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CASE STUDY

Online Reputation Recovery

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Case Studies

Campaign Snapshot

Personal Brand Reputation Management

MONTHS

PLACEMENTS

AVG. LINK DA

57.2

BACKLINKS

PAGES RANKED

SUCCESS RATE

93%

Client Profile

The subject is an individual represented by a PR agency who faced negative press stemming from a court-case accusation, of which they were ultimately acquitted.

Search results for their name were tainted by this controversy.

Prior to this campaign, they had not undertaken any targeted SEO or Digital PR efforts to suppress unfavourable content.

Objective

With search results for the individual’s name impacted by negative press, we implemented a one-month reputation recovery campaign that would:

Strategy

Weekly orders spanning one month, each publishing eight editorial placements on reputable blogs
Placements link out to social media profiles to displace unfavourable results
Each editorial used the individual’s name as a primary anchor and up to two additional context-related anchors across multiple URLs

Research Foundation

1. Online Reputation as an Economic Asset (Uri Samet, 2024)

Meta-analysis of studies from 2000–2025 showing that digital perception has a measurable, positive impact on organisational value – driving sales, brand equity and even stock performance.

2. SERP Correlation Study (Ahrefs, 2025)

Analysis of 1 million US-keyword SERPs shows referring-domain count still correlates with rankings (Spearman ρ ≈ 0.255), supporting the use of authoritative placements as a lever for branded SERPs.

3. Backlinks’ Monthly Gain vs. Ranking (Search Engine Land, 2025)

Top-ranked pages acquire 5-14% more followed backlinks per month compared to lower-ranked pages – demonstrating a clear link between ongoing link acquisition velocity and high SERP placement.

How This Research Drives Results

Publishing high-authority articles quickly ensures positive profile pages take over page one results, shaping first impressions and shifting attention away from outdated press.

A consistent cadence of placements supports all three findings – restoring trust, influencing branded searches, and protecting long-term reputation.

Project Builder Setup

Strategic Foundation

Rank Engine’s Project Builder turns weekly campaign planning into a few minutes of setup.

Precise audience filters, URL targeting, and Smart Select criteria fed our AI agents the exact same blueprint – so every article and site-selection stayed perfectly aligned with the client’s message.

Key setup benefits

Campaign type

Digital PR was selected as the campaign type, which integrates their personal brand as a real-world example within quality op-eds.

Delivery time

Delivery time was set to a one week turnaround to ensure the fastest results and limit reputational damage to the client.

Regional focus

Regional targeting was set to ensure content (news, facts, stats, quotes) focused on the client’s area of operations.

Citation URLs

Each article includes your target URL and up to 2 Additional URLs. This allows for a possible 3 backlinks per placement.

Backlink targeting

Smart Select was chosen – balancing the best outcomes for relevance, traffic, and authority. DA40 / DA50 / DA60+ options remain available when DA is the primary goal.

Audience targeting

Global TLD targeting balances authoritative prospects with geographic relevance. This allowed for a mix of authoritative .coms as well as niche .au placements.

URL & anchor text

The target URL and anchor text were entered here. Clicking Add opens another placement slot – so you can set up additional articles/backlinks.

Approvals

Clients who prefer oversight can tick either box to review article drafts or site choices before anything goes live. Left unchecked allows for fully managed publishing and the fastest turnaround.

Topic Refinement

The platform refines and expands any client-submitted topics, layering in deep research from the brief, industry news, and expert commentary.

Autonomous Ideation

If no topics are provided, the system analyses the client brief, scans current industry news, and reviews fresh expert commentary to surface the most relevant angles.

Content Drafting

The platform generates an editorial-quality draft for each theme, integrating case studies, data points, expert quotes, and the client’s core expertise.

Link & Media Enrichment

We embed contextual backlinks to the client’s pages, add relevant images, and include external citations, ensuring each article is rich, credible and visually engaging.

Editorial QA

Our team then verifies all facts, polishes tone, and ensures brand mentions read as genuine insight, not promotional content.

Content Strategy

Reframe negative searches

Some ORM approaches focus on burying negative content for simple brand name searches, but that fails as soon as users search with intent, for example: “[Client Name] + court”, “[Client Name] + controversy”, “[Client Name] + arrest”.

By using the Keywords near anchor feature, we can deliberately recontextualise these negative modifiers inside benign, relevant articles. This strengthens reputation management across a wider range of branded searches, including searches where users actively include negative terms.

Win on freshness

When negative press is recent, it often wins visibility simply because it is timely. To compete, the campaign should not rely on evergreen content or drip-fed publishing.

Instead, we build content around recent industry changes, studies, conferences, and developments, with clear dates and time context, then publish in a cluster. This aligns with Google’s preference for fresh, timely sources and helps shift branded results towards newer, more relevant pages.

Steer the angle

Using Article Topics and Content Exclusions, we can steer articles towards adjacent, high-relevance themes that make negative modifiers feel natural and non-defensive, for example governance, compliance, dispute resolution, risk management, or industry regulation.

