Online reputation management companies offer to help you control your brand’s online presence and reputation.
ReputationDefender has been in business since 2006 and is a notable player in the online reputation management space.
However, is ReputationDefender worth it? Are there better alternatives?
We dove in to find out how ReputationDefender stacks up against the fierce competition.
ReputationDefender Pros and Cons
Pros
- Over a decade of industry experience.
- Personalized services with a dedicated account manager.
- Transparent pricing.
- Diverse product offerings and services.
Cons
- Mixed customer reviews.
- Some unflattering company information on search results.
How ReputationDefender Compares to Top Online Reputation Management Companies
ReputationDefender didn’t make it onto our top list of online reputation management companies:
- WebiMax — Best overall
- NetReputation – Best for ultra-responsive customer support
- InternetReputation.com – Best for personal reputation management
- Reputation Defense Network — Best for permanently removing false content
- Podium — Best for getting reviews automatically
- SEO Image — Best for legal and medical practices
- Gadook — Best for rebranding after reputation attacks
- BirdEye — Best for getting Google and Facebook reviews
- Reputation.com — Best for knowing your competition’s reputation
- Go Fish Digital — Best for improving Yelp reviews
- Netmark.com — Best for hands-off, fast responses to reputation hits
In the following review, you’ll learn why our research team didn’t wind up recommending ReputationDefender, even though it’s one of the better-known brands in the space.
It’s also worth mentioning that ReputationDefender used to be part of Reputation.com which made it on our top list. We think Reputation.com is the best company for keeping track of your competition’s reputation.
However, ReputationDefender was sold to the Stagwell Group in 2018 and later acquired by NortonLifeLock.
Although ReputationDefender has some strong suits, it’s not a strong contender against our top overall recommendation, WebiMax. Despite its hefty marketing budget, ReputationDefender hasn’t been able to shake off accusations of exorbitant pricing and unfulfilled promises.
In short, we wouldn’t be quick to recommend this service against far better options like WebiMax. Still, we will give ReputationDefender a fair shake in this review so you can make up your own mind.
Here’s a rundown of how the company scores based on our criteria for picking the top online reputation management companies.
ReputationDefender Ethical Practices and Methods
The online reputation management business is largely unregulated. Unfortunately, this means that some companies may use dubious and borderline-illegal methods to get results. Examples that come to mind include bullying web admins into taking down unwanted content.
ReputationDefender is one of the industry’s pioneers. The company hasn’t stayed in business for over a decade by engaging in unethical practices—it has a clean reputation across the board. There aren’t any complaints about the methods it uses to accomplish its goals.
However, it appears that ReputationDefender tends to overpromise clients. It can be tricky to quantify results in reputation management, so this complaint is hardly shocking. To be fair, many clients have glowing reviews about the service. Still, some ReputationDefender clients feel that the company doesn’t deliver as promised.
Now if you are thinking along the same lines that we are, you may be wondering, why would ReputationDefender not have a higher level of positive reviews? Common sense would tell you that an online reputation management business should be able to push its own negative reviews lower in searches.
We would expect ReputationDefender to perform better in managing its own online reviews than it is doing. This vendor still has plenty of positive reviews available, so the issue of some prominent negative reviews isn’t widespread enough to simply dismiss considering ReputationDefender. However, this situation is odd.
ReputationDefender Maximum Transparency
Ideally, you want a reputation management company that is transparent about its methods. Reputation management is hardly a secret. The methods that these companies use are more or less standard.
ReputationDefender is clear about what it can do for you and how. A quick look at the website shows exactly what the company will do to improve your online reputation. Some of its strategies include developing a customized engagement strategy, creating new positive content, and optimizing the fresh content.
Nevertheless, it is vital to manage your expectations, especially regarding the time frame. This is because you’ll most likely be locked into a long-term contract, which you may need to renew before seeing the results you want.
By comparison, Webimax works on a month-to-month basis. You can opt-out whenever you feel you aren’t getting results. Unfortunately, ReputationDefender makes switching to a new company difficult if you aren’t happy with its service. This business model doesn’t incentivize the company to achieve results quickly.
Some clients also speculate that ReputationDefender purposely drags its feet to collect more money from your pockets. A monthly subscription would be a better billing option.
