In digital marketing, ORM stands for online reputation management: the work of monitoring, influencing and protecting what people find when they search for your business. That covers your Google reviews, the pages that appear for your company name, your social media profiles, press coverage and, increasingly, what AI assistants say about you. (In software development, ORM means something unrelated, object-relational mapping. This guide is about the marketing meaning.)
Most customers check a business online before they get in touch, so ORM affects enquiries long before anyone reaches your website. The rest of this guide explains what it involves and how to do it well.
What does ORM mean in marketing?
ORM means taking an active part in your business’s online reputation instead of leaving it to chance. In practice, that’s four kinds of work:
- Monitoring what’s said about you on review sites, social media, forums and news sites.
- Responding to reviews and comments, good and bad.
- Encouraging satisfied customers to leave honest reviews.
- Shaping your search results, so the first page for your name shows accurate, up-to-date information you’ve had a hand in.
Why ORM matters
Picture someone who’s just been recommended your business by a friend. They search your name. In a few seconds they see your star rating, a handful of recent reviews and whatever else Google shows on the first page. If the rating is low, the latest review is an unanswered complaint or the top result is an old article about a problem you fixed years ago, many will quietly choose someone else. You’ll never know they looked.
Reviews also affect how visible you are. Google says that review count and rating are factors in local search ranking, so a strong, steady flow of genuine reviews helps you appear in the map results for searches like “dentist near me”.
What is the difference between SEO and ORM?
SEO aims to get your website found for the searches your customers use, such as “family dentist Twickenham”. ORM focuses on what people find when they search for your business by name, and on how your business is described across the web.
The two overlap. Both use your Google Business Profile, both benefit from good content and links, and both depend on how Google judges trust. A business usually needs SEO to be found by new customers and ORM to make sure those customers like what they find.
How do you do ORM in digital marketing?
Let’s take a hypothetical example. Say you run a dental practice in Twickenham with a 4.6-star rating, and one Monday a one-star review appears claiming a patient was kept waiting for 40 minutes and treated rudely. Here’s how a sensible ORM routine handles it, and the habits that sit around it.
1. Know when something is said
Turn on notifications in your Google Business Profile so new reviews reach you straight away. Set up free Google Alerts for your business name and the names of senior people, and check the main review sites in your sector regularly. The practice manager sees the review within the hour, before it’s gathered any replies.
2. Respond to reviews, especially the bad ones
Reply within a day or two, briefly and calmly. Thank the reviewer, apologise for the experience without arguing the details in public, and offer a way to talk it through offline. Never share patient or customer details in a reply. Future customers read your response as closely as the review, and a measured reply to a complaint often reassures them more than a page of five-star ratings.
3. Fix what caused it
If the complaint is fair, the useful part of ORM happens away from the internet. The practice checks its appointment system and finds Monday mornings are routinely overbooked. Fixing that prevents the next ten reviews like it.
4. Ask for reviews, honestly
Most happy customers don’t think to leave a review unless asked. Ask everyone, at a natural moment, with a direct link to your review page. Don’t ask only the customers you expect to be positive, don’t offer incentives in exchange for reviews and never post fake ones. Under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, fake reviews and concealed incentivised reviews are banned in the UK, and Google removes reviews that break its policies.
5. Own your first page of results
Make sure the first page for your business name is filled with things you control or influence: your website, your Google Business Profile, active LinkedIn and social profiles, listings with professional bodies and any positive press. Keep them up to date. An accurate, complete set of profiles leaves less room for an old complaint or a misleading directory listing to rank.
Your online reputation is decided by what people find in the first ten seconds of searching your name. ORM is the work of making sure that’s accurate.
How do you deal with negative Google reviews?
Reply politely and promptly, acknowledge the problem, and move the conversation offline. If a review breaks Google’s policies, such as fake content, abuse, conflicts of interest or a review meant for a different business, you can report it from your Business Profile for Google to assess. Google won’t remove a review simply because it’s negative, so for genuine criticism, the answer is a good reply and a fix to the underlying issue.
It also helps to keep perspective. A business with dozens of recent, mostly positive reviews and one fair complaint, answered well, looks more trustworthy than one with a perfect score from six reviews.
Managing a reputation crisis
Occasionally the problem is bigger than one review: a viral social post, a news story or a wave of complaints after a service failure. The same principles apply, with more urgency. Agree one owner for the response, acknowledge what’s happened quickly, say what you’re doing about it and update people when it’s done. Avoid deleting comments or arguing in public, which almost always makes a story spread further.
What is an example of online reputation management?
The dental practice above is a typical one: spotting a bad review quickly, replying well, fixing the cause and steadily collecting more genuine reviews. Another common example is a business whose name search is dominated by an outdated directory listing with the wrong phone number. Correcting that listing, completing the Google Business Profile and building up accurate profiles elsewhere pushes the correct information to the top.
How we approach reputation management
We look after reputation as part of our SEO work for growing businesses: setting up monitoring, keeping Google Business Profiles complete and active, helping clients build a steady flow of genuine reviews and drafting replies when something needs a careful answer. You can read more on our SEO services page.
FAQs
What does ORM stand for in marketing?
In marketing, ORM stands for online reputation management. It’s the practice of monitoring and shaping what people find when they search for a business, including reviews, search results, social media and press coverage. In software, ORM means object-relational mapping, which is unrelated.
What is the difference between SEO and ORM?
SEO helps your website get found for the searches your customers use. ORM focuses on what people see when they search your business by name and how you’re described across the web. They overlap, especially through Google Business Profile and reviews, and most businesses benefit from both.
Can you remove negative Google reviews?
You can report a review that breaks Google’s policies, such as fake, abusive or off-topic content, and Google will assess it. Google won’t remove a genuine review because it’s negative. The best response is a calm, prompt reply and a fix to the problem behind it.
How do you get more Google reviews?
Ask every customer at a natural moment, such as after a project is completed, and send a direct link to your review page. Make it quick and easy. Don’t offer incentives or ask only customers you expect to be happy, as both break Google’s policies. Fake reviews and undisclosed incentivised reviews are also banned under UK consumer law.
