Tag Archives: online reviews

Online Reviews

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Reputation management has always been part of every business.  Online reviews have changed the playing field.  Instantly any review is live, with many platforms.

Recent statistics tell us 79% of customers trust online reviews.  Despite controversy over their legitimacy online reviews continue to gain momentum.  Consumers’ comfort is being fostered in part by businesses nurturing their online reviews and improving their internet presence.  In turn consumers use reviews as part of the information about your business in making their decision.

New businesses have sprouted offering to sell you reviews, or “Likes” on Facebook.  Yelp takes serious action against business posting fake reviews.  Don’t pay for reviews.

Yelp has broadened its scope to include not only photos, but now videos.  Clients can post a video taken at your business and upload on your listing page.  You can’t remove these.  Business owners need to be aware and perhaps set policies in place as appropriate.

Yelp has also opened its reviews to more apps and developers, which means Yelp reviews will be popping up on websites and mobile apps more and more.

If you’re feeling vulnerable take heart – there is plenty to leverage here to promote your business.

Reviews help drive your website.  People talking about your business (reviews, adding photos to your listings) catch search engines’ attention.  It’s a good way to stand out.

Managing your online reviews can be a chore.  Happy customers are wonderful and painless.  Any negative review is where you’ll spend your time.   Unfortunately unscrupulous competitors have taken to leaving negative or false reviews.  Taking a proactive approach keeps maximum control in your hands.  Responding to a negative review lets you send a positive message out to potential clients.  Take advantage of the opportunity to engage with your clients.

With so many platforms meet your clients where they are active:  Facebook, Yelp!, Google Business, Pinterest, Instagram…stay connected.

Online Reviews

Building a Stronger Online Presence

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Your website is the cornerstone of your marketing.  Keep presenting the fresh face of your business by updating photos. List new products or services; add new staff members photos and bios. Consider adding information pages or a “What’s New” page to show off your latest projects or products. If you’re ready to move beyond your cell phone camera or point and shoot camera give us a call for professional photography.  Time for a major website overhaul?  Redesign your website.

Email continues to shine as a marketing tool.  97% of cell phone users read email on their phone.  Let your website help you collect email addresses, if you’re using an email client (MailChimp, iContact, etc.) add their website widget to your desktop website, mobile site and blog.  Otherwise collect email addresses as you invoice, or have a signup sheet available.  When you’re ready to announce a special you’ll be ready.  I manage email newsletter campaigns as a service.

Social media is the choice many potential clients use to engage with businesses.  Every business needs a Facebook page and Google Business  page. Photographers and artists make use of Pinterest, Flickr; home construction or remodeling try Houzz and Pinterest; auto lovers frequent Instagram.   When you’re ready move into video and make use of YouTube, Vimeo and more.  For help read about my Webmaster Services.

97% of cell phone users go online with their phones.  The single biggest impact for your internet presence is a mobile website.  Make it easy for mobile users to receive your message.

Reach people on the platform they choose.

Read more    http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/mobile-technology-fact-sheet/

Website Marketing

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Your website has become the cornerstone of your business.     All roads of marketing point to your domain.

Website RedesignIt’s not uncommon to want a new look for your website. A “refresh” can be the solution. Change photos, add a JavaScript slide show, update the page content and a critical step: review the SEO. Google changes rules more than 500 times in a year.

Thinking about blogging? A blog is a huge asset to driving your website. You know your business, who better to write short articles and post periodically? Sites adding new relevant content are seen as reliable and this, in turn, improves your rankings. A blog on your website is an easy way to add regular content while expanding your web presence. Give me a call if you have any questions. ph 909.595.0610

 

Mobile MarketingIt’s hard to ignore the usefulness of “going mobile”. Our phones have created a new market place for businesses.

Your mobile website needs to feature the most important aspects of your desktop website in the most user friendly way with quick download time. Equally important is giving the user a quick way to view your full website and avoid a frustrated user experience.

Give me a call if you have any questions. ph 909.595.0610

Online Reviews Your online reputation is part of your internet presence. It’s an opportunity to engage with customers via websites they trust to to be accurate.

