Online Marketing

Do you know about Google+ Local? Formerly known as Google Places, Google+ Local is a place for real people to read and write reviews of local businesses. These reviews come from your actual clients, and authentic reviews that describe real experiences with your business can add to the keywords associated with your site. These additional keywords from the reviews can improve your search engine ranking and draw more potential clients to your site.

While you’d like every review of your business to be glowing, chances are that you may receive a review that gives you 3 stars instead of 5. However, an authentic review, even it is only 3 stars, adds to the legitimacy of your business and can actually help your search engine ranking.

So, how do you get your clients to actually write a Google review? Here are a few options:

• If you already send out follow-up cards through the mail to your clients, add a sentence or two to the card asking your clients to leave a review of your business.

• Businesses with a Facebook and/or Twitter page can send a message to their fans and followers asking them to leave a Google review (make sure to add a link to this message).

• Hand out fliers with every receipt, asking your clients to leave you a Google review about their experience.  Click here to download our handout that will teach your clients how to post a Google review.

Remember that it’s not just the quantity of the reviews that matters, it’s also the quality. Although it may be tempting, do not write false reviews for your own business or about your competitors. Not only is it unethical, but false reviews are easily recognized by Google and often result in a drop in your own website’s search engine ranking.

For more ideas on how to improve your website’s SEO, call Business Promotion, Inc. at
(866) 664-5216 today.