# Reputation management 90 day plan: week by week

A reputation management 90 day plan for individuals and small businesses: audit, fixes, requests and monitoring, with owners, exit checks and fallbacks.

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A reputation management 90 day plan splits twelve weeks into four phases: weeks 1 and 2 for audit and evidence, weeks 3 and 4 for fixing the pages and profiles you own, weeks 5 to 8 for requests to platforms, publishers and search engines, and weeks 9 to 12 for monitoring and a review. Each phase ends with a deliverable and an exit check, so you move on because something is done, not because the calendar says so.

The calendar is a planning assumption, not a forecast. Nobody controls how fast a platform, a search engine or a publisher answers, and no plan can promise that a given page will disappear or move. A plan can make sure every route is tried once, in a sensible order, with evidence, and that you know in advance what you will do if a route fails.

This guide is for one person or a small business with no in-house team, one owner and a few hours a week. Scoring an audit in depth and running a long-term self-managed routine are separate subjects with their own methods, so here they appear only as the first two weeks and the last four. Platform behavior is described only as the help pages said when we read them for this guide. This is information, not legal advice.

<div class="box"><b>The short version</b>
<ul><li>Run four phases in order: audit and evidence (weeks 1 and 2), owned pages and profiles (3 and 4), requests (5 to 8), monitoring and review (9 to 12).</li><li>Give every phase a named owner, one deliverable, one exit check and a written fallback. If the check fails, extend the phase or loop back instead of skipping ahead.</li><li>Send each request once: the platform for what breaks its rules, the publisher for the source, the search engine for what stays online. Some policies say not to repeat appeals.</li><li>Treat every duration here as an assumption. Where a platform states a timing, the page is named. Most pages state none.</li><li>On day 90, decide from the evidence: continue, escalate to a lawyer or a firm, or stop and accept what is accurate and lawful.</li></ul></div>

## Why the plan runs on exit checks and not on dates

The plan advances on exit checks because most of it depends on other people. In weeks 1 to 4 you set the pace. From week 5 you wait on platforms and publishers, so a date-only plan either pushes you into duplicate requests or leaves you idle. An exit check is a yes or no question you can answer from your own file, such as "every result on page one is logged with a date and a screenshot".

Each phase below carries the same four fields:

- **Deliverable:** the thing that exists at the end, in a folder you can open.
- **Owner:** the person who answers for it. For a small business, name one owner and one backup.
- **Exit check:** the test that lets you move on.
- **If the route fails:** the fallback, written before you need it.

The fallback matters because a failed request is when people act badly: they resubmit five times, reply angrily in public, or buy something that breaks a platform's rules.

### The schedule at a glance

The table is a Gantt-style summary. The week ranges are planning assumptions, and the work inside weeks 5 to 8 can stretch.

<div class="tablewrap"><table><thead><tr><th>Weeks</th><th>Phase</th><th>Deliverable</th><th>Exit check</th></tr></thead><tbody>
<tr><td><strong>1 to 2</strong></td><td>Audit and evidence</td><td>Dated log of results, reviews, listings and AI answers, with screenshots</td><td>Every problem item has a URL, a date, a type and a proposed route</td></tr>
<tr><td><strong>3 to 4</strong></td><td>Fix owned pages and profiles</td><td>Accurate, consistent pages and profiles that you control</td><td>Every profile matches one fact sheet, and nothing you own contradicts it</td></tr>
<tr><td><strong>5 to 8</strong></td><td>Requests</td><td>Platform reports, publisher letters and search requests, each sent once with evidence</td><td>Each request has a status: approved, denied, pending or abandoned</td></tr>
<tr><td><strong>9 to 12</strong></td><td>Monitoring and review</td><td>Alerts, a monthly check and a day-90 review note</td><td>The note states what changed, what did not and the next decision</td></tr>
</tbody></table></div>

## Weeks 1 and 2: build the audit and the evidence file

In the first two weeks you record what exists and change nothing. Do not report, reply to or edit anything until the item is logged, because evidence disappears when content is edited or deleted.

**Deliverable.** A spreadsheet with one row per item: URL, where it appears, date seen, screenshot file name, what is wrong, type and proposed route. Cover five places: search results for your name or business in a private window, reviews on the platforms your customers use, listings and directories, and answers from a few AI assistants asked what a stranger would ask. The free [page one score](/page-one-score) tool can give a first read before you start the log, but the log is the deliverable.