You may get negative reviews, but you can turn this into a positive, by addressing any issues. The fact your business has responded to a negative review  often is the tipping point for a potential customer. It’s an opportunity to  build customer confidence in you and your company.

I have created Webmaster Services to help you fine tune your online presence to make it a more effective marketing tool. Give me a call for more details, or read online.

Negative Reviews

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Monitoring your online reputation is very important for businesses.  Ignoring online reviews sends a message to prospective clients, even if you are new online and didn’t realize all this existed, the message of silence gets interpreted by the reader…any way they choose.

When my clients receive a negative review we gather the facts, and address each one – turning it into a positive message.  While you can’t expect to change a reviewer’s mind the bigger opportunity is to reach the potential reader who is researching your business. Reviewers often are emotional, and it’s important not to respond with like emotion, but keep to the facts.

One client had a reviewer say a subsequent car repair (different from the one fixed by the repair shop) was going to cost 10 times what he paid for the initial repair, and he was quite unhappy.  Turned out the customer brought in his own part, and was charged $45.00 for the repair. Without the details a reader would’ve been left wondering how high the bill could go – when in fact, he’d gotten a very good value for this first repair.  This creates a positive: the business owner was willing to let you bring in your part, thus saving you money and at an extremely reasonable rate when most auto repair shops charge about $90.00/hour.

My clients are frustrated by not being able to remove incorrect/negative reviews.  Recently a business owner sued a Yelp reviewer in Virginia and won the case.  Accused of theft he said the review was wrong and caused him loss of business.  The bad news: the decision was overturned in Virginia’s Supreme Court as “free speech” until such time as a trial can prove the business owner’s claim.  You can read more about this.

It stings when your business is unfairly attacked, but if you can look to pull the positive out of it – get your message through – you’ll make good use of these negative reviews!

Legitimate Reviews

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With so much focus on reputation management AKA online reviews, businesses are tempted to have employees or friends post reviews.

I spoke with a marketing company recently offering in their package to “post reviews for you”.

The reasons for not engaging in this practice begin with ethics.  If you’re still considering it to give your website an edge up it’s important to know most likely this will come back to haunt you.

People are not fooled.  A business with all 5 star reviews makes you read further.  I have several clients who have legitmate (under 10 reviews) – 5 star reviews.  In reading them it is very obvious these are not fake. If a company has 100+ 5 star reviews – and you begin reading, fake reviews typically show themselves in verbiage.  If viewers are suspicious they can report this to Google.

Read more about how to spot a fake review.

Most review websites have sophisticated software in place to flag suspicious reviews.  With Google it’s even easier as they track your IP address if you use Google search, any site with Google ads, etc.  They note all this information.  Google is excellent at putting pieces together, and if you get banned by Google – who controls search results – where do you think your website will land in these results?

Playing by the rules benefits everyone – and speaks well of your business from that first step.

Online Reviews

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People can now talk about your business in a variety of public forums.  Most of us welcome this.  It does have its downside – that one unhappy customer.  The one you tried exhaustingly to satisfy.  If you’ve been in business long enough – it either already has happened, or will happen.

Manage your online reputation by ackowledging those who have reviewed your business. This is an extension of how you appreciate your clients.  AND that one unhappy client.

Etiquette is simple – thank those positive reviewers for taking time to post and engage the unhappy one – calmly.   Avoid tit for tat.  You can admit a mistake, if that happened, and apologize.  If you have an offering to make amends, do so.

Your response doesn’t have to be extensive.  Potential clients will read how you responded.  Consumers know there are some people who are very hard to please, but a step toward addressing any negative review goes a long way.   More is telling in HOW you handle the unhappy client; and can speak well to potential clients.

Don’t avoid a bad review.

What to Do About Yelp

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Yelp has been making the news lately and not for good reasons.

When Yelp came online and began finding their niche it was welcomed and steadily increased users who love to review restaurants and auto repair shops; and it continues to expand into all businesses.  People who belong to Yelp and post reviews call themselves “Yelpers“.

My clients have expressed trouble regarding their hard sales tactics.  Recently talk radio has been talking up accusations of bogus reviews targeting businesses declining Yelp’s paid advertising.  Clients telling me their positive reviews are buried, under the negative reviews and they are suspicious of who posted the reviews.  It is hard to determine what is truly going on.  Both sides are at odds.

