At what point does BBB accreditation become a good investment?

[JesseCWalker]

Hello good people,

I've read just about everything on SEOmoz about the value of the Better Business Bureau link and accreditation.   But at some point a business is so small that the ROI calculation doesn't make sense.

I'm trying to pinpoint when the BBB accred.  becomes a good deal.  Your input is greatly appreciated.

Here are some theoretical businesses based on my local clients.  Which businesses would you recommend BBB accred to for $350/year?

*Trial Law Firm - 4 partners.  Doesn't show up anywhere in the serps despite good industry reputation.  Big revenue.

*Metropolitan Massage Business - 2 contractors.  100k annual revenue.  1st page for most relevant serps.  But few #1 rankings.

*Dog Walking Service - 1 man show.  About 50k in annual revenue.  Has top ranking at hyperlocal level but doesn't show up in the larger metropolitan landscape.

*A crafting semipro -  Sells jewelry online about 10k annual revenue.  No presence in search engines.

Thanks for your help!

[slcbljrqb]

The same problem happened with my web page. Did you get the solution? You can see my page https://owlymail.com/blog/best-temp-mail/

[jsinteractive]

Patrick, was it worth it?

[Patchryan]

They do indeed have an expensive racket going. I just joined the chapter here in Denver and spent $700+ as well. Hopefully it is worth it.

[Patchryan]

Thanks for sharing those tools Dana. Planning on checking them out ASAP.

[JesseCWalker]

Hey Scott,

Thanks for the input.  I eventually decided not to advise the BBB to any of my very small clients.  For mom and pops with revenues of less than 100k I just can't see it being a good ROI (at 0.5% of total revenue.  And as much as 10% of the total marketing budget!)

That $500 per year could be better spent on a review campaign that would, I think, score a lot more trust points.

But a certain size I think the BBB does make sense but I'm not quite sure where yet.

[shendison]

I just emailed a new client who asked the same question and answered that yes I did think so, and that I joined the BBB myself last year for the first time since i closed by brick and mortar computer store in 2002. I joined because thought (and still do) that it was a relevant and respected trust signal not just to Google, but to end users and anyone looking at my sites also, so I shelled out the $700+ annual fee.

That said,the BBB does sort of have an expensive racket going, don't they?

[JesseCWalker]

Thanks for contributing this GKLA and Robert, thank you for sharing your experience.  All of this confirms that gut feeling that I get in interacting with the BBB sales person local representative.

I haven't been impressed with how we have been treated.  A lot of hard sell and not much substance.  It's always just "Pony up your $350/year and people will trust you more".  It may be true but I don't think we should perpetuate the idea that buying an accreditation makes one business more trustworthy than the next.

Let's build our trust by being good to our customers instead of buying meaningless badges.

[RobertFisher]

GKLA

Thanks so much for this post. I hope a lot of those who answered before will thumb it up so others can see. The point is this is a business (BBB) and they trade off of their being not for profit as meaning that they are unbiased. It does not mean that in the least. I have seen cities where reasonable industries are not allowed and yet they are allowed in others. I have seen individual directors where I have bought a business, offered to compensate those who had complained of the previous owners, and still not been able to change the director's point of view. That one person (who IMO "owns" that BBB) controls all. Yes, I have seen others who conducted themselves very well and I felt like it was money well spent. But, my first experience spoiled it all for me:

Years ago as an RN I started a nursing company in a major US city. (Top 5 in population). About 6 months to a year in, a guy comes to my office from the BBB. He starts in with how they are getting a lot of calls about my business and it was important that I be a part of the BBB. "How many calls are you getting?" Quite a few. "Really??" Oh, yes, people blah blah blah the BBB. "OK, give me the names or organizations of some of those who called?" Sir, we do not give out that kind of information!! We are not allowed to!!! "Oh, so can you tell me on what days they called and at what time?" No sir, that data is confidential and part of the blah blah blah as a non profit blah blah.

Please note that at that time my business was HIGHLY SPECIALIZED. I was a critical care registered nurse with very specific cardiovascular ICU abilities who started the business at the behest of a couple of CV Surgeons to bring people with my skill set to a particular hospital. We had branched out at that time to hospital number two and we did not have a sales force going out to hospitals. We simply had someone call us from hospital number one who knew someone at hospital number two. So, we were not good at marketing and we were too busy to do it. No one other than the management at those hospitals knew about us. The nurses we recruited were almost all word of mouth through our contacts and the nurses who worked for us due to the skill set that was needed.

