How to Audit Your Online Reputation as an Executive (Step by Step)

Why Run a Reputation Audit

You cannot improve what you have not measured. An audit shows you exactly what a board member, investor, client or journalist sees when they look you up, and it gives you a baseline to measure progress against. Most executives are surprised by at least one thing: an old bio, a stranger with the same name, a missing profile or an AI answer that confuses them with someone else.

Set aside an hour for the first pass. Put everything into a single spreadsheet with columns for the source, the URL, what it says, and a verdict.

Step 1: Search Your Name Like a Stranger

Open a private or incognito browser window, so your own history and signed-in accounts do not personalise the results. Then search:

• Your full name
• Your name plus your company
• Your name plus your job title
• Your name plus your city
• Common misspellings or a shorter version of your name

Record every result on the first two pages for each search. Note the position, who controls the page, and whether it is accurate and current. Check the image results and the news tab as well, since both often surface material the main results hide.

Step 2: Ask the AI Assistants

AI tools are now a second front door to your reputation. Ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot questions such as:

• “Who is [your name]?”
• “What is [your name] known for?”
• “Is [your name] a credible expert on [your topic]?”
• “Who leads [your company]?”

Record each answer and, where the tool shows them, the sources it cites. Look for wrong job titles, outdated roles, merged identities and missing achievements. Those cited sources are the pages shaping the answer, so they become a priority list. Our guide on getting AI search to describe you accurately explains how to fix what you find.

Step 3: Review the Profiles You Control

Go through every profile with your name on it:

• LinkedIn, including the headline, About section and experience dates
• Your company’s leadership or team page
• Your personal website, if you have one
• Speaker, board, alumni and association profiles
• Social accounts, including ones you no longer use

Check that your name, title, company, location and short bio say the same thing everywhere. Inconsistency is one of the most common reasons search engines and AI tools present a muddled picture.

Step 4: Review Press, Mentions and Reviews

Search news and industry publications for your name and your company. Record each mention, its tone and how prominent it is. Include podcasts, conference pages and any company review sites where leadership is discussed. Note anything inaccurate or out of date separately, with the date and source.

Step 5: Score Every Finding

Give each item one of four verdicts:

1. Accurate and strong. Keep it, and link to it from your own channels.
2. Outdated. Update it, or ask the owner of the page to.
3. Inaccurate. Ask the owner of the page to correct it, and make sure your own profiles state the right facts.
4. Missing. Something that should exist but does not, such as a personal website or a current headshot.

Step 6: Prioritise the Fixes

Work in this order, because each step makes the next one more effective:

1. Make your core facts consistent everywhere.
2. Update the profiles you control.
3. Build or refresh a personal website as the central, authoritative source. See how to own the first page of Google for your name.
4. Start publishing on the topics you want to be known for.
5. Pursue press and third-party coverage that reinforces the same story.

How Often to Repeat the Audit

Run a full audit every quarter, and a quick check of page one and the AI answers every month. Set up news alerts for your name so you hear about new coverage as it happens.

If you would rather not do it by hand, the free Whitefriar Reputation Report scores how you appear across Google, AI answers, LinkedIn, press and your own website, and shows where to strengthen each one.