Last month, I had the great pleasure of interviewing Scott Keever for my column as well as in conversation about his bestselling book, Reputation Reset. Talking with Scott several times about his personal take on online reputation, why so many individuals and businesses misunderstand it, and how they can take back control of their digital presence was genuinely eye-opening for both the leaders I coach and my own thinking about brand and trust.
In my view, it’s an essential topic for anyone who wants to build a credible presence in a digital-first economy and protect what they’ve worked so hard to create.
Check out Scott’s guidance and insights below. I trust this information will be as helpful to you as it has been for me.
Scott Keever is an entrepreneur and internationally recognized authority in online reputation management, SEO, and AI-driven digital strategy. He is the founder and CEO of Reputation Pros, a Miami-based online reputation management firm, and the founder of Keever SEO, ASAP Digital Marketing, and Pool Pros Marketing — a portfolio of agencies that have helped hundreds of clients worldwide, from executives to public figures, take control of how they show up online. A member of the Forbes Agency Council, the Fast Company Executive Board, and the Entrepreneur Leadership Network, Scott is also the bestselling author of Reputation Reset and Future-Proof Your SEO.
He’s perhaps best known in the industry for a deceptively simple stunt: more than a decade ago, he optimized a page to rank #1 on Google for “Best Looking Guy in Miami” — and has held that spot ever since. It sounds like a joke, but it’s a serious proof of concept. As Scott puts it, if he can claim and defend page one for a vanity term for ten years, imagine what a disciplined strategy can do for a business that actually needs it.
An essential theme of our conversation is captured in this idea:
“Your reputation isn’t what you say about yourself. It’s what the internet says about you when you’re not in the room. Most people only think about that conversation after it’s already gone wrong — and by then they’re negotiating from weakness. Reputation management isn’t damage control. It’s the steady, deliberate work of making sure the true, best version of your story is the one people find first.”
Below, Scott shares more about what he believes most people get wrong about reputation, and offers actionable steps to take control of your digital presence before you need to.
Q: Scott, let’s start with the big misconception. What do most people get wrong about reputation management?
Scott Keever: They think it’s something you call a firm about during an emergency — a bad review, a news story, a viral post. That’s the single most expensive mistake people make. By the time there’s a fire, your options are limited and costly, and the negative content already has momentum in the algorithm.
Reputation management isn’t a fire extinguisher. It’s more like maintaining your health. The work you do when everything is fine — publishing, building profiles, earning credible mentions, owning your own search results — is what protects you when something goes wrong. The goal is to build a presence so strong and so accurate that a single bad day can’t define you.
Here’s a helpful action step: Search your own name and your business name today, in an incognito window, on both Google and an AI assistant. Write down everything that appears on the first page and what the AI says about you. That snapshot is your real reputation — not your bio, not your “About” page. Most people have never actually looked, and you can’t manage what you refuse to see.
Q: Why does the distinction between “what you say” and “what shows up” matter so much?
Scott: Because trust is built on the gap between the two. Anyone can write a polished bio. What people actually believe about you comes from the third-party signals — reviews, articles, search results, and what an AI summarizes when someone asks about you. If those signals are thin, outdated, or negative, your own messaging doesn’t matter. You’re shouting into a room where everyone is reading a different script.
The brands and people who win are the ones who close that gap. They make sure the independent, credible sources tell the same story they’d tell about themselves. That alignment is what reputation work is really about.
Action Step: List the three to five sources a skeptical person would check before trusting you — Google’s first page, your Google Business Profile and reviews, your LinkedIn, relevant industry sites, and increasingly, what AI tools say. Audit each one honestly. Wherever there’s a gap between the story you want told and what’s actually there, that’s your priority list.
Q: You talk a lot about “owning your search results.” What does that mean in practice?
Scott: Page one of Google is finite real estate. There are roughly ten organic spots, and the vast majority of people never go past them. Owning your results means deliberately occupying as much of that page as you legitimately can with assets you control or influence — your website, your profiles, your published articles, credible press, your social channels.
When you own the real estate, two things happen. First, people find the accurate version of you immediately. Second, if a negative piece ever appears, it has to fight its way up against a wall of strong, established content. You’ve built suppression into the system before you ever needed it. That’s the difference between playing offense and scrambling on defense.
Action Step: Inventory the digital assets you already own or control — website, blog, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google Business Profile, author pages, podcast appearances. Commit to strengthening and regularly updating each one rather than letting them go stale. A neglected profile is a vulnerability; an active one is an asset that quietly defends you.
Q: AI is changing how people find information. How does that affect reputation?
Scott: Profoundly, and faster than most people realize. It used to be that someone would Google you and scan the results themselves. Now they ask an AI assistant, “Who is this person?” or “Is this company trustworthy?” and they get one synthesized answer. That answer is built from the same signals — your search footprint, your mentions, your reviews — but it’s compressed into a single verdict.
That raises the stakes. You’re no longer just managing what shows up; you’re managing what gets summarized. The fundamentals haven’t changed — credible, consistent, accurate content everywhere that matters — but the margin for a thin or messy footprint is shrinking. If the sources are weak, the AI fills the gaps, and you don’t control what it fills them with.
Action Step: Periodically ask the major AI assistants about yourself and your business, and treat their answers as a diagnostic. If the summary is inaccurate or incomplete, it almost always traces back to weak or conflicting online source material. Fix the sources — accurate, consistent information across the places that get cited — and the summaries tend to follow.
Q: When something negative does appear, what’s the right first move?
Scott: Slow down before you react. The instinct is to fight, demand a takedown, or post an emotional response — and that usually makes things worse. Sometimes, engaging amplifies a piece of content that would otherwise have faded. The first move is to assess honestly: How visible is this, really? Is it ranking, or is it buried? Is it factually wrong, or just unflattering?
If it’s defamatory or false, there are legitimate channels to pursue. But for most “negative content,” the answer isn’t removal — it’s making the rest of your presence so strong and so positive that the negative item loses its prominence. You don’t win by erasing one bad thing. You win by being so well-represented everywhere else that one bad thing can’t dominate the story.
Action Step: Before responding to anything negative, pause and map it: where it ranks, whether it’s true, and who’s actually likely to see it. Match your response to its real reach, not to how much it stings. Most of the time, the strategic move is to invest in strengthening your broader presence rather than drawing attention to a single critic.
Q: For a business owner or executive who’s never thought about this, where should they start?
Scott: Start with the personal brand, even before the company. People trust people. In a digital-first economy, a leader without a credible, findable presence is a liability for the whole organization — it costs trust, opportunities, and competitive position. Build that foundation: a real presence, consistent information, a story that’s actually out there and easy to find.
And start now, while it’s calm. Reputation is compounding. Every credible asset you build today is one more layer of protection and one more reason for someone to choose you tomorrow. The best time to do this work was years ago. The second-best time is before you need it.
Overall, an essential lesson in reputation management is this:
Stop treating your reputation as something to defend only in a crisis, and start treating it as an asset you build deliberately over time. Look honestly at what actually shows up when people search for you — including what AI tools say. Close the gap between the story you’d tell and the story the internet tells. Own as much of your search presence as you legitimately can, keep it active and accurate, and respond to setbacks with strategy rather than emotion. Real reputation strength isn’t the absence of anything negative — it’s a presence so strong, consistent, and true that a single bad day can’t define you.
For more information, visit Scott Keever and his book Reputation Reset.
