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ONLINE REVIEWS: HOW THEY IMPACT SALES & SEO

QUICK INTRODUCTIONS

ONLINE REVIEWS & YOUR FEAR

What if someone gives us a bad

review?

If we ignore them they will go away,

right?!?!

That customer was just stupid to begin

with.

I’ll just have my friends and family

leave me good reviews.

WHY DO ONLINE REVIEWS MATTER

• Reviews are one of the FIRST things people see when searching for your business

• Positive reviews contribute to increasing conversion rates more than any other local SEO tactic

• Reviews boost your business credibility and provide social proof - feedback from others with similar needs

The importance of reviews will only continue to grow...

WHY DO ONLINE REVIEWS MATTER

Some statistics: • 84% of people trust online reviews as

much as a personal recommendation• 74% of consumers say that positive reviews

make them trust a local business more• 58% of consumers say that the star rating

of a business is most important*source: BrightLocal consumer survey report

WHY DOES GOOGLE CARE

• Google needs validation of their search results

• They help build trust in your search results• It is a ranking factor- especially for local

search results• According to Moz, ratings make up 10% of

how Google (and others) determine rankings (more on this later)

FIRST THING’S FIRST

• Ensure you have properly claimed your Google listings for each location (if you have multiple) or you will be unable to respond to reviews as they come in

• This goes for any other platforms you would like to get reviews on (Facebook, Yelp, etc.)

WHICH REVIEW SITES

• Find the most appropriate sites for your industry - what websites do your customers use most frequently?

• For any business, Google and Facebook are a great start

HOW TO GET REVIEWS

Ok, great - you’re prepared for reviews! For most businesses, they won’t just roll in.

Things to consider:• What are your GOALS • When are your customers the happiest?• What touchpoints do you already have with

them that you could leverage?• Personal ask vs. automated requests

7 out of 10 consumers will leave a review for a business if they’re asked to

WHERE TO SEND A USER

Once you’ve got their attention, where do you send them?

Generally speaking, sending them to the location pages of your website is the best strategy. This helps:

• Generate company reviews with proactive review outreach from happy customers

• Funnel company reviews on location-specific sites, such as Facebook and Google, which have the most value

• Take control of negative client feedback before an official review and rating are given

• Get customers to review the right location (if you have multiple)

REVIEW PAGE EXAMPLE

REVIEW ACQUISITION STRATEGY

Consider setting aside a small budget • If you have their email addresses target them on

Facebook• Target people who have liked your Facebook

page• Segment your email lists and spread them out

initially

REVIEW MANAGEMENT

• Have a process in place for someone to monitor your review sites and be alerted where and when there is a new review

• Identify stakeholders at each location that have the authority to respond and rectify negative situations

• ALWAYS respond - this isn’t for the user leaving the reviews, it’s for the public

RESPONSE EXPECTATIONS

• 52% of customers expect to hear back from brands within 7 days of posting an online review.

• 78% of consumers say that seeing management respond to online reviews makes them believe that the business cares more about them.

• Goals: Resolve the issue. Offer a solution. *source: ReviewTrackers

RESPONSE EXAMPLES

RESPONSE EXAMPLES

NEED A LAUGH?

Real actors read Yelp reviews

RESPONSES: WHAT TO/NOT TO DO

Don’t:• Get defensive• Take it personally

Do:• Respond professionally and publicly.• Take it offline quickly.• Stay positive and keep calm.

ADDITIONAL BENEFITS

• Ratings shown in search results

• Can be used with paid search as an ad extension

• Schema to show ratings on your site• Improves click-through-rate

REVIEWS & SEARCH SEO is constantly evolving in response to frequent changes in how search engines index and serve results.

• Mobile search queries finally surpassed desktop in 2015

• 72% of consumers who did a local search visited a store within 5 miles.

• 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations

• 80 - 82% of the links search users click on are organic.

WHAT’S IMPORTANT?General Ranking Factors for Local Search in 2016

ORGA

NIC

| SEO

SEO BEST PRACTICES

● Focus on the quality and authority of the domain coupled with locally relevant and useful content.

● Utilize rich snippets to give search engines additional insight into what content is and compete for clicks in search results with rich displays.

● Build a quality site structure that allows for optimal crawling and good user flow

● Acquire relevant high-quality backlinks from industry sources that have authority.

Rich Snippet Example ORGA

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| SEO

LOCAL SEO FACTORS

1. Relevance: How good of a match is your local listing with what is being searched for.

2. Distance: Distance from each location for the searcher.

3. Prominence: How well known a business is.Site authority: links, directories, ratings,etc.

THANKS FOR YOUR TIME

Stop by at JDUG

Marc ReifenrathPrincipal

marc@spinutech.com@spinuser