Skip to main content Scroll Top

Personal Reputation Management for Executives, Doctors, Lawyers and Founders

Updated October 2026 · Written and maintained by the Progression Agency strategy team

Personal reputation management is the work of improving what people find when they search your name: correcting what is wrong, removing what qualifies for removal and publishing enough accurate material that weak or outdated results stop leading the page. Progression Agency does it for executives, physicians, attorneys, founders and other people whose name is part of how they earn a living. Progression Agency is based in New York City and works with clients across the United States and worldwide.

On this page · 27 sections
  1. What is personal reputation management?
  2. Who needs personal reputation management, and when?
  3. How to audit a search for your name
  4. What is the first page of results telling you?
  5. Owned profiles and a personal site
  6. Content that legitimately outranks weak results
  7. What Google will remove from search results
  8. Using Google’s Results about you tool
  9. Doxxing, intimate images and deepfakes
  10. What if a site charges to remove content about you?
  11. When the page changes: refreshing outdated results
  12. Legal removals: court orders, defamation and copyright
  13. What cannot be removed, and why?
  14. Data brokers and people-search sites
  15. California’s DROP and state data broker registries
  16. The EU right to erasure, and what it means for Americans
  17. Defamation: context, not legal advice
  18. Knowledge panels and AI answers about a person
  19. Wikipedia: what you, and anyone you pay, may do
  20. Doctors, lawyers and other licensed professionals
  21. Monitoring your name after the work is done
  22. What to avoid: fake reviews, bought followers and threats
  23. How much does personal reputation management cost?
  24. How long does personal reputation management take?
  25. How to choose a personal reputation management firm
  26. How a personal reputation engagement runs with us
  27. Related services for individuals

The short answerWe start with an audit of what a search for your name shows to someone else, then sort every result into what can be removed under Google’s published policies, what can be corrected at the source and what has to be outranked. Removal requests that qualify are decided by Google, which reports each decision by email; outranking depends on publishing better material and takes months. We never promise that a result will disappear. Progress is measured by how many first-page results are accurate and under your control, and every engagement starts with a written scope priced from our published planning ranges.

Search volume and cost per click are Ubersuggest data for the United States, September 2026. Google’s policies and tools are described as published on October 5, 2026, and laws as in force on that date; both can change. Prices are the planning ranges published in our pricing guides. Nothing on this page is legal advice.

What is personal reputation management?

It is search work, publishing work and paperwork, applied to one person’s name. The aim is a first page of results that is accurate, current and mostly made of material you either own or would be glad for a stranger to read.

Businesses manage reviews, ratings and complaints about a company; that work is described on our online reputation management and review management pages. A person’s name behaves differently. There are no star ratings to answer, results are often years old, the same name may belong to several people, and personal data such as a home address can surface beside a professional profile. The tools differ too: Google offers individuals removal routes that a company cannot use.

Three kinds of action

Some results can be removed under a published policy. Some can be corrected or taken down by whoever controls the page. The rest can only be outranked by better results. A useful plan says which is which for every result on the first page.

What it is not

It is not a way to hide accurate reporting of public interest, and it is not a service that can make a search engine forget someone on request. Firms that sell either are describing something no search engine offers.

Who needs personal reputation management, and when?

Anyone whose name is searched before a decision is made about them: hiring, a board appointment, a referral, an investment, a first appointment. The usual trigger is a change, either in your career or in what the search shows.

Executives and board members

A new appointment, a public company role or a transaction brings searches from investors, journalists and employees. Thin results let an old article or a namesake fill the page.

Physicians and clinicians

Patients often search a doctor’s name before booking. Rating sites, licensing board listings and the occasional news item compete with the practice’s own pages.

Attorneys

Clients and referring lawyers search the name, not just the firm. Court records, bar listings and old matters sit alongside the attorney’s profile.

Founders raising money

Investors often search founders before a first meeting. A personal site, a clear professional history and published thinking answer questions before the first meeting.

People who share a name

When someone else with your name has a criminal record, a scandal or simply a bigger following, the fix is to publish enough distinct material about you that search engines can tell the two of you apart.

