Local SEO - Review's Strategy
-
I'm trying to brainstorm some ideas for obtaining positive reviews for a my client who's a local business on Yelp and Google+.
I think it's best to capture a customer in the "happy moment" after a successful transaction with that business. I'm thinking integrating the option for customers to leave a review on Yelp or Google+ during the transaction process would be best.
Do you have any suggestions or experiences on the best way to integrate this into a transaction process where a customer physically walks into their business to make the transaction? (it's an Auto Body Shop BTW)
Also any other strategies for getting customers to give reviews?
Much appreciated!
-
Sure, good response. It is a waste of time as well with Yelp as if the reviewers are not trusted Yelp reviewers then the review will be at best ignored and at worst suspicious.
-
No worries! Glad it helped. Reviews are one of those things it is easy to overlook (or over think!). Get a solid process in place, be consistent and it will take care of itself over time.
-
Hi Steve,
You've received some very thoughtful replies here. I am just popping in to say that while the above suggestions sound good to me if applied to Google+ reviews, Yelp does not permit review solicitation in any form. In other words, your client should not be asking customers to review them on Yelp in any way. Not verbally, via email, via CTAs on the website, etc. Their policy is the most stringent in the industry - they want all reviews to be the results of spontaneous activity on the part of consumers. So, while I think you've received some excellent advice here, I would not recommend applying it to Yelp. Hope this saves you some headaches!
-
This makes 100% sense to me, and I think I'll be taking this approach to integrating review gathering workflow for my clients. Thanks a lot for the idea Marcus!
-
Hey Steve
It really can be fairly simple to generate positive reviews for the business and I find that all you really have to do is
A) Ask
B) Make it really, really easy for people to do soAsking at the point of sale in a bricks and mortar shop is not going to work AND it's important to note that asking people to conduct a review is okay but soliciting a review whilst that user is on your property is not okay and could cause problems down the road (all reviews from same IP address etc). It's also a bit mean to pressure people like that so not a good policy even if we ignore online.
A simple approach we have followed works like this:
- Obtain an email for your customer at point of sale
- Email the customer to ask them if they were happy with the service
- If the customer responds in a positive way then ask them for a review
Now, this tackles two important areas
- We ensure the user is happy who we are asking to place the review
- We make it easy for them by linking directly to where we wish the review to be placed and including instructions
You can also steer the ship a bit here (not in a manipulative way) and ask them to mention the location, service etc. This makes the content of the reviews solid for search purposes and useful for other users considering using your service. Win Win.
We go into more detail here with some simple email templates etc: http://www.bowlerhat.co.uk/blog/a-review-strategy-for-local-seo/
Hope that helps! Getting good reviews requires that folks are actually good at what they do (which I am sure your client are) and then asking people to place the review whilst making it as easy as possible to do so.
Refs:
-
If you have a great product then do not bring this up while they are buying from you because this way it looks like you are hungry about it. For one of my client what i did was I setup an automated email that will go after a week of their purchase and ask them to share their experience with others in the community.
Remember you have to have a great product or else this idea can kill your local business.
-
Hi Steve,
You should check out Customer Lobby. They solicit phone reviews from the clients and have different packages. One one of our team member's recent visits to a local medical clinic, the doctor's secretary actually handed out business cards with links to Yelp and Google+ review pages for the doctor and was encouraging everyone to leave their feedback on the sites... Something to think about.
Cheers,
SEO5..
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Looking to hire an SEO/Reputation manager
We are looking to hire an SEO/reputation manager or firm to complement our existing marketing efforts. The goal is to take up the front page of Google on 3 branded keywords. We will create the content but need someone to come up with the strategy on what content to create, where to post it and how to link to get it moved to the front page of Google. We went through MOZ's recommended list of service providers but would rather work with an individual freelancer than a large SEO company. Please advice where we can find such consultant or email vitaly@newpeakmedia.com to apply. Include your experience and some samples of projects you have worked on. ################## UPDATE ################# Here's the keywords' difficulty based on MOZ's serp analysis tool and top 10 ranking pages for the first term http://i.imgur.com/zqktjuU.jpg http://i.imgur.com/LB7i4yz.jpg
Branding | | vmotuz0 -
Best Place for Reviews in 2014
Honest, genuine & unedited customer reviews are something that I'm going to focus on for multiple companies that I work for in 2014. My question is where is the best place to push my customers to leave reviews for the company? On the company's website? Google+? Google Local? Bing? Yahoo? Yelp? Facebook? Obviously the answer is all of the above, but if you had to rank the top 3 places to get reviews that would help the company's SEO rankings & online visibility, what would your top 3 be?
