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The Value of Online Reviews (Infographic)

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9 of 10 people trust online reviews.

Everything you want to know about online reviews — and then some

Online reviews are playing an increasing role in both search engine visibility and in customer buying behavior. We’ve written about this recently in terms of the value of online reviews for small businesses.

Thanks to some research by the folks at WebsiteBuilder.org, the following infographic compiles lots of the latest information about the value of online reviews.

Do you have trouble getting online reviews?

Getting good online reviews isn’t as easy as it sounds. People who are unhappy are super-motivated to leave a nasty review while people who are happy … are just happy. Often they aren’t particularly motivated to give a review.

If your reviews are somewhat anemic, Rank Magic can help!

We welcome your input to the conversation – leave a comment below.

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Improve your SEO Results with Social Media

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Do you think spending time on social media is wasted?

Some of the more popular social media sites.

If so, it’s time to think again. The way customers interact with small business has changed dramatically over the years. They now want to interact and engage with small  businesses digitally. That means they are looking to connect on social media, probably using their mobile devices. It is important that you deliver on this type of experience.

Social media and your SEO

More than that, having an active social presence works together with your SEO to improve your search rankings. When people search for what you do or what you sell, your social media presence helps. Hootsuite talked about the importance of content marketing and social media for your SEO.
Search Engine LandSearch Engine Land talks about social media & ranking in search results. They explain that social signals are ranking factors as search engines determine how to leverage our social interaction and behavior. Social Reputation relates to the authority of the social sites with mentions of you and links to your web pages. Social Shares relates to having social mentions and links in a variety of authoritative social sites; they provide a list of some of the most powerful ones.
Forbes logoForbes Magazine lists and explains six social media practices that boost SEO:

  1. Growing your number of followers
  2. Encouraging more inbound links
  3. Optimizing your posts for search visibility
  4. Contributing to your authority and helps search rankings
  5. Leveraging social posts for local searches and show local commitment
  6. Increasing your brand awareness
How social media helps your SEO.

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Multiple ways to connect with you

Beyond that, in a Microsoft survey customers polled said they still want to connect with businesses in-person but they also want to connect with them through website, social media and email.
Follow Me logoI always recommend that my SEO clients maintain an active social presence as part of their SEO strategy. Patti Singer of Follow Me Social Media Consulting says:

Every business needs to have a presence on social media. Whether you are just someone selling your crafts on Etsy or a well established business with employees, social media should play an integral part in your marketing efforts.

Reviews are important, too

People report valuing online reviews as importantly as recommendations from friends and family. I’ll be writing more about that soon, but know that you need to pay attention to your online reviews and actively recruit new reviewers.

Find this helpful? Please share with the buttons on the left or give us a Like or a +1 at the top right. Thanks!

Your opinion counts — let us know what you think about this in the comments below.

If you need assistance with any of this, Rank Magic can help.

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Nailing Your Online Presence

/ copywriting, Rank Magic, social media, web design / 3 Comments

 

Nailing Your Online Presence

Live presentation with breakout sessions
to answer your questions.

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Nailing Your Online Presence presenters: Bill Treloar of Rank Magic, Patti Singer of Follow Me Social Media Consulting, Sue Toth of Editing & More by Sue, and Valerie Paik of TAG Online.

Website, Facebook, Content, Twitter, SEO – it’s just so much to master! If you’re having trouble making sense of your online presence, we can help.

The presentation will start with a panel discussion moderated by Walt Blau of Generic Brand Human/Ashland Studios, followed by small breakout sessions where each expert will spend time at each table answering specific questions. Come prepared with your questions about starting and maintaining a website, writing content that gets noticed, using SEO to land your company at the top of online searches, and gaining your prospects’ attention on social media.

Date:
Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Time:
8-10 am

Where:
Ashland Studios
343 New Road, Suite 3
Parsippany, NJ 07054

Fee:
$25 per person

RSVP:
Online at http://conta.cc/2bCq1p0
Pre-registration is required

For more info, please contact Bill Treloar at Rank Magic.

If you think friends or colleagues will be interested in this event, please share it with any of the buttons on the left. And if you think it warrants a Facebook Like or a Google +1, you’ll find buttons for those at the top.

