What goes into a strong online reputation, and how much does it matter? We can talk to you about the importance of online reputation all day, but sometimes it’s best to let the numbers speak for themselves. 

In this article, I’ve featured 63 online reputation statistics and some key takeaways to give you a comprehensive idea of what matters most when it comes to how you appear online in 2024.

What is the impact of online reputation?

Your online reputation doesn’t only impact your “real world” reputation but, often, your online reputation defines your overall reputation. How you appear online will almost always be your first impression, whether to prospective employers, potential customers, or stakeholders interested in your industry.

As of April 2024, there were 5.44 billion people online - nearly 70% of the world population. With 68% of online experiences beginning with a search engine and over 95% of people going online to learn more about businesses, the numbers speak for themselves. 

Think about your own relationship to being online. Are you active on social media? Do you read your news online? What was the last YouTube video you watched or question you Googled? When you make an online purchase, do you read the reviews to pick one product over another? Whether you are “chronically online” or a more casual user, understanding the overarching presence of the internet in our lives can help you understand the importance of looking good and standing out online. 

Reputation Statistics

How you appear online can act as a business card or a warning sign, depending on the status of your online reputation. Your online reputation is made up of everything related to you, your business, or your brand online. This includes anything you put out there - your website, blog, social media posts, interviews, etc. - and anything anyone else puts out there, too - reviews, news articles, Reddit threads, etc. 

The following list is divided into categories based on the different elements that can impact your online reputation. If we’re missing anything, or if you’re interested in learning more about what you can do to manage your reputation online, feel free to reach out to Status Labs. 

For Businesses

When it comes to the reach, growth, and overall success of your business, online reputation is a key factor.

1. On average, it takes 5 to 7 impressions for people to remember a brand, highlighting the importance of visibility and consistency when it comes to your online strategy.
2. How you present your brand online can have a huge impact on how consumers respond to your business. Presenting your brand consistently across all platforms - website, social media profiles, etc.- can increase revenue by up to 23%.
3. In a survey conducted by Deloitte, roughly 90% of over 300 executives surveyed ranked reputation as the most significant risk area for companies.
4. In that same survey, 88% of executives reported that their companies were actively managing reputation risk.
5. In a study conducted by TrustPilot, consumers ranked a positive internet reputation as the #1 most important factor when determining which business to frequent, even above the quality of products and services.
6. And the impact of a positive reputation can’t be overstated. 95% of consumers report trusting a corporation with a positive reputation.
7. Stand by what you believe. Approximately 90% of consumers report that they will remain loyal to brands that share their values.

Key Takeaways:

• Companies are managing their reputation and watching out for reputational risk - if your business is not actively maintaining its reputation, you are falling behind.
• It isn’t only important for businesses to maintain positive branded results (though, that is very important!), but to also maintain visibility with your target audience. 

Reviews

Online reviews are one of the most important factors in a business’s online reputation. From ratings to responses, how you stack up can determine whether you soar above the competition or sink far below it.

1. 95% of people read online reviews before making a purchase.
2. 98% of people report reading online reviews about local businesses (yes, that’s basically everyone).
3. Over 90% of people report that positive reviews make them more likely to frequent a business, and 86% feel that online business reviews are as trustworthy as personal recommendations from friends or family.
4. It’s a myth that people only leave reviews when they’re very happy or very upset; only 4% of consumers have never left a review.
5. Over 80% of consumers are likely to leave a positive review if they feel the business went above and beyond. This may be intuitive, but what is less intuitive is that nearly 80% of consumers are likely to leave a positive online review if the business had turned an initially negative experience into a positive one.
6. Almost 75% of all online reviews are left on Google. This may not be surprising when you consider that Google holds over 90% of the market share of search engines. 
7. While you may not be able to control what people say about you, you can have a positive impact by maintaining and monitoring your Google My Business (GMB) profile.
8. When it comes to review ratings, you don’t want to be perfect. Purchasing likelihood increases for companies with ratings between 4.0 to 4.7 stars, and actually decreases for companies that approach a perfect 5-star rating, likely due to the rating appearing inauthentic or untrustworthy.
9. That said, you do want to aim for that 4.0 to 4.7 range; less than 50% of consumers report frequenting a business with a rating under 4 stars, and 87% of consumers would not even consider a business with an average rating below 3 stars.
10. Engagement matters. Roughly 90% of consumers are more likely to frequent a business if the business responds to all reviews, both positive and negative.
11. Don’t wait for customers to choose to leave a review - just ask! 65% of people leave reviews if asked to by a business, with email, in person, and requests along with invoices yielding the highest number of reviews.