How to audit a search for your name

Search the way a stranger would and record everything on the first two pages. The audit decides the plan, so it is worth doing carefully before anyone quotes a price.

Search signed out, on more than one device

Use a private browser window on a computer and a phone, and if possible from another city. Results are shaped by location and history, so your own everyday search is not what a stranger sees.

Every version of the name

Full name, name with middle initial, nickname, maiden name, name with your city, name with your employer and name with your profession. Each variation can surface a different set of results.

Images, news and video

Check the image results, the news tab and video results. A photo on the wrong page or an old video can matter more than the tenth web result.

Autocomplete, other engines and AI assistants

Note what the search box suggests after your name, check Bing and DuckDuckGo, and ask ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Gemini who you are. Assistants summarize whatever they find, including errors.

A name-search audit sheet
ColumnWhat to recordWhy it matters
QueryThe exact words searched, device and locationDifferent variants surface different pages
PositionWhere the result appears on the pageThe top five carry most of the attention
Page and ownerThe address and who controls itDecides whether you can edit or remove it
TypeOwned, earned, neutral, negative, wrong person, exposed dataEach type has a different remedy
AccuracyAccurate, outdated, partly wrong or falseOutdated and false pages have more options
Removal routeWhich Google policy or legal route might apply, if anyDetermines what is filed first
Action and ownerRemove, correct, outrank or leave alone, and who does itTurns the audit into a plan
Owned: Pages you control. Your site, profiles and author pages.
Earned: Others wrote about you. Interviews, coverage, event pages.
Neutral: Mentions in passing. Lists, filings, directory entries.
Negative: Criticism or old news. Accurate or not, it can lead the page.
Wrong person: Someone with your name. Separated by distinct owned pages.
Exposed data: Address, phone, ID numbers. Often eligible for removal from Search.

What is the first page of results telling you?

The patterns below cover the common cases, and each calls for a different plan. Recognizing the pattern early avoids paying for work the situation does not need.

Thin results

Few pages mention you, so anything that does, including an unflattering one, ranks easily. The fix is mostly publishing: a personal site, complete profiles and a handful of earned pages.

One damaging result among many good ones

The plan depends on what the page is. Exposed personal data or a pay-to-remove site has a removal route; an accurate news report usually does not, and needs stronger pages above it.

A namesake dominating the page

Distinct material, with your middle name, city, profession and photo, helps search engines separate two people. It also helps readers recognize which results are yours.

Exposed contact details and records

People-search pages and leaked details are often the quickest wins, because Google and the brokers both offer removal processes for them.

Owned profiles and a personal site

Pages you control are the base of every plan, because they can be updated whenever the facts change and they give search engines clear pages about you to rank for your name. Build them before you need them.

A site at your own name

A short site at a domain with your name, carrying a biography, a photo, your work, your writing and a contact route. Our personal website design page describes what goes on it and what it costs.

Professional profiles

Complete the profiles your field actually uses, with the same name, title, photo and history on each. Abandoned profiles with an old title confuse readers; update or close them.

Bios on employer, board and association pages

These pages carry the authority of the organization. Ask for a full biography with a link to your own site rather than a single line.

Consistency

The same spelling of the name, the same headshot and the same description of your role everywhere help search engines and AI assistants connect the pages to one person.

Your name: A personal website. The one page you control completely.
Profiles: Professional networks. Complete, consistent and current.
Bios: Employer and board pages. Same name, title and photo everywhere.
Bylines: Articles you wrote. On publications your field reads.
Talks: Podcasts and panels. Event pages, recordings, transcripts.
Panel: Knowledge panel. Verified feedback on the facts shown.

Content that legitimately outranks weak results

Search engines rank what is relevant and well regarded for a name. Real material, published where your field already reads, does that; manufactured material does not, and can make things worse.

Interviews and podcasts

Episode pages and transcripts usually carry your name and can rank for it. Choose shows your clients or peers actually follow.

Bylined articles

An article you wrote for a respected publication in your field is one of the strongest results you can earn. Our content marketing and public relations teams help with the writing and the pitching.