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How to Drive More Readers to Your Blog Posts

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There are lots of ways to attract readers to your blog.None of us writes a blog just to admire our own words of wisdom. We write it to provide information, to bolster our credibility, to illustrate our expertise, to attract new customers … the reasons are many and varied. But they all share the common factor that we want readers.

 

Attracting Readers

Just creating and writing a blog is not a guarantee that it will attract readers.  There are many things readers may find attractive: humor, images, pithy writing, helpful information, insightful analysis, compelling content and more. But if no one knows about your blog, no one will read it.  Just like a website without SEO, it may end up being like a Billboard in the Woods.

How to drive more readers to your blog.

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Where Do You Get Exposure?

There are a bunch of places to seek visibility for your blog posts. BlogPros.com recently listed 50 of them. Let’s highlight some of the best ones for a small business blog.

  • Social Media Sites
  • Social Bookmarking Sites
  • Article Directories
    • These no longer provide link juice to your blog posts like they once did, but they can still drive traffic to your posts. Here are a couple of the best:
    • Blog Engage
    • EZine Articles
  • Personal Resources
  • Paid Advertising
    • Pay Per Click ads can get expensive, and many businesses spend thousands of dollars a month on them. But they can also help on a much smaller scale for small businesses. These are the top two:
    • Google AdWords
    • Facebook Ads
  • Specialized Sites
    • Google AdWordsBusiness2Community is a great place to automatically syndicate your blog.These are similar to blog directories and bookmarking sites, but are more narrowly focused. Here are a few examples:
    • Business2Community for business related content
    • BizSugar for content related to small businesses
    • DesignFloat for material related to web design
    • DeviantArt for the art and design community
    • Inbound.org for marketing related content
    • MySpace for music and entertainment related content

Tell us about your success (or lack of it) with these. Is there a technique you’ve found that’s not listed here? Please tell us about it in the comments below.

Need help with your visibility? Rank Magic can help!

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How to Handle Bad Online Reviews

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Bad online reviews can really hurt.Ouch!

Bad online reviews online may have the power to cost you new customers. And if you’ve ever received a bad review, you’re painfully aware of how that stings — especially for a small business.

Do you have any bad reviews?

The first step to dealing with the problem is knowing it exists. You can check for yourself at the most common sites that post reviews like Yelp, Google Places, Angie’s List, Judy’s Book, CitySearch, and so forth.
One approach we handle for many of our clients is PowerListings. That’s primarily a service to ensure that your NAP (name, address, phone) information is correct and consistent across more than 50 local search engines, directories, and applications. One of the more valuable features is that it lets you check reviews at any of those sites as well.
Contact us to get started with PowerListings.

Oops! You have a bad online review!Gulp! You found one or more bad reviews.

Your first reaction is likely to be angry denial. Stifle that. In a helpful article in Small Biz Trends, Megan Totka discourages your gut reaction to

  • Argue about it
  • Pay people for good reviews to counter it
  • Ignore it

Instead, she suggests that you be objective. If the review is a flamingly irrational rant, it maybe best to ignore it: the tone will convince people it’s not worth serious consideration.
Otherwise, you should respond tactfully and positively. If it’s a legitimate complaint, apologize and try to make it right. You’ll be seen as sincerely wanting to help. That can actually turn a negative review into a positive experience that more than compensates for the initial review.

Oh, no! You’ve got a bad online review! How do you deal with it?

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Become proactive

There are a number of ways you can become proactive and at the same time encourage happy customers to write positive reviews and discourage disappointed customers from posting negative reviews. Reputation LoopOne service we’re considering offering to our clients is Reputation Loop. It builds into your website a solicitation of private feedback, positive or negative, from your customers, helps convert positive ones into online reviews, and allows you to fix negative situations and prevent them from becoming bad online reviews.
If you’re interested in this service, please call us to explore in more detail how it works, what it requires of you, and how much it costs. Reports to date are very positive for it, and if enough of our clients want to participate it would make sense for us to partner up and support it.
Need some personalized help with online reviews? Rank Magic can help!
How have you dealt with negative reviews, and how well did it work? Tell us in the comments below.
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