$15M Sarasota reputation management company forecasts record growth

An online reputation management company celebrating a decade in business had its best sales year yet in 2023 and is on track to top that in 2024, according to a statement.

NetReputation hit $15 million in sales in 2023, and the company is forecasting $19 million in 2024, the statement says. It was founded in Sarasota in 2014 and had $1.4 million in revenue after its first year, the Business Observer previously reported.

The company helps people and businesses manage their online presence through a variety of strategies, including content removal as well as content creation.

“Ten years ago, consumer awareness of internet reputation management was minimal,” founder and CEO of NetReputation Adam Petrilli says in a statement. “Customers now actively seek us out for their online reputation needs."

In fact, more than 6,000 clients in 2023 enlisted the help of the company, which projects it will have 8,000 customers in 2024, according to a statement.

An equal mix of businesses and individuals make up NetReputation's client base. Whether it is a business experiencing negative reviews or an individual facing “negative news events," the company offers dozens of strategies to help.

“Clients’ needs are always different but it always comes down to controlling what the major search engines are displaying about them,” Patrick Wentland, vice president of strategic accounts for NetReputation, says in an email.

More than 200 law firms nationwide are among its clients, NetReputation says on its website. It provides services like “Google search repair,” which helps keep unwanted court cases and news coverage from appearing. It also offers a review management dashboard where businesses can track, mitigate and respond to their reviews from different sites all in one place.

If it is impossible to remove content, the specialists at NetReputation conduct a content suppression campaign by creating new content that will push old results off the front page of search engines. For example, NetReputation can create a Wikipedia page to increase visibility and shape the narrative around a person or business.

It costs anywhere from $1,500 to $100,000 for NetReputation's services, with individual clients on the lower end and business clients on the higher end, Wentland says.

NetReputation was ranked the best reputation management company of 2024 by U.S. News & World Report.

Since its founding in Sarasota, NetReputation has grown to include an office in Kansas City, Missouri, as well as an office overseas in London. Sarasota remains its home base, where 40 of its 65 employees are headquartered, according to Wentland, who says in terms of revenue and employees it is the largest full-service online reputation management company in the country.