Documentation

Understanding your
Rep500 report

Everything explained clearly, without jargon or assumptions. Whether this is your first reputation report or you just want to understand a specific term, this guide has you covered.

1

The Rep500 Intelligence

Rep500 is not a search tool. It is a proprietary intelligence system built from the ground up to measure, interpret, and quantify online reputation with institutional-grade precision.

12
months
of research and development before launch
10M+
data points
used to train the core model
Daily
upgrades
the algorithm is updated and refined
120+
live sources
scanned simultaneously per analysis

The Rep500 algorithm was built over twelve months of intensive research, architecture design, and iterative testing. Unlike generic monitoring tools that surface raw data, Rep500 was engineered to think the way the world's most powerful information systems think, applying the same ranking logic, sentiment weighting, and authority signals used by Google, ChatGPT, Gemini, and other platforms that now determine how people perceive individuals and businesses online.

The model does not simply retrieve results. It evaluates them across multiple dimensions simultaneously: authority tier, sentiment polarity, recency weight, SERP position, domain trust signals, AI training data coverage, and revenue correlation, producing a scored, structured output that translates complex digital signals into clear, actionable intelligence.

Critically, the algorithm is not static. It is updated and recalibrated on a daily basis, incorporating shifts in how Google ranks content, changes in AI engine behaviour, and emerging patterns in how online reputation affects commercial outcomes. What you receive is not a snapshot from a fixed model. It is an assessment current to how these systems are operating right now.

Built with expertise from the world's leading technology organisations
Specialists from across these organisations contributed knowledge, methodology, and technical guidance during the development and optimisation of the Rep500 model. Their input shaped how the algorithm interprets ranking signals, processes sentiment, and measures AI visibility, ensuring the outputs reflect how these platforms actually work.
Google
Search ranking logic, SERP authority signals, and Knowledge Graph methodology
Anthropic
AI training data coverage, constitutional model behaviour, and LLM output accuracy
OpenAI
Large language model architecture, natural language processing, and sentiment classification
Microsoft
Enterprise data infrastructure, Bing search integration, and AI-assisted search behaviour
Amazon Web Services
Scalable cloud architecture, real-time data processing, and secure session encryption
NVIDIA
High-performance GPU compute infrastructure underpinning model training and inference speed
The result is an intelligence system whose accuracy and depth reflect the combined expertise of the organisations that define how information is processed, ranked, and understood across the modern internet. When Rep500 evaluates a reputation, it does so by applying the same publicly documented logic and modelling frameworks those platforms use, built entirely on publicly available information and open research. This approach ensures full compliance while delivering assessments that are structurally aligned with how Google, AI engines, and major platforms evaluate individuals and companies in practice.
2

How it works

When you submit a name or company, Rep500 runs four automated stages in sequence, taking under three minutes from start to finished report.

1

Data Collection

Our algorithm simultaneously scans 120+ live sources, including Google search results, news archives, social media platforms, review sites, forums, complaint databases, and dark web signals, collecting over 10,000 data points about the person or company being analysed.

120+ sources · 10,000+ data points
2

Sentiment & Risk Analysis

Every piece of content found is automatically read and classified as positive, neutral, or negative using natural language processing, the same technology used by Google and AI platforms. Our model was trained on over 10 million reputation data points and identifies risks that a manual search would miss.

Trained on 10M+ data points
3

Revenue Impact Modelling

Each risk found is mapped to an estimated financial cost. This translates your reputation issues into concrete business terms, showing not just what is wrong but what it is likely costing you in lost clients or conversions.

Financial impact per risk
4

Report Generation

All findings are compiled into your full intelligence report with a scored breakdown, prioritised recommendations, and strategic actions, delivered in under 3 minutes.

Ready in under 3 minutes
🔒

Your scans are completely private, even from us. Rep500 does not create accounts, store user data, or log what you search. Every session is fully encrypted end-to-end, meaning no one at Rep500 can see who you are scanning, what results came back, or that a scan was even run. The person or company you audit is never notified. Nothing is saved once your session ends.

3

How often should you scan?

Your online reputation changes constantly. New articles get published, search rankings shift, and AI platforms update their knowledge. Here is our recommended frequency depending on your situation.

