SERM — search engine reputation management
SERM (Search Engine Reputation Management) is the practice of shaping your brand's search results: pushing down negatives, building a positive information field, managing Google autocomplete suggestions, and handling review sites. It's especially important for companies and public figures whose reputations are deliberately attacked by competitors or unhappy users.
What SERM is and how it works
SERM is the management of what users see when they type your company name, an executive's name, or a product name into Google. If a negative article, a complaint on otzyvua.net, a critical video, or a scam-listing site sits in the top-10 for a branded query, around 70% of potential customers never make it to your contact page.
Unlike classic SEO, where we write content for broad queries, SERM focuses on branded searches: "company name," "company name reviews," "executive name," "brand + fraud." The job is to push negative sources out of the top-10 by creating and promoting your own positive resources — review-style articles on trusted platforms, social media profiles, and YouTube videos.
Who needs SERM most often
Online stores and service companies targeted by organized competitive attacks with fake reviews. Medical clinics, law firms, developers — businesses where a single negative publication can cost dozens of customers a month. Public figures (politicians, athletes, entertainers, executives) whose personal brand drives business.
A separate case is post-crisis companies: a failed product launch, a social media scandal, an employee conflict picked up by the media. SERM can push such materials out of the top-10 in 3–6 months — materials that would otherwise shape negative perception for a long time.
What's included in SERM
We start with a SERM audit: collecting all results for branded queries in Google, analyzing sentiment, and identifying negative sources and their positions. We build a displacement plan — a list of platforms to boost into the top in place of negatives.
Next comes content creation: case-study articles on vc.ua, ain.ua, dou.ua; reviews on otzyvua, prais, ukrface; executive interviews, YouTube videos, optimized Wikipedia/Wikidata pages (where appropriate). In parallel, we work on Google Business: raising the rating, responding to negative reviews, and generating genuine positive reviews from real customers.
We also manage Google search bar suggestions (auto-suggest) and review aggregators. In advanced cases, we help with legal takedown requests for defamatory content via DMCA or Ukrainian law.
Four phases —from brief to growth.
Niche research
We build the keyword map, cluster by intent, and audit competitor backlink profiles.
Technical foundation
Fix indexing errors, set up schema.org, Core Web Vitals, sitemap, robots.txt and canonical.
Content & structure
Create commercial-intent pages, rewrite copy with E-E-A-T and LSI in mind.
Analytics & growth
Looker Studio dashboard with positions, traffic, leads. Monthly optimisation, no PDF reports.
Frequent questions
about this service.
What is SERM and how does it differ from SMM?
Can negative reviews be fully deleted from the internet?
How long until SERM shows an effect?
How much does SERM cost?
Do you handle personal SERM (for public figures)?
Do you fabricate reviews?
Ready to discuss your project?
We'll quote cost and timeline within 24 hours of the brief.