Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is central to many effective business strategies. But did you know you can take it one step further and localize your SEO efforts? It’s true — for certain businesses, local SEO can make a big difference in the amount of qualified leads search engines send their way. Here, we want to dive into the benefits of local SEO to help you determine whether it’s a good fit for your business.

Before we get into all that, though, we’ll have to get some definitions out of the way.

If you’re unfamiliar with the entire concept of SEO, this post is probably not the best place to start (we’ve got a better explainer here). However, if you’ve already got the basics down pretty well, learning about local SEO is a great next step.

Local SEO is a collection of strategies you can use to boost your local search result rankings. There are some searches where any website from anywhere in the world might fit the bill, but there are others that are going to be best answered by results in the searcher’s area. If you’re looking for a place to eat, for example, you’re going to want somewhere close by. Those kinds of searches are prime targets for local SEO.

Some businesses would greatly benefit from appearing near the top of the results for those types of searches. Others not so much. Let’s look at a few examples.

Good Example: Convenient Canteen

Like we mentioned before, restaurants are a great candidate for local SEO efforts. To make it clear why, let’s imagine a scenario: It’s 12:34 p.m. and you’re hungry. Haven’t-eaten-all-day hungry. In-desperate-need-of-something-greasy hungry. So, like all good digital citizens of this 21st century, you take out your phone and Google, “best pizza.” Your strength is fading fast, so you didn’t have the energy to add in your location or “near me.” 

Here’s the best part: This is still a great local SEO opportunity. Our robot overlords at Google already know where you are and that you want a result in your neck of the woods. Don’t let it freak you out too much — remember that it means you instantly get some tasty and convenient pizza recommendations. 

Local SEO works well for many businesses that have a brick-and-mortar focus. If you want people to physically visit you, they’re going to have to be in your area. And that goes the other way, too — if you offer a service where you have to go to your customers’ homes (like plumbing, for example), then you’re going to want to target people you can feasibly get to. That’s another area where local SEO can be a powerful tool. 

Bad Example: Online Only

As great as local SEO can be for the right business, it can be equally unhelpful for the wrong one. Let’s say you’ve come up with an awesome design and you’re selling your own t-shirts online. You don’t have a physical storefront, just a website, and you’re running the whole operation out of your garage. 

Even if you’re the toast of the town, local SEO isn’t going to be the best fit for you. Online-only ecommerce shops are generally better suited to a more broad SEO approach. Plus, if you’re operating out of your home, you probably don’t want to blast your address to the whole internet. These are things to keep in mind when deciding where to focus your SEO efforts.

Local SEO Strategies

After reading those examples, you should have a better idea of how local SEO can work for you (or not). If you’re still interested in local SEO and want some action items, here are some of the easiest. We’d be happy to help, too — we’re skilled in local SEO and can manage many of these items for our clients. 

Set Up (& Optimize) Google My Business

This is a free tool that helps businesses manage how they’ll appear in Google search results. It’s also one of the biggest factors in local SEO. That makes it a great place to start.

The first step in setting up your Google My Business account is claiming your business and verifying your address. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways: By phone, email, or physical postcard. Whatever way you go about it, Google will get you a code that you’ll use to prove that you’re the business you say you are.

This is a big local SEO step, but it’s far from the end of the road. You need to optimize your listing. After you’ve claimed your business, you should edit your business’ information to make sure the listing is accurate (and that the information is the same as what’s on your website). Don’t forget about the pictures in your listing — if you can get better, more eye-catching photos of your establishment to go along with your information, you’ll probably see better results. 

Keep in mind that setting up and optimizing a Google My Business listing isn’t a one-and-done type of solution. You’ll want to keep checking in with your account, making sure all the information stays up-to-date. It’s always a good idea to keep your listing fresh, which brings us to our next point…

Ask Clients to Leave Reviews

Your customers can supply a lot of fresh content for your listing in the form of reviews. Some people are ready and primed to do this and love making their voices heard, but others might need a little prompting. That’s okay — it’s a good practice to encourage your customers to leave reviews (especially your happy customers). 

This needs to be an ongoing effort to be most effective. If you get a sudden influx of reviews and then think you’re covered for a while, think again. You want a constant stream of reviews to keep your listing looking fresh — old reviews aren’t as valuable in local SEO. 

Many of these reviews will probably be on Google, and you should encourage that, but you also want to find out which review sites are relevant to your industry and ask customers to review you there. 

If your business works with other businesses, consider offering a review swap. You write them a stellar (but honest) review, and they write you one. Everybody wins.

Interact With Your Customers

Once you get those reviews, you’re not done. Interacting with reviews is another big piece of the local SEO puzzle.

Whether the review in question is glowing or gloomy, you should still respond. As long as you can do it professionally, that is. Responding to reviews can be beneficial for more reasons than just SEO — you have the opportunity to win back an unhappy customer. If you can address their complaint in a timely and effective manner, they might change their mind about their experience and come back. It’s at least worth a shot. The quicker you can respond, the better, but make sure you’re not replying in the heat of the moment. Shoot back a calm and professional reply offering to make things right (if possible), and try to do it the same day the customer leaves the review. 

On the flip side, it might not seem necessary to respond to a positive review. You won’t have anything to refute or change their mind about. However, you should absolutely drop them a quick thank you at the very least, especially if you asked them to leave the review. It can be a short and simple message. The important thing is to show that your business is active. It’s also a great opportunity to throw in some keywords you want to improve your rankings for, which leads nicely into our next point…

Use the Right Keywords

Deciding which keywords to target is a key (ha ha) component of any SEO strategy. In local SEO, you have the opportunity to use those keywords in your directory listings, and like we just said, you can also include the keywords you want to rank for in your replies to reviews.

But how do you find those keywords? There’s a multitude of ways to do it. Here at Beanstalk, we conduct keyword research with software and a hand-crafted formula. But if you just want a few simple ideas for local SEO specifically, a good place to start is the tried-and-true “service in location” construction. Think about what services or products you offer, and then tack on the location you serve. It’s really that simple. 

