In August 2026, just for fun, I asked Google and ChatGPT: Who is the best reputation management agency?
And while the answer clearly is us here at AffordableReputationManagement.com 😉, I thought it would be interesting to see what LLMs and Google’s search results had to say.
Let’s break it down.
Google Gemini
Gemini is Google’s AI assistant and for many internet searches, their AI overview appears above it’s organic search results.
The image below reveals the heavy influence of Neil Patel on Gemini’s answer.
Crazy Egg is his company and of course, NeilPatel.com is he himself.
Google Gemini is citing these links because Neil has done such a good job of building his brands and acquiring back links.
But the question is: Can you trust what Google Gemini is saying? Especially when the majority of its sources come from one person?
Dig Deeper
Let’s look a little deeper.
The link to Crazy Egg leads to a blog post titled: 8 Best Online Reputation Management Services
The first thing I think is, Why is company who offers website heatmap and A/B testing data reviewing online reputation management companies?
I mean, they’re both in the digital marketing space, but what does a software analytics company have to do with online reputation?
The answer to the question is in the disclosure box I’ve highlighted above: They earn commission when you click-through and do business with any of the firms they recommend.
Proof is in the image below.
When you click on the blue hyperlink for Reputation Defense Network, it takes you to their website.
Notice the URL though – see where it says ?utm_source=Referral…?
That’s a referral link.
That means that Reputation Defense Network can track this lead back to Crazy Egg and pay them a commission for the referral.
In most cases, Crazy Egg will either earn commission one of two ways:
- They receive a percentage of the sale
- They receive a fixed price for each lead they send
And it’s not just Reputation Defense Network who is paying Crazy Egg a referral fee.
Six of the top seven agencies recommended by the author have clear referral links in the URL.
Now, I have no problem with Crazy Egg making money in this way.
Heck, I have similar relationships myself.
The question comes back to trust.
Can you trust what the blog author Hiten Shah recommends when his company receives commission from almost every single company he recommends?
And by extension, can you trust Google Gemini’s AI Overview when Crazy Egg is their top source for answering the initial question of Who is the best reputation management agency?
I’ll let you answer that for yourself.
All I’m saying is you need to dig deeper and understand how the internet and AI overviews work.
I Recommend ME!
If we look at where the sources are coming from for the other two links, they are both from NeilPatel.com and his blog post The 7 Top Reputation Management Companies in the World.
And what do we see?
Out of thousands of reputation management agencies in the world, how exactly is NP Digital #1?
You probably guessed it–Neil is a co-founder of NP Digital.
At least he admits it.
And even though his company isn’t mentioned in the AI snippet, it’s still suspicious to me that the majority of the sources used to create the snippet originate from one person.
In the spirit of opinion (and not sour grapes, I promise), if you ask me who is the best reputation management agency, I say it’s Affordable Reputation Management.
Hands down.
Google Search Results
Now that we’ve dissected Google’s AI information, let’s take a look at some of the top organic search results and see if we can trust “best of” lists of reputation management agencies?
#1 Organic Result – Reputation.house
Reputation House touts itself as #1.
#2 Organic Result – Thrive Agency
Thrive Agency says it is #1.
#3 Organic Result – Reddit
Google almost anything these days and there’s Reddit on page one.
How such an opinion-driven, spam-filled sight got to be so trusted is just incredible to me.
Alas, my girlfriend loves Reddit.
I’m always telling her, “Baby, there is so much bullshit and manipulation on there!”
So, can we trust what Reddit says about online reputation management agencies?
Let’s take a look.
The image above shows the search result description and there are no companies mentioned within it.
But when you click on it, this is what you see.
Starts out innocent enough.
But then look at the VERY FIRST comment.
On one hand, like Neil did above, I appreciate the poster identifying who he works for upfront.
But still, this is manipulation.
And look at the upvotes.
I’m not buying it.
When I clicked to see what else this poster “chickenislife123” had to say, this is what I found.
Why would someone hide their posts?
Maybe because they have something to hide.
Who knows, but back to my main point, what and who can you trust to tell you who the best online reputation management agency is?
It is SO EASY to manipulate entire conversations on Reddit.
Lars Lofgren wrote a pretty eye-opening post you might enjoy called The Sleazy World of Reddit Marketing, Everything is Fake.
I encourage you to check it out.
His post was written in 2024 and now there are multiple companies who provide “Reddit marketing” as a service.
And it’s hot because Reddit is so influential not only in organic search results, but large language models, too.
Again, all I’m saying here is to just beware.
Don’t believe everything you see online or in ChatGPT.
ChatGPT
Speaking of which, let’s see what Chat had to say.
Just like with Gemini, ChatGPT is basing it’s answer primarily on the opinion of a single source – REPUTN.
And guess what- they are a reputation management agency who ranks themselves #1.
At least the bottom of the ChatGPT answer includes a disclaimer (see the green box two images up) that cautions: many “Top 10 Reputation Management” lists are sponsored or written by agencies that rank themselves #1.
But then, it points to Clutch as the neutral source for choosing an online reputation management company because it “verifies client reviews.”
But that’s crap, too.
The reviews Clutch is “verifying” are native to it’s own site and every single one of it’s top-rated companies are either Verified or Premier Verified.
Clutch is a pay-to-play website that ranks who is #1 in reputation management based on whether you advertise with them or not.
Of over 3,200 top brand reputation management companies on Clutch, all of the top ranked ones are paying Clutch to be shown there.
Summary
My point in telling you all of this is not to complain because my agency isn’t listed there.
I don’t do any paid advertising.
Although I am not at all averse to manipulation 🙂
All of our business comes from people who found this site or one of our videos in an internet search.
Frankly, that’s how we keep our costs down.
It took me all day to write this blog post, take the pictures, mark them up, and then review it.
Consider that if you’re reading this and choose to hire one of our competitor’s–you are also paying for them to advertise and that’s one of the reasons why their prices are so much higher than ours.
I encourage you to do your own research:
- Talk to agencies
- Get written proposals
- Compare prices
- See who you like and who feels like the best fit
My partner responds quickly to all our quote requests and he’s happy to speak with you by phone.
And as for the question I started out with: Who is the best reputation management agency?
The answer is Affordable Reputation Management!
One-hundred percent.
With any kind of luck, Google and ChatGPT will agree with me.