Talks and panels

Conference speaker pages, recordings and slides are durable results. Ask organizers to link the speaker page to your site.

Research, publications and community work

Papers, patents, nonprofit board roles and volunteer work are real activity that already exists; make sure each has a page that names you properly.

What does not work: networks of thin sites created only to push results down. Google’s spam policies describe scaled content abuse, many pages produced to manipulate rankings with little value for readers, and such pages tend to be ignored or demoted rather than to outrank anything. Executive brand building covers the longer-term publishing program for leaders.

What Google will remove from search results

Google removes specific kinds of content about people under published policies, and some other content for legal reasons. The routes are narrow and well defined; knowing them is most of the skill.

Google’s overview of removing your private information from Search lists what qualifies: your address, phone number or email; confidential government ID numbers such as Social Security or tax ID numbers; bank account or credit card numbers; images of your signature or ID; private records such as medical records; and confidential usernames and passwords. You or a representative can file, only the addresses you submit are reviewed, and Google may decline when the content is newsworthy or of public importance. A removal can be full, or partial, meaning the page no longer appears for searches that contain your name.

Google’s removal routes for individuals
RouteWhat qualifiesWho can askWhat it does not cover
Results about youResults showing your home address, phone number or emailYou, signed inGovernment, education, news and business sites Google considers valuable
Personal informationID numbers, bank and card numbers, signatures, ID images, medical records, login detailsYou or a representativeNewsworthy or public interest content
DoxxingYour details with threats, or a large amount of aggregated data with no legitimate purposeYou or a representativeOrdinary mentions of your name
Intimate imageryReal or fake sexual images or video of you shared without consent, or porn wrongly tied to your nameYou or a representativeContent you consented to that is commercialized
Exploitative removal sitesContent about you on a site that demands payment for removalYou or a representativeBusiness review sites
Outdated contentA result that no longer matches the live page or points to a deleted pageAnyonePages that still say the same thing
Legal requestsContent a court has ruled on, or that violates the law or your rightsThe person affected or counselLawful criticism and accurate reporting
Contact info: Results about you. Home address, phone or email shown.
IDs and records: Personal information. ID numbers, bank details, medical records.
Doxxing: Threats plus your details. Or piles of personal data with no purpose.
Intimate images: Real or fabricated. Deepfakes included, if shared without consent.
Pay to remove: Exploitative sites. Pages that charge a fee for removal.
Legal: Court orders and the law. Defamation findings, copyright notices.

Worried about one result in particular?Send the search you are concerned about and the result you want gone. We reply with which route, if any, applies to it, and what would have to be published to outrank it if none does.

Ask about one result

Using Google’s Results about you tool

Results about you lets a signed-in person find results that show their contact details, ask for them to be removed and get alerts when new ones appear. It is the simplest route Google offers, and it is still rolling out.

On Google’s Results about you help page, the steps are: open Results about you from the Google app menu or the web, enter your name and the contact details you want found, and turn on notifications. You can also add a nickname, a maiden name, several phone numbers, addresses and email addresses, and identification numbers such as a Social Security, passport or driver’s license number. Matching results appear under a To review tab, where each can be submitted for removal or marked as reviewed, and requests show as in progress, approved, denied or undone. Google says some of these features are rolling out to users over 18 in certain markets.

Where the tool stops

Google treats some results as valuable to the public, including government and educational sites, online newspapers and business websites; for those, the remove option does not appear. Results about you also covers contact details and ID numbers, not criticism or news.

Removing from the results page itself

From a search for your name, the menu beside a result opens About this result, where Remove result starts the same request without visiting the tool.

Doxxing, intimate images and deepfakes

These are the routes for the most serious situations, and Google handles them on their own forms. If you are in danger, contact the police first; search removal comes after safety.

Doxxing

Google treats as doxxing a page with your personal information alongside explicit or implicit threats or calls for others to harm or harass you, and a page with a significant amount of aggregated personal information that serves no legitimate purpose.

Intimate images, real or fabricated

Google’s personal sexual content removal page covers images or video showing you nude, in a sexual act or in an intimate state, and fabricated material such as deepfakes when you are identifiable, the content is fake and it was shared without your consent. It also covers results that wrongly tie your name to pornography. You or a representative can file.