Typing that phrase into Google and looking at the autocomplete results can be a great jumping off point for finding more keywords that’ll boost your local SEO efforts. You can also always take a look at what your competitors are doing.

Here’s a little extra tip: If you’re in a small town, consider targeting a bigger city close by. There’s going to be more search volume where there’s more people. 

Watch Your Ratings

You’ll notice that with these reviews come star ratings. These will be aggregated into an overall rating for your business. Do watch your rating, but don’t be too worried about it. You don’t want to manipulate it in any way.

It’s true that Google might filter you out of certain search results if you’ve got a rating lower than 4.0, but don’t despair about every mediocre review. It’s generally a good idea to shoot for an overall rating of 4.5. As everyone’s favorite pop superstar Hannah Montana put it, nobody’s perfect — people tend to be suspicious of a perfect 5.

Google expects you to get a few negative ratings every now and then. It’s completely normal, and in moderation, it can actually increase your credibility. But if you’re getting boatloads of one-star reviews, maybe take a look at what’s going wrong.

Keep an Eye on Other Directories

Lots of these Google My Business best practices go for other directories, too. You want to keep all of your listings up-to-date and accurate. Pay special attention to making sure your information is exactly the same across all of your listings. We’re talking about catching any misspellings, differing abbreviations, or omissions of details like suite number. Making sure Google (and customers) can find the right information about your business is paramount.

Along with that, if you get reviews elsewhere, respond to them with the same level of professionalism as we’ve described above. 

All SEO (including local SEO) focuses on Google because that’s where the overwhelming majority of internet users start their searches. But since most search engines try to copy Google anyway, what’s good in Google’s eyes is good for other engines, too.

Optimize Your Own Website

Up until now, we’ve been giving you advice for what to do on sites other than your own. Here, let’s talk about changes you can make to your website to boost your local search rankings.

This will depend on what type of business you have, the state of your website, and what kinds of locations you serve. For example, if you have physical stores in multiple locations, you can add a page to your site for each store. You can also write blog posts relating to your specific location, using those keywords you identified in a previous step.

These suggestions are truly just scratching the surface when it comes to local SEO on your website, but they’re great places to start.

Get Started on Local SEO Today

So, now you’ve got all the basics down. You know to start by setting up your Google My Business account and making sure all the information there is accurate. You’re ready to respond to reviews, both positive and negative, and you’ll always keep it classy. You’ve done some preliminary thinking on the kinds of local keywords you’d like to target, and you’re ready to start using those phrases in your listing and replies. You know that Google is the main player here, but you also know which directories and review sites are relevant to your industry, and you’re ready to apply these concepts to those sites, too. In short, you’re ready to get started with some high-powered local SEO efforts. 

We hope we’ve given you all the knowledge you need to get started. However, if you’re feeling a little more hesitant about this whole thing, we’d be happy to help. Reach out to us here to start that conversation.

The post How a Local SEO Strategy Can Work for You appeared first on Beanstalk Web Solutions.

It isn’t hard to understand why businesses seek 5-star reviews. Humans always want to see, hear, and read what others believe about someone or something. That’s why negative reviews can be so discouraging for a business. 

What is the first thing that you do whenever you want to try coffee from a new café, hairdo from a new salon, or products from an online store?

Yes, you check out the online reviews and base your decision on what other people have said. Bad reviews might convince you to pass on a business. But if the reviews are good, then you might give it a try!

However, if you are focused on only getting positive reviews and preventing any and all negative comments, you should rethink your strategy when it comes to online reviews.

According to research, negative reviews can result in an 85% increase in conversion rate. Communicating with negative reviewers is an effective marketing strategy that can boost customer retention. Read on to find out why and how you can interact with negative reviews in a positive way to connect to potential customers.

Hiding Bad Reviews Isn’t a Good Practice

Many businesses believe that negative reviews ruin their reputation. That may be true if reviews are primarily negative, but best practices are not to hide them. Instead, a mixture of both positive and negative reviews can still benefit your business, if you handle them properly.

Hiding and deleting reviews is the worst way to deal with negative reviews If you are censoring the comments, then you’re losing 62% of the consumers who check for reviews before purchasing, according to research.  

Another study from Baymard states that 53% of users seek out negative comments before making any decisions. Instead of hiding or removing them, you must know how to respond appropriately to negative comments. Even if they are sometimes cruel.

Your positive approach to negative reviews can highlight your commitment to your customers. 53% of reviewers expect that a business will respond to their queries. Many businesses lack this crucial step and don’t get back to unsatisfied customers, which is more damaging in the long run.

How Could Negative Reviews be a Game-Changer For You? 

Social media has changed the paradigms of how businesses operate. Social platforms are playing a crucial part in helping companies develop brand identities and interact with the audience in real-time. 

Let’s see how negative comments can be a real game-changer for your business:

• Negative Reviews Can Generate Leads 

On average, a customer spends around 13-14 minutes reading reviews on different platforms before purchasing. Some negative or lower-star reviews will decrease the average star rating. But, negative reviews can result in higher conversion rate because they breed a sense of authenticity and trust. Negative reviews can influence purchase behavior.

• They Build Trust

One thing is for sure that nothing is perfect in the world. If your website is filled with 5-stars ratings and positive reviews, it can look suspicious. Moreover, negative reviews can be fruitful in some ways. They give you the chance to rebuild the broken trust and show a strong connection with your customers. 

The best practice to build trust with the customers is to communicate with them. Try to address their issues by offering them some incentives, such as a discount voucher or gift. 

This shows the new readers that your brand values its customers. You might retain lost customers and throw the impression out to the 67% consumers who value trusted brands for shopping. 

• Mixed Reviews Are What Customers Look For

Mixed reviews show authenticity. The average customer reads 10 reviews before finalizing a brand for making a purchase. If you have faked the positive reviews or deleted reviews, your business could look too good to be true.