MonthlyRecommended for most executives, founders, and businesses. A monthly scan lets you track your score over time and catch new risks before they compound.
Every 2 weeksRecommended if you are actively working to improve your reputation by publishing new content, running a PR campaign, or recovering from negative coverage. Regular scans let you measure what is working.
WeeklyRecommended during a live crisis. If you have recent negative news, a viral complaint, or a regulatory issue. Weekly scanning gives you early warning if the situation escalates.
One-timeUseful as a baseline audit before a fundraise, partnership announcement, or product launch, the ideal time to check before your name receives increased scrutiny.
4

Glossary

Every term used in your Rep500 report, explained simply without assuming any technical background.

Reputation Score Score
Your overall score from 0 to 100, calculated using the same signals that Google, ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini use when they evaluate a person or company online. The higher the number, the stronger and safer your digital reputation. Scores are benchmarked against your industry.
Think of it like a credit score, but for your online reputation. 90+ is excellent, 50–64 is fair and needs attention, anything below 50 is a red flag requiring urgent action.
SERP Search
Search Engine Results Page. The list of results Google shows when someone searches your name. Your SERP is the first thing a potential client, investor, or employer sees when they look you up.
It's the page of results Google shows when someone searches for you. The top 10 results are your public reputation as far as most people are concerned.
SERP Volatility Search
How much your Google search results are changing over a period of time. High volatility means results are shifting frequently. Either new content is rising or a crisis is spreading. Low volatility means your results are stable and entrenched.
If your Google results look different every week, that's high volatility. Stable results are predictable. Great if they're positive, a serious problem if they're not.
SERP Dominance Search
The proportion of page-one Google results you own or control, such as your website, official profiles and authored content. Rated as Low, Moderate, or High. High dominance means you control your own narrative. Low dominance means third parties are telling your story for you.
If 8 out of 10 Google results about you are things you own or wrote, you have high dominance. If most results are written by others, you have low dominance, and much less control over your story.
Sentiment Score
The emotional tone of a piece of content about you, classified as Positive, Neutral, or Negative. Rep500 reads the language, framing, and context of each mention automatically. A factual article can still be classified as negative if it frames events in a damaging way.
It's whether what's written about you sounds good, bad, or indifferent. A glowing profile is positive. A news investigation is negative, even if it just states facts.
Sentiment Instability Score
A detected sudden spike in negative sentiment, often triggered by recent news, a complaint, or social media content. When flagged, it appears as a Potential Crisis Detected alert, meaning the situation could worsen without a prompt response.
A warning that negative content about you is spiking right now. Like a storm warning, it doesn't mean disaster is certain, but you should act quickly.
AI / LLM Appearance AI
How accurately and favourably AI platforms ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity represent you when users ask about you. AI engines are now a primary discovery tool for a growing majority of internet users, and what they say about you is treated as fact by many people.
If someone asks ChatGPT “who is [your name]?” or “is [your company] trustworthy?” This score measures whether the AI's answer helps or hurts you.
Training Data Saturation AI
The percentage that reflects how well AI engines' training datasets cover information about you. AI models learn from large snapshots of the internet, including Wikipedia, news archives and major websites. Low saturation means AI either doesn't know much about you, or fills gaps with inaccurate information.
How much AI “knows” about you. Low percentage means AI might give vague or incorrect answers. High percentage means AI has rich data, powerful if that data is positive.
Reference Accuracy AI
The percentage of AI-generated claims about you that are factually correct. A score of 82% means roughly 8 in 10 things AI says about you are accurate. Low accuracy can mean AI is confusing you with someone else, using outdated information, or amplifying false claims.
Out of everything AI says about you, how much of it is actually true? Wrong information spreads fast because people trust AI answers.
Context Rating AI
The overall framing AI engines use when they mention you rated as Positive, Neutral, or Negative. Even if AI mentions you frequently, a negative context means the framing is unfavourable, including warning language, associations with controversy, or cautious phrasing.
It's not just whether AI mentions you, it's whether the AI sounds like it's recommending you or warning people about you.
Domain Authority Search
A measure of how much trust and ranking power a website has in Google's system. Sites like ABC News, Reuters, Forbes, BBC have very high domain authority. Content on them ranks persistently and is heavily weighted by AI training systems. A negative article from a high-authority site is far harder to displace.
Think of it like the credibility of a source. A story in a major national newspaper carries far more weight than a random blog post, both with Google and with people who read it.
Digital Footprint Search
The total collection of your online presence, including every webpage, social profile, news mention, forum post, review, image, video, and domain associated with your name. A small footprint leaves you vulnerable. A large, controlled footprint gives you narrative ownership.
Everything that exists about you on the internet, combined. The bigger and more positive it is, the harder it is for one negative article to define you.
Content Control Score
The proportion of your first-page Google results that you own or actively manage, such as your website, official social profiles and authored content. High control means you shape your own story. Low control means others are doing it for you.
How many of the Google results about you are things you actually wrote or control? More is always better.
Google Knowledge Panel Search
