To knock out your competition, you need to first get found, and then you need to get chosen. That is where citations and reviews can make a world of difference in your local SEO efforts.
For example, if your business listings aren’t accessible, accurate, or complete, you are impacting your ability to get found.
And, if you are found but have few or negative reviews, you can impact your ability to get chosen.
A recent BrightLocal survey found that only 13% of people will choose a business that has a 1 or 2-star rating due to poor reviews.
Can you afford to let 87% of potential customers go to your competition?
We didn’t think so.
Here’s how to get found AND get chosen:
Get Found
Manage your local listings (citations) to make sure that they are accessible, accurate, and complete. This can be done through Moz Local; in fact, much of it can be automated. A huge part of citation management is making sure that your NAPs (name, address, phone) are consistent across the web so that the search engines recognize your business.
Keep in mind that the more citations you have, the better.
To get started, make sure you claim your Google My Business listing, as well as your listing on Yelp, Superpages, etc.
Don’t forget to also claim your social media profiles including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.
Other places you might want to consider claiming include: the Better Business Bureau, Angie’s List, Bing Places for Business, Yahoo Local, etc.
Get Chosen
Once you are found, the importance of having reviews (and the extremely critical importance of your responses) comes into play. Take a proactive approach towards getting more reviews and then respond to them in a way that shows potential customers that they should choose you.
Miriam Ellis hits the nail on the head in this article on Moz when shes says,
“If I could drive home one topic … for local business owners, it would surround everything relating to reviews. This would include rating, consumer sentiment, velocity, authenticity, and owner responses, both on third-party platforms and native website reviews/testimonials pages. The influence of reviews is enormous; I have come to see them as almost as powerful as the NAP on your citations. NAP must be accurate for rankings and consumer direction, but reviews sell.” ~ Miriam Ellis
Now that you understand how citations and reviews can impact your local SEO efforts, we hope you will make an effort to ensure that you both get found and then get chosen.
Of course, once you start getting citations and reviews, you might need help managing and responding to them all! If you need help responding to your reviews (what a great problem to have!), please fill out the form below to request more information about service providers we recommend.
