It doesn’t matter what type of small business you’re operating – people aren’t just going to take your word for it that your products or services do what you say they can.
They work hard for their money. They want to know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that they’re spending it on something valuable. That’s why social proof – and online reviews in particular – have become critically important over the last decade.
Having said that, online reviews also serve a different goal: they help enormously with determining a small business’s placement and visibility in local search rankings.
Think about it like this. One of the major factors that Google uses to determine its own search engine rankings involves the traffic to your domain. The more traffic you have, the more authority you have, and the more relevant you are – thus, the higher you rank. According to one recent study, the average person reads about 10 online reviews before they even consider making a purchasing decision.
The more reviews you have, the more traffic you get, the higher you rank on Google. The higher you rank, the more customers you get. It’s a win-win situation in every sense of the term, which is a big part of the reason why online reviews need to become a core part of your small business reputation management strategies moving forward.
Understanding the Impact of Online Reviews
Online reviews are powerful, in large part, because they undeniably influence consumer decisions. This is true across virtually all industries, and it’s a trend that shows absolutely no signs of slowing anytime soon.
One study indicated that about 36% of people between the ages of 25 and 34 read online reviews for brand and product research. About 52% of people in that age bracket will actually go the extra step of posting reviews themselves.
Approximately 90% of users say that they’ve made a buying decision based on an online review that they read. 97% of people say they read reviews for local businesses specifically. Truly, it doesn’t matter which study you look at – they all essentially say the same thing.
Online reviews are also great for local businesses specifically because of how they localize your online presence. People won’t just leave reviews for your business’ name. They’ll leave reviews for your PRODUCT or SERVICE in a particular CITY. This boosts visibility in the specific cities and towns that you want to be found in, and the best part of all is that your existing, satisfied customers are doing the lion’s share of the work.
Of course, you shouldn’t make the mistake of assuming that “any review is a good review.” Yes, negative reviews will boost your local SEO visibility… but not necessarily in the way you want. About 86% of users who responded to one survey said that they’d reconsider buying from a company with negative reviews, after all.
Steps to Localize Your Online Presence Through Reviews
Build a Positive Online Reputation
The number one thing that you can do to start generating more online reviews is to encourage your existing, satisfied customers to take that step.
Note that you should never promise them anything in return for leaving a positive review – that would feel like it was coerced, which prospects will be able to sense from the writing. Instead, just tell them that it would help you out if they took a few moments to write about their experience online. You’d be surprised by how many people are willing to do so.
At the same time, you should make it easy for them to do so. You could put a QR code at the front desk of your business, for example. All they need to do is scan it with their phone, and they’ll get redirected to the appropriate site to leave a review. They shouldn’t have to jump through proverbial hoops to essentially just help you out.
When you do get reviews, always respond as professionally and as promptly as possible. If someone leaves you a positive review on Yelp, respond soon after and let them know how much you appreciate it. If they leave you a negative review, respond just as quickly and ask what you can do to make it right. Both of these replies will be visible to others and can illustrate the exceptional level of customer service that you offer.
Keep in mind that while you write these replies and responses, always include as many local details as possible. This will again help improve your overall local SEO efforts.
Utilize Local SEO Strategies
According to one recent study, about 69% of all digital traffic is made up of local and organic searches. Not only that, but about 80% of those local searches will convert. Taken together, these statistics paint a clear picture of why local search engine optimization is so essential for the continued success of a business like yours.
That’s why you should always incorporate location-based keywords in not only the business descriptions of your profiles but also your review responses as well (as previously stated).
As a part of this process, you should also optimize online review profiles for local search algorithms. Essentially, take the same best practices you’ve been following regarding things like keywords for content marketing and apply them to places like your Google Business Profile, your Yelp listing, your Facebook page, and more.
