Review Tactics for Local Rankings - SearchFest 2013

Review Tactics for Local RankingsSEMpdxSearchFest 2013Darren Shaw@EdmontonSEOhttp://www.whitespark.ca

Summary Tracking Offline Conversions Google+ Local Reviews 1. Why I’m Focusing on Reviews 2. Review Acquisition Tactics 3. Business to Business Reviews 4. Finding Top Reviewers 5. Review Filtering Factors 6. Review Tips Yelp 1. Why It’s Awesome 2. How To Improve Your Yelp Rankings

Tracking Offline ConversionsCall tracking is expensive and problematic for local SEO MUST use your actual number on your website for NAP consistency solution is to put the call tracking number in as an image then put your actual number in the footer in schema.org

Tracking Offline ConversionsNEVER use call tracking on citation sites Using a call tracking number in your citations will massively mess up your NAP consistency There is no automated solution for tracking these calls (unless the site is implementing an image or some kind of cloaking)

Tracking Offline Conversions Solution: build a form on your site that pushes conversions to Google Analytics. Ask callers how they heard about you.

Tracking Offline Conversions On submit, fire a conversion over to Google Analytics. This is going to take a bit of technical expertise that many SMBs won’t want to bother with though.

Offline Conversion Tracker (free tool)http://www.whitespark.ca/offline-conversion-tracker

Tracking FormOpens the search in anew window with the“near=“ parameter set tothe location entered onthe add/edit businesspage so you can visuallycheck if you rankorganically or locally(Google only)

Google AnalyticsTracks a breakdown of each source, keywords, caller, notes

Tracking Offline ConversionsGoogle+ Local Reviews1. Why I’m Focusing on Reviews2. Review Acquisition Tactics3. Business to Business Reviews4. Finding Top Reviewers5. Review Filtering Factors6. Review TipsYelp1. Why It’s Awesome2. How To Improve Your Yelp Rankings

Why am I focusing on reviews?Recently worked on research for a businesswiththousands of locationsGathered ranking factor data for 100 locationsRank, Location age, Competition, # Citations, #Reviews, Keywords in reviews, Categories, Links

Reviews were thekey factor betweenlocations that rankedand locations thatdidn’t.

Listings with reviews provide a better user experience VS

Google is all about user experience

Review Acquisition TacticsPERSONALIZED Email Follow Up

Review Acquisition TacticsFollow Up on your follow up

Review Acquisition TacticsThird time’s the charm

Review Acquisition TacticsSales receipt, email signature, back of business card … leave us a review

Review Acquisition TacticsPut a sign on the counter

Review Acquisition TacticsPut a sign on the counter That shit don’t work

Review Acquisition TacticsCreate a page on your site

Review Acquisition TacticsMatthew Hunt’s Review Funnelhttp://www.smallbusinessonlinecoach.com/blog/

Review Acquisition TacticsIf they select “Excellent” send to this page

Review Acquisition TacticsClick Yahoo, get page with video and iFramed review page

Review Acquisition TacticsClick Google, go to page with video (can’t iFrame it)

Review Acquisition TacticsHow to review us handout Developed by Phil Rozek “The Reviews Guy”

Review Acquisition TacticsHow to review us hand-out Follow him Read his blog Get on his mailing list WTF?

Review Handout Generator - FREE!http://www.whitespark.ca/review-handout-generator

Review HandoutGeneratorPrintable PDF

Business to Business Reviewshttp://www.davidmihm.com/blog/google/plus-review-as-business/

Business to Business Reviews Call your clients and make a list of who they work with. Ask them to think about the invoices they pay.

B2B Review Exchanges - How ToSign into G+ using your personal account

B2B Review Exchanges - How ToScroll down and click More > Pages on the left

B2B Review Exchanges - How To Click “Switch to this page”

B2B Review Exchanges - How ToYou’ll see a status bar appear at the top thatSays “You are now using Google+ as a page”

B2B Review Exchanges - How ToYou can now click the Local icon on the left side, find the business you want to review, and leave them a nice keyword rich review.

Finding Authority ReviewersClick “Local” in G+, enter a non-restaurant keyword andcity, and click search. Scan through the results. This pro tip is courtesy of Mike Ramsey.

