In business, reputation is everything. It feels as though there are a million places and ways for consumers to rate, score, and review your business in the Internet Age. As consumer search behavior evolves, local businesses need to respond to manage their reputation online.
Voice assistants like Alexa and Siri, search engines, and apps have all evolved to use artificial intelligence to provide the best results to consumers. It’s no longer enough to have your company’s information correct solely on its website, you also need to have correct information across the internet.
We live in a world where referrals and reviews make a massive impact. Fortunately, we can leverage the power of AI to encourage and improve a business’s online reputation across hundreds of platforms. Let’s take a look at why reputation management is important for local businesses and how you can use AI to improve your rating.
GOOGLE REVIEWS
Reviews and ratings are two of the biggest factors in managing your online reputation. Google is one of main ways many people begin their search, so it’s important to understand how reviews on Google affect your reputation.
We know that Google takes three things into account when returning search results: relevance, distance, and prominence.
Relevance: This is how closely aligned your products and services are to a consumer’s search.
Distance: This is how far away your business is (using Google Maps) from the customer’s location when searching.
Prominence: Prominence takes into account all of the reviews and ratings generated for your business. For example, if someone searches for, “best pizza near me,” Google will return businesses with a 4-star rating and higher. If someone searches, “pizza near me,” all pizza places (regardless of rating) nearby will show up.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS MATTER
Think about the last time you purposefully walked into a business that had a 1-star rating online. It doesn’t happen!
The reviews and ratings left about your business are often crucial to your success as a business. But it’s not just having a bad review that can hurt your business. Having no reviews at all can be just as damaging.
Negative reviews and ratings are bound to happen, but they don’t have to be damaging long-term. It’s important to actively monitor your online reputation so can respond quickly to these comments and set things right. Don’t forget to ask the customer to reconsider their rating once the issue is resolved — this can result in a more positive review than simply a 5-star review with no context!
You should be monitoring your reviews on Google and on Facebook, as many consumers will go to Facebook to search for businesses or learn more about a business before making a purchase.
START GETTING MORE REVIEWS
Your customers are your most important source of feedback, and you should be asking them to leave reviews and ratings with every interaction. Those ratings and reviews impact how search engines return results about your business and it can affect the choices that customers make about your brand every day.
You can improve your prominence ranking with Google by encouraging your customers to leave reviews when they interact with your company. Follow through by sending out emails to your business’s email list to encourage reviews.
Don’t let your reviews languish, though. Make sure those reviews are going on your website, on Facebook, and on Google.
It can be time-consuming to manage all those reviews and ratings daily. Our FDS Local program provides a simple way for you to see and respond to reviews about your business. You can even receive real-time notifications! This can save you time by allowing you to focus on the reviews that need your attention.
FDS Local can give your business a competitive edge in your local market with reputation management. Our concierge service can help you improve or bolster your reputation and help you maintain a consistent brand image across digital platforms. Contact us today to find out how we can help you better manage your online reputation.
Written by Rory Kemerer
With over 9 years of digital marketing experience, Rory Harris is a leader in the digital playing field. Her passion is clear when she is helping her clients identify their goals or challenges and connecting that to a digital strategy to bring them the highest ROI. Her knowledge not only comes from both branding and lead generation solutions but also the experience she brings to the table to help her clients understand that the data tells a story on what is going on with their marketing.