Key Takeaways:

• Reviews are a valuable resource, not only for customers but for businesses themselves. Keeping up with your reviews can give you insight into what your customers think about your business and help you incorporate that feedback when relevant.
• Although a strong review rating is the primary goal, a bad review doesn’t have to have a wholly negative impact. Responding effectively to negative reviews can improve your credibility and trustworthiness and actually build better bonds with your customers.
• If you are dealing with sparse reviews or a low rating, don’t be afraid to ask your customers for feedback! If the feedback is positive, encourage them to write a review. If the feedback is negative, do what you can to remedy the situation and continue to build trust with the customer.

For Individuals

Online reputation for individuals can affect professional opportunities, public perception, and even your dating prospects. Knowing what to consider while building your personal online presence can help you avoid reputation pitfalls.

1. Let’s start with an easy one: it probably won’t surprise you that nearly 75% of companies consider Linkedin to be the most effective site for finding qualified job candidates.
2. If you use social media for work, it could help in your job search. 95% of businesses use social media when recruiting. 66% of companies use Facebook and 53% of companies use Twitter.
3. Approximately 90% of employers look at the social media presence of prospective employees.
4. 80% of employers have rejected a candidate based on what they found online. If there are reasons your social media presence could harm your chances of being hired, consider making your personal profiles private. If there are other negative results outside of your control, you may want to consider pursuing removal. 
5. Your online reputation doesn’t only affect job prospects. Roughly 50% of people will look someone up online before going on a date, so if they don’t like what they find, you may be out of luck romantically as well. 💔

Key Takeaways:

• If you wouldn’t want your boss to see it, keep it private. 
• That said, if you are in a career where you can leverage social media, remember to not only keep your sites on Linkedin.
• If you have results online that could be harming your personal or professional life, consider reaching out to a reputation management company to help you improve your search results. 

Social Media

Social media can be one of the biggest pieces of your online presence - as of 2024, there are over 5 billion people on social media. How individuals and businesses leverage social media can have a major impact on your online reputation, and it shouldn’t be overlooked as a key factor of your reputation management strategy.

1. Most social media users access social media platforms via mobile devices. This is not only valuable to keep in mind regarding the importance of a social media presence, but also highlights the importance of mobile-friendliness when it comes to the format of your website.
2. Facebook maintains the top spot for social media platforms with over 3 billion monthly active users across the world.
3. After Facebook, the top five social media platforms are: 2) YouTube, 3) Instagram, 4) WhatsApp, and 5) TikTok.
4. Traditional review platforms aren’t the only places where people are turning to learn more about businesses. Facebook has overtaken Yelp in 2024 when it comes to consumer reviews.
5. Beyond Facebook, 34% of consumers turn to Instagram for reviews, while 32% turn to YouTube, 23% turn to TikTok, and 21% turn to Reddit (don’t worry, more on Reddit later). 
6. Social media isn’t only important for what users may say about you or your business, but in how you use social media. 77% of businesses leverage social media to reach customers. Based on our earlier statistic regarding impressions and memory, utilizing social media can increase your audience.
7. People like to interact with businesses on social media. 90% of users follow at least one brand on social media.
8. Social media isn’t only about branding, but about sales. 76% of social media users have purchased something they saw on social media.
9. Depending on your audience, you’ll want to take different platforms seriously. Different age groups find information through different online channels. For example, nearly 85% of people between the ages of 18 and 29 use at least one social media site, a number that decreases as the age of your audience increases.
10.  Last year, I reported that the fastest-growing social media platform was BeReal; however, since peaking at 73.5 million users, the platform has dropped to 23 million users.  
11.  Social media makes public figures, celebrities, and businesses more directly accessible to their audiences. Over 80% of social media users report that social media increases accountability for businesses, essentially meaning that it’s hard for things to slip by your audience. But this can provide opportunities for businesses, showing you what your audience cares about and giving you an opportunity to be accountable.

Key Takeaways:

• Don’t forget to pay attention to your mobile results.
• Focusing on a consistent social media presence can help businesses increase their audience reach, strengthen rapport with their customers, and even facilitate sales.
•  Social media conversations, trends, and even the popularity of specific platforms move quickly. Staying on top of which platforms are popular with your target audience will help you most effectively expend your energy and give you the greatest opportunity to connect with your audience. 

Forums

Forums have always been a valuable resource for sharing information, getting honest reviews, and learning more about a wide variety of topics. Since the August 2023 Core Update, which saw an uptick of User Generated Content (UGC) in search, as well as the 2024 Google partnership with Reddit, the importance of forums such as Reddit and (to a lesser extent) Quora in search results has increased dramatically, meaning that the potential impact on your reputation has as well.