The information box that appears on the right side of Google results for notable people and businesses, showing a photo, title, key facts and links. Having one is a significant trust signal. It requires Wikipedia presence, consistent structured data across the web, and authoritative media coverage to obtain.
That information box on the right side of Google when you search a well-known person or company. It makes you look established and trustworthy at a glance.
Autocomplete Safety Search
Google suggests completions based on what people commonly search. If many people have searched “[your name] scam,” Google will suggest that to future searchers, creating a self-reinforcing problem. This score measures whether negative terms are being suggested alongside your name.
When you start typing someone's name into Google and it auto-suggests “scam” or “fraud”, that is a damaged autocomplete. It signals distrust to new visitors before they've clicked a single result.
Backlink Profile Search
The collection of external websites that link to your site or content. A strong profile from authoritative domains signals to Google that your content is trustworthy. A thin profile makes it harder to push negative results down in rankings.
The more credible websites that link to your content, the more Google trusts it. It's like references on a CV: quality matters more than quantity.
Revenue at Risk Score
The estimated percentage of potential revenue being lost because reputation issues are causing prospects to hesitate or walk away during their research phase. Calculated using industry research benchmarks correlated with the specific vulnerabilities found in your scan.
How much business you might be losing right now because of what people find when they Google you. A 32% revenue at risk means roughly a third of people who research you may be choosing not to proceed because of what they see.
Conversion Friction Score
The resistance or doubt a potential client experiences when they encounter negative or trust-damaging content during their research. High friction means interested prospects are less likely to follow through particularly in high-trust industries like finance, law, and consulting.
Imagine a potential client is about to sign with you, then they Google your name and see a scam allegation. That hesitation, and all the deals that never happen because of it, is conversion friction.
Suspicious Activity Score Score
A scale from 1 (clean) to 10 (highly suspicious) measuring whether recent content patterns around your name look unnatural to Google's spam detection. Scores above 5 suggest content is being created in a rushed or coordinated way, which Google can penalise with reduced rankings or removal from search.
If you suddenly publish 20 articles about yourself in one week, Google notices. This score warns you if your reputation management efforts might accidentally trigger a Google penalty and make things worse.
Media Brand Sentiment Media
How credible the media outlets covering you are scored as Premium (8–10), Mid-Tier (5–7), or Low-Tier (1–4). Being covered negatively by a premium outlet (a national broadcaster) carries far more weight than the same story in a low-authority publication.
Not all press is equal. A negative story in a major national newspaper does ten times the damage of the same story on an obscure blog. This score tells you how much weight the coverage about you actually carries.
Personal / Brand Influence Score Score
A 0–10 measure of your thought leadership footprint whether you have authored articles, guest posts, podcast appearances, speaking engagements, interviews, and Wikipedia entries. A high score means independent sources are building a positive picture of you, which is far more credible than self-published content.
Are respected publications and people talking about you positively? The more they are, the harder it is for one bad article to define your reputation.
Geographic Reputation Reach Media
The primary markets where your reputation is visible and established determined by which countries' media, social platforms, and search results feature your name. Indicates whether your digital presence is local, national, or international.
Where in the world do people know who you are? This matters if your business operates across borders a reputation that only exists in one country is a vulnerability when operating internationally.
Executive Brief Report
The summary section at the top of your report. It distils the most critical findings into a short paragraph, written to give you the full picture in under sixty seconds. It highlights what is working in your favour, what poses the greatest risk, and what the single most urgent action is.
Think of it as the headline version of your entire report. Read this first. It tells you whether your situation is serious or stable, and what you should focus on before reading anything else.
Risk Level Tags Report
Coloured labels that appear throughout the report to indicate severity. HIGH RISK means the issue is actively damaging your reputation or revenue and requires immediate action. FAIR means there are meaningful gaps but no immediate crisis. LOW on individual results means the item poses minimal current threat.
These are like traffic lights. Red or HIGH RISK means stop and deal with this now. Amber or FAIR means attention is needed but you have time to plan. Low means it is noted but not urgent.
Result Type Labels Search
Each Google result in your SERP section is tagged with a category showing where it comes from and who controls it. Owned means you control it directly. Organic means it ranked naturally and is typically a third-party article. Social means it comes from a social media profile. News means it is editorial media coverage. Complaint means it comes from a review or complaint platform.
These labels tell you who owns each Google result about you. Owned results are in your control. Organic and News results are written by others. Complaint results are the most damaging because they are designed to warn people away.
Sentiment Trend Score
A rolling view of how the overall sentiment of content about you has changed over the past six months, shown as Improving, Stable, or Declining. A trend line that is improving means positive content is gaining ground over negative. A declining trend means new negative content is accumulating.
Is your reputation getting better or worse over time? The trend is more important than a single score snapshot. An improving trend on a score of 55 is a much better position than a declining trend on a score of 70.
Industry Benchmark Score
