues. The monthly retainer fees that range from $2500 to $10,000 per month typically are for cases with a niche audience, an individual that has multiple articles or URLs that are showing them in a bad light, or articles that need to be entirely removed from the internet.
Complex reputation management issues, such as those that will take a considerable amount of time to resolve, can involve creating positive PR (public relations) about the brand or individual. These can involve creating additional websites, additional marketing campaigns, and could involve attorneys (to remove content from the web) and PR professionals. This is where you will get into monthly retainer fees that are over $10,000 per month.
As I mentioned earlier in this article, consulting fees can vary depending on your unique situation–so it’s best to contact me so I can review the search results that you’re concerned about and give you a fair, honest estimate of the costs involved.
Online Reputation Management for Individuals
One of the things that I specialize in is online reputation management services for individuals. While I also do help companies with their online reputation management problems, those can take a lot longer to deal with and repair.
The difference between me, Bill Hartzer, working on your online reputation management strategy and online reputation management companies, is the fact that I put a more personalized ORM strategy together for you, the individual. My online reputation management strategy, as well, for companies, is personalized.
Online Reputation Management Companies
When it comes to online reputation management companies, though, the best online reputation management can come from a consultant, not a company. Why? It comes down to the online reputation management strategy itself. The same with any other marketing strategy, SEO strategy, or other project plan. The online reputation management companies tend to use the same strategy for all of their clients: that can work for a few of their clients, but not all. What if you were a dentist, and you used that same mold for every patient? Most likely that mold that you use to align your patients’ teeth would only work for a few patients. It wouldn’t work for others, and could cause issues in the long run. It’s the same for online reputation management services.
Contact me right now for an honest, fair quote on your online reputation management issues.