The Costs of Online Reputation Management in 2022

The cost of online reputation management depends on numerous factors. Learn how pricing is affected in our guide below. 

Nearly every business and brand needs reputation management services, but not all can afford them.

Every ORM service is different, as are its packages, billing plans, and methods for cleaning up and monitoring any situations you might have.

Therefore, you might be curious about how much reputation costs exactly and what kind of online reputation management software, review management software, and online reputation management services reputation management companies provide.

Online Reputation Management Cost

Online reputation management prices can vary depending on the reputation management company and the reputation management services engaged. In this article, we will cover some of the most common practices being used by top ORM agencies. After reading through our list, you should have a better idea of how much these services might cost you and a better understanding of whether you would like to personally manage or outsource completely.

Brand Name Monitoring

The first thing every individual, brand, and business should do (whether they have issues or not) is monitor the internet for their own name or brand mentions. This is crucial to addressing issues quickly and knowing what people say about you and why.

To get this done, you can start monitoring your mentions for free through services like Google Alerts or paid services like Trackur and Mention.

Social Media Activity

Search engines and web content are one thing, and social media is another. With over 2 billion users spread across major social networks like Twitter and Facebook, you can be sure someone is talking about you or your brand.

Monitoring your social mentions and performing sentiment analysis is undoubtedly important to any brand with an online presence.

When it comes time to monitor your mentions across social media, you will need to use high-end premium tracking tools. Many of these social media monitoring services cost between $50 and $200+ per month, depending on the words tracked and the social networks covered.

Most ORM firms also include advanced online, search, and social media tracking within their campaigns.

Online Review Management

Apart from having an active social media presence, ORM firms can also aid you in your online review management by generating positive reviews and monitoring reviews about your business—this is important for all businesses, from small businesses to multi-location businesses.

When it comes to online reviews on popular mainstream platforms (like Google, Glassdoor, etc.), knowing what customers are saying about your business reflects customer experience and is important as it deeply affects prospective clients’ decisions about whether to engage with your business. 

Online review monitoring services, which might also use tools to monitor online reputation management, can range anywhere from $500 to $1,500 per month, depending on the size of your business. If your business has many customers, there will be more reviews on various online platforms, and thus more work to manage them.

Content Creation

Reputation management isn’t just about tracking where your mentions are; it’s also about creating content around your name, brand, and business that people will find value in.

This type of content creation can be for your own website, blog, business listings on various sites, social profiles, media outreach, and other content-based sites.

Content creation can be done by yourself, outsourced, or through an ORM service. Obviously, they are in the same order in terms of pricing and costs. Outsourced article creation may cost $60-$80 per 1,000-word article, while content creation through an ORM firm may cost double or triple that amount.

When writing content, it’s always essential to provide value, clear your brand message, and use proper headlines, tags, and formatting to improve your chances of ranking in the search results.

High Authority Content & Links

Many ORM firms will partner with top news and media outlets to get their articles covered by significant sites. This is one of the most enormous benefits of going with a top online reputation management firm, simply because they have connections that many of us don’t have.

At the same time, these connections will cost a decent amount of money. Content promotions across big-name sites like Forbes, Huffington Post, Examiner, and others can run anywhere from $800 to $3,000+ per article.

Ranking in the Search Results

Most reputation management starts and ends in the search results, as that is where the most volume and first impressions are made. Here, it is crucial to manage any negative search results.

Getting to the top of the search results isn’t fast, cheap, or easy. For anyone who isn’t already well-trained in SEO, this is where ORM firms will also make a good amount of their money.

When trying to rank at the top of the search results for your name or brand, several factors will come into play, such as who is currently outranking your content, the competitiveness of your keywords, and whether you are trying to push down any negative content in the process.

Depending on each of these factors, the actual costs and length of time needed to rank in the search results will vary — but for the average price of online reputation management for SEO, you should quickly expect to pay a few thousand dollars per month.

Online Reputation Management Starts and Ends with You

In summary, there is no single number on reputation management price, and online reputation management costs will differ from company to company. However, ORM is undoubtedly important for all businesses, regardless of industry or niche.

Now that you have a good gauge of reputation management services cost, you can decide how to proceed. Whether you want to outsource the process to a professional reputation management company or try it independently, it’s complicated and takes time. Don’t expect results overnight, and don’t hire the first ORM agency you find. Put in the time and effort to learn about each of the different services offered by each online reputation management company while also comparing industry rates.