Now, that does not mean they all lie or that they still use the famous "Lot's of people are a calling about ya." But when you are young in business and that happens, it lingers for a long, long, time."

Sorry to hear of your problem. Hope the word gets out so that others who are BBB members realize what can happen.

Best,

Robert

PS If you truly want to see how BBB handles a consumer complaint from the Businesses point of view sometimes, have a problem with a large auto sales company (branded dealer) that contributes a lot to one of their locations. Uhh, why do you need a car sir???

[GKLA]

We have been members of the BBB of Los Angeles (Southland Chapter) for many many years. Within the last few days, the chapter we belong to was expelled by the National BBB Council - this affected tens of thousands of businesses in the Los Angeles area.

It is unprecedented and quite honestly pathetic.  We put our trust into an organization that builds trust with consumers.  I don't believe this has ever happened in the history of the BBB.

The National BBB council has set up a temporary website with all Los Angeles area businesses registered with the BBB - although ratings for every single Los Angeles business is blanked out.

[JesseCWalker]

Hi Dana,

Thanks for the input.  I think that what we are learning from all the fine experts who have posted here is that the SEO benefits of the accreditation are not the primary factor.   As you say there are plenty of other options that are less costly that create movement in the SERPs.

Get Listed and Whitespark are fantastic and I would recommend both of these resources as well!

The BBB accreditation may be worth it if it can move conversions even a slight amount.  So the question for most businesses is as Nakul says: How much do you make from your website?

and then

How much will the accreditation boost revenue through increased conversions?

The higher the price point of the service/product (and the longer the research cycle before purchase) the more those 3 little B's are worth the investment.

[JesseCWalker]

Thanks for the encouragement EGOL.

I also appreciate how diligent you have been answering questions on the Q and A.   I've benefited from your answers here quite a few times.

[danatanseo]

Hi Jesse,

I agree with Robert here and also EGOL's comment below that your interaction and discussion has led to a fruitful conversation. BBB accreditation is something we have considered many times. Honestly, we've gotten great "acceleration" out of just focusing on our local business listings and citations. Since we haven't even completed the free opportunities there, there's no point (in our minds) of spending money until l we've exhausted all of our free opportunities.

I encourage everyone here to avail themselves of all the opportunities at http://www.getlisted.org and the citation tool at White Spark before biting the bullet with a BBB paid listing.

Cheers!

Dana

[EGOL]

One new contact as result of the trust signal is worth quite a bit to them.

Good point.  One new client could justify decades of membership fees.

[NakulGoyal]

Yup. In that case, I'd go with a BBB listing for the Massage business as well as the Law Firm.

[EGOL]

Jesse,

I really respect that you carefully thought about each member's posting and shared how it might apply to your projects.

It is beneficial for everyone to have these discussions.

Keep up the great work!

[JesseCWalker]

Hi Nakul,

No this is indeed quite helpful!

If I'm hearing you correctly you are saying that the conversion rate bump should be the main factor.  The SEO effects are minor in comparison.

The trial lawyers derive maybe 10% of their business from the webpage.  But the other theoretical groups derive most of their revenue from online leads (perhaps 80%).

The massage business makes 80k annually from online leads.  They traditionally convert about 1% of their local visitors into customers.   So if they could boost this to even 1.02% that would mean 2% total increase in revenue derived online or about $1600.  That is pretty good for a $350/year invest.

hmmm....   Thanks Nakul I think this is the clearer way to think about it.

[JesseCWalker]

Thanks EGOL,

I also tend to think that this massage business has the most to benefit from the link.  It is poised to be in the top rankings and potentially quadruple it's relevant traffic.

I can't help but think that the trial lawyers would benefit as well as the investment is so small compared to their total revenue.  Here it is less about the SEO (this link won't do much against the type of competition they are up against) and more about the conversion rates.  One new contact as result of the trust signal is worth quite a bit to them.

I would imagine for your ecommerce site the higher the price point of your products the more benefit you'd get from the BBB.