When you own the copyright in an image, a copyright notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is another route, through Google’s legal help pages.

What if a site charges to remove content about you?

Do not pay them. Google has a specific removal route for these sites, and it demotes sites that attract many such requests.

Google’s policy on exploitative removal practices considers removal when three conditions are met: you are a subject of the content, the site is not a business review site, and the site requires payment to it or to someone else to remove the content. Google’s spam policies add that when it processes a significant volume of such removals involving one site, it demotes other content from that site, and it looks for the same pattern on other sites.

When the page changes: refreshing outdated results

If the publisher edits or deletes a page but Google still shows the old title or description, Google can refresh the result. This is often the last step after a successful request to the source.

Google’s refresh outdated content tool takes the address of a page whose content was changed or deleted and asks Google to update the result; image results can be refreshed the same way. Getting the source to change is the hard part, and it is worth asking politely: publishers sometimes correct errors, update outcomes such as a dismissed case, or take down posts when asked. Accounts you or a former employer controlled can usually be edited or closed directly.

Some content can be removed because of the law rather than a Google policy. These requests go through Google’s legal help center, and many of them need a lawyer’s work first.

Google’s legal removal help asks for the product where the content appears, the reason, the specific addresses and an explanation of why the content is unlawful; it notes that content removed from Google may still exist elsewhere on the web. Its spam policies say that a significant volume of valid copyright removals involving a site can be used to demote other content from that site, and that similar signals apply to complaints involving defamation and court-ordered removals.

What cannot be removed, and why?

Accurate reporting, public records and honest opinion generally stay. Search engines weigh public interest, and removing a result from Google never deletes the page itself.

  • Accurate news coverage of matters of public interest, including old ones.
  • Court records and other public records, where the source keeps them online.
  • Opinions and criticism that do not state false facts.
  • Results that Google treats as valuable to the public, such as government, educational and news sites.
  • Copies on other search engines, social platforms and shared links, even after Google removes a result.

Google says plainly that removing a page from its results does not remove it from the internet; people can still reach it through links, social media or other search engines. That is why outranking and correcting at the source matter, and why any firm that promises otherwise deserves caution. Reviews of a practice or business follow their own rules, covered on our Google review removal page.

Data brokers and people-search sites

People-search sites compile addresses, phone numbers, relatives and ages from public and commercial records, and they can rank for a name. Many publish an opt-out page; working through them one by one is slow but it helps for a while.

Opt-outs remove a listing from one site, not the data from the world. Spokeo’s opt-out page, for example, says that opting out does not remove the data from its original source and that the information may still appear on other websites. New records can produce a new listing later; California built its DROP platform to re-check every 45 days for that reason, so plan to look again every few months. Once a listing is gone, Google’s refresh tool updates the stale result.

Brokers and Results about you work together

Use broker opt-outs to remove the source page and Google’s Results about you to remove the result. Doing only one leaves the other in place.

California’s DROP and state data broker registries

California now offers its residents one request that reaches every registered data broker. Other states keep registries that at least tell you who the brokers are.

The California Privacy Protection Agency’s data broker registry says that since January 1, 2026, California residents can use the Delete Request and Opt-out Platform, known as DROP, to send one deletion request to all active data brokers, and that brokers had to begin processing those requests on August 1, 2026. The DROP instructions say a request needs only a name, date of birth and ZIP code; brokers have up to 90 days to report how they processed it, then must re-check and delete new matching data at least every 45 days. Some brokers may be required or allowed to keep certain data. Residents of other states still work broker by broker.

The EU right to erasure, and what it means for Americans

People in the European Union can ask search engines to delist some results for their name, and Article 17 of the GDPR sets out a right to erasure. Outside the EU, that right usually does not apply.

Google’s right to be forgotten overview traces the right to a May 2014 ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union and says Article 17 of the GDPR sets out a similar right to erasure. Google weighs whether information is inaccurate, inadequate, irrelevant or excessive against the public interest in it. It delists approved results from versions of Google Search for countries that apply European data protection law and uses location signals to restrict access for users it believes are in the requester’s country, but, following a 2019 decision of the same court, it does not apply those delistings outside the EU. Corporations usually have no such right for their names. Turkey, Serbia and Quebec have their own versions.

