Reputation Management For Local Business

In speaking with a business owner the other day, she was concerned after all of the investment he made in her website and other online activities, they were not “working”.

“How so?”, I asked. “Nothing’s making money,” she answered. “After developing a great website and investing in traffic from multiple sources, we are getting some traffic and less sales. Not what we expected by a long shot. I mean, is this the new normal?

Our existing clients continue to come, but the numbers of new prospects and customers are down. It’s nowhere near what the old media produced in the past. It’s mystifying.” ( OR – It grinds my gears!!)

One Secret Of Organic Search Success

“Remember, your website is only one point of contact on the internet, don’t live in a bubble”, I said. “In fact, between social media, directories and other sources of traffic, potential customers can develop opinions of your business before they even see your website.

“Also, because consumers research purchases and companies before beginning to contact companies. You may not even get a call if they think negatively about your business. Do you know how many reviews you have at Google, Yelp or in Facebook?”

“No, I don’t”, she answered.

We looked together – saw eight reviews on Google. Half were five stars; one was two stars and three were one star – a 3.1 average. And, there were some

negative comments too. And, to add insult to injury, her two biggest competitors had dozens of reviews with a higher average of stars.

“What would you do if you were looking for a company to solve a problem and they had a set of reviews like that?”, I asked, “Would you call them? Or, if you

“Probably” was the answer. did call, would they be on ‘double secret probation’ because of their reviews?”

In that instant, this business owner began making her online profile more positive and her website more productive.

Fast Facts: Information Consumers see before seeing your website

97% of consumers go online to find a local business or local services.**
93% of online experiences begin with a search engine (SEJ, 2016)
81% of shoppers conduct research online before buying.**
Studies show between 70-80% of people research a company online BEFORE visiting a small business or making a purchase with them.**

The Impact of A Review Online

The numbers above tell the story – leaving reviews online to chance is opening the door to trouble.

Or Leaving reviews online to chance is opening yourself and your business to a can of sales and marketing whup-ass. Really.

Reputation management has become an important part of better organic search results, Google ranking and sales conversions for all businesses.

A review online reassures and reinforces existing relationships while providing important customer feedback to potential customers looking for solutions to their individual needs.

We are entering a new era where Google search engine optimization includes adding reviews online as well as significant metrics such as time on site, website loading speed and continued addition of high value, unique content. All these activities build authority of your site and serve your local market to a higher degree. Our view is it’s about time Google gives you credit for doing the right thing, right?

How Online Reputation Management Can Improve SEO

While online reviews are becoming one of the foundations of online sales conversions, they invigorate two important business activities. In other words, more positive online reviews fuel the following:

1. Repeat sales – Online reviews reinforce existing customer relationships encouraging repeat sales.
2. Converting new prospects to customers – research shows consumers say positive online reviews was the number one factor influencing their buying behavior.

Increasing sales opportunities with existing traffic is a great place to start, wouldn’t you agree?

But there is even more impact a review online can have. A dynamic Review development program can also improve SEO and in turn increase traffic levels for more conversions. How do reviews improve SEO? Imagine, as you develop more Reviews at/on Google, or Facebook or Yelp, you can also show this content on your site. Three important things happen when you publish your reviews on site:

- You have new, unique content to meet Google’s standards – and important metric.
- 66% of the time consumers rate positive online reviews as the most important factor in selecting a website.
- The Review page on a website often produce some of the highest “time-on-page” results. Increased time on websites is great for conversion and great for Google. Google rates time on a site as an important metric.

Reviews published on your site offer a great “two-for-one” – You can improve SEO while selling more through higher traffic conversions. Not a bad combination, don’t you think?

Online Reputation Repair Will Improve Google Ranking

Online reputation repair is a big concern for many businesses.

A common scenario is a business has a few blistering reviews (many of which are old), which causes them to suspend their review gathering activity. After all, who wants to throw gas on a fire? Right? Bad move! This begins a trend of depressing new sales opportunities. And, of the few reviews available, there are a high percentage of negative, and sometimes scathing reviews. Without a reputation repair plan, your sales will be depressed, and your Google ranking will be affected.

So, what do you do? The logical answer is getting more positive online reviews, right?

Here’s the good news according to a study done by the Local Search Association:

- 65% of consumers leave positive responses because they either had a positive experience or because the business simply asked. That’s two thirds of
- Only 22% of respondents would be inclined to leave a negative review because of a bad experience – a 3 to 1 ratio favoring positive reviews – exactly what’s needed for online reputation repair. In general, consumers want to leave positive online reviews.
- Further, 89% of consumers leaving negative reviews said they would be willing to change their negative Review depending on the response of the business. Wouldn’t most businesses want to correct what’s wrong anyway?

The exciting thing about reputation repair is by doing the right thing with your customer, you can :

Get positive online reviews to repair your reputation
Create great content to post on your website
Convert more sales

Increase your Google ranking
Improve your organic search results.

Reputation management a great, and logical first step in making your website a dynamic business building tool. And, you get some great deliverables, don’t you think?

Reputation Management Services – A Strategic Business Addition

Reputation management is an increasingly important part of an internet marketing program. When done correctly, developing reviews online and using them in conjunction with a website can strengthen SEO, bolster Google ranking and convert visitors into sales calls.

But where do you start? For small business, more often than not a reputation management services company can be an important addition to an overall internet marketing plan. Why? Because they are consistent, reliable and have a deep understanding of Google search engine optimization requirements. And, because they work with SEO and internet marketing related challenges daily, they can spot opportunities and adjust to changes Google makes on a regular basis.

Online Reputation Monitoring a New Business Fixture

Love them or hate them, online reviews are here to stay. The question for most businesses is how you manage the process.

The following questions can help businesses consider how they approach a reputation management services solution. Is it more effective to manage the process internally, outsource or try a mixture of the two? Start with these questions:

1. Do you have a plan in place to gather/collect reviews online?
2. Do you have a person with the knowledge to develop online reviews?
3. Do you have a person with the time to perform or manage the outreach activity?
4. Do you know how disruptive the process can be for your staff?
5. Can you use your staff more profitably doing other things?

The reality is a reputation management company can likely take the pressure off your staff and provide better, tangible results. We understand gathering reviews is a business activity not needed in the past and suspect or frustrating in many ways today. At best it is a pain in the neck. We have built a process to not only efficiently develop reviews online, but to leverage them to improve your website’s SEO.

The Bottom-line With Online Reputation Management

Bad reviews cost you real money.

Effective reputation management can make you money!

Our business is designed to assist in repairing and enhancing online reputation and taking your program to the highest levels of success. Give a call and let’s review how an effective reputation management program can help your business now and build a great foundation for effective SEO and increased sales results.

Let us help you with your reputation management program.

Click Here to contact us for help!