“You can’t buy a good reputation; you must earn it.” These are words from the famous Harvey Mackay. It’s never been truer than now, when your online reputation can make or break your business.
With 92% of consumers hesitating to buy a product or service from someone that doesn’t have any reviews, and 88% of consumers trusting online reviews, what does your online reputation say about your business?
Customer reviews are, or should be, an important part of any marketing strategy. Why? It’s direct feedback from your current customers. These reviews share with you what’s working and what’s not working with your business, both tools that are vital to every business.
In a world that revolves around the internet, with searches for your business’ products and/or services, reviews can now be found prior to the decision to shop with you.
Why are digital reviews so important for businesses and brands? In addition to adding credibility online for your business, online reviews can aide in your SEO (Search Engine Optimization). You could say that customer reviews piggy back on one of the most important ranking factors: the freshness of your website content. Since reviews are considered as unique user generated content, web crawlers see this as knowing your site is active, driving your website listing higher in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page).
So, how do you get online reviews? The easiest way is to ask for them. Lucky for you, our online reputation management software gives you a platform where you can do just that making it easy to not only ask for reviews but implement those reviews to help your SEO. Within our offerings, we can also set up a review widget right on your website, giving potential consumers the opportunity to see those reviews when they visit your site! And, if the comment is negative, the widget emails it immediately to the decision maker to help them work through their problem instead of blasting to all review sites. It’s a win-win for both customers and business owners.
Consumers have all the choices in the world, so having transparency about your business is vital. Consumers want to know about the company they are doing business with. When reviews are collected and displayed correctly, not only will consumers be able to learn about how you do business, but they’ll be able to find you on Search Engine Results Pages because these reviews have organically supported your SEO efforts. And, if they can find you, they are more likely to do business with you.