False statements of fact that harm your reputation may be defamatory; opinions and true statements are not. Whether something is defamatory, and what to do about it, is a question for a lawyer, and deadlines are short.

Two points shape what a lawyer can do. Under 47 U.S.C. 230(c)(1), a provider or user of an interactive computer service is not treated as the publisher or speaker of information provided by someone else, so a claim usually runs against the person who wrote the post rather than the site hosting it. And time matters: New York’s CPLR 215 requires actions for libel or slander to be started within one year. Other states set their own periods. A court finding that content is defamatory can support a legal removal request to Google. Our New York reputation management page discusses when to bring in an attorney.

Starting a new role, a raise or a board seat?Tell us what a search for your name shows today. We plan the personal site, profiles and published material that should lead the page before people start looking.

Plan the name search

Knowledge panels and AI answers about a person

A knowledge panel is the box Google shows for well-known people, and AI assistants build similar summaries from what they read. Both repeat what is published, so the remedy is accurate published material plus the feedback channels each one offers.

Google’s knowledge panel help says panels are generated automatically from public information, that Google does not manually create or delete them, and that anyone can submit feedback. A person who verifies their identity gets priority for feedback on their own panel, can make some corrections directly, such as links to social profiles, and can suggest a new featured image where one already exists; Google says it reviews verified feedback within a few days.

Assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot answer questions about a person from biographies, news, reference pages and profiles. Correct the sources and the answers follow over time. Our LLM visibility page explains how that monitoring works.

Wikipedia: what you, and anyone you pay, may do

If you have a Wikipedia article, you can ask for corrections, but you should not write or rewrite it yourself, and anyone paid to work on it must say so.

The Wikimedia Foundation’s terms, summarized on Wikipedia’s paid-contribution disclosure page, require editors to disclose their employer, client and affiliation for any contribution they are paid for, on their user page, the talk page or the edit summary. Wikipedia’s conflict of interest guideline strongly discourages editing articles about yourself, your family or your clients. The accepted path is to propose specific corrections, with reliable published sources, on the article’s talk page and let independent editors decide.

Doctors, lawyers and other licensed professionals

Licensed professionals have extra limits on what they can say in public about the people they serve. Replies to criticism need more care, and some results, such as licensing board listings, are public by design.

Physicians and patient reviews

The HIPAA privacy rule at 45 CFR 164.502 says a covered entity may not use or disclose protected health information except as the rules permit. A reply to a patient’s review that discusses their care can disclose protected health information. Reply in general terms and invite the person to call the office.

Attorneys and former clients

Lawyers carry confidentiality duties that outlast the matter. California’s Business and Professions Code section 6068(e)(1), for example, requires attorneys to maintain inviolate the confidence and preserve the secrets of their clients. Check your state bar’s guidance before answering a former client online.

Board listings and disciplinary records

State boards run public license lookups; the Medical Board of California, for example, publishes a profile for every physician it licenses. Those pages stay; what can change is how much accurate professional material sits around them. Our healthcare public relations and law firm marketing pages cover the practice side.

Monitoring your name after the work is done

Name searches change as new pages appear, so a light monitoring routine keeps a problem small. Most of it uses free tools.

  • Set a Google Alert for your name, with and without your middle initial; Google sends an email when new results appear.
  • Turn on notifications in Results about you so new pages showing your contact details are flagged.
  • Re-run the audit every quarter, signed out, on a computer and a phone.
  • Ask the main AI assistants who you are twice a year and note any errors.
  • Check the people-search sites you opted out of every few months.
  • Keep the personal site current: new role, new photo, new publications.
Five-step decision flow for a search result: you control it, it exposes data, it charges for removal, it is false, it is accurate.Five-step decision flow for a search result: you control it, it exposes data, it charges for removal, it is false, it is accurate.
Editorial decision model based on Google’s published removal policies. Nothing here is legal advice.