Negative reviews show customers’ real reactions to your products or services. It’s natural for people to have a range of reactions to a product or service, so you shouldn’t try to hide it when people respond unfavorably. Obviously, you should try to promote as many good reviews as possible, but a few negative ones in the mix won’t damage your reputation.  

• They Bring Greater Transparency

Businesses must realize the importance of mixed reviews before deleting or censoring negative ones. Your review strategy has to be transparent. You must show your online audience that you are open, believe in improvement, and respond well to criticism. This practice improves your brand loyalty.

If you reach out to reviewers to resolve issues they bring up, it shows that you are transparent and committed to their satisfaction.

• They Push You To Improve Quality & Service 

Both positive and negative reviews enhance quality and service. Positive reviews boost your passion and motivate you to deliver exceptional products and services. 

But, bad reviews help you know where your business lacks and what areas need immediate attention. Connecting with an unsatisfied consumer is a great chance to improve your company’s online reputation.

How Should You Respond to Negative Reviews?

Read on to know some tips that can surely help you deal with bad reviews in a positive way. 

• Respond Quickly To Build A Positive Brand Image 

53% of customers expect businesses to respond to their negative reviews within a week. What you should do is address the person nicely and try to track down what happened.

• Apologize Generously   

Try using the reviewer’s first name instead of ‘Dear guest’ or ‘Dear customer.’ Make sure to start with simple greetings and show that you’re sorry for the inconvenience caused and willing to work with them to find a solution.

• Take Responsibility

The best gesture is to take responsibility when things go wrong instead of making excuses. A defensive approach will incite a never-ending chain of arguments.

For instance, if you offer assignment assistance but fail to fulfill the request of a student, then it would be best to accept your mistake for the bad experience. 

In this case, you can compensate for the damages with a free revision or discount on the next purchase. 

• Ask for Another Chance 

Communicate with reviewers, extend a hand, and invite them to shop again. Show reviewers that you care and are striving to do better.

Wrapping Up!

Negative reviews can lead to increased sales if you respond to them appropriately. I have presented several ideas about what could be done to leverage negative reviews for a positive outcome. Don’t hide and delete bad reviews; address them effectively to maximize leads.

Author Bio: Stella Lincoln is a Digital Marketing Analyst at Dissertation Assistance, a platform for cheap dissertation writing services. She has been in the digital field for almost a decade. She loves writing knowledgeable content on digitalism and marketing. In this blog, she presents her views on important lead generation tactics.

The post The Positive Psychology Behind Negative Reviews appeared first on Beanstalk Web Solutions.

Brand reputation, especially online reputation, is critical to the success of many businesses. However, poor management can lead to the collapse of a company’s prestige, especially online. In modern-day businesses, you must ensure that your company has a foolproof strategy for managing and maintaining its online reputation.

Today, social media is home to your business’s customers, clients, and potential clients, critiques, observers, etc. Therefore, your business needs to maintain an excellent presence and impression online. Positive reviews and comments from the online community are vital factors that strengthen your business’s reputation. Meanwhile, if you leave a negative review unaddressed online, it can drag down your brand’s reputation quickly.

Businesses today, including small or startup companies, can easily use social media as a fighting-front to establish and manage their brand effectively. Also, it can be used to monitor and maintain their reputation over the long run. 

The internet and social media offer smaller businesses an advantage over larger companies. How? With a small business, you have fewer fronts on which to battle over online reputation. If you commit to an effective social media management strategy, this can be used exclusively to your advantage for a stronger, more effective brand image/reputation.

To help your business’s online reputation excel in modern-day, here are some brilliant social media ideas that will benefit your brand tremendously.

Brilliant Social Media Ideas to Improve Your Company’s Online Reputation

Focus on Niche-Relevant Content

When developing social media content for your various channels, don’t rely too heavily on making sales. The truth is, customers do not just want to be sold to on social media. Rather, focus on content that will benefit your audience and reward them for their time.

Let your brand become a perpetual source of relevant and valuable content for your audience daily. You can engage in sharing insightful, helpful, inspiring, or entertaining social media content that is important to your brand. 

Also, remember that social media is primarily for interaction, so you should try to keep your channels as interactive as possible. Respond quickly to mentions, comments, and relevant questions. Strategic moves like this will keep your audience hooked and excited to keep coming back. Customers are excited when they know that the brand is also listening to them. Basically, encourage participation.

You can integrate the support of top rated translation services like The Word Point to develop and translate your social media content to broader audiences quickly.

Listen Socially and Review Analytics

Social listening is the process of analyzing, tracking, responding to any conversation that has to do with your industry or brand online. A lot of businesses and corporate entities are struggling for attention online. It is vital to “listen socially” if you want to strengthen your online reputation. This way, you can gauge the public’s view on your brand, its products, and services.

To achieve this, you will need to incorporate the assistance of some practical analytical tools. These devices will help you review and monitor any mentions of your brand online, including remarks unrelated to your posts. 

Useful analytics like this can help you improve your overall marketing strategy, products, and services, or any other areas your brand needs improvement.

Some effective social media listening tools include TweetReach, HootSuite, Buzzsumo, Google Alerts, etc.

Respond

It makes no difference what kind of business you run; people are likely talking about you online. The mistake most companies make is to ignore negative brand-targeted reviews/posts and leave them unaddressed. Deleting or ignoring bad comments will only help to fuel up a bad reputation for your brand. Instead, you can turn this to your advantage.

Instead of ignoring, respond. The good news is social media is interactive. Do not downplay the relevance of wrong information about your business online. Note that the internet and social media is where the modern audience gets news and updates about your brand.

No matter how good you’re doing currently, bad reviews often signify that something is wrong. However, you can turn this into something positive. The first step is by finding out the main root of the problem. Find out why that customer is distressed and respond kindly through the same channel that they queried your brand. 