1. Reddit has roughly 1.22 billion monthly active users - 15% of the world population.
2. Nearly 50% of Reddit’s active users are based in the US. 
3. There are over 100,000 active subreddits, and this number is often growing and changing (while anyone can make a subreddit, getting engagement is a whole other thing). 
4. The top subreddits are: 1) r/funny, 2) r/AskReddit, 3) r/gaming, 4) r/aww, and 5) r/worldnews.
5. That said, the popularity of a subreddit seems not to be a major factor in whether or not it ranks in Google search. How a Reddit thread ranks seems to be more dependent on relevance, recency, and engagement. 
6. I already mentioned that 21% of consumers report looking to Reddit for reviews. This is a 6% increase from 2023 and, with Reddit ranking more prominently in search, is likely to continue to rise. 
7. Quora has roughly 400 million monthly active users. While this is a fraction of Reddit, Quora did see an increase in visibility in search results following the August 2023 Core Update. 
8. Unlike Reddit, Quora is focused almost exclusively on questions and answers; while nearly anything can be shared on Reddit, Quora is more focused. 
9. Another difference between Quora and Reddit is that Quora has tags rather than subreddits, limiting the community dynamic on Quora. 

Key Takeaways:

• Forums are personal. Even if your business is unlikely to be mentioned on one of the bigger subreddits, staying aware of the subreddits where you do or can come up can help you manage your online reputation and keep an ear to the ground when it comes to online conversations around your business.
• Pay attention to where forums rank for “[your brand] reviews” queries. 
• While anonymity is valued on Reddit, highlighting your credentials can help you on Quora.  

Images and Video

I’m a broken record when it comes to saying content is king when it comes to SEO; however, in recent years, video has climbed to the top, both in short- and long-form.

1. YouTube is the second most popular social media platform with 2.5 billion monthly active users.
2. Over 50% of users visit YouTube as least once a month.
3. Over 68% of YouTube results on page 1 of Google search are HD videos.
4. Page 1 YouTube videos have an average length of just under 15 minutes.
5. Comments, views, shares, and likes have an impact on how well YouTube videos rank, both on the platform and in Google search results.
6. Short-form videos, no doubt due to platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram’s reels, are considered to be some of the most engaging content on the internet. Shorter videos get engagement from 66% of consumers, roughly 2.5 times more than longer videos. This may also be due to the shareability of these videos.
7. While videos currently occupy the #1 content spot, images are not to be forgotten. Google Images accounts for over 20% of search queries, and the inclusion of unique images in written content can have a significant impact on rankability.
8. Press releases are likely to reach a wider audience through greater syndication with the inclusion of an image. 
9. Over 60% of Gen Z and Millennials prefer visual searching over other new technologies.

Key Takeaways:

• While written content isn’t to be forgotten, the consistent popularity of video content (which is growing amongst the younger generations) is worth considering for any businesses targeting younger audiences.
• One video can be reworked to work more for you, whether by publishing videos on different platforms or publishing highlights or shorter versions of a longer video on short-form video platforms.
• Nearly all media performs better with images, so don’t forget to add a picture!

News

Most Americans get their news online. How you or your business is covered in the news can have a massive impact on your overall reputation.

1. ​​Roughly 80% of Americans receive their news from digital devices.
2. Of those, over 50% get their news from social media.
3. Preferring online news to other news channels is also increasing. 58% of US adults prefer getting their news online, up from 50% in 2021. 
4. Approximately 280 million searchers click on the Google News tab.
5. Over 60% of searchers trust Google News more than traditional news outlets.

Key Takeaways:

• If your business receives any kind of news coverage, you will want insight into how much of your target audience overlaps with the audience of that publication. 
• Even if your audience doesn’t have substantial overlap with a publication, users may still find that publication through search results. 

Crisis

It is possible that you will at some point experience a reputation crisis. As our CEO Darius Fisher says, “Every business will face some sort of crisis in its lifetime, but most never put much thought into preparing for one.” By anticipating a crisis before it occurs, or responding effectively to an ongoing crisis, you can mitigate the longterm impact on you, your brand, or your business. 

1. If you are experiencing a reputation crisis, you could experience significant impacts on your business. 90% of consumers report not frequenting a business with a bad reputation.
2. A bad reputation doesn’t just lose you prospective customers. 87% of consumers report that they will even reverse a purchase decision after reading negative news or reviews about a business online.
3. Bad reputation can also impact your hiring. Nearly 70% of prospective employees report that they would reject a job offer from a company with a bad reputation, even if they were unemployed.
4. Negative news can have a tangible impact on businesses. Businesses with just one negative article ranking online risk losing over 20% of prospective customers. Businesses with four or more can experience a loss of up to 70%.
5. This can likely, at least partially, be attributed to the fact that negative news has been reported to be three times more impactful than positive news.

Key Takeaways:

• If you anticipate negative news coverage, a lawsuit, or other triggers for a reputation crisis, take the time to proactively safeguard your reputation. 
• While a reputation crisis can feel insurmountable, there are steps you can take to limit the impact and regain credibility online. 

If you are experiencing a reputation crisis, or want to safeguard your reputation for the future, you can reach out to Status Labs for a free consultation.

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