ReputationDefender Channel-Specific Solutions
ReputationDefender scores high marks for its channel-specific solutions. The company recognizes that each business has unique reputation management needs. Therefore, it has diverse product offerings geared toward your specific needs.
For instance, ReputationDefender offers custom services for individuals, small businesses, large companies, executives, and job seekers. Again, the company is transparent about the specific methods it will use to deliver results in each of these cases.
There are no complaints here. We’ll get to the details of ReputationDefender offerings in a later section.
ReputationDefender Industry-Specific Expertise
Industry-specific expertise is crucial when vetting reputation management companies. However, remember that the industry isn’t very well regulated. So getting your money’s worth isn’t always a guarantee.
Nevertheless, ReputationDefender is mostly a safe bet for most individuals and businesses. The company has more than a decade of experience with numerous happy customers along the way. Its diverse client base includes directors of educational institutions, ultra-high-net-worth families, law students, and small and enterprise business owners.
Additionally, the company has several patented software and products to satisfy diverse reputation management requirements. With more than 58,000 visitors monthly, ReputationDefender has the experience, tools, and expertise to rank highly among its competitors.
Although ReputationDefender didn’t make it to our list, it is still a fairly good choice for many people. This statement is also true despite our bias towards alternatives like NetReputation.
We’ll now look at the company’s specific product offerings and how these products compare to the competition.
ReputationDefender Search Results
ReputationDefender helps you change what people see about your business on the first page of search results. The company is transparent about the entire process, which includes:
- Analyzing your current business search results.
- Creating new content.
- Scheduling content publication.
- Optimizing old and new content.
- Continuing content optimization.
Curiously, there are notable negative ReputationDefender reviews on Google’s first page. This situation casts some doubt on the company’s ability to manage your reputation. There is no doubt that ReputationDefender has many happy clients. But we’d be more satisfied if the company’s image were spotless, particularly on Google’s first page.
Additionally, there’s a hands-on element to the company’s offering. For instance, you’ll need to manually review and approve new content before ReputationDefender publishes it. Many people would prefer a hands-off approach, given that this service costs at least $3000 per month and up to $25,000 per month. Webimax prices start at $400 per month for its comparable Lead Generation service.
It’s also worth noting that the company doesn’t clearly specify that this cost will be a monthly subscription and not a one-off payment. Unfortunately, some customers have learned this fact the hard way.
ReputationDefender doesn’t give potential customers much help in trying to sort through the confusion, either. We even accessed the live chat feature on the ReputationDefender website to try to sort out the question of a monthly charge versus an annual charge. The customer rep on chat, which likely was a bot, refused to answer the question, asking us to call sales.
When we pressed the question, the chat session ended abruptly. This is not a good omen for the type of customer service you may receive. It’s probably not all that surprising to see some complaints about the quality of content that ReputationDefender creates in terms of helping you with search results.
ReputationDefender Personal Branding
The company offers a ReputationGrower package for people who want to build or curate their personal brand online. This service includes:
- Creating a professional website.
- Social media auditing and optimization.
- Personal brand monitoring.
Although pricy at $995, it is a one-time fee. This price also comes with specific deliverables, including:
- Online resume optimization.
- Professional business profiles.
- Public profile optimization for social media.
- Email alerts for new content mentioning you.
- Real-time search results score.
This product is a good deal if you can afford it. ReputationDefender has been around for a long time, and we don’t doubt its ability to deliver on this front. The main issue with most complainants is the time it takes to deliver results, but the one-time price alleviates that issue somewhat. You won’t have to worry about renewing your subscription multiple times with this package.
ReputationDefender Online Reviews
Increasing your positive online reviews is a tried-and-tested method of boosting your online reputation. Reputation management companies offer this standard service, so it’s no surprise to see it on ReputationDefender packages.
However, ReputationDefender only facilitates your own efforts to increase your online reviews rather than taking that task fully off your plate. Here, the company offers you a unified platform to:
- Monitor your reviews across numerous sites.
- Respond to customer reviews from the platform.
- Automate review requests.
- Manage all your social media accounts in one place.
- Synchronize your publishing across multiple platforms.
- Send customer surveys.
In short, you’ll be doing the heavy lifting—and you could probably find a much cheaper or even free tool that lets you do that. The company charges $2,000 a year for the Local Essentials plan and $3,500 per year for the Local Premium plan.
We don’t think it’s worth the price.
