Legit or Not?

Uh…no. Not even close. Here are Google’s Terms (here are some other Google Terms)  and Yelp’s Terms. There is plenty more but trust me…no.

Some history

Once upon a time, Google accepted and indexed into Google Places/Maps reviews from 3rd party reviews companies including Customer Lobby, Yelp, CitySearch and many others. Mid-2011, Google stopped indexing legitimately gathered reviews from 3rd party reviews hosting companies. Since then, Google has been very clear: if a review is not the first-hand personal experience of the person entering the review, it should not be posted  AND  there are no longer any reviews from 3rd party reviews companies that will be indexed into Google Places (they still index the links to the 3rd party review content but not the text).

Some enterprising individuals decided they could make a business out of posting reviews on behalf of other businesses into Google Places and/or Yelp. They use a variety of techniques (intentionally not listed here to prevent future spammers from getting any bright ideas) to get past the initial spam filter. More on this in a minute.

How do you spot the fakers?

There are plenty of these companies around. Search and you will find them. Typically, they do not come out and say “Google doesn’t approve of what we do but we are happy to charge you for it.”  So how do you spot these companies? In general, they do not have:

• detailed information on their website about what they actually do and the techniques they use to do it.
• a blog that allows open public comment/questions.
• reviews about their own business.
• information on specific clients of theirs (so the Google police don’t track down the techniques TOO fast).

What is the Downside?

1. Your reviews will eventually be taken down by Google and/or Yelp. It often takes their algorithms  a while to catch up but they do. When the reviews do come down, good luck getting your money back from the “reviews” company that was hired to put them there.
2. Spam Google/Yelp at your own risk. Google has a habit of punishing “evil doers”  and they think review spam is evil. Will they take your listing down? Will they demote it to page 17 of the search results? Is it worth the risk to find out?  You have been warned.

Where do we stand

Customer Lobby will not lie, cheat or steal.  Period. We will not repost your reviews into Google Places or Yelp or other sites unless we have an explicit content agreement with those sites. We will not violate the Terms of Service of other businesses or web sites including Google and Yelp. We will work as hard as we can to help our clients but will always do it ethically. Its sad to have to state that in contrast to others but its a fact.

But, your Google Place Page is only part of the equation. As it turns out, local business listings on Google are actually a “cluster of information” drawn partly from your own website and third-party sites that reference your business. Tying these web properties together are 3 important pieces of data: Company name, address, and phone number (NAP).

If you want your business to rank higher in Google local search results, it is widely understood that a key factor is ensuring consistency of NAP data between your Google Place Page, your business website, and third-party websites, such as directories and trusted data providers, that reference your business.

Google wants to get a sense for how relevant your business is as a local search result and they are scouring the web for clues. Make it easy for Google by ensuring the consistency of your company name, address, and phone number across these channels:

On Your Website:

It may seem obvious, but it is absolutely essential that your NAP is listed on your website. More specifically, local businesses should post NAP info prominently on their homepage. And this information needs to be in HTML text format so Google can read it. It is not good enough to have your NAP in a graphic on your webpage.

Use a local phone number, not an 800 number. Likewise, avoid using vanity phone numbers that replace numbers with letters. On David Mihm’s famous Local Search Ranking survey, 800 numbers and the absence of a local area code were voted as two of the top negative ranking factors.

If you are the type that likes to take things a step further, have your web developer annotate your NAP data in your HTML code with rich snippet markup. They can find more information on how to annotate local address data on Google’s own Rich Snippets for Local FAQ Page.

On Third-party websites:

As part of Google’s effort to determine the relevance of your business listing as a local search result, they are going to crawl the web matching your NAP data with other third-party websites. These websites include data providers and directories such as City Search, Infogroup, and Yahoo Local. Third-party sites with customer reviews are especially important because the reviews themselves can confer a ranking benefit.

In 2011, Google local optimization guru Linda Banquet cited NAP integrity as the most important factor in optimizing third-party websites for local ranking. And the good news is, editing your company name, address and phone number, on a website is a fairly simple, actionable step. The return on your time investment could be enormous if your listing increases in ranking for local search queries.

Make sure third-party websites have your address listed exactly the same way it is listed on your Google Place Page and your website. To help in this endeavor, the good people at Hubspot have compiled a list of 50 Local Business Directories that you can claim or edit to ensure NAP consistency.

