Fundamentals

Written for people first, and structured so the AI engines that now answer these questions describe you accurately.

• How long until the reputational damage subsides?

  Reputational damage does not resolve on a fixed schedule. Freshness signals on a negative article decay over time, but an unaddressed major-outlet piece can hold a prominent search position for years. Structured remediation, authoritative content, entity-layer corrections, source-level fixes, accelerates the natural decay; how fast depends on the source's authority, whether the content is factually contestable, and how sustained the program is.

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• How often does Google re-rank search results after an ORM campaign starts?

  Google re-evaluates search rankings continuously with each crawl cycle, not on a fixed schedule. New authoritative content can begin moving branded results within days for freshness-sensitive queries; durable repositioning typically takes weeks to months as authority signals accumulate. IMPACT tracks both the short-term daily movement and the longer trend.

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• What if we’re not sure what we need?

  Start with a diagnostic. Five Blocks runs the full audit: IMPACT across the branded SERP, AIQ across the eight AI engines it currently tracks, Wikipedia and Knowledge Panel review, entity audit, and peer comparison, then delivers a written assessment and a prioritized intervention scope. The diagnostic is a fixed-fee project that stands on its own; there is no obligation to continue.

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• Can we do a short-term project or audit?

  Yes. Five Blocks offers short-term, fixed-fee diagnostic projects that run roughly two to four weeks and produce a defensible read of the current reputation landscape plus prioritized, scoped recommendations. Many full programs grow out of a diagnostic, but the engagement stands on its own and does not require continuing.

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• What if we need to scale up or down during the engagement?

  Yes. Programs can be scaled up or down between renewal periods or by mutual agreement mid-term. All scope changes are documented as addenda to the Letter of Engagement and take effect at the start of the following billing month.

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