Sometimes, a customer’s genuine intent for querying your business is for the benefit of your brand. If you do nothing, the customer is likely to come back to update other customers on how you handled the problem, and that’s bad for your brand.

Pay Attention to your Brand’s and Product’s Third Party Reviews

Most third party reviews are paid for, even though they sugarcoat them as genuine and objective efforts. Bad mentions result in more people reading negative reviews of your business or services.

Additionally, you must watch out for the online reputation of your staff because they are extensions of your brand. Your customer/ guest services should be impeccable and without reproach.

Ultimately, you should invest in regular high-quality SEO, optimized online content for your blog, website, and social channels. These web-media-contents should characteristically dominate the front page results of search engines and that of third-party.

Conclusion

While social media looks simplistic and almost irrelevant at first, it actually plays a vital role in your company’s online reputation. Success with social media involves staying proactive and being ten steps ahead. Also, while you dedicate a decent amount of resources to providing valuable content for your audience, you must be on the watch for reputation-spoilers. Another way to improve your social reputation is to look out for your employees, as they are ambassadors of your brand. Check notifications related to all your social networks daily. Identify and reply to relevant mentions kindly and sincerely. Importantly also, you must keep your channels as interactive as possible to ensure that customers are engaged and remain hooked.

The post Strategies for Improving Your Company’s Online Reputation appeared first on Beanstalk Web Solutions.

Before the rise of the internet, if you wanted to visit a dentist, you mostly considered recommendations from friends and family. Now, times have changed. In this digitally-fed world, if you want to visit a dentist, you will search for the ones near you and read through the comments posted by patients for first-hand customer experience. 

‘Loved the doctor and the setting. Totally recommend’ rated 5 stars 

‘I have visited a lot of dentists, but, by far, this is the best one’ rated 4 stars

‘Horrible service. God, save the patients’ rated 1 star 

With so many websites like Google My Business, Facebook, and Yelp available for reading customer reviews, brands and businesses are no longer referenced by just physical brick and mortar styles. They are an open book for every customer to read. 

With so much importance given to the online stratum of businesses, online brand management becomes a rather mandatory task. 

Online brand management refers to the controlling and influencing of an enterprise’s reputation in media landscapes and online social networks. 

Why is online brand management important?

In this digital world, websites are no longer static brochures for enterprises. Establishing a reputed social media imprint is very crucial for businesses. Furthermore, companies nowadays, are allocating more resources to online reputation management, to maintain a healthy brand image. 

According to a survey, more than 54% of digital marketers believe ORM to be a very necessary tool for a company’s success. But why?

Customers watch each other’s back

Shopping used to be an intimate affair, where people were accompanied by friends who decided whether the dress is worth a buy or not. These friends offered an unbiased recommendation about dresses and their opinions mattered. 

The same happens in online shopping, the only difference, instead of physical friends, you have online reviews serving as your recommendations. 

Customers believe everything other customers say. That is why a customer review is a very powerful tool. Nothing posted about your brand online fades away, it stays on like a billboard spotlight and decides how well the customer pool reacts to it. 

Online reputation matters for targeting new customers

So, you are wearing this top and your friends find it cute. They ask you where you got it from, and then you start talking about this amazing shop with a spectacular collection. 

Well, online customer engagement is similar, with reviews and comments attracting other customers to initiate their first buy with a brand. A lot of customer pool depends on how well a brand’s services are applauded on online platforms. 

Bad reviews are the stepping stones to improvements

Analyzing what customers are saying about your products can tell you everything about their expectations. It is normal to make mistakes, but if you can take up from those bad reviews and mold your products into something that grabs customers’ attention and lets them post positive reviews about it, then that will define your success.

Catching the sight of investors

If you’re a company that has plans to grow in the future and look out for investors, the first thing you need to start working on is your online presence in the market. No investor wants to gamble their money on a brand that has a negative brand perception. 

How can you manage your brand’s online reputation?

Right from automated tools to tips and strategies, online reputation management is a no brainer, thanks to the resources available to study them. 

But how will you do it?

See what your customers are saying about your brand

With tools like Google Alerts, Buzzsumo, Reputology, Mention, YouScan, Similar Web, Buffer, and SentiOne, it is easy to manage and analyze your online reputation on various social channels. While answering a negative review posted by a customer, you must stay polite and answer every query professionally. Many experts advise businesses to talk with unsatisfied customers through private messaging, but taking it away from the public eye will only complicate the matter. Try to handle the situation publicly, so that other customers can see how well you respond to bad reviews and comments. 

Update the website with your contact information and social links

Just like you would’ve invested time in your physical store, a website also needs to be updated. Even more important, add all your social links on the website, so that people can use such mediums to pen down their review about your brand. Furthermore, add your physical address and the contact number to the website, so that people can locate your storefront. 

Negative comments are of pivotal importance

While positive comments can earn an amazing image for your brand, not everything posted about your brand is going to be all sugary and sweet. Some customers might not like your services at all, even advise other customers to never buy products from you. 

As a brand, it is not professional to remove such negative comments. If you do so, customers will suspect your brand with unauthentic products and deceitful professionalism. 

You can ask for consumers to post positive reviews in return for discounts, incentives, coupons, etc. 

Have an online community

Acquiring an online community helps you to maintain a positive and professional profile. In the long run, a community showcases your products and lets people see what revolution your brand has launched. 

Be transparent

This business commandment is not an easy thing for a brand to execute but is highly beneficial once embraced. As a brand, you should be open to criticism in the form of feedback, reviews, comments, etc.

In the end 

The digital platforms are an open communication channel for customers.

The road to customer engagement is easy. You sell your product to a consumer. Consumers recommend it to other consumers. Digital relationships flourish. Consumers are added to the existing pool. 

Harness the power of digital word of mouth, build connections, and foster a positive customer experience. 

The post Why Online Reputation Management is So Important appeared first on Beanstalk Web Solutions.