Information based businesses on the other hand really only benefit from the SEO side of things as I can't imagine people visiting the site more because it is accredited.  So I would think the SEO benefits would need to be really large to make this a good bet.

[NakulGoyal]

Jesse, you have some great responses below. So great question to begin with. I also like the 4 example scenarios you posted. What I'd like to ask is, what percentage of their business is driven directly/indirectly from their websites ?

Once you know how much money a business generates from a website, you can then put some sort of an ROI and budget you are willing to spend to expand on to that. Now, the question is, would you list your business in BBB if there was no SEO value ? Let's say we go back in 1996 when Google does not exist. You have Altavsita, Dogpile, Excite.com and so on. They don't look at the BBB listings. They only look at the Meta Data. Would you still list yourself ? If you'd say yes then, I'd say yes today. If it was no then, let it be a no today.

However, if you are also struggling with some rankings and looking for some brand citations etc, you might get listed and move on. It's not really going to move the dial. Don't expect that you list today and in X amount of time, your rankings improve.

I don't know if I helped you or confused you further. Just my 2c, for whatever it's worth

[JesseCWalker]

Great point about the trust signal being more important to trades businesses.

Any business in which the customer is going to be researching heavily before purchasing I would imagine would benefit disproportionately from the BBB accred.

[JesseCWalker]

Hi Takeshi,

Thanks for the input.  I'm a huge Jon Cooper fan and use that link building list regularly. That is in fact why I'm evaluating this BBB link (and the trust value you mention) for my clients.

One of my clients is in particular need of a powerful trust signal.  They have tons of raw links but are outclassed by their competitors in authority links.

The million dollar question is how much is this link going to move them up the serps?  Not something anyone can answer I realize.

If I knew if would bump them to #1 for a keyword that they are currently ranking 7th for.  That be worth about $800/year to their business.  That plus the increased conversion rates on the site make it a good investment.

But it is going to be difficult to sell them on it if I can't show them some tangible evidence that one link can make that big a difference.

[EGOL]

This is a great question. Thanks for asking.

I don't have BBB affiliation for any of my sites but am considering it for one of them.

The one that I think it would help the most is an ecommerce site that is successful but does not yet have dominance in the SERPs (although in my opinion it has the best and deepest content in its niche).

I think that displaying the trust mark will help with conversion rates.   I also think that the BBB affiliation could influence Google to improve the rankings slightly.  This is a relatively young site that is still climbing the SERPs.

I would not go to the expense of BBB for an information site that is mature in age and has strong rankings.  The conversion rate benefit is not there and the trust benefit with Google would be very small compared to its current strength.

Looking at your list, this is the site that I think has the greatest potential....  *Metropolitan Massage Business - 2 contractors.  100k annual revenue.  1st page for most relevant serps.  But few #1 rankings.

Looking forward to what other people have to share on this topic.

[RobertFisher]

Jesse,

This is not a bad question at all. Please note that this is not my first rodeo and that I have a few opinions around this. First, realize that even with its non profit status, the BBB is a business and the directors are typically well paid. So, where is the value for a small business?

If you are in the trades: plumbing, roofing, auto repair, auto body repair, HVAC, etc. I think it is a good bet that someone will look you up. Know that anyone who is worth their salt can become accredited even if they are not the "best" business. I do not know what the current fees are, but let's assume you can get your trial attys in at the $500 per year level. Will it hurt them? Nope? Will it help them? Probably not. (I have large trial firm accounts). The link will be on a page with a bunch of others, but you will have the seal for what it is worth. With an HVAC firm, I think it is more personal to people and they look at it like I may get cheated...

So for that type client it may be helpful. From an overall, I do not see value beyond that. Yes, its a good directory for local, but you said "accredited." Beyond being in the directory, unless you are a local trade, I don't really see value.

Best

[TakeshiYoung]

Besides the SEO link value, having a BBB logo on your site can build trust and improve conversions.

From a link building perspective, I would evaluate the link in terms of a) what your current resources are (time, money, people) and b) what other link building opportunities there are, and the quality of those links. Then pursue the highest value opportunities that you are able to, given your resources.

Here is a great list of link building ideas:

http://pointblankseo.com/link-building-strategies