Repair Guide · 10 min read
The Reputation Repair Guide
How to recover when the crisis is already in Google's memory.
When the crisis is over but the footprint isn't
The story fades from press in 72 hours. The Google results last years. The AI answers last longer. The work of reputation repair starts where the press cycle ends.
The three-phase repair model
Phase 1 (0–3 months): Contain active signals. Secure domains. Audit every URL. Stop bleeding.
Phase 2 (3–9 months): Build owned properties. Earn positive coverage. Suppress negative URLs. Ship Wikipedia/Knowledge Panel.
Phase 3 (9–18 months): Long-tail vigilance. Quarterly audits. Pre-emptive intervention on new signals.
How to know it's working
Branded searches: positive page-one within 4–6 months.
AI search: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini answer with owned sources.
Journalist coverage: inbound shifts from crisis-tagged to positive-tagged.
Sentiment analytics: measurable lift on social + review surfaces.