Google My Business is a fantastic resource for businesses to connect to their customers. Since Google is the first point of call for your customers, Google My Business is your opportunity to give them all the contact info they need to reach you. So it’s surprising that more businesses aren’t taking advantage.

A well filled out business listing legitimizes your business and orients you as a professional. If you don’t optimize, your business won’t appear on the front page when a customer Googles your industry. This means you’ll be getting fewer customers.

Here are five things to watch out for when creating a My Business listing.

You Haven’t Claimed Your Listing

First, you actually need to claim it. The My Business Feature is free to use and you only need to put in time to get the best out of it. Unclaimed listings run the risk of being closed by Google users, which means you won’t turn up in any search results.

An unverified listing can’t be edited by the owner, nor can it be updated with posts, photos or reviews. You might think that all this is covered by your website, but how are your users and customers going to find your website if it’s not on your business listing?

Speculative searches for local businesses are powered almost entirely by Google, so you need to treat your business page as you would a telephone book. If you don’t claim your listing it can be altered or edited by anyone meaning your business won’t be taken as seriously as your competitors’.

“If you don’t claim your listing, you may find that a similarly named business will claim your name, which will mean you’ll struggle later on to climb Google’s ranking. Google filters out long, convoluted business names, so it’s important to get their first. Duplicate listings will be detrimental to your ranking,” says Charles Colon, entrepreneur and author for Australian Reviewer and Academized.

You Have Incorrect or Missing Info

Having incorrect or missing info can cause untold damage to a business’s credibility. You should treat your Google My Business listing the same as you would your own web page. If a customer finds your business on Google but finds that your name is different from that on your website they may assume that there’s something wrong and move on to the next listing.

A common issue businesses find is that Google Maps has incorrectly estimated their location, so it’s worth ensuring that your coordinates are correct. If you have to move premises then you need to update your customers, so keeping your coordinates up to date is imperative.

You may also find that there is no phone number or email address. Customers don’t trust a business they cannot contact, so they will move on to the next listing without looking at your website.

“It’s a good idea to optimize your details. Make sure your business descriptions and categories are specific, accurate, and not overstuffed with suspicious keywords. Putting too many keywords can alert Google to possible spamming, so ensure the description is both natural and engaging,” adds Madeline Pittman, SEO manager for Bestaustralianwriters and Boomessays.

You Haven’t Asked for Reviews or Responded to Them

Reviews are ‘social proof’ for customers. Often, businesses will bury them in their website or promote testimonials to the front page whilst keeping the less positive reviews hidden. But with Google My Business, customers can see the good and the bad. This means that your business’s attitude and etiquette are on show and you have the opportunity to show your professionalism.

One way to give potential customers encouragement is to ask every customer or client you serve to leave a Google review. Straight away those who find your listing will see that your business is current and active. The more reviews you have, the more in-demand your business will seem.

Businesses that engage with negative feedback show that they are growing. Though sometimes receiving negative feedback can be challenging, showing that you can deal with it and remain courteous builds trust with potential customers. So it is worth responding to every single Google review you receive. Learn more about brand monitoring.

You Haven’t Updated Photos and Posts

Part of the importance of Google My Business is the ability to show that your business is active. Along with reviews, you have the chance to give potential customers social proof that your business is current.

People react well to engaging visuals and photographs. It is tempting to put up a simple logo as your listing’s main picture, but this can seem suspicious to users. Instead, take a professional picture of your business’s premises or team members to show a working business. But don’t stop there! You can post many photographs and enable your customers to take pictures too. A constant stream of photos shows a bustling company that keeps users interested.

Similarly, Google My Business allows you to make short posts. Much like your business’s blog post you can promote events or important dates. Constant and consistent updates show your customer that you are open and ready to take orders, without having to spend too long writing blog posts.

You Aren’t Utilizing Business Insights

Modern businesses rely on customers’ information. Google My Business offers a fantastic opportunity to understand the movements, actions, and demographics of customers. Business Insights tells you how your customers are finding you and how they interact with your listing.

Business Insights can tell you which reviews or posts they are looking at and even what area they come from. You’ll see how they interact with your photos and the click-through rates when they visit your website.

You’ll get a great handle on where your posts and details are hitting their targets with detailed graphs and profiles. Analysis of these can help you target your marketing and change how your business appears on Google.

You’ll see how the customer has found you. You’ll see what keywords they have searched and where they might have followed links – from other sites or google maps. These insights can help you perform marketing and business audits and expand your understanding of how your business interacts with Google.

Nora Mork is a marketing journalist at Assignment writing and Boomessays services. She regularly speaks at public marketing events, and writes posts for Essay Roo blog.

The post 5 Ways To Improve your Google My Business Rankings appeared first on Beanstalk Web Solutions.

Every local business owner with an online presence understands the importance of SEO. But few small businesses with storefronts realize the importance of SEO in increasing traffic to their store.

Let’s take a look at the facts:

• 76% of all search engine queries worldwide go through Google
• 46% of those are location-specific
• 50% of people who conduct a local search go on to visit a local store within 24 hours
• 18% of those buy something

In other words, when people want something locally, they look for it on Google. When they find it, they visit a store and buy something within a day.

What does this mean for your business? If you want to bring the paying customers from your area to your door, you need to be found in local search results.

Here are 5 ways you can do just that:

Optimize for mobile friendliness and speed

Nothing you do to boost your local SEO matters unless people can access your website easily on their mobile phones. When people look for local businesses, most of them do so on a mobile device. 61% of them are more likely to contact a business if it has a mobile-responsive site.

People won’t stick around to find the information if your website loads too slowly, especially if they’re looking locally and in a rush. So make sure you have the best web host you can afford.

Before you spend time and money getting your business found, make sure people can interact with your site when they do pick you out of the search results.

Long-tail keywords

When people search locally, they almost always use keyword terms that contain multiple words, otherwise known as long-tails.