A comparison of your reputation score against two reference points in your industry: the Market Leader score (what the top-performing entities achieve) and the Industry Average (what a typical entity in your sector scores). This gives your number meaningful context.
Your score only makes sense when compared to others. A 65 in an industry where the average is 62 is a good result. A 65 in an industry where leaders score 90 means you have significant ground to close.
LLM AI
Large Language Model. The technology behind AI assistants like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. LLMs are trained on vast amounts of text from the internet and use that knowledge to answer questions, write content, and summarise information. When someone asks an AI about you, the LLM generates its answer based on what it learned during training.
An LLM is the brain inside AI chatbots. It learned about the world by reading billions of web pages and documents. What it says about you depends entirely on what those pages said.
NLP (Natural Language Processing) AI
The branch of artificial intelligence that enables computers to read, understand, and interpret human language. Rep500 uses NLP to automatically read every article, review, forum post, and social mention found about you and classify whether it is positive, neutral, or negative.
It is the technology that lets the system read text the way a person would, understanding tone and meaning rather than just looking for keywords. This is how Rep500 knows a review is negative even when it does not contain the word “bad.”
Active Alert Report
A flagged issue in your report that is currently affecting your reputation and requires a response. Active alerts are categorised by severity (Immediate, High, Medium) and show the source of the problem, when it was detected, and its estimated impact on your score and revenue.
An active alert is the report's way of saying “this specific thing is hurting you right now.” It is not a general risk, it is a named, live problem with a source you can address.
Crisis Signal Report
A pattern of content that suggests a reputation crisis is either underway or building. Common crisis signals include a sudden spike in negative mentions, authoritative media coverage linking you to a controversy, or complaint content rising in search rankings. When detected, a Potential Crisis Detected alert appears in your report.
A crisis signal is an early warning system. It does not mean your reputation is destroyed. It means the algorithm has spotted a pattern that, if left unaddressed, could turn into something much harder to manage.
Content Displacement Search
The primary strategy for reducing the visibility of negative Google results. Because it is rarely possible to delete third-party content, the goal is to produce enough high-authority positive content that the negative results are pushed from page one to page two or beyond. Most people never look past the first page.
You cannot erase a bad article, but you can bury it. Content displacement means publishing enough strong positive content in credible places that when someone searches your name, the good results fill the first page and the bad ones disappear from view.
Content Flooding Search
A pattern where a large volume of articles, profiles, or social posts about the same entity appear in a very short timeframe. Google's spam detection algorithms flag this as potentially artificial or manipulative, which can result in penalties that reduce rankings or remove content from search entirely.
Publishing too much positive content about yourself too quickly can actually backfire. Google is designed to detect when someone is trying to game the system, and it penalises it. Slow and steady always wins in reputation building.
Video Sentiment Media
An assessment of the tone and content of YouTube videos that appear in search results for your name. Videos are classified as Positive, Neutral, or Mixed based on their titles, descriptions, and how they frame the subject. Videos with high view counts carry more weight because they reach more people.
If someone searches your name and a video titled “Is [your company] a scam?” appears with 50,000 views, that is doing real damage. Video sentiment tracks whether the videos people find about you are helping or hurting your reputation.
Forum Sentiment Media
The tone of discussions about you on public forums such as Reddit, Quora, and industry-specific communities. Forum content is particularly influential because it reads as unfiltered public opinion. Google increasingly surfaces forum results on page one, and AI engines frequently cite forum discussions in their responses.
What are ordinary people saying about you in public conversations online? Forums feel like genuine word of mouth, so negative forum threads are highly credible to readers and damaging to trust, even if the posts are old or anonymous.
Thought Leadership Media
A category of content strategy focused on establishing an individual or company as an expert and trusted voice in their field. Thought leadership content includes authored articles in industry publications, podcast appearances, conference talks, interviews, and opinion pieces. It builds reputation through demonstrated expertise rather than direct promotion.
Thought leadership is being known as someone worth listening to in your field. When respected publications ask for your opinion or you speak at conferences, you are building the kind of reputation that is very difficult for a single negative article to damage.
Google Images Ranking Search
An analysis of the photos that appear when your name is searched in Google Images. Results are classified by sentiment (positive, neutral, negative) and ownership (whether you control the image or a third party does). Approximately 60% owned or controlled images is considered moderate. High is 80% or above.
When someone searches your name in Google Images, what do they see? Professional headshots and positive press photos build trust. Screenshots from negative articles or mugshots are devastating. This score measures how much control you have over your visual first impression.
Board-Ready Summary Report
A condensed version of the report's findings formatted for presentation to senior stakeholders, boards, or investors who need the key facts without the full detail. It states the revenue at risk figure, the single most impactful action, and the overall risk level in a few sentences.
This is the version you would read aloud in a boardroom or send to an investor. It strips everything down to the three things that matter most: how bad is it, what does it cost, and what is the one thing to do about it.
5

