The two options
Ensuring ratings, review volume and sentiment are accurate, current and machine-readable where they matter.
- Assistants cite outdated or partial ratings for you
- Reviews sit on platforms engines do not read
- Your rating data is not structured on your own site
Attempting to suppress unfavourable results by promoting more favourable ones.
- A specific damaging result dominates brand queries
- The underlying issue is genuinely resolved or inaccurate
- Legal routes have been considered first
How they differ
| Review signals | Reputation management | |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Accurate machine-readable record | Different ordering of results |
| Works on assistants | Yes — they read the record | Barely — they synthesise sources |
| Durability | High, if the record stays current | Low; requires continuous effort |
| Ethical footing | Clear | Depends entirely on the underlying facts |
| Typical driver | Being described inaccurately | A specific damaging result |
What actually decides it
The shift that matters is where the description now comes from. A buyer asking an assistant whether a company is any good gets a synthesised summary drawing on review platforms, forums and coverage — not a result list whose ordering you influenced. Suppression tactics operate on a surface that is decreasingly where the judgement forms.
Review signal work is more mundane and more durable. Ratings that are current, present on the platforms engines actually consult, and marked up correctly on your own site produce accurate descriptions. Where an assistant cites a stale figure or a partial picture, the fix is usually a data problem rather than a perception problem.
There is a line worth stating plainly. Making an accurate record legible is legitimate. Manufacturing reviews, incentivising only satisfied customers, or marking up ratings you did not earn is fabrication, and platforms and engines both detect it. We do not do that work, and a client who wants it is better served by fixing the thing the reviews describe.
Questions
Can you remove negative reviews?
Only where they breach a platform's own policies, which is the platform's decision rather than ours. What we can do is ensure the overall record is complete and current, so a single unfavourable item is read in proportion.
Do assistants read reviews?
Heavily. Summaries of whether a company is reliable draw on review platforms, community threads and coverage far more than on a company's own claims. That is exactly why the accuracy of that record matters more than result ordering.
Is review markup on our own site enough?
No. Self-reported ratings carry limited weight and misuse of that markup risks penalties. It helps when it reflects verifiable third-party data; it does not substitute for the reviews existing where engines look.
Related services
- Review Signals — AEO
- Brand Mention Engineering — GEO
- Entity Optimization — AEO
- Local SEO — SEO
Still not sure?
Thirty minutes with a senior strategist. We pull your live visibility while we talk and tell you which of these two is actually binding for you — including when the answer is neither. Book a discovery call →