It’s troublesome for your online reputation.  Reviews do matter. 

If you receive a negative review on Yelp, Google or any of the many directories – address it.  Sometimes it’s a case of mistaken identity.  The reviewer mixed you up with a similar business.  Look in your records  for the poster’s name, date or location (if included).  If you can’t find a record of the person respond to the review asking for an invoice number, or more information.  Present your business as trying to right a wrong and you’ll go a long way in damage control.

Some clients will never be happy with your service.  The public recognizes this, too.  The action of responding to a negative review will reflect your business practices and the reader will get your message.   Don’t respond with anger. 

Finally, walk away – if you have responded to the review and he’s not giving up – let it go. 

Don’t let these things drive you crazy.  The Internet gives everyone a voice: right or wrong – it’s the ultimate Soapbox!

Get More Traffic

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You want the maximum visibility for your website.  In today’s climate, that means being actively involved in driving your site so that your customers can find you each and every time.  Gone are the days of “create it and leave it” websites that are static and unchanging.  Websites have become the cornerstone of business marketing. You need to take steps to fine tune your site to make it a more effective marketing tool.  

Reciprocal linking is part of your search engine optimization plan.  Part of your ranking from Google is based on reciprocal linking.  Simply put, every link to a website is a vote for that site, which helps boost your Google ranking.  There are guidelines to be followed and it must be monitored to check link validity (based on relevance to your industry).

 Over the past two years, online directories have become invaluable.  These directories are small bits of internet real estate you can leverage to drive customers to your website.  Think of them as ads scattered over the internet and you’re controlling their message.  They now allow more content than ever before and, most importantly, many are review oriented.  Online reviews are another huge factor in gaining positive Google results. 

 Reviews on sites such as Yelp, Google, Yahoo, etc. are not screened by you.  As a result, customers trust the reviews to be accurate and that equates to added value to your products or services.  Yes, you may get negative reviews, but you can address any issue through the directory.  Again, that builds customer confidence in you and your company.

 Much of your traffic will come from search engine results. Keywords are indicators of the most important topics, service or product on each web page.  These are words your customers will use to find you.  Controlling your keyword strategy can make or break or your site.  If your site is more than 2 years old, it’s time to review your website.  Google has made drastic changes to the way it analyzes keywords and Meta data on a webpage. 

 I provide a package plan with these services and more. Visit BrendaSimon.com .

Reviews, Yelp, Google, Yahoo

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Online reviews drive websites. This is such good news for website owners: clients who are happy can make a difference in your business.

But how to get reviews: ask. Attach a note/flyer to every invoice leaving your shop asking for a review.  Begin by asking clients to use their favorite review source (such as Yelp!) or ask them to find you on Google Maps, Yahoo Local, Bing Maps, Facebook – any place your business is listed.  Put buttons on your website with a direct link to your Google Maps/Places Yahoo, Yelp and other directory listings. Make it easy for your clients. If they are not computer savvy – ask them to email or hand write it for you – and post on your website. They will enjoy being part of the Internet, and sincere testimonials are wonderful additions to your website. All this can be simply put in a note/flyer to hand out with invoices. Include an email address – if you have a web designer send these to him/her.

You may never have heard of Yelp.com but they have been an online business directory for years. In the past year Yelp! has moved ahead of the pack in delivering reviews along side your Google Places/Maps listing – this is where the “driving” comes into the picture. The more reviews – the better for your website. Even bad reviews count – so far Google can count, but doesn’t have an opinion :)

What to do about bad reviews? Address them. See where they came from – if from Yelp – create a yelp account and go to your listing and respond to the complaint. Don’t get angry – represent yourself well, and that stance alone will go a long way in representing your side of the equation. Some of my clients have no invoice from a complainer…state that: “We cannot find a record of your visit to our business, perhaps you have confused us with another business?” The public knowsthere are customers who will never be happy – so don’t feel badly if you cannot resolve a bad review. Addressing it is the critical step to take. 

If the review contains foul language you can report to Google and it will be removed.

It is good to get people talking about your business and happy customers like to help and point others to your business…engage!