Houston Internet Maketing Tips: The Power of Reviews

As a Houston internet marketing company, we are constantly trying to find techniques that our clients can use to boost their rankings without having to spend the extra cash. One of the most powerful SEO tools businesses have at their disposal are customer reviews. These differ from the traditional testimonial you may have posted on your website. Reviews are posted by customers on third party sites, such as Yelp and your Google+ Local page. These reviews can significantly increase the visibility of your website. Here’s a few ways to get more reviews on these sites.

Politely Ask your Customers

If it seems a bit awkward to ask your customers to leave a review, there are a few strategies you can use to make it seem more natural. If you have a feedback form you give clients, you can simply add your Google+ Local page or Yelp profile as an option.

Email campaigns can also be effective if done with another subject in mind. For example, if you have a special you want to promote, you can send an email about that and then add links to the site you would like a review on. You can also add links to more personal emails with clients as well.

Finally, business cards are an excellent place to promote your business. A Google+ button not only welcomes someone to connect with you, but it also invites someone to leave a review.

Spread them Out

So you have a customer that sends you and email thanking you for your product and/or service. You want to ask them to re-use that email and put it in a review, but you already have plenty of Google+ Local reviews. The best thing to do at this point is to ask them to put a review on a different site. Yelp is fantastic because those reviews can be pulled up on any smart phone map. Industry related website will also be helpful in terms of rank because their authority on the subject pulls more weight in the SEO world. Having your reviews spread out simply seems more authentic to Google’s algorithms.

Comment Back!

Its important to interact with your costumers. Responding back to reviews not only helps the image of your business, but it can also help you address problems you may have not been aware of.

Let them Roll in Slowly

If you are starting a review campaign, it is essential that you limit it to only a few clients or customers at a time. If you get a lot of reviews all at the same time, it may look a bit suspicious to Google. It ends up looking like you’re using black hat SEO tricks (e.g. paying services like Fiverr to submit reviews) to get your reviews up. You want to get reviews naturally, but you want to make sure that that is also reflected in the number of reviews you have.

For more Houston internet marketing tips like these, call Directory One at 713.465.0051.