Online ReviewsThe Small Business Owner’s Guide

If you need more convincing, check out these stats from a recent local consumer review survey.

are swaying purchasing decisions.online reviews It’s clear that

• 52% are more likely to use local businesses with positive reviews versus 28 percent who make their decision based on location and convenience.

• 52% trust authentic online reviews as much as word-of-mouth from friends and family.

• 76% stated they use online reviews to select the local businesses they will use.

of your online reviews and reputation.

In this guide we walk you through a step-by-step process for taking control

Start With Google Plus, Yelp and YAHOO Local

Step 1:

should form the foundation of your online review strategy. Here’s why:

Google Plus, Yelp and YAHOO Local

Google PlusGoogle continues to be the primary search engine people use to search for products and services. If your company has star reviews on your Google Plus page, they will show up in the search results.You can also have your star reviews show up in your pay per click ads.

are also likely to rank higher in the search results. So, start by setting up or claiming your Google Plus page, which you can learn how to do here.

Businesses with reviews on Google Plus

Is the most popular consumer review site on the internet. There are currently 57 Million consumer reviews on Yelp, reviewing almost every type of business. In the first quarter of 2014, Yelp averaged 132 Million visitors a month.

Yelp

The number of reviews are up 46% over the last year, and the number of unique visitors grew by 30%. (Source: Yelp Q1 2014 Earnings Slidedeck). !Yelp review pages also rank highly in Google and are pulled directly into YAHOO and Bing search results.

Yelp is also growing quickly.

Yelp review pages also rank highly in Google and are pulled directly into YAHOO and Bing search results.

For more on how to setup your Yelp page for maximum effectiveness see our Ultimate Guide To Yelp.

YAHOO LOCALWhile likely becoming less important now that YAHOO and Bing are using Yelp Reviews, YAHOO local is still a very large review site that should not be ignored. You can find a full guide on how to setup and optimize your YAHOO Local Listing here.

A Note on CitySearch and Insider PagesWhile not as important as Google Plus or Yelp, Citysearch and Insider Pages are also large review sites. Other review sites also pull in reviews from both these sites.

Once you finish your Google Plus, Yelp and YAHOO Local pages, go ahead and set these two up as well. The process is very similar.

Claim/Setup Your Review Page On Industry Specific Sites

Step 2:

This is especially true for Restaurants, Hotels, Local Service Businesses and Healthcare providers.

Many potential customers will also search review sitesspecific to your industry.

Here is a breakdown of the major sites for each type of business.

• Trip Advisor • YAHOO Travel • Booking.com • Expedia • Priceline • Hotels.com • Travelocity

• Kayak • Orbitz • Hotwire • Travelzoo • Lonely Planet • Cheap Tickets • Fodor’s

Travel and Hotels:

• Zagat • Open Table • Urban Spoon • Menupages • Grubhub • Trip Advisor (For Restaurants)

Restaurants:

• Healthgrades.com • Healthcarereviews.com • ZocDoc.com • Care.com • Vitals.com • RateMD.com

Healthcare:!

• Angie’s List • Yellowpages.com • Search Google For local

listing sites specific to your area.

Other Local Service Businesses:

Review Google Search Results For Your Industry

and Company Name

Step 3:

is to search Google and see what other sites are ranking for your business name and industry related search terms.

Next,

are are likely to place more emphasis on the review sites that we have already listed, than a smaller site.

Your potential customers

Now that you know where to get reviews it's time for:

Step 4: How To Ask For Reviews. Step 5: How To Respond To Positive and Negative Reviews. Step 6: How To Integrate Reviews Into Your Marketing.

For The Full Article That Includes These StepsClick Here

Now that you know where to get reviews it's time for:

Step 4: How To Ask For Reviews. Step 5: How To Respond To Positive and Negative Reviews. Step 6: How To Integrate Reviews Into Your Marketing.

For The Full Article That Includes These StepsClick Here

Now that you know where to get reviews it's time for:

Step 4: How To Ask For Reviews. Step 5: How To Respond To Positive and Negative Reviews. Step 6: How To Integrate Reviews Into Your Marketing.

For The Full Article That Includes These StepsClick Here