How to audit your online reputation: a 10-point checklist

You can’t improve what you don’t measure. An online reputation audit pinpoints exactly where your image is strong, where it’s vulnerable, and what each platform says about you when a customer searches your name.

Why run a reputation audit before taking action?

93% of consumers check reviews before buying, according to an Ifop study (January 2026). If you launch a review collection campaign without knowing where your image is weakest, you risk reinforcing a channel that already works while ignoring the one that costs you customers.

The audit provides a diagnosis. It answers three questions: which platforms show your brand? What’s your average rating per channel? And critically, how fast are your competitors accumulating recent reviews compared to you?

Without this starting point, every corrective action is a gamble. With it, you prioritize: first the platforms where the gap between your rating and your competitors’ is widest, then the channels where review volume falls short.

The 10 points to check in your reputation audit

Each item on this checklist scores out of 10. Add up your scores for an overall rating out of 100.

Score each point from 0 (critical) to 10 (excellent). A total below 60/100 flags a reputation at risk. Between 60 and 80, you have gaps to fix. Above 80, your online image is solid.

How to audit your brand’s presence on AI search engines

Point 9 on the checklist is the newest and the most overlooked. ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini already recommend brands when a user asks a buying question. If your business doesn’t show up in those answers, you’re losing a fast-growing visibility channel. Read more in our guide on AI brand reputation.

To test: ask "[your industry] + best brand" or "[your name] reviews" in ChatGPT and Perplexity. Note three things: are you mentioned? Is the tone positive, neutral or negative? Is the information up to date?

AI engines rely on recent review volume, structured data and source diversity. A brand with 500 recent reviews on Google and Trustpilot gets cited. A brand with 12 reviews from 2024 does not.

Which free tools can you use for a reputation audit?

Google Business Profile is the starting point: rating, volume, freshness, response rate. It’s free, and it’s the platform 93% of your customers check first, according to Ifop.

For social mentions, Google Alerts sends a notification every time your name appears on a new page. Set up an alert for your brand name, your name + “reviews”, and your CEO’s name. Basic, but enough for an SME.

The problem with free tools: each covers one channel. You juggle between Google, Trustpilot, social media and email alerts with no unified view. That’s where a review centralization tool makes all the difference. Review Collect aggregates your Google, Trustpilot and Avis Vérifiés reviews in a single dashboard with real-time alerts.

How to interpret your audit results

54% of consumers pay more for a well-rated business with many reviews (Ifop, January 2026).

Red zone: rating below 3.5 stars on a major platform, most recent review older than 3 months, or response rate under 20%. These signals actively repel potential customers.

Orange zone: rating between 3.5 and 4.2, adequate review volume but lower than your direct competitors, or unaddressed negative mentions on forums. You’re not losing customers, but you’re not gaining them either.

Green zone: rating above 4.2, recent reviews (under 30 days), response rate over 80%, and positive presence in AI answers. Your online reputation is an active commercial asset.

Action priority follows the color: fix red first, improve orange next, maintain green. For more, read our complete guide on monitoring your online reputation.

How Review Collect centralizes your reputation audit

After the audit, the challenge is not falling back into blind spots. Review Collect centralizes your Google, Trustpilot and Avis Vérifiés reviews in a single dashboard. Every new review gets an automatic AI response in under 60 seconds, positive and negative alike.

Review Collect redirects dissatisfied customers (1 to 3 stars) to a private feedback page. Your team gets an alert and can resolve the issue before a negative review goes public. Result: 93% of contacted customers prefer to resolve privately.

For collection, Review Collect sends requests via SMS and WhatsApp with an average response rate of 40%, versus 2–3% by email. Your review volume grows, your rating climbs, and your next reputation audit starts from a much better score. Explore our reputation monitoring tools for SMEs.