Think about it… when you search for pizza in your local area, do you search ‘pizza’, or ‘pizza near me’? This is why local businesses need to refocus their keyword strategy.

You can find relevant long-tail keywords by:

• Using Google’s autocomplete function to find the ones people commonly used in your area. Just type in your focus words, e.g. your business type and location, or ‘bakery in Brighton’, and see what Google suggests.
• Use a keyword tool like Google’s Keyword Planner, to find keywords your competitors are ranking for. You can be pretty sure these keywords are effective if other successful businesses are using them.

Use your new-found keywords in your:

• short URLs
• heading tags
• title tags
• Homepage

Claim your Google My Business account

50% of local, mobile-based search engine traffic is people looking for business details like an address or opening times. So having all of your information available to them is key.

Don’t skimp on the details. You need to include everything you can about your business and ensure it’s consistent with the information on your website because Google values consistency.

Optimize your Home Page for this same information by including it in the site footer. This makes it easy for Google to locate the information during a crawl.

To appear on Google Maps, you’ll need to list your address and make sure the pin that Google places to show your location is in exactly the right place.

Tidy up and expand your online citations

Your citations are mentions of your business’s basic information on the internet, but not on your site. There are two types:

• Structured: citations are structured anywhere where you fill in a form to add the information, for example, social media accounts.
• Unstructured: these are non-form-based mentions such as those that appear in blog posts and other internet content.

It’s important to remember that Google values consistency. So you need to regularly audit your citations to make sure all of the information is up to date. You can use an online tool like those from Moz or WhiteSpark to find your citations and update them.

Build local citations

Citations have a similar SEO effect to backlinks, so building them will improve your rankings. So, take advantage of all of the free, structured citations you can get. Use WhiteSpark to find the best ones for your country.

To build more unstructured citations, ask businesses in your local area if they will mention you on their online channels. Otherwise, you can try the age-old strategy of guest posting.

To find places to guest post in your local area search for your location, plus ‘write for us’/ ‘write for me’/ ‘guest post’.

Final thoughts…

As a small business owner, your time is always pushed. But by following these tips, you’ll set yourself up to be more visible online, bringing more customers to your door for years to come, with little ongoing input. What could be better than that?

Author bio: “Jodie is a professional writer and editor working with UK Web Host Review. She translates dense topics into accessible information to help everyone from small and niche business owners to budding webmasters to reach their goals. She explores design, brand psychology, marketing, and tech. You can connect with Jodie through LinkedIn.”

The post 5 SEO Hacks for Local Small Businesses appeared first on Beanstalk Web Solutions.

The GMB Page

Now, when you start to research how to rank better locally, one of the primary pieces of advice is to claim your GMB page. You have probably heard this advice yourself. How far have you gotten?
For a lot of businesses, this is something that ends up at the end of a very long to-do list. Something that they never quite get around to. Others make a start and give up because they find it boring or can’t see what the possible value might be. After all, isn’t it just one more social media profile? That could be a costly mistake for you and your business.
The GMB page is best described as a Google directory. Google compiles as much information as it can about businesses that it identifies and stores here. So, if someone leaves a review and you didn’t set up your page, Google will compile one from the information at hand, and that could be information from your website, or from some online directory that you signed up for years ago. There is no telling that Google will use the right information.

Claiming Your Page Means Better Visibility

Aside from ensuring that all the information in the Google directory is up to date, having a completed page increases the chances of your site appearing in the lauded three-pack. You know those top three results that appear along with the map of the area. Your business could be there too. In addition, it helps you prove to Google that you are a legit business. You have the opportunity to verify your business. Google will check your contact and address details across a range of different sources. Legitimate businesses are going to be those where the details tie up across various records.

Someone Else Might Claim It

Here’s the catch with GMB. It’s free and anyone is able to go in and claim the page. They can also make suggestions for alterations, which are then acted on, but that is the topic for another day. Now, let’s say that your business is doing quite well and has built a good reputation.

What if someone wanted to capitalize on that success? They could easily do so by claiming your GMB page and inserting their own website instead. Think of the damage that could be done to your business’s reputation if people are conned in this way. Your business will be tainted, even though you had nothing to do with the whole affair.
Or, even worse, what happens if a competitor gets her hands on the page and posts misinformation. Like the link to their website for starters. Or incorrect information about your opening and closing hours, or faked bad reviews?

You Should be In Control

Do the instances mentioned above seem far-fetched? Unfortunately, they are far too common. Put yourself in the driver’s seat and make sure that the right information is on your page. Then regularly monitor that page to make sure that no one has suggested any changes.

It Isn’t Just Another Page To Manage

Okay, technically it is, but there are some pretty nice features on these pages as well. You can, for example, add a “Book it” button so that people can book an appointment with you right on the page. For this to work, you do need scheduling software that will integrate with it, but that’s not a major obstacle.
Also, you get here the opportunity to make posts. There are various different types of posts – sales, general interest, video, photo, etc. Best of all, your latest posts will show up when someone clicks on the link.

The review feature is also great for SEO. Google agrees that businesses may ask clients to review them, as long as they do so ethically. So, no, you can’t bribe people to post a good review for you, and you cannot tell them what to say either. But, unlike Yelp, you also won’t get into trouble for asking for an honest review.
Finally, if you do a great job on Google My Business and keep the posts active, you are demonstrating to Google that your business is legit. Get great reviews on an ongoing basis, and it won’t be long before you deserve a spot in the three-pack.

Author: Harsha As the SEO Manager at Seo Tribunal, part of Harsha’s daily engagements involve raising awareness of the importance of digital marketing when it comes to the success of small businesses. He gets to put his thoughts into educational articles.

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Today, most consumers first check online reviews before they try out a product. Take finding the best restaurant, for example. One positive review can make a customer travel a few extra miles just to check out a new café.

This, in turn, has made business owners obsessed with earning positive reviews. And yet, they forget all publicity is good publicity.