Classify each row once. A workable set of types: inaccurate, outdated, against the platform's rules or unlawful, accurate but unflattering, and not about you. The type decides the route. Inaccurate and outdated items have a fix at the source. Rule-breaking items go to a platform report. Accurate and unflattering items have no removal route and are handled by building and monitoring. Items that are not about you, such as someone with the same name, are a disambiguation job.

**Owner.** You, or the business owner. A helper gets the log, not the keys to your accounts.

**Exit check.** Every problem row has a URL, a date, a screenshot and a type, and you have marked which of the weeks 5 to 8 routes applies.

**If the route fails.** Two things go wrong here. You find too much: with more than about twenty problem rows, rank them by how often a stranger would see them and by severity, and carry only the top handful forward. Or you find something serious, such as intimate images, threats or a post that exposes your address. Stop the schedule. Those cases need a protective response first, and the plan resumes afterward.

## Weeks 3 and 4: fix what you own before you ask anyone for anything

Weeks 3 and 4 are for pages and profiles you control, because fixing them needs no one's permission and a reviewer looking at your request may also look at you.

**Deliverable.** One fact sheet with your name or business name as you want it written, role, location, a two-sentence description and the links you consider official. Then bring each owned asset into line with it:

- A home page or about page that states the facts plainly.
- The profiles you actually use, with the same name, description and links.
- The business listing, with correct hours, address and categories.
- Old accounts you no longer use, closed or updated so they stop contradicting you.

**Owner.** You or the business owner. A developer or profile manager can help, but one person checks the result against the fact sheet.

**Exit check.** Open each owned page next to the fact sheet. No page contradicts it, none lists a retired address, role or product, and each official page links to the others, which gives search engines and AI assistants a consistent picture.

**If the route fails.** Some owned content is the problem: an old post, a profile whose login is lost. If you can edit it, keep the original in your evidence file first, then edit or delete. If you have lost access, use the platform's account recovery and add the item to the weeks 5 to 8 list. If you are tempted to fill gaps with purchased profiles, fake reviews or link networks, do not: these tactics break platform rules, and the risk of penalties and exposure outweighs any gain.

## Weeks 5 to 8: send requests in order, once each

The order is deliberate: platforms first, then publishers, then search engines for what is left. A search-engine removal usually hides a result without deleting the page, so asking the source first can save a second request. The deliverable is a request tracker, and the discipline is one well-evidenced request per item.

### Choose the route for each item

<div class="tablewrap"><table><thead><tr><th>Route</th><th>Use it when</th><th>What it can do</th><th>Main limit</th></tr></thead><tbody>
<tr><td><strong>Platform report</strong></td><td>A review, post or profile breaks the platform's own rules</td><td>Removal of that item if the platform agrees</td><td>Disliking or disagreeing is not a violation</td></tr>
<tr><td><strong>Publisher request</strong></td><td>A page is inaccurate or outdated and the site owner can fix it</td><td>Correction, update or removal at the source</td><td>The publisher decides</td></tr>
<tr><td><strong>Search-engine request</strong></td><td>Personal information, or a result within the engine's removal policy</td><td>Hiding a URL from that engine's results</td><td>The page stays online</td></tr>
</tbody></table></div>

### Week 5: platform reports

Start with the platform, because its own rules decide the outcome. For a review on a Google Business Profile, [Google's help page](https://support.google.com/business/answer/4596773) says only reviews that violate its policies can be removed, that a report can show a status such as decision pending or report reviewed with no policy violation, and that review evaluation typically takes several days. That is the only timing the page gives. Other platforms have their own forms and wait times, which we do not state because those pages were not read for this guide.

Send one report per item, choose the reason that really fits and keep a copy. Do not report an honest bad review as fake: a report that misdescribes the review wastes your chance.

If a report is refused, Google describes a one-time appeal for a review found not to violate policy. Its page on [Business Profile appeals](https://support.google.com/business/answer/13597551) says appeal reviews and decisions can take up to 5 business days, that you should not submit multiple appeals for the same issue before receiving a decision, and that appeals can only be submitted once. The fallback: appeal once with a clear reason, then reply to the review in public, calmly, with facts and an offer to resolve it offline.