What to avoid: fake reviews, bought followers and threats

Shortcuts that manufacture credibility are now explicitly unlawful in several forms, and when discovered they can become the next negative result.

The FTC’s rule on consumer reviews and testimonials, 16 CFR Part 465 makes it unlawful to buy or sell fake indicators of social media influence, such as followers or views, that the buyer knew or should have known were fake and that misrepresent influence for a commercial purpose. It also prohibits fake reviews and testimonials, and the use of unfounded legal threats, intimidation or knowingly false public accusations to stop a review from being written or to get one removed.

Scorecard of reputation firm promises: audits, removal filings and owned pages hold up; guaranteed removals, thin sites and bought engagement do not.Scorecard of reputation firm promises: audits, removal filings and owned pages hold up; guaranteed removals, thin sites and bought engagement do not.
Editorial scorecard based on Google’s removal and spam policies and 16 CFR Part 465.
  • Do not pay sites that charge for removal; use Google’s route for them instead.
  • Do not threaten a critic with a lawsuit you do not intend to bring; it can become the story.
  • Do not build networks of thin sites to push results down.
  • Do not edit your own Wikipedia article or hire someone to do it without disclosure.
  • Do not buy followers, likes or reviews to look established.
  • Do not sign with a firm that guarantees removal of accurate reporting.

How much does personal reputation management cost?

Most of the cost is building and publishing: a personal site, profiles and earned material. Removal requests are paperwork and cost little by comparison. The figures below are our published planning ranges, and each quote follows a written scope.

Personal reputation management: about 590 US searches a month, cost per click $79.81, SEO difficulty 29.Personal reputation management: about 590 US searches a month, cost per click $79.81, SEO difficulty 29.
Ubersuggest, United States, September 2026. A high bid on a single phrase signals how much providers value each inquiry.
Planning ranges for personal reputation work
ComponentPlanning rangeWhat it covers
Audit and roadmap$2,500-$8,000 onceThe name-search audit, removal triage and a written plan
Monthly advisory, 4 to 8 hours$1,200-$3,200 a monthOngoing direction, filings and monitoring review
Personal website, configured template$1,000-$3,000, 1 to 2 weeksA clean site with your content
Personal website, custom design$3,000-$8,000, 3 to 5 weeks5 to 8 pages on Framer, Webflow or Squarespace
Site with writing and newsletter$8,000-$20,000, 5 to 8 weeksWriting archive, newsletter and booking
Executive or public-figure site$15,000-$35,000, 6 to 10 weeksSpeaking, press, media kit and content support
Photography session$500-$3,000Half a day of portraits
Researched article or page$350-$1,500 eachResearch, draft, links and publishing
Digital PR and earned links$1,500-$10,000 a monthPitching, interviews and bylines
Crisis PR, standby retainer$2,500-$6,000 a monthA briefed team and an escalation route
Post-crisis rebuild$5,000-$20,000 a monthSearch, content and stakeholder repair after coverage ends
Hourly, ad hoc$150-$400 an hourSpecific questions and occasional review

These are planning ranges from our published pricing pages, not quotes. The website figures appear on our personal website design page, the advisory and content figures on SEO pricing, the earned media figures on digital PR and the crisis figures on crisis management.

How long does personal reputation management take?

Removal requests can be filed in the first weeks and Google reports each decision by email; owned pages take weeks to build and to be indexed; outranking an established article takes months and sometimes does not fully succeed. Plan for six to twelve months of steady work.

Timeline: week 1 audit, weeks 1 to 4 requests, weeks 2 to 8 owned pages, months 2 to 6 earned material, months 6 to 12 re-audit, then monitoring.Timeline: week 1 audit, weeks 1 to 4 requests, weeks 2 to 8 owned pages, months 2 to 6 earned material, months 6 to 12 re-audit, then monitoring.
Editorial planning sequence. Removal decisions belong to Google, publishers and courts.

Results about you sends a confirmation email within hours of a request, and Google’s knowledge panel team says it reviews verified feedback within a few days. California’s DROP gives brokers up to 90 days to report. None of those timings is a promise about the outcome, and none applies to accurate news coverage, which can only be outranked.

