Are You the Best? Become the Choice with Strong Reviews
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Are You The Best? Become THE Choice with Strong Reviews “You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do.” – Henry Ford There is nothing better than referrals. No matter what business you’re in, you know that getting a new customer, client, or patient as a result of a referral is a good thing. It means that you have done a great job for your client and that they’re happy enough to endorse you. What many local business owners don’t realize is that getting online reviews is equally as important as getting referrals, if not more. If you get a referral, chances are that person is going to do some online research about your business. It could be as simple as them Googling your business name or looking up your location, directions, or store hours on Google Maps, Yelp, or Apple Maps. They’ll undoubtedly encounter reviews — good or bad — which could sway their decision to follow through on the referral. Reviews also have increasing influence on your rankings in search engine results and, more importantly, on influencing real purchasing decisions. In this chapter, you’ll not only learn why reviews are important to running a local business but also where and how to get them. Reviews Influence Search Engine Rankings “Google review count and score are factored into local search ranking: more reviews and positive ratings 1 will probably improve a business's local ranking,” says Google, referring to Google My Business listings . Note that Google says it “will probably improve” your ranking — but I’ll tell you from first-hand experience working with hundreds of businesses, it DOES. Here are a few things that happen when you get reviews on your Google My Business Listing: ● After you get three reviews (or in same cases even two reviews), gold stars show up next to your listing in the search results; ● People are visually drawn to the listings with gold stars and, if you have them, they’ll be more likely to click on your listing; © Ramblin Jackson, Inc. 2018 This free chapter may not be shared, distributed, replicated or shared without explicit, written consent from the author. Contact [email protected] for details. Take the Quiz! http://www.ramblinjackson.com/quiz/ ● People will perceive your business as better than the businesses without stars; ● People will likely spend more time on your website. Having people click onto your site influences your click-thru rate (which is the percentage of people who click onto a site or listing from the search results). Increasing your CTR can increase your rankings; ● People will trust your business more and be more likely to call you and, ultimately, buy from you. Reviews are powerful! Boom. Go get three gold star reviews. Easy peasy, right? Reviews Influence Search Results for “Best” Queries One trend I’ve seen continue over the last few years is an increase in the amount of searches with “best” in the query. It now impacts Google’s ranking algorithm as a result. Here is the Google Trends data for the query, “best wings near me.” And here are the search results (taken from my MacBook Air using Google Chrome from Lyons, Colorado). When I add “best” to the query, Google shows me South Mouth Wings, which is 16.2 miles away, as the third listing, even though Domino’s Pizza is only 11.1 miles away. That’s because South Mouth Wings has a rating average of 3.6 whereas Domino’s Pizza has a 2.9. © Ramblin Jackson, Inc. 2018 This free chapter may not be shared, distributed, replicated or shared without explicit, written consent from the author. Contact [email protected] for details. Take the Quiz! http://www.ramblinjackson.com/quiz/ Reviews matter… and here’s why: According to Mike Blumenthal, a highly-respected local search thought leader and co-founder of GetFiveStars, a customer ratings and reviews platform, reviews on a Google My Business listing results in a 140% increase in driving directions and a 350% increase in website visits from the local search results. Not surprisingly, his advice to small businesses was "get more reviews." Blumenthal said there are two paths businesses can take to accomplish that goal: active and passive. "The active path involves asking every customer for feedback while the passive approach relies on the use of listening posts, such as social media," he said. "I recommend a combination of the two. Customer feedback is valuable whether it comes in the form of a complaint or compliment, so find as many ways to get it as you can." Reviews Influence Purchase Decisions While increasing your ranking in Google is all good and gravy, what really matters is that people choose to do business with you over the other businesses they find online. That’s how you put more money in the bank. Each year, BrightLocal, a company that specializes in local search, conducts the Local 2 Consumer Review Survey . Here are the key takeaways from their 2016 report, which surveyed 1,062 individuals on a U.S.-based consumer panel: 1. 84% of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation; © Ramblin Jackson, Inc. 2018 This free chapter may not be shared, distributed, replicated or shared without explicit, written consent from the author. Contact [email protected] for details. Take the Quiz! http://www.ramblinjackson.com/quiz/ 2. 7 out of 10 consumers will leave a review for a business if they're asked to; 3. 90% of consumers read less than 10 reviews before forming an opinion about a business; 4. 54% of people will visit the website after reading positive reviews; 5. 73% of consumers think that reviews older than 3 months are no longer relevant; 6. 74% of consumers say that positive reviews make them trust a local business more; 7. 58% of consumers say that the star rating of a business is most important. Consumer Trust In Online Reviews On The Rise BrightLocal has been doing this survey each year since 2010 and, as a result, have been able to spot some trends. One fact their surveys reveal: customer reviews have a mounting influence on purchasing decisions. “A significant 85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations if they meet criteria such as number of reviews or type of business. This has risen from 84% in 2016,” according to the survey. Reviews From The Web I’ve found that many businesses focus only on getting Google reviews. While having reviews on your Google My Business listing is certainly important, it is also necessary to have reviews on a © Ramblin Jackson, Inc. 2018 This free chapter may not be shared, distributed, replicated or shared without explicit, written consent from the author. Contact [email protected] for details. Take the Quiz! http://www.ramblinjackson.com/quiz/ variety of review sites. Not only will people read your reviews on other sites, Google will pull those reviews into your Google My Business listing. 3 In September of 2016, Google introduced Reviews from the Web , a feature where it aggregates reviews from other websites. “Available globally on mobile and desktop, Reviews from the web brings aggregated user ratings of up to three review sites to Knowledge Panels for local places across many verticals including shops, restaurants, parks and more.” © Ramblin Jackson, Inc. 2018 This free chapter may not be shared, distributed, replicated or shared without explicit, written consent from the author. Contact [email protected] for details. Take the Quiz! http://www.ramblinjackson.com/quiz/ The Words Used in Reviews Affect Google Rankings Not only does the quantity of the reviews that you have online influence your ranking, the text content of the reviews -- especially those posted on other sites like Yelp, YellowPages, TripAdvisor, and so on -- can actually influence your ranking in Google as well. Mike Blumenthal, a respected thought leader on the topic of local search, mentioned in his presentation at MozCon Local 2017, a conference all about local SEO, that he and a friend used the words “dive bar” in their Yelp reviews for 3rd Base, a sports bar in the small town of Olean, New York. Before they did this, the bar did not rank in Google for the query, “dive bar olean, NY.” (There is no Google category for dive bar.) After they wrote the reviews, 3rd Base ranked in Google’s knowledge graph for “dive bar Olean, NY.” I did a similar experiment in Colorado. I gave a presentation of FOUND: How To Increase Sales With Local SEO at the Boulder SEO Meetup, which took place at a sports bar called Mudrock’s Tap & Tavern in Louisville, Colorado The Meetup leader and host of the SEO conference SearchCon, Jim Kreinbrink, and I each ate chicken wings for dinner. I observed that Mudrock’s didn’t rank for “chicken wings louisville CO”, so Jim and I each wrote a review for them on Yelp mentioning “chicken wings.” A month later, Mudrock’s Tap & Tavern ranked in the local pack for “chicken wings Louisville CO.” What was even more fascinating to me was that their Google My Business short description that shows up for “chicken wings Louisville co” says “mom-&-pop sports bar known for wings” and when you Google their brand name “Mudrocks Tap & Tavern,” their short description says: “Family-owned haunt with wings & other bar food, plus many regional craft beers & TVs showing sports.” © Ramblin Jackson, Inc. 2018 This free chapter may not be shared, distributed, replicated or shared without explicit, written consent from the author. Contact [email protected] for details.