This keeps the content informative and credible, avoids repeating the original allegations, and improves relevance for modifier searches by placing the client’s mention inside a logical, benign narrative.

Keep the narrative consistent

Using Background & Assets, we define a consistent “entity anchor” describing the individual’s role, niche, and legitimate proof points.

Establishing these stable identity signals across placements improves how search engines associate the name, reducing the dominance of negative associations without repeating allegations.

Ground it locally

By enforcing a strict Regional Focus, every example, reference brand, study, event, and regulatory backdrop is tied to the client’s region. Combined with citations to authoritative local sources, this produces placements that are more locally relevant and therefore more likely to rank for region-influenced brand searches.

Weekly Process

Research & Content

AI agents conduct deep research across industry sources and expert commentary, drafting editorial-quality articles that blend real-world examples, mini case studies, and the client’s career-development expertise. Every piece is then proofread to verify facts and align tone with the client’s messaging.

Prospecting

This client chose Smart Select to score thousands of sites on relevance, traffic, backlink health authority and other ranking factors. DA-first targeting is available when strict authority ranges are required. Only the top-scoring candidates advance to outreach.

Approvals

Clients can opt in for Content Approval and/or Placement Approval before publication. This optional oversight ensures both messaging and partner selection meet their standards. Unlimited revisions and full Google Docs access enable real-time collaboration.

Outreach

Each article is pitched as an insight-driven piece. The client selected a 1-week delivery window (versus 2-week or 30-day drip feed options) to ensure the fastest results and limit reputational damage to the client.

Publication

Accepted articles publish within 24–72 hours on approved, reputable sites, featuring natural brand mentions and targeted anchor text aligned with SEO objectives. Each placement is relevant to career development topics, reinforcing the client’s expertise.

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

Link Building Strategy

Authority Stacking

We focused on ranking the client’s key properties for their name across pages 1-3, with the goal of pushing down negative listings as far down as possible.

To create full SERP dominance and reinforce page 1 visibility, our newly published editorials also secured spots on pages 2 and 3 – ensuring negative results were moved out of sight.

Anchors & URLs

Each editorial placement featured one primary backlink using the client’s name as anchor text, pointing to one of the target profiles. They also used our Citation URLs feature to include up to two extra backlinks per article – Rank Engine automatically selects descriptive anchors positioned naturally near the client’s name.

This yielded as many as 3 contextually relevant backlinks per article, accelerating link acquisition while maintaining authenticity.

The sites named in the diagram are examples.

Results

Google results composition for the name query

Pages refer to Google organic results pages (SERPs) for the name query. Each page contains 9 or 10 organic results depending on SERP features such as Images, People Also Ask, etc.

Assets = positive listings that we created or strengthened during the campaign (e.g., social profiles that the client had created, and editorial placements Rank Engine created).
Neutral = third-party listings that are not negative, but are not assets we created or strengthened.
Negative = reputationally damaging coverage.

Counts show how many of the organic results on each page fell into each category.
Change shows Month 1 minus Baseline for each category.

Results Page

Baseline

Month 1

Change

1

Assets (2/9)
Neutral (1/9)
Negative (6/9)

Assets (8/9)
Neutral (1/9)
Negative (0/9)

Assets +6
Neutral 0
Negative -6

2

Assets (4/10)
Neutral (6/10)
Negative (0/10)

Assets (9/10)
Neutral (1/10)
Negative (0/10)

Assets +5
Neutral -5
Negative 0

3

Assets (4/10)
Neutral (6/10)
Negative (0/10)

Assets (8/10)
Neutral (0/10)
Negative (2/10)

Assets +4
Neutral -6
Negative +2

Within 30 days, Page 1 shifted from 2/9 assets and 6/9 negative results to 8/9 assets and 0/9 negative results. Page 2 increased from 4/10 to 9/10 assets. Remaining negative results were pushed beyond the first 20 organic results and appeared only on Page 3 (2/10).

Key Takeaways

First Impressions Define Trust

Removing negative listings from page 1 means searches for the individual's name now surface neutral and positive coverage first, preventing the controversy from becoming the default first impression.

Every Search Becomes an Asset

Assets occupied 25 of the first 29 organic results (86%), with no negative results in the first 20 organic listings. Remaining negative coverage was displaced to page 3 (2/10).

Durable Brand Protection

A cohesive network of interlinked profiles and quality content locks in top placements and creates resilient search-engine signals that defend against future negative press.

Campaign scope

Timeframe: 4 orders placed within 30 days (1-week turnaround per order)
Deliverables: 32 editorial placements (32 published articles)
Targeting method: Smart Select
Average Moz DA across placements: 57.2
Total campaign spend: EUR 7,040

This campaign was run as an accelerated suppression sprint. The client prioritised speed, so we split delivery into four orders across 30 days to keep new assets publishing continuously, reinforce earlier placements with follow-on coverage, and spread results across multiple authoritative domains. That concentration is particularly effective when the negative listings are on strong news sites that tend to hold page-one positions.

Results You'll Love
ROI You'll Love Even More

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