See, any type of review—good or bad—can be beneficial to a business. It only depends on how the owners react to those reviews.

Online user reviews are thus an excellent way of increasing customer engagement.

Here’s why:

1. They help businesses to rectify their mistakes

The main idea behind online user reviews is social engagement. At their core, user reviews are types of viva voce communication. Still, unsatisfied users are a common feature in marketing. You may find them even in the review sections of well-liked products.

Yet, responses to negative reviews may have significant impact on future perceptions. Research shows that users find most managers’ responses to positive reviews as disingenuous. Some even liken such responses to shallow acting. By contrast, managers who respond to negative reviews show that they care.

So, negative reviews may actually help a business to grow. See, complaints point managers to areas that they should improve on. And when customers observe a positive change, they are likely to share it through word of mouth. This enhances a business’s reputation, which results in increased loyalty.

2. They inform pricing strategy

New products suggest their quality through their pricing. Premium products, for instance, communicate a high ability to satisfy their buyers.

But the actual quality becomes clear when users start reviewing such products. Granted, first-time buyers may have some bias. This is because of the excitement of trying out a new product. And there’s also a risk that the next buyers may under-report the quality.

Still, these self-selection biases may help a business to price their products strategically.

Here’s how it works:

• When putting out a new product, a business should lower the pricing. This creates a low quality expectation. Hence, the satisfied users are likely to leave glowing reviews.
• The positive reviews will then influence more people to buy the product. At this stage, the business may increase the pricing. And since positive reviews suggest quality, the higher prices would be justifiable.

I know, you may wonder whether this a sustainable strategy.

See, this would work because most reviews are usually extreme. People who are neither too impressed nor too disappointed tend to not post reviews. That’s why most online reviews contain either high or low ratings. The moderate ones are usually fewer.

3. They shift brand loyalty

As we’ve seen, online reviews help businesses to engage more with their customers. User reviews also inform pricing strategies. When firms get these two aspects right, they are likely to win a loyal customer base.

So, online reviews are an excellent way for businesses to influence buying decisions. They nudge people to try out products, which they may have never even thought of.

But, there’s also a danger in businesses trying to influence reviews. It is not uncommon to find companies posting fake reviews, for example. Yet, when customers find this out, they may keep away from the products of such businesses.

In an interview, David Anderson, the author of IHateWritingEssays blog about best writing services said: “It’s better for customers to find out about particular products from their peers. People distrust corporations.”

In conclusion

User reviews help businesses to get visibility and win new customers. They drive growth because they suggest that a given product offers value.

Moreover, businesses need to embrace reviews regardless of whether they’re flattering or not. Remember, even the most disparaging may give managers a chance to engage with their customers.

So, now you know how important reviews are. Thus, It’s time you start thinking of ways of making your customers review your products more frequently.

Author’s Bio: Carol is very keen on sharing her knowledge and experience. When not freelancing and blogging on marketing and education-related matters, Carol enjoys traveling. She takes immense pleasure of visiting new countries.

The post 3 Ways Online Reviews Can Grow Your Business appeared first on Beanstalk Web Solutions.

Knowing this, why don’t businesses make use of online reputation management? Reputation management is a vital tool that most businesses may not be managing at all and if they are, they may not be managing it well.

Why You Need It

As we have already established, the world of the internet is as vast as our universe. With newsworthy topics and the constantly changing trends of the internet, anything can spread like wildfire. Positive reviews and impressions of your company spreading across the web are ideal, but when you’re not properly monitoring your online presence, the spreading of a negative review can tarnish your image and can get out of hand, especially with people who like to “add fuel to the fire.” Hiring a reputation management company can help you to nip negative reviews/comments in the bud and address these issues head-on.

Large companies may be able to keep a watchful eye on their online reputation, but for smaller and medium-sized companies with smaller staff sizes and limited hours, this could be a feat. This is where having a company to manage your online reputation can come in handy. You may not always be able to monitor online discussions of your business, but hiring a company who specializes in this can help you keep an eye on it and also will notice those reviews, both positive and negative, that may slip through the cracks.

4 Reasons Why Reputation Management is a Must | SOCi

Benefits

There are many benefits, even unforeseen ones when managing your online reputation. Think of your online reputation as a chain of events. Having one benefit could lead to many, many more.

With the internet comes many different mediums for customers to write their reviews and experiences and for potential customers and buyers looking to make an informed decision, they turn to these easily available online reviews. Although you cannot control what others say about you, you can hire a digital marketing agency to help manage your online reputation.

Having positive reviews and a positive reputation online will naturally bring trust to what it is that you’re selling or servicing and in turn, will make future potential customers trust that you are a reputable, trustworthy and credible source that provides quality work, products or service. In fact, people tend to trust other consumer opinions 70% more than seeing paid advertisements.

Moving on to the next chain in the link, improving trust could reap more profits, whereas a lot of negative reviews can have the opposite effect. If customers are actively searching online for something they need and come across your business and see that there are many positive reviews, it could lead them to become your next customer or completing a valuable conversion.

With these benefits under your business belt, you could also find yourself facing a pleasant dilemma… deciding who to hire. Although money can bring people, a good reputable company with positive reviews, both external and internal will bring applicants and cause them to stay. Just like a top D1 champion school or Google, for instance, qualified and talented individuals will want to work for you!

Benefits of a Good Online Reputation | Reputation X

Tips & Tricks

One very easy trick to help you monitor your online reputation is using Google Alerts. Google Alerts will send you alerts or emails whenever someone mentions your business, brand or any keyword you’re interested in online. This can be a helpful tool, especially after hours when you’re not one hundred percent focused on monitoring your business.

This might seem like an obvious tip, but any business is bound to have at least one negative review or comment surface, so it’s best to handle it with poise and tack. If you do happen to catch a negative review, respond to it in a prompt and professional manner.