### Week 6: publisher requests

A publisher request is a short, polite note to the site owner or editor. State what is inaccurate or outdated, give the URL and the evidence, say what you ask for (a correction, an update or removal) and how to reach you. Do not threaten, and do not ask for removal of an accurate report on a matter of public interest: that request will fail and may produce a second story.

Assume two weeks for a reply, then send one follow-up. If the publisher refuses, record it and move the item to the stays-online list. The strategy for those items changes from removal to response: a correction notice if the facts changed, a clear statement on your own site, or accurate new material.

### Week 7: search-engine requests

These come after the source has had its chance. Google's [Results about you page](https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/12719076) says the tool checks whether your name plus personal information, such as a home address, phone number or email address, appears in Search, and that, once you turn on notifications, alerts about matching results arrive within a few hours. Request statuses are In progress, Approved, Denied or Undone, and there may be a delay between approval and removal. The page says Google will not remove results for pages owned by educational or government institutions or by newspapers, and removal from Search does not delete the information from the internet.

Google's [personal information removal page](https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/9673730) adds that Google may not remove content about newsworthy topics, which it weighs case by case, that only the URLs you submit are reviewed, that removal can be full or limited to queries containing your name, and that it states no processing timeframe. Other search engines have their own forms, which we did not read for this guide.

If the publisher has already changed a page and the old text still shows in results, that is a different request. Google's page on [outdated content](https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/6349986) describes a refresh request, says you need not fill in the form if you have already updated a live page, and says you can check status in Search Console. It gives no processing time.

### Week 8: follow-up and the stays-online list

Week 8 is a buffer. Update the tracker, use any one-time appeal that applies, and sort everything into three lists: done, pending and stays online. Items on the last list are never retried in a loop. They move to monitoring and to the response strategy.

<aside class="callout">
<span class="callout-label">Rule</span>
<h4>One request per item, then wait for the answer</h4>
<p>Duplicate reports and repeated appeals give you nothing to rely on. Google's appeal page tells you not to submit multiple appeals before a decision, and its Results about you page says misuse of the tool may cost you access to it.</p>
</aside>

**Owner and exit check.** The owner is you, or a lawyer for anything that needs a legal letter. The exit check is a tracker where every request has a status and a date, and no item is both pending and resubmitted.

**If the route fails.** A route fails when it is denied, ignored or out of scope. Denied: read the reason, fix one real defect if there is one, and appeal only where the page offers it. Ignored: log it, send the single follow-up and move on. Out of scope, such as an accurate news article: do not retry, and go to the response strategy. If the item is a defamation or privacy matter that platforms will not act on, ask a lawyer about a legal route and pause the plan for that item.

## Weeks 9 to 12: monitor, answer and review

Weeks 9 to 12 turn a project into a routine. This is the phase most people skip, and it tells you whether the first eight weeks changed anything.

**Deliverable.**

- Alerts for your name or business name and for the few phrases customers would use, on whichever free alerting tool you prefer.
- A check you repeat on the same day each month: the same searches in a private window, the same questions to the same assistants, the same review platforms.
- A reply routine for new reviews, written once: who replies, in what tone, and within what target of your own.
- A one-page day-90 note.

**Owner.** One person for the checks, one backup for holidays.

**Exit check.** Two consecutive checks recorded in the same format. If the second shows something new, that is not a failure: it is why the phase exists, and the item goes back to the audit step.

**If the route fails.** The usual failure is that nobody does the check. Fix a day in the calendar and treat a missed check as a fault to repair. The other is alert noise: narrow the phrases before you abandon the alerts.

### The day-90 decision

On day 90, compare your first log with your latest check and read the result against the table.

<div class="tablewrap"><table><thead><tr><th>What the evidence shows</th><th>What it usually means</th><th>Next move</th></tr></thead><tbody>
<tr><td><strong>Items removed or corrected</strong></td><td>The source or platform agreed</td><td>Keep monitoring monthly and note what worked</td></tr>
<tr><td><strong>Items pending past your assumed wait</strong></td><td>No answer, not a refusal</td><td>One follow-up, then move them to monitoring</td></tr>
<tr><td><strong>Items denied, accurate and lawful</strong></td><td>No removal route exists</td><td>Respond with accurate material and stop requests</td></tr>
<tr><td><strong>Items denied, inaccurate or unlawful</strong></td><td>The platform did not act on a real problem</td><td>Ask a lawyer about a legal route</td></tr>
<tr><td><strong>New problems since week 2</strong></td><td>The routine is working</td><td>Log them and run weeks 1 to 8 again for those only</td></tr>
</tbody></table></div>

## A planning example: an invented scenario with stated assumptions

This is an invented scenario with generic parties. Assume a one-person bookkeeping business whose owner finds three problems: a directory listing with an old address, a one-star review describing a service the business does not offer, and a local news page about a settled dispute that is accurate. Assume three hours of work a week. All durations are assumptions.