On Your Place Page:

Your Google Place Page is home base of your NAP data. When Google creates a Place Page for a local business, it gets the NAP data from third-party providers. It is up to the business owner to verify and correct their NAP information, but note: Company name and address changes have been known to take several weeks to appear live online. If you have more than one Google Place listing your NAP data, that can be a big problem.

For more information on all things related to Google Place Pages, Mike Blumenthal’s blog is the definitive resource.

Just one look: A killer first page
When most people search for a local business online, they are looking for customer reviews. If you don’t have any, it’s time to start collecting some. If you already have reviews, make sure that the first page of your reviews is your best marketing tool because many of your prospects won’t get past the first page. Think about what you really want your prospects to know about your business and make sure you feature reviews that touch on those specific details. Also, if your service extends to several different geographical areas in the state or country, a great way to show this is by featuring a good mix of reviews from customers in a variety of areas. Finally, consider including comments that you posted in response to the reviewer because your prospects will want to see how you interact with and address your customers.

Fresh is best
Business owners cannot afford to have old or outdated reviews representing their business online. When a company’s most recent piece of online content is a customer review from 1 year ago, prospects will wonder….Have they had any new customers in the last year? Are they out of business? Or worse, do they not care about what recent customers have to say?

Beyond the consumer’s opinion, Google also cares about fresh content. In fact, Google’s algorithm favors content that is recent. This means that fresh content will actually help you rank better in search results. Because customer reviews are time-stamped, recent reviews are a perfect way to ensure fresh content about your business online. To that end, it’s a good idea to always include your newest or most recent review on the first page of your reviews. Advanced Metal Roofing does this well. If you don’t yet have any customer reviews from 2012, now is the time to get some!

What Mr. Lopez perhaps doesn’t realize is that he has the power to respond to bad reviews so that they become opportunities to connect with his customer base rather than divisive content on the web that he simply has to hope no one sees. There are many places online where consumers are looking for validation on whether or not to patron a business. It is a better strategy for a business’ reviews to be linked from their own website, distributed through social media and published on Google than to rely solely on a directory. That is why some business owners say they don’t like online reviews.

Don’t be confused….online customer reviews and reputation marketing go well beyond just any single review site. If you aren’t satisfied with the impact reviews are having on your business, consider an option that brings in customers rather than surfaces the few that have had a bad experience.

Mr: Lopez – don’t hesitate to call us at 866-718-9549 if you’d like some complimentary advice on how to handle bad reviews or on how to better leverage your good ones. We are happy to help.

The study was conducted with Yodle, Inc., an Internet marketing and advertising business.  Companies in  eight different local service  industries were selected and their lead capture / customer capture rates were monitored for several months to create a benchmark.  These companies then created Customer Lobby reviews accounts and began generating customer reviews.  A link to the reviews was placed onto the home page of each of these companies.  Yodle then compared the new customer capture rate with Customer Lobby reviews displayed vs. prior months new customer capture rates without Customer Lobby reviews.

Dramatic Improvement with 3 or More Reviews

In 63% of the companies measured, adding Customer Lobby to the home page of the local business increased the new customer capture.  Increased results ranged from dramatic improvement to modest improvement.

However, when the company had at least 3 reviews posted on Customer Lobby, 100% of the companies studied saw increased new customer capture rates and 60% of the study participants saw dramatic improvement.

Key Take Away:  +2 Reviews

The key points from this study are:

1. Using Customer Lobby helps local businesses increase their new customer capture rate;
2. Customer reviews make all of your other marketing efforts more effective by converting more leads to customers; and
3. Having at least 3 reviews independently hosted and available on your website creates dramatic improvement.

Email Right Away

This may seem obvious, but it is always best to ask your customer for a referral immediately after you have completed work for them. You want to seize upon the momentum and good will you just earned, so email your customers a compelling offer to forward to their friends and family right when the job is done. The longer you wait, the further you get from the emotional peak of the experience. You should send an email as opposed to direct mail or a flier because it is imperative that your offer be quick and easy to pass along.

