Ratings & Reviews

Archive for the ‘Ratings & Reviews’ Category

July 29, 2019

New Study: Negative Google Reviews Most Damaging

A study issued last week by Womply found that there is a significant negative impact on revenues from receiving bad reviews across Google, Yelp and Facebook, but the price for bad Google reviews is especially steep. The study, “How Online Reviews Impact Small Business Revenue,” found that small business that has a 1 to 1.5-star…

Contributed by: Charles Laughlin

July 11, 2019

Survey: 63% of SMBs Now ‘Encourage’ Customer Reviews

There are lots of surveys about the importance of local business reviews. The latest (registration required) comes from Uberall (n=300 SMBs) and is focused on business owner attitudes about reviews and review acquisition. According to the findings, “more than 90% of SMBs think online reviews are important.” Here’s the distribution: Very important — 54% Moderately…

Contributed by: Greg Sterling

June 21, 2019

Fake Listings, Fake Reviews: Is This the New Normal?

Yesterday the Wall Street Journal ran an article about the prevalence of fake local business listings on Google. This is a known problem that local SEOs have talked about for years and that Google says it has been addressing, in an ongoing game of whack-a-mole. The article suggests, however, the problem is intensifying. It goes…

Contributed by: Greg Sterling

May 30, 2019

Popular Dishes: Google Using Machine Learning to Improve Maps

Teased at Google’s recent developer conference, the company is rolling out (Android now, iOS in the coming month) a new “popular dishes” feature in Google Maps. Google Maps will now show images and descriptions of a restaurant’s most popular menu items. Google says this was created through machine learning by matching “dish names, provided by Google Maps users, with…

Contributed by: Greg Sterling

May 16, 2019

GoDaddy’s GoCentral Platform Allows SMBs to Create, Claim Yelp Listings

GoDaddy, the world’s largest website domain name registrar, has made it easier for small businesses to create, claim and manage their online Yelp listings, as well as monitor their reviews, by announcing an integration with the review site through its GoCentral platform. The partnership comes at a time where nearly 9 out of 10 consumers…

Contributed by: Courtney Dobson

March 21, 2019

Do You Know How to Avoid a Review Markup Penalty?

Just about every local business wants those review stars. As marketers, we were familiar with the stars local businesses could get on their Google My Business listings from customer reviews, but everyone about fell out of their chair when Google introduced stars for organic results. I’m talking about review rich snippets. And if you’re a…

Contributed by: Kameron Jenkins

March 4, 2019

Using Online Reviews to Permanently Boost Client Conversion Rates

Do you know how to permanently boost your client’s conversion rates with reviews? This seems like a spammy claim to make. The kind of claim that fly-by-night operators and snake-oil salesmen are prone to make. Is it possible to achieve a permanent boost? Not only is it possible, it’s both a reasonable and achievable goal —…

Contributed by: Andrew McDermott

January 30, 2019

Recency Counts: Unpacking the ‘Consumer Review Journey’

No one disputes the influence of reviews and ratings on consumer buying decisions. A 2018 study conducted by LSA for SOCi found that reviews and ratings were the “most important” influence on purchase decisions, outweighing all other factors, including pricing/discounts, business location — even personal recommendations of a friend or colleague. In addition, 71% of consumer…

Contributed by: Greg Sterling

January 7, 2019

Why Five-star Reviews Fail to Perform (and How to Fix Them)

Northwestern University’s Spiegel Research Center analyzed 57,000 reviews from anonymous consumers and 65,000 reviews from verified buyers of more than 13,500 unique products in diverse categories. They made a startling discovery. Reviews could increase marketing conversion rates by a whopping 270%. Their groundbreaking research covers a variety of areas. Their research validates the importance and effectiveness of…

Contributed by: Andrew McDermott

January 2, 2019

Three Local SEO Predictions for 2019

Because most companies don’t have unlimited funds to put towards SEO initiatives, this is the time of year when many of your clients are deciding where to direct their digital marketing dollars. How can you help them to get the most impact for their money? To help, here are three of our 2019 predictions: Online…

Contributed by: Chris Gregory

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