ReputationDefender Digital Privacy
Digital Privacy products start with a free private consultation. This product is designed to remove online personal information that hackers, scammers, and other criminals may use against you.
This solution is perfect if you’re worried about your personal information floating around the internet. It’s also perfect for an organization’s executive teams, who are frequent targets of phishing attacks.
The subscriptions here include:
- Essentials – $1,000 per year. This plan covers the basics like removing your information from more than 100 sources and dark web scans to find potential data breaches.
- Plus – $5,000 per year. You get additional services such as custom removal requests where possible.
- Preferred – $7,500 per year. This plan gives you personalized analytics & reporting, and cybersecurity recommendations.
- Premium – $10,000 per year. It includes extra services like enterprise reporting and social media recommendations.
ReputationDefender has a great product here that’s hard to find with other reputation management companies on our top list. The Essentials and Plus plans may be worth it for executives or high-net-worth individuals who want to maintain absolute secrecy and privacy.
These services are also excellent for anyone who wants to control the personal information available on the internet. We won’t be bashing ReputationDefender in this regard.
ReputationDefender Executive Protection
The Executive Protection offering is very similar to the Digital Privacy package. The main difference is that Executive Protection is tailored for C-Suite directors and executives. It’s an excellent option for organizations concerned about social engineering attacks. It’s also a good choice for executives concerned about stalking and other harassment.
Here, ReputationDefender scans the web to find and remove personal information such as names, physical addresses, phone numbers, and birthdates.
This package also offers some cybersecurity features, including:
- Cybersecurity training.
- Anomalous behavior audits.
- Permissions lockdown.
- Anti-phishing testing.
- Patches & updates.
The Executive Privacy package offers two pricing tiers, including:
Preferred – $7,500 per year. This tier includes dark web scans, unlimited phone number and email protection, and cybersecurity recommendations, among other services.
Premium – $10,000 per month. It includes extra services such as social media recommendations and enterprise reporting and security features.
Again, this is a somewhat unique offering. It’s custom-made for executives, and we can see why it might be attractive for some people.
ReputationDefender VIP Services
Finally, ReputationDefender offers custom VIP reputation management for public figures, executives, and brands. The company will tailor-make a reputation management solution based on your specific needs.
The possibilities here include:
- Search management – ReputationDefender will help you reorder search engine results. The company ensures that positive content shows up at the top of the search page. It will also suppress negative results.
- Search Suggestions – The reputation management company can help you change the suggested terms that appear when people search your brand.
- SEO Consultation – The company will audit your brand and help you create a custom SEO strategy.
- Image and Video Remediation – ReputationDefender lets you determine which photos and videos appear in search results.
- Strategic Publication – The company will help you create new positive content. This is a good solution if your business doesn’t have a lot of content online.
- Analysis and Reporting – An agent will be available for consultation and reporting throughout your contact.
There are no publicly-listed prices for this service, so you’ll have to contact ReputationDefender to get a custom quote.
This service seems standard for most reputation management companies. It’s hard to tell what is exclusive or VIP about this service. Most reputation management companies are willing to create custom solutions to begin with, especially for the highest-level clients.
ReputationDefender boasts of using “proprietary technologies” for its VIP clients. We doubt this technology is any more advanced than the tech used by its competitors.
The 11 Best Online Reputation Management Companies
You may be able to work with ReputationDefender to get what you need, but our research team was a little underwhelmed. If you have to make a decision today, these are the very best options we found:
- WebiMax — Best overall
- NetReputation – Best for ultra-responsive customer support
- InternetReputation.com – Best for personal reputation management
- Reputation Defense Network — Best for permanently removing false content
- Podium — Best for getting reviews automatically
- SEO Image — Best for legal and medical practices
- Gadook — Best for rebranding after reputation attacks
- BirdEye — Best for getting Google and Facebook reviews
- Reputation.com — Best for knowing your competition’s reputation
- Go Fish Digital — Best for improving Yelp reviews
- Netmark.com — Best for hands-off, fast responses to reputation hits
Consult full-length reviews of our recommended online reputation management companies to see how they are helping businesses today.
Final Thoughts
ReputationDefender certainly has some great qualities. The reputation management company delivers on its promises, albeit slower than many people prefer.
But despite being one of the industry’s pioneers, its competitors have overtaken the company. So again, we’d be happier to recommend Webimax as an alternative to ReputationDefender.
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