Enable Facebook Sharing

If you want your referral offer to go viral, enable the ability for your customers to share the deal on Facebook. A 2011 study by ShareThis found that more than half of all the content shared on the Internet was shared via Facebook. Aside from being the place on the Internet where most people share content, Facebook is also the easiest way for your customer to share your offer with their peer network. With just one click, the offer can go to the wall of your customer’s Facebook page as well as to the newsfeeds of their friends and family.

Create a Compelling Offer

The most important factor in whether or not your customers refer you to their friends and family is the value of the offer you are asking them pass along. According to that same study on content sharing, one of the primary reasons people share content on Facebook is to pass along something helpful. Your customers are much more likely to pass on your deal if they believe it will be valuable and helpful to their friends. Incentives alone are unlikely to get your customers to post your offer to their Facebook wall or forward it to their email contacts.

Create a Gift

Create a gift for those who bring you a new customer. The gift is more of a “thank you” than an incentive. Your customers will refer you to their friends and family because they know you, they trust you, and you have a great offer. Jon Jantsch of Ducttape Marketing literally wrote the book on referral marketing, and he suggests that paying customers for referrals changes the motivation from social to financial. But, Jantsch says, that does not mean you shouldn’t offer “creative incentives to keep referrals top of mind.” So, rather than paying your customers for each referral, consider a gift like movie tickets or a gift certificate to a restaurant.

We are pretty excited that the new features are automated so that they can be set up and forgotten. Referral requests and service reminders will go out at the frequency you select, allowing you to stay in front of your customers with little effort. Perhaps of most interest is that we also added handwritten reviews. There are now four ways that we get you feedback (and build your contact list).

Our latest press release gives an overview of the expanded product. Learn how you can use your reputation to bring in new business.

If you are already a member, please contact Member Services at 866-718-9549 to learn about upgrading your account.

If you aren’t a member, sign up for a 30-day free trial account!

On many businesses’ New Year’s Resolution list this year: Communicate more effectively with our customers. According to Emarketer, 67% of business executives worldwide said email was a valued asset to building customer loyalty and retention.

Email campaigns that incorporate referral requests and service reminder emails are a great way to do this. The question is, how do you collect email addresses for these campaigns?

1. Reputation – Third party reviews are hosted by independent companies that provide credibility to the reviews. Reviews on 3rd party sites are verified as being from actual customers of the business. As such, reviews on 3rd party sites help you build a solid reputation as a business that provides good service and that cares about what their customers have to say.
2. Confirmation – Reviews generated on a regular basis confirm that your business is open and thriving. People like to support businesses that are doing well. Recent reviews have more of an impact in converting prospects than do old reviews. Old reviews make prospects question the status of the business now. The same is true of search engines. Regular reviews confirm for engines that your business is current.
3. Improved Local Search – Third party reviews are a key rank driver on local search whereby a prospect searches on the type of business and a specific geographic location (e.g. Plumbers San Diego). Be sure to claim your Google Places and Yahoo Local pages with a consistent business name and location. Populating them with content such as images and reviews will help prospects find your business online.
4. Improved Organic Search – Though local search is different than organic search, third party reviews help your business’ overall search ranking in a myriad of ways. One way is that the reviews provide more links pointing back to your site. Links pointing to your site also help build credibility for your website as it is essentially an indication that other sites feel your content is valuable.

* About 2 months ago, Google removed third-party reviews and now only provide a link to them. This is what prompted Customer Lobby to launch Smart Invites where reviewers have the option of submitting their review on Google if they have a Gmail email address.

1. Timeline to launch a Google Places page - This is a great article from Mike Blumenthal about launching your Google places page.
2. Steps to Feature your reviews on Facebook - Kevin Baca wrote a post on how to
3. 5 Free and Easy ways to monitor social media - There are lots of ways to monitor social media.  Some of the best are free.  Here is a list of 5 of them.
4. How to dominate local search - This is a guide from Hubspot that is a very useful summary of key to-do items.
5. Local search ranking factors - This annual release is one of the best online resources for clarifying what works and what does not work in local search optimization.  One of the key take-aways here is that there is no “right answer”.  Even the most specialized experts don’t agree on what works best.

2011 was a great year for Customer Lobby and 2012 is going to be even better (more to come on the new product we are launching in January)!  Thanks for your support this year. I am looking forward to hearing  your  ideas on how we can better serve your needs.   Happy holidays!