Online reviews are necessary for business growth and success. If you don’t have a presence online, you are missing out on a huge amount of growth and new business. Over 80% of people trust an online review just as much as they trust a personal recommendation from somebody they actually know. There are unlimited benefits when it comes to having positive reviews online. It can be overwhelming to know exactly where you should be focusing on those reviews. Do you know where the best places are online for reviews? We’re here to help make this less confusing, and more beneficial for you!
With over 1 billion searches on Google every single day, this is where you want to be. You business should have a listing on Google, and if you don’t already, here’s how you can. Google is, perhaps, the most important place online for your business to have reviews. When a consumer goes to Google to search for something like, “plumbers near me” or “carpet cleaners in Nashville”, they are looking for businesses just like you. They are trying to find contact information, and reviews from previous customers. When your business has positive reviews that speak volumes about your unbeatable products and services, they are much more likely to contact you.
Google is the top search engine and with that, the first place most people will go when searching for someone to help them out. Google’s features include the ability for customers to leave their reviews directly on a business’ listing or Google+ page. Why is this beneficial? Because it makes it easier for consumers to leave reviews, as well as making it easier for potential customers to view those reviews when searching for you.
Yelp
Even though Google is surpassing Yelp on the review-side of things, Yelp is still a worthy component and a great place for your business to seek reviews. Like Google, Yelp offers free listings for businesses, so it costs you nothing to gain those reviews. As we’ve mentioned before, when it comes to online presence, the more the merrier! You should create free business listings for yourself all over the internet, to ensure your corner of the internet is full of valuable information and insight for potential customers. Yelp has around 100 million active users, and that’s a lot of potential business for you. Don’t miss out on these searchers simply because you don’t have your listing set up and you’re not receiving reviews on this platform.
Facebook has over 100 million active users. Sure, it’s main purpose is a social media site for connecting with friends and family. However, it’s becoming more and more a space for businesses like yours with each passing day. There are several marketing opportunities on Facebook, and best of all — it’s free. You have the option to pay to run ads on facebook to your target audience, but you don’t have to do that in order to have a Facebook page for your business. There are over 70 million businesses, just like yours, on Facebook. It’s important that you’re there, as well, so you don’t miss out on your piece of the pie.
Even though Facebook isn’t meant as a search engine, like Google, people are still utilizing it to search for businesses every single day. Facebook has a great reviews feature, and it’s very simple for consumers to leave reviews for businesses on their Facebook pages. So many people are on Facebook anyway, that there is no reason they wouldn’t look there for reviews.
While there are lots of platforms online that allow for reviews to be written by customers for businesses, these are the top three that need to be recognized. Be sure your business is utilizing the free options of Google, Yelp and Facebook, so you can start gaining those ever-so-valuable reviews. If you’re already there, focus on building up your reviews!
For more insights on marketing strategy that actually works for small business, subscribe to the FreshLime Newsletter here. Connect with Jay Bean, Founder of FreshLime and Small Business Marketing Expert on LinkedIn and Twitter. And last of all, if any of these tips have helped you or if you have anything to add please comment below. We’d love to hear from you!
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