Online reviews play an important role in consumer engagement in today’s technology-driven world. Many people can now access online reviews as there has been an increase in the number of mobile users. As such, it is important to pay attention to your online reputation according to Cormac Reynolds – the founder of reputation management experts VelSEOity.com.
Remember, it is a lot easier to get positive reviews to rank under your brand than it is to remove negative content from Google search.
If you spend a lot of time trying to improve your search ranking through search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising but don’t pay attention to your online reviews, a few negative only reviews can turn customers away from your business. It can also turn potential business partners and employees away.
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Even though maintaining your business’s online reputation can seem like a time-consuming task, it is worth it. If you would like to know how to manage your business’s online reputation, read on to find out how. So, without further ado, here are the 13 most simple and straightforward ways to manage your business’s online reputation:
- Search on Google and other top search engines for your business name. Don’t just check the results on the first page of SERP. Instead, check beyond the first SERP to know about the online presence of your brand.
- Check many online review websites including social media
- Respond to online customer reviews of your business in a timely, positive, and appropriate manner.
- Deal with a negative review properly in a way that makes consumers trust you. Respond to such reviews with concern and though to show the strength of your business in customer service.
- Avoid offering discounts or prizes for leaving online reviews as this is against Facebook and Google guidelines
- Monitor customer reviews, comments, and messages for your business’s online platforms on a daily basis
- Create accounts with your business’s name on many sites including Google, LinkedIn, Foursquare, and Yelp.
- Encourage your customers to write reviews or feedback on your website or places where people look for online reviews. You can do this by placing a link, banner, or button on the most visited page of your site that links to an external reviews site like Google or your customer testimonials page.
- Whenever you get positive reviews and emails from your customers, post them on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.
- Ask your satisfied customers if they can do a short video about your business. If they are willing to do so, post the videos on YouTube. Optimize the keywords so that new customers will find the videos.
- Whenever you send invoices to your customers via email invoices, consider including a link at the bottom where your customers can write a review.
- If you own a brick-and-mortar business, consider posting displays that encourage your customers to write reviews at online websites.
- Ask your web developer to implement a way that will take reviews through your site. Consider marking the online reviews with review schema to make the gold stars appear on your listing in search results.
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