Write unique, clear descriptions about what your business is, what you do, and why people should care. Make sure that all your contact information is A) accurate, and B) consistent across all channels. Try to update these profiles as often as possible. This will all help these review profiles rank higher in local search algorithms, which will make it easier for new people to find them.
Leverage Review Platforms
On the topic of the review platforms themselves, work to identify those review platforms that are most relevant to your business. There are too many to address 100% of them, but that’s okay – it’s very unlikely that the attention of your audience is spread that thin.
Instead, make a list of the review sites that your audience members are most likely to see and start growing your reputation from there. Don’t try to force your audience onto certain platforms. Let them pick and follow their lead.
While doing this, think about what your customers want to see on your profiles that will encourage them to leave reviews of their own. They don’t want to waste their time, for example, so be sure to claim the profile to confirm it actually relates back to you. They’ll also likely look for recent reviews from other customers, along with your responses, to help make sure that the effort they’re about to make will actually matter.
Encourage User-Generated Content
Another great way to take advantage of all these concepts has to do with encouraging user-generated content. This is when customers share the photos they take and experiences they have online – essentially becoming the best marketing team you could possibly have.
This again plays directly into the aforementioned need that people have for social proof. Another study indicated that about 40% of people said that they’ve purchased something from a business specifically after seeing user-generated content on social media.
As people create this user-generated content, be sure to showcase it not only on social media platforms like Twitter/X and Facebook, but on your website as well.
Monitor and Analyze Online Reviews
Finally, you should always monitor and analyze your online reviews moving forward. Don’t forget to set up review alerts for real-time monitoring. If someone leaves a review, you need to know about it immediately.
Over time, analyze trends and patterns in reviews to help better understand the bigger picture. This will put you in a great position to make more informed decisions about how to improve your business.
Surefire Local: Taking Your Online Reviews to the Next Level
If nothing else, online reviews should be a perfect illustration of just how interconnected everything is when it comes to your small business online marketing. Absolutely nothing exists in a vacuum. Every one of your efforts plays into and feeds off of one another, forming something more powerful as a collective than they could be individually.
Online reviews help tremendously with your local SEO efforts. That increases your visibility on search engines like Google. As more people discover you, they read those reviews to make sure they’re spending their money in the right place. Rinse, repeat.
Regardless of the type of small business you have, you should definitely prioritize and actively manage your online reviews. Yes, it’s a lot of work – but the team at Surefire Local is here to help.
At Surefire Local, we’re a company dedicated to helping small businesses like yours establish a dominant online presence. We do this by creating local signals across various platforms and profiles, all in the name of making it easy for new people to find you and even easier to make a sale.
One of the major ways we do this has to do with online review management. The Surefire Local all-in-one marketing platform can let you send review requests, write responses to the reviews you’ve already received, and even analyze your brand sentiment online. This all helps you learn what customers think about your business and how you can improve that in the future.
Our platform also offers a number of other helpful capabilities, including but not limited to ones like:
- Directories management. From a single platform you can claim, edit, and publish new content to 80+ online directory listing platforms. That includes photos, special offers, important updates, and more.
- Content marketing. You’ll have all the tools you need to create the perfect, locally targeted and hyper-relevant content your customers are clamoring for. This content can live on your blog, on your Google Business Profile, on business directories, and even on your social media profiles.
- Analytics and reporting. Get an unparalleled level of transparency into your campaign performance. See how much revenue your marketing dollars are actually generating. Get AI-generated recommendations about which specific actions you need to take to see the improvements you’ve been working towards.
- Educational resources. If you want to learn more about the world of local online marketing, we have you covered through webinars, blogs, and more.
So if all this sounds like exactly what you’ve been looking for, the good news is it’s a lot easier to achieve than you might think. If you’d like to find out more information about how online reviews fit into small business reputation management strategies, or if you’d just like to speak to someone about your own needs in a bit more detail, please don’t hesitate to contact us today. You can also click here to attend a Surefire Local demo to see exactly what a powerful platform like ours can do for you.