6 Strategies to Get More Local Reviews (and Boost Your Rankings)
May 17, 2018 Comments
Local search functions a little differently than national search; you’ll face far less competition, and you’ll be working for a position in the “local 3-pack,” the top 3 results for a given query, based on a user’s location. While many of the ranking factors that affect your national rankings will impact your local rankings as well, you’ll also need to consider some local-specific factors–and the most important one here is the quantity and quality of local reviews.
In short, the more reviews you earn on third-party sites (and the better those reviews are), the higher you’ll be able to rank in local searches. Sounds simple, right? There’s one big problem stopping you from getting them, but there are plenty of alternative strategies to help you achieve your goals.
The Problem With Requests
Yelp and similar third-party review sites are pretty serious about not allowing you to ask your customers directly for reviews. The philosophy here makes sense; if companies were allowed to freely influence their customers to leave reviews, they might skew the reviews in their favor by selecting only the most likely customers to leave reviews, or might use bribery to solicit more positive comments.
Strategies for Getting More Reviews
So how can you get more reviews if you’re not allowed to ask for them?
1. Make your presence on review sites known. You can’t pressure your customers to leave a review, but you can give them visual indicators of your presence on third-party review sites. Some review sites, like Yelp, will even give you stickers and other visual prompts for free. Advertise your presence on your front door, at the cash register, on your website, on social media, and anywhere else you can think of.
2. Keep your brand top-of-mind. Keep your brand top-of-mind with your customers by sending them greeting cards periodically, or keeping them enrolled in an engaging email list. As long as you keep giving them consistently positive service, they’ll be inclined to say something or do something positive for you when they’re reminded how much you value them.
3. Ask customers for reviews in person. Third-party review sites won’t be able to tell when you’ve asked a customer for a review in person; they mostly don’t want you to buy reviews online or bully your audience into leaving reviews with spammy email practices and the like. Reach out to some of your best customers and see if they’d be willing to give you some positive words.
4. Give exceptional experiences. About 25 percent of consumers will only leave reviews if their experience was exceptionally good, and another 33 percent will leave reviews if their experience is exceptionally good or exceptionally bad. Obviously, you’ll want to be on the positive end of the spectrum here. Go out of your way to give not just good experiences, but exceptional ones, to as many customers as you can.
5. Ask specific questions on social media. Try to gather feedback on social media by asking specific questions about your products or service. You’ll get some immediate feedback in the form of responses and comments, and if you include a link to your presence on a third-party review site, you may also encourage responders to leave a formal review.
6. Respond to existing reviews. You should also take the time to respond to reviews–both positive and negative ones. When other people see that you’ve responded to reviewers in the past, they’ll learn that you take reviews seriously, and will be more likely to leave a review of their own. Additionally, you may earn the chance to rectify a mistake or a bad experience by following up with a customer who left a bad review.
Keeping Reviews Positive
Of course, you’ll also need to invest extra effort to ensure those reviews are positive. Here are some basic steps you can take:
You won’t be able to amass a horde of positive reviews and comments overnight. But if you apply these strategies consistently and keep giving your customers positive experiences, you’ll build your review base in no time.
Jayson DeMers is the founder & CEO of AudienceBloom, a Seattle-based content marketing & social media agency. You can contact him on LinkedIn, Google+, or Twitter.
Read by small business people, our newsletter delivers a digest of articles from the top search engine marketing experts. You will learn about:
Our newsletter is the perfect way to stay up to date with all of the latest trends, events and techniques in using search engines to grow your business and make more sales. Subscribe here. Your email address will NOT be given to third parties.
FreeFind Site Search Engine – FreeFind adds a “search this site” feature to your website, making your site easier to use. FreeFind also gives you reports showing what your visitors are searching for, enabling you to improve your site. FreeFind’s advanced site search engine and automatic site map technology can be added to your website for free.
Buy UPC Codes
Get your products listed online!
Search marketing information for small business owners.
Fetching the best small business news.
A friendly place to share small business ideas and knowledge.
Small business support through education, resources and community
The directory of the best small business sites and tools.
Copyright © 1998 – 2018 Search Engine Guide All Rights Reserved. Privacy
Research & References of 6 Strategies to Get More Local Reviews (and Boost Your Rankings)|A&C Accounting And Tax Services
Source
0 Comments
Trackbacks/Pingbacks