Adult brand search reputation: a step-by-step cleanup

1. Step 1: Search like a stranger

Open a private browser window and run the searches an investor, reporter or customer would. Start with your brand name on its own, then add words people use when they are unsure: reviews, scam, legit, complaints. Repeat for each founder and spokesperson, and for your main product names. Save a screenshot of the first page for each.

Then ask two or three AI assistants simple questions: what is this brand, is it trustworthy, who runs it. Keep the answers. They draw on the same web, and they often surface pages your team has forgotten.

2. Step 2: Sort every result

Put each result on the first page into one of six groups. The group decides the response.

3. Step 3: Use the right removal route

• Personal contact details and ID numbers: Google's Results about you. Since February 2026 it covers driver's license, passport and Social Security numbers as well as phone numbers, emails and home addresses.
• Non-consensual explicit images: the "It shows a sexual image of me" request from the image's menu in Google Images, with an option to filter similar results in future.
• Pages already changed or deleted: Google's Refresh Outdated Content tool, for pages that no longer exist or have removed important content. It will not work while the content is still live.
• Everything else still online: the site owner first. Removing a result from Google does not remove the page from the web.

4. Step 4: Build pages that deserve to rank

A thin first page fills with whatever is left. Give search engines better options you control: a clear about page, a leadership page with accurate bios under the names your people use in public, a press page listing coverage, and consistent profiles on the professional sites where your industry is discussed. Mark up your organization details so search engines connect them.

5. Step 5: Earn coverage

Owned pages only go so far. Independent coverage in outlets search engines trust tends to rank for a brand's name and shapes what AI assistants say. That is the work described in our digital PR guide and expert commentary.

6. Step 6: Check monthly

Repeat the same searches and AI questions once a month, from the same list, and compare with your screenshots. New problems are far easier to handle in their first week than their first year. If you would rather hand this over, it is the core of our brand reputation work.

7. Removal routes at a glance

8. AI answers about your brand

People increasingly ask AI assistants about brands. Ask the main assistants what they know about your brand and founders each month, and note errors. Assistants draw heavily on earned coverage and well-ranked pages, so accurate owned pages and independent coverage are the best correction. Where an assistant offers a feedback route for factual errors, use it with evidence.

9. Review profiles to claim

Claim the business profiles and review pages that appear for your brand name: Google Business Profile for venues, app store pages for dating apps, and the main review sites in your category. Keep details consistent, reply to reviews politely, and ask every customer for a review the same way.

10. What not to do

• Post fake reviews or pay for positive ones.
• Create fake accounts to praise the brand or attack critics.
• Threaten reporters or reviewers with legal action over accurate criticism.
• Edit Wikipedia articles about yourself directly.

11. A worked example

Picture this. A dating app's name brings up an old complaint thread second on the first page. The team improves its about page and safety page, publishes a founder profile, claims its app store pages and earns coverage of a new safety feature in two tech outlets. Within six months, the thread has dropped to the second page; nothing was removed, but better results took its place. Pitching is covered in pitching the media.

12. Founders and personal names

Founders sometimes want their personal name kept apart from the business. A personal professional site, a profile on a reputable professional network and interviews about their wider work can rank for their name, while personal details that Google's policies cover can be removed. Agree the goal with the founder before starting, and never publish personal information without consent.

13. Keeping records

Keep a simple log: each search, its first page of results, removal requests made and their outcome, coverage earned and owned pages published. The log shows progress over months, and it helps if a dispute or regulator ever asks what was done. Commentary that builds reputation is covered in expert commentary.

14. Reputation and hiring

Candidates search a company before applying. A first page that shows a clear about page, honest reviews from staff and customers, and fair coverage helps hiring as much as sales. Include a careers page, and reply to employee reviews as politely as customer ones.

15. Working with counsel

Some issues, such as defamation, impersonation or leaked private data, need legal advice. Keep counsel informed of serious cases, document everything, and let them decide on formal action.

16. Owned pages worth building

An about page with real people, a press page with coverage and contacts, a clear FAQ and a safety or privacy page answer the questions people search before trusting a brand.

17. In short

Search like a stranger, sort what you find, use the right removal route for what can be removed, build owned pages that deserve to rank, earn independent coverage, and check monthly. Do not fake reviews, accounts or edits. Better results take the place of worse ones over months, not days. Digital PR that earns those results is covered in the digital PR guide.

18. Background sources

• Wikipedia
• Business Profile support (Google)

Original publishers of the facts in this guide; worth a look before any decision.

On the record: questions