<figure class="fig">
<figcaption><b>The scenario on the 12-week plan</b></figcaption>
<ol class="fig-steps">
<li><b>Weeks 1 and 2: log</b>The owner logs the three items with screenshots and types them as outdated, inaccurate and accurate but unflattering. The third has no route.</li>
<li><b>Weeks 3 and 4: fix owned pages</b>The owner writes the fact sheet, corrects the website and profiles, and fixes the Business Profile address and hours.</li>
<li><b>Week 5: platform report</b>The owner reports the review as describing a service never offered, with evidence attached.</li>
<li><b>Week 6: publisher request</b>The owner asks the directory to correct the address and sends the news site nothing, because the article is accurate.</li>
<li><b>Week 7: search check</b>The directory fixes its listing, so there is nothing to ask a search engine to hide. The owner checks whether the old address still shows.</li>
<li><b>Week 8: sort the lists</b>The review is still pending, so the owner holds it. The news article goes on the stays-online list and the owner publishes a short factual note on the site.</li>
<li><b>Weeks 9 to 12: monitor</b>Alerts are set, two monthly checks are logged and the day-90 note records what changed and what did not.</li>
</ol>
</figure>

The scenario ends with a mixed result, which is normal: one item fixed at the source, one awaiting a decision and one that stays online. The plan promised nothing else, and the day-90 note says so plainly.

Some cases will not fit twelve weeks. Dozens of problem items, a legal letter, or a crisis in progress all stretch the plan. In each, keep the exit checks and extend the phase until the check is met, and record why. A crisis comes first: start the audit once the first days have passed.

## What to do this week

Start the log today: open a private browser window, search your name or business, and record the first ten results with their URLs and a screenshot. Then add one review platform and one AI assistant. That gives you the evidence the rest of the plan depends on. If you want a second pair of eyes before you send any request, an independent review helps you decide which items deserve one.

<div class="box hot"><b>If this is happening to you now</b>
<p>If a harmful page, a false claim or a leak is live today, do not wait for week 5. Log it, then ask for a private review of the routes open to you. Reputation Partners will tell you which requests are worth sending and which are likely to fail. <a href="/audit">Request a private audit</a>.</p></div>

## Questions people ask

### Can a 90-day plan promise that a result will disappear?

No. A plan sets the order and discipline of your requests, but platforms, publishers and search engines make their own decisions. Some items will be removed or corrected, some will stay, and some are accurate and lawful with no removal route. Where an item stays, the plan shifts to response and monitoring. Be wary of anyone who sells a fixed outcome for a fixed date.

### Should I start with removal requests or with building new pages?

Start with the audit, then fix what you own, then send requests. Owned pages need no one's permission, so they can begin early. Requests depend on evidence and the right route, so they come after the log is complete. In this order your own profiles are accurate by the time anyone checks you.

### What if I only have two or three hours a week?

The plan still works, but it stretches. Keep the order and the exit checks and let each phase take longer. Protect the audit above all, because an incomplete log leads to wrong requests. If time is very short, carry only the most visible items into the requests phase and leave the rest on the monitoring list.

### When should I stop sending requests?

Stop when an item has been denied and is accurate and lawful, when a one-time appeal has been used, or when a publisher has refused a reasonable request. Retrying after that lowers your credibility. Move the item to response and monitoring, and ask a lawyer if you believe it is unlawful.

### Do I need a firm or a lawyer to run the plan?

Not for the audit, the owned pages, the platform reports or the monitoring. Bring in a lawyer when the problem is defamation, harassment or a privacy breach that platforms will not act on. Bring in a specialist firm when the volume is high, when you lack the time, or when you want an independent view of which requests are worth sending.