Although you cannot control what someone says about your company, you can control how you decide to approach and handle it, so be wise. Other internet surfers may also see this negative review/comment and their curious eyes will automatically be drawn to how you handle it. If people see that you handled it professionally and to the best of your ability, they may be a little more understanding of the situation and may not let this negative comment/ review affect their perception of your business.

A first-line-of-defense and simple approach to handling reviews is by allowing your customers to give you feedback online, directly on your website. This can help you swiftly address issues and concerns without someone having to vent across the internet. Providing your customers and visitors with the option of filling out surveys and questionnaires can give your business a chance to address problems head-on. This also allows your customers to know that you want to be transparent, approachable and that you care about their feedback, whether it be bad or good.

Online Reputation Management: 5 Fool-proof Tips for Your Brand | Simplilearn

This post is meant to be a general, introduction course to online reputation management and is not all-inclusive. You can reap some of the benefits that come with trying to actively monitor your online reputation or you can reap all of the benefits that come with hiring an experienced reputation management company like Beanstalk Web Solutions to thoroughly sift through your online reputation.

Hiring a professional company to manage your online reputation can provide your company with tools and resources you may not be able to get on your own and to promote your positive reviews online, so it’s best to at the very least consider this option.

The post The Power of Online Reputation Management in the 21st Century appeared first on Beanstalk Web Solutions.

Feedbacks and reviews online have tightly grabbed the digital marketing and business world for many years. The major reason for posting a review online is it not only has an impact on customer trust or on products, but it also affects the Google ranking and click-through rates.

Several studies say that most people now visit a website after going through its reviews. Many even think that 3-month-old reviews no longer have relevance. A lot of customers say that positive reviews make them build trust for a local business more. Nowadays five-star ratings for a business are a sacrosanct thing. If any business who doesn’t take the review section seriously, then it has to pay for it later. The review helps in developing trust in the people.

Reviews are front and center in Search

Well, most have noticed that whenever you search for restaurants, you see reviews start on the first the page. This is because even Google wants to send you to that particular place that has the best reputation in the market. It is safe that Google thinks the reviews are important, so we should even feel the same.

Popping reviews is easier than you think

There is no logic behind ignoring the reviews and many businesses do the same. They may have been hurt by one or two reviews which were false. They must be thinking that all the reviews are useless.

On the off chance that you don’t work to proactively get positive reviews for your organization, you will lose business to your rivals who are getting 5-star surveys that awe new clients.

It is very easy to get reviews. As it is said that most of the customers will post reviews if they are asked to. Businesses can put a note at the bottom of the receipt or an invoice that says ‘Please share your experience.’ There are many other ways to ask for reviews. Do remember not to bribe people for reviews and doing so can affect your review site as it is considered unethical.

Immediately share your 5 stars reviews

Attention, in case you are bumped with 5-star reviews.  Don’t just sit and be happy with that, promote them to get more likes and comments. Well here is a process of best online reputation repair and to promote your great reputation:

• Social media covers: Social media cover photos take over half of a web-based social networking channel’s page. On the off chance that you simply have a picture as your social cover photo, you’re squandering important “over the-crease” space. What reason is there not to utilize that space wisely? Use your social cover pictures to advance one of your best 5-star reviews.

• Related videos: Review videos are mostly linked to two of the most crucial digital marketing strategies. Many digital marketing services companies use these strategies to give the best results to their clients. One is online reviews and other is video marketing. There are easy-to-use video programming packages out there that enable you to pull together videos to advance your 5-star reputation.

• Paid-For Ads: Do you have any better idea to earn trust to market your reputation than in a paid-for ad? As a substitute, don’t just advertise your product or any services you offer but make sure to also promote your business reputation. Having those 5-stars on your business really helps in building credibility and can force people to call you and not your rivals in the market.

• Social media posts: Well, this can be a challenging task. Use your reputation as a pin break for social media posts. Do remember to make images featuring your 5-star reviews. Reviews are meant as best for social media posts and even markets your products and services for your social media followers.

• Your Website: Much the same as making a review advertisement on a paid-for stage can help convince clients that they can believe you, putting a reputation promotion on your website will likewise let site guests realize that you’re reliable. Make a few distinct varieties of some of your best online reviews and make promotions that can be put on various pages on your website to fortify your awesome reputation.

• Newsletters: Still newsletters are considered as an effective medium as it helps in telling your list what is going on in the company and the market. Content used in the newsletter is very important as it can be attractive and educational too. If by chance you combine a review or two in the middle of the areas of substance in your newsletter, you will strengthen your brand’s unwavering quality to the general population who believe you as they have now subscribed to your newsletter. Once more, make certain to put the logo on the review site where the tribute seems to be online.

• Print advertisement: There are several ways to which you can tie your online and offline marketing together. Newspaper advertisements are one of them. At least make a change to print ad to promote your best 5-star reviews. This ad will make you famous in the community and will be making your brand or a company as the one that’s trusted and reliable.

• Television Advertisement: Lawyers mostly promote their happy and satisfied clients on their TV shows. They are doing all this because it really works. Post your 5-star reviews on TV ads, as it will help in building some trust and potential customers for your business. An amazing thing is that surveys demonstrate that after they see TV ads, many individuals go promptly to their PC or smart mobile phones to look into the reviews included in the business. On the off chance that you’ve developed incredible online reputation/reviews when these individuals scan for your business after your TV spot runs – they’ll see all your 5-star reviews!

I would suggest to you all these great ideas on how you can promote your 5-star reputations to lead in getting customers and get more 5-star reviews. Beanstalk Web Solutions can help you and your business to always get 5-star reviews and amazing image on the market.

Author’s Bio :

Savya Sachi Pandey is an enthusiast writer and had worked with several news portals which has afforded to enhance my writing skills. Exploring exotic places in his hobby, Football freak since childhood, music is in the soul, food lover. The ultimate aim is to be an actor, an old saying ‘history in making.’ Currently serving Vipra Business. Positivity is strength.  ‘Victory belongs to those who believe in it the most.”

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