Here is a good article about managing your online reputation http://www.small-business-software.net/managing-your-reputation.htm
basicaly you manage your reputation online. if you have a reputable website or a brand awareness established, then you need to manage your reputation online. you basically find out where your site/brand name is being discussed online and respond to that if needed. sometimes clients will go to ropoff reports or forums and blogs to write negetive feedback about your product/service/brand. if you dont know where those topics are being discussed and dont action, then its what the other person say about you. there are programs for reputation management (just google for reputation management tools) that will send you alerts every time someone talks about you online. you then visit those threads/pages and defend your product/service if needed. you can use google alert for notification by setting up an alert for your desired keywords which works to some extent but for better results, you need a paid tool. there used to be one or 2 free tools that worked OK in the past but i dont know of any free reputation management tool that is decent these days. if anyone know of any good free tool, plz PM me
the article is a good read... actually in short u first build a repute (good one ofcourse) and then maintain (manage) it.
How can a website owner know that his website has a positive Reputation Online? Do you use software to check and review? How can I check my site?