Why Your Brand Reputation Strategy Can't Afford To Be Reactive Anymore

"With the rapid shift in search experience due to the rise of chat and generative search, it's becoming increasingly difficult to understand how your brand and image are perceived and what the impact is on your reputation. Not only is the landscape more opaque, but the ability to detect threats to your brand reputation is harder to surface. Research shows that Reddit, Wikipedia and Yelp are the top domains AI sources information from. If these are the channels telling your story, what are they saying?"

"When the AI-generated answers people rely on to learn about your brand are partially based on uncontrolled sources and misinformation, it's difficult to maintain a positive, accurate reputation and to feel a sense of control over what's being said about you. If you want the organic and generative algorithms to relay your preferred narrative, you need to proactively tell your brand story online in a consistent, structured and strategic way."

"The New Front Line Of Brand Reputation Although Google Search is still the top search channel, consumers are frequently using AI search to navigate the internet. Brands need to plan beyond traditional search, including the numerous AI platforms that shape consumer sentiment in real time. The AI-generated content that consumers increasingly turn to relies on what's online and publicly available."

Generative chat and AI search are shifting how consumers discover brands and increasing opacity around brand perception. AI-generated answers draw heavily from public, uncontrolled sources like Reddit, Wikipedia and Yelp, which can amplify misinformation and negative narratives. Retrieval bot traffic increased 49% from Q4 2024 to Q1 2025, showing LLMs crawl and surface published content at scale. Uncontrolled reviews, press and user-generated comments can erode reputation before brands respond. Brands need to plan beyond traditional search and proactively publish consistent, structured, strategic content so generative algorithms relay an accurate, preferred narrative.

Read at Forbes