Frequently asked questions

Q What is the difference between a Person scan and a Company scan?
A Person scan focuses on how your personal name appears in Google, how AI describes you as an individual, your LinkedIn and executive profiles, and your personal domain. A Company scan focuses on your brand how your company name ranks, Google Business reviews, brand mentions, and corporate media coverage. Some signals overlap while others are unique to each type.
Q Can Rep500 remove negative results from Google?
No tool can directly delete third-party content from Google. What Rep500 does is show you exactly what the problems are and give you the intelligence to fix them. The primary method is content displacement creating enough high-authority positive content that the negative results get pushed to page two or beyond, where very few people look.
Q Why does my AI score differ from my Google score?
Google reflects the real-time web and updates constantly. AI engines like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are trained on a snapshot of the internet from a specific point in time. Positive content you publish today can improve your Google score within weeks, but may take longer to appear in AI outputs. Conversely, old negative content may persist in AI training data long after it's been pushed off Google's first page.
Q Why does my scan show social profiles I don't recognise?
Rep500 surfaces social profiles that appear in Google's search results for your name at the time of the scan. Profiles that exist but don't rank on Google are not shown. Old or inactive profiles that still rank will appear. These are owned assets you may want to update or consolidate to strengthen your content control score.
Q What does it mean if my Suspicious Activity Score is above 5?
It indicates that recent content patterns around your name look potentially coordinated or rushed to Google's spam detection. This is usually triggered by publishing many articles or profiles in a very short timeframe. Google can penalise this with reduced rankings making a reputation problem worse. The recommendation is a paced, organic-looking strategy: spread publications over weeks and months, not days.
Q How accurate is the Revenue at Risk figure?
It is a directional estimate based on established industry research, not an audited financial calculation. It is designed to help you prioritise which issues to fix first by showing their likely business impact. Think of it as an informed indicator that shows relative urgency, not a precise forecast of lost revenue.
Q Is my report confidential?
Yes, completely. Rep500 does not require you to create an account, and no personal data is collected or stored. Every session is encrypted end-to-end, including from Rep500 itself. Nobody at the company can see what name or company you searched, what results appeared, or that a scan took place. The subject of a scan is never notified. Once your session ends, nothing is retained. You are the only person who sees your report.
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