How to choose a personal reputation management firm

Choose a firm that audits before it quotes, names the removal route for each result and refuses to promise outcomes it does not control. Ask for each point in writing.

Requirements and how to check them
RequirementHow to check it
Audits before quotingAsk for the audit sheet with each result classified
Names a route per resultEvery removal claim should cite a specific Google policy or legal process
No guaranteed removalsA contract that promises to remove accurate news is a warning sign
You own every assetYour domain, site, profiles and accounts are in your name
No fake sites or fake engagementAsk how they will outrank results and what they will publish
Confidential handlingAsk who will see your information and how it is stored
Works with your lawyerLegal questions go to counsel, not to the marketing team
Reports in plain termsFirst-page results by type and accuracy, before and after

Our marketing agency red flags page lists warning signs that apply here too.

How a personal reputation engagement runs with us

It starts with the audit and a written scope, and it moves at the pace the situation allows. You see each filing and each page before it goes out.

  1. Audit the name search on several devices, variants and assistants, and classify every first-page result.
  2. File the removal and refresh requests that clearly qualify, and ask publishers for corrections where facts are wrong.
  3. Build or repair the personal site and the professional profiles your field uses.
  4. Plan earned material: articles, interviews, talks and accurate biographies on organizations’ pages.
  5. Set up monitoring and re-audit each quarter, adjusting the plan to what has moved.

Related work for public figures and founders is described on athlete branding, PR for startups and branding. Agencies that resell reputation work can see white label reputation management.

Want to know what can actually change in a search for your name?

Send the searches that worry you. We reply with an honest read of each first-page result: what can be removed, what can be corrected, what has to be outranked, and a written scope for the work.

