How do I Maximize Online Reviews for Better SEO?

Did you know that when customers review your business online it can affect your local and map rankings in the search engines? That’s why it’s a good idea to encourage clients to leave good reviews of your business at sites like Google, Citysearch, Angie’s List, Tripadvisor, and others (see list below).

Here are seven tips on how to make the most of online reviews and improve your Florida SEO:

1. Ask your clients to leave a review. You can ask in person, over the phone or with a printed flyer or postcard like the one shown here. You can put the flyers in shopping bags, mail them with invoices, or just stack them by your cash register. But if you don’t ask, they may not think to do it. Note: Review sites often change their policies. Some may have rules against asking for reviews.

2. Offer an incentive. Give clients a coupon/ coupon code, free sample, free download, or free something when they print and give you a copy of the review. Again, some review sites may not like this. Policies change over time.

3. Register and setup profiles at multiple review sites. There are a lot of different websites that take reviews. Some focus on local or regional businesses and some cater to specific industries. When you setup a profile you make it much easier for clients to enter a review.

4. Make reviewing as easy as possible for your clients. Place links on your website to one or more of your review site profiles. For example, you can leave a review for CYber SYtes on our Google Place page.

5. Gather reviews over time and across multiple review sites. It’s better for rankings. Sometimes, if you get too many reviews in too short a time the review sites may remove the reviews.

6. Resist the urge to create fake reviews. If other reviewers spot an obviously fake review, they won’t hesitate to leave a review letting everyone know what they think of the fake.

7. Don’t ignore or be discouraged by bad reviews. Most review sites allow business owners to reply to bad reviews. It’s a good chance to show others that you address problems head on.

Our local listing service can help you create profiles on these or other review sites and to add the profiles to your website.  Contact us for more information!

Some Popular Review Sites:

• http://www.angieslist.com/ – doctors, services, contractors
• http://www.judysbook.com/ – local businesses, services, and day-to-day needs
• http://local.google.com/ – map listings with reviews
• http://local.yahoo.com/ – local and map listings
• http://local.bing.com/ – local and map listings
• http://www.citysearch.com/ – city review guide
• http://www.superpages.com/ – yellow page listings with reviews
• http://www.insiderpages.com/ – doctors, services, businesses
• http://www.tripadvisor.com/ – hotels, vacation rentals, travel companies
• http://www.yelp.com/ – services, local businesses, doctors
• http://www.diningguide.com/ – restaurants and eateries
• http://www.urbanspoon.com/ – reviews from critics, food bloggers and friends

Interesting Review Facts:

• Reviews may also help “regular” organic search engine listings — not just map and local listings.
• Your reviews may be displayed just under your regular Google listings. So even if you don’t pay attention to online reviews, your customers might!
• When you get five or more reviews with stars listed in Google, the little yellow “review stars” show up on your Google map listings.
• The best way to address bad reviews is to leave a thoughtful reply to the reviewer. You can also encourage more good reviews so that they outweigh the bad ones; but most review sites, especially Google, won’t remove a bad review.

Tags: SEO FAQs

This entry was posted on Friday, November 5th, 2010 at 3:43 pm and is filed under Articles (Everyday Stuff), Search Engine Optimization, Site Promotion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.