Don’t Like Your Google Results? These Firms Will Help You Change Them—for a Price - Robb Report

Adobe Stock

Michael Fertik had to bite his tongue. A pioneer of online reputation management (known as ORM), Fertik founded one of the first firms to specialize in the field more than 15 years ago. On this day, he was sitting, teeth grinding as he was mired in a debate with what a man he calls “a sniveling, well-known legal thinker, a very high-profile guy.” Both were on a conference panel, in front of a packed auditorium, and that frothy mouthed talking head was decrying Fertik’s business loudly. Google’s all-seeing algorithm should take primacy, he thundered, and massaging its findings in any way—the premise for Fertik’s nascent business—was akin to meddling with the truth. Except there was one notable hitch.

“All the time, I knew he was my customer,” Fertik grumbles, “I was looking at his customer receipts on my phone while debating him, but I had to hold my tongue.” He pauses. “Later, when we spoke, he did the most marvelous triple reverse somersault backflip: he, and only he, deserved to have someone protecting his digital back.” But the hypocritical media-hungry legal eagle wasn’t alone, Fertik continues, laughing. “The smart élites who claimed to be aghast about what we were doing? They’re the self-same ones who became our customers over time.”

Fertik was an early mover in the once-niche Internet industry of ORM. These days, that legal eagle would likely tout the suite of services he’s contracted to keep his digital footprint scandal-free. Just like a Hollywood...

Your content is great. However, if any of the content contained herein violates any rights of yours, including those of copyright, please contact us immediately by e-mail at media[@]kissrpr.com.