Start a confidential conversation

Frequently asked questions

What does personal reputation management include?
An audit of what a search for your name shows, removal requests where Google’s policies or the law allow them, corrections at the source, a personal website and consistent professional profiles, earned material such as interviews and bylines, and monitoring. It does not include hiding accurate reporting, which no search engine removes on request.
What should I budget for personal reputation management?
As published planning ranges, an audit and roadmap costs $2,500 to $8,000, monthly advisory $1,200 to $3,200, a custom personal website $3,000 to $8,000 and digital PR $1,500 to $10,000 a month. Most of the cost is publishing and earned media; removal requests themselves take little time.
How long before a search for my name looks different?
Removal requests can be filed in the first weeks, and Google confirms each one by email within hours and reports the decision. A new personal site and complete profiles take weeks to build and be indexed. Pushing an established article off the first page takes months of earned material and sometimes does not fully succeed.
Will Google remove a news article about me if I ask?
Usually not. Google’s removal policies cover specific content such as exposed contact details, ID numbers, intimate images and pay-to-remove sites, and it weighs public interest. Accurate news generally stays unless a court rules on it or the publisher changes the article, in which case the result can be refreshed.
How does Google’s Results about you tool work?
You sign in, enter your name and the contact details you want found, and turn on notifications. Google lists matching results under a To review tab, where you can request removal, and sends alerts when new ones appear. Results from government, education, news and business sites show no remove option.
Which personal details will Google take out of search results?
Your home address, phone number and email; confidential government ID numbers; bank account and card numbers; images of your signature or ID; private records such as medical records; and confidential usernames and passwords. Google reviews only the addresses you submit and may decline newsworthy content.
What does Google count as doxxing?
A page that shares your personal information together with explicit or implicit threats, or calls for others to harm or harass you, and a page carrying a significant amount of aggregated personal information with no legitimate purpose. You or a representative can ask Google to remove those pages from its results.
Can intimate images of me, real or fake, be removed from Google?
Yes, under Google’s personal sexual content policy. It covers real images or video shared without consent, fabricated images such as deepfakes when you are identifiable, and results that wrongly tie your name to pornography. You or a representative can file, and you should also report the content to the site hosting it.
A website wants a fee to take down a post about me. What should I do?
Do not pay. Google will consider removing content about you from a site that requires payment for removal, as long as you are a subject of the content and it is not a business review site. Google also demotes sites that attract many such removals.
If Google removes a result, is the page gone from the internet?
No. Google can only remove results from its own search. The page stays on the site that hosts it and can still be reached through links, social media and other search engines, which is why asking the publisher and publishing better material both matter.
Can I get people-search sites to delete my listing?
Many offer an opt-out that removes your listing from that site, though not from the records it was built from, and listings can return when databases refresh. California residents can use DROP to send one deletion request to every registered data broker.
Who can use California’s DROP, and what does it do?
California residents. Since January 1, 2026, DROP accepts one deletion request covering all registered data brokers, needing only a name, date of birth and ZIP code. Brokers began processing requests on August 1, 2026, have up to 90 days to report and must re-check for new matching data at least every 45 days.
Do people in the United States have a right to be forgotten?
Not in the European sense. The EU right comes from a 2014 Court of Justice ruling and Article 17 of the GDPR, and Google applies approved delistings to European versions of Search, not outside the EU. Americans rely on Google’s own removal policies, state privacy laws and court orders.
Can I sue the website that hosts a false post about me?
Usually the claim runs against the author, not the host. Under 47 U.S.C. 230(c)(1), a provider or user of an interactive computer service is not treated as the publisher of information someone else provided. A lawyer can advise whether a claim against the author is worth bringing.
How quickly should I talk to a lawyer about something false published about me?
Soon. Defamation deadlines are short and vary by state; in New York, CPLR 215 requires libel and slander actions to be started within one year. A lawyer can also tell you whether a court order is realistic, which can support a legal removal request to Google.
Is a personal website worth building if I already have professional profiles?
Usually yes. A site at your own name is the one page you control completely, it can carry your full biography, writing and contact details, and it gives profiles and organization pages something to link to. It is also the page you can update the day your role changes.
Can I edit my own Wikipedia article or pay someone to edit it?
Wikipedia strongly discourages editing articles about yourself, and the Wikimedia terms require anyone paid to edit to disclose their employer, client and affiliation. The accepted route is to propose corrections with reliable sources on the article’s talk page and let independent editors decide.
How do I correct facts in a Google knowledge panel about me?
Use the feedback option on the panel. If you verify your identity with Google, your feedback on your own panel is prioritized, you can make some corrections directly, such as social profile links, and Google says it reviews verified feedback within a few days. Google does not create or delete panels by request.
Can any firm guarantee to remove or bury a negative result?
No. Removal decisions belong to Google, the publisher or a court, and rankings depend on what search engines judge relevant. A firm can file the right requests and publish strong material, but a guarantee to remove accurate reporting is a reason to walk away.
What may a physician say when answering a critical patient review?
Briefly and generally, without confirming the person was a patient or discussing any care. The HIPAA privacy rule limits how protected health information may be used or disclosed, and a detailed reply can breach it. Invite the reviewer to call the office, and check your practice’s privacy guidance.
Is it legal to buy followers, likes or reviews to look more established?
Not for commercial purposes. The FTC’s rule on consumer reviews and testimonials makes it unlawful to buy fake indicators of social media influence that misrepresent influence for a commercial purpose, and it prohibits fake reviews and testimonials. Discovery also tends to create the next negative result.
What is the simplest way to monitor my name online?
Set Google Alerts for your name and its variants, turn on notifications in Results about you, re-run a signed-out search on a computer and a phone every quarter, and ask the main AI assistants about yourself twice a year. Keep a short log of what changes.
What if the negative results are about someone else with my name?
Publish distinct material about yourself: a personal site and profiles using your middle name or initial, city, profession and photo, plus earned pages that describe your work. Over time this helps search engines and readers separate the two people. Nothing can be removed just because it is about someone else.

Worried about one result in particular?Send the search you are concerned about and the result you want gone. We reply with which route, if any, applies to it, and what would have to be published to outrank it if none does.

Ask about one result

Get a free marketing proposal

Tell us what you are trying to grow and we will come back with a plan, not a pitch deck. Same-day reply on weekdays.

Privacy Preferences
When you visit our website, it may store information through your browser from specific services, usually in form of cookies. Here you can change your privacy preferences. Please note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our website and the services we offer.
Contact Us