Engaging Authority ReviewersCheck out their profiles, learn about what they like, circle them, follow them on twitter, leave comments on their posts. ENGAGE with them in a positive, non- promotional, manner. After a relationship is established, you could maybe saysomething like "Id love for you to come by the shop sometime." Keep it simple.

Review Filtering FactorsReview VelocityKeep it natural, which will depend on your industry and past history. No spikes. No mass "please review us" mailouts to your mailing list.

Review Filtering FactorsReviews from the same IP No review stations. Don’t take customer comment cards and post them as reviews from your office computer.

Review Filtering FactorsReviews that come from the same referrer Google likely tracks the referring source on each review created. If you always send people to your “please review us” page on your site and all your reviewscome through links on this page, it can indicate that the reviews were solicited.

Review Filtering FactorsIf you’re paranoid about referrer tracking…

Review Filtering FactorsReviews that come from the same user agentThere are hundreds of different user agents that identify the browser, browserversion, platform, and operating system version. If all your reviews are tagged with the same user agent it could be a spam signal.

Review Filtering FactorsReviews that come from the same user agentNo iPad out in the field (“10% discount for a review on the spot?”). They might not use user agent as a spam signal now, but they could later.

Review Filtering FactorsReviews from inactive users Someone signs up, leaves you a review, then never uses their account again. It’s filter time!

Review Filtering FactorsUnnatural review content http://reviewskeptic.com/Pretty sure that those super smart PhDs at Google have methods to identify if reviews are fake based on the content.

Review Tips#1 – Get at least *some* reviews

Review Tips#2 – Get 10 reviews, get the Zagat rating in SERPs

Review Tips#3 – Get keywords in your reviews. They really help. Ask reviewers to mention the service.

Review Tips#4 – After you have 10 G+L reviews, diversify

“Best” places for third party reviewsGetListed/Whitespark Study Best Citation Sources by Category http://getlisted.org/resources/local-citations-by-category.aspx

“Best” places for third party reviewsAdam Steele’s studyhttp://www.leanmarketing.ca/lean-top-50-best-local-citation-sources-in-the-usa/ You have to get on his mailing list to get the dataHe scraped 3rd party review sources from 45,570 listings and categorized them by city and category. I don’t think it says much about them being the bestcitation sources, but it’s super valuable for identifying 3rd party review sources.

Where to get third party reviewsPhil Rozek’s Local Review Ecosystemhttp://www.localvisibilitysystem.com/2012/07/06/the-local-business-reviews-ecosystem/ Some sites feed the reviews to many other sites, so it’s good to know which ones will give you additional distribution and encourage reviews there. Citysearch and Yelp stand out.

Yelp It’s one dang awesome siteWay more (and better) data on Yelp

YelpIt’s all over the local SERPs

YelpIt’s all over the local SERPs Yelp often ranks above the local pack

YelpIt dominated the GetListed/Whitespark study Not JustRestaurants! http://getlisted.org/resources/local-citations-by-category.aspx

YelpAnother reason to spend time on Yelp: Bing

YelpFurniture Outlet in Chicago

Yelp I called Andy to ask him some questions

Yelp“How has Yelp helped your business? How is business?” It has helped a lot. A lot of people say they find me on Yelp. Business is great. NOT ACTUALLY ANDY

Yelp“What percentage of your new business comes throughYelp? Just a rough estimate would be great.” I would estimate about 70% NOT ACTUALLY ANDY

Yelp“Are you doing other forms of online marketing, orjust Yelp?” Nope. Nothing else. Well, we have a website. NOT ACTUALLY ANDY

Andy’sWebsite

Yelp“How are you promoting your business on Yelp? Stickers?A sign in the store? On your website?” I don’t do anything. It just happened naturally. NOT ACTUALLY ANDY

Yelp“So what do you think is the secret to success on Yelp?” Just take care of your customers and run a good business NOT ACTUALLY ANDY Oh man! If only all our clients were like Andy.

YelpThis small business is killing it thanks to Yelp

Yelp#1 ranking with review stars and he does no SEODAYUM!!

Yelp Are your SMB