What is a reputation score and how is it calculated?

Reputation scores – single composite numbers aggregating multiple underlying signals – are popular in executive reporting because they compress complex pictures into a digestible figure. The honest read is that they are useful for high-level trend reporting and largely useless for operational decisions. A score that includes search composition, sentiment, AI accuracy, Wikipedia state, and peer benchmark might move from 72 to 78 over a quarter without telling the team which of the inputs actually changed or what to do next. The reporting that works at Five Blocks shows the composite score where the client wants it for board reporting, but always alongside the underlying signals: where the score moved, what specifically improved, what specifically deteriorated, and what work is producing the change. Methodology also varies dramatically across providers, so cross-provider score comparison is largely meaningless. Treat the score as a communication tool, not a decision tool.