Branding | | ajwyse0 -
Google plus reviews and multiple company profiles
We have a Google plus profile for our brand/ organisation which has become quite powerful. We are conscious that we don't want to miss out on local search queries so want a local page but we don't want to get rid of the company page that we have built. We are a nationwide website with one physical shop. Will having a local business Google plus page and a company Google plus page be seen as duplicate or in any way negative- especially if you are posting similar/ the same links and content on both pages. We also want to encourage reviews- is it possible to leave reviews on company pages or is it only though local G+ pages? There is a reviews tab but it does not seem possible to leave reviews. On the main Nike G+ page is it possible to leave reviews or would those companies have to set up local pages for people to review?
Branding | | VUK-SEO0 -
Dealing with a former associate's bad behavior
A former associate (law firm) has gotten into hot water since leaving the firm. The problem is that he has numerous profiles across the web that are still associated with the firm's address and website. A search for his name in Google often leads directly to the law firm or their profiles. Is there anything that can be done to dis-associate the firm from this person? Thanks
Branding | | ericbarbier0 -
Webmaster tool's "Content Keywords" advice needed
I am looking in my webmaster tools and under the "Optimization Tab" >> "Content Keywords" and I find my website's list of what I assume words Google notices mentioned frequently. I want to know how I can better manage this and get more relevant key words to show up. Because the website I am referring to is a college lifestyle magazine we have various topics that range and I could see confuse Google.The top word is college which is great but some of the others seem a little random and could definitely be more relevant. Any tips on how to improve this? webmaster-tool.png
Branding | | CEOLaser0 -
Yahoo Directory, BOTW, BBB and Business.com for local SEO?
I've heard conflicting reports about using these paid directories for SEO purposes. I am a local Realtor with a website and blog. My site is on page one but near the bottom since the national sites dominate the top. Would these directories help me for local seo purposes? Does Google consider these paid links and therefore devalues them? How difficult is it to get into these directories since they can decline a submission and there goes my money? Are these directories worth the money? In total it would be like $1200 do get on all. I've already done what I believe to be a lot of good seo practices. Emphasis on I believe since I'm no expert. Just learning as I go. Now I'm up against the big brands in real estate and meet to compete. Any tips if these directories are worth it and anything else I should look to do?
Branding | | bronxpad0 -
Is adding SEO links within Clients Footer good?
With the Google Panda update craving quality, relevant content is it acceptable to place a targeted keyword within other customers websites such as " SEO in ......" ????? Cheers
Branding | | samr2170 -
One big site or lots of little sites? Which is better for SEO and my business in general?
I realize there are some aspects of what I'm asking that only I can answer. With that said, I'm looking for some discussion about the pros / cons of each, and what are the most important factors that will push me one way or another. Let's say I have a company that has three products. One big brand, three little brands. Each of the little brands is focused on a particular sub-niche, all of which are in the general health & wellness niche. Either, I could create a large site for the big brand, with subsections for each product, and work hard on turning that domain into a goto site, with lots of articles, etc. The domain name for this one would be a made up word so I can fully control the search results. Or, another strategy would be to create smaller, "sniper" sites for each product, maybe even sites for each major search term that is interested in that product. These sites would have fewer articles. Descriptive, exact match domain names. Which is the best strategy? #1, #2, or a mixture of both? #1 seems legitimate, #2 seems a bit spammy. What are the pros and cons to each? Can anyone speak from experience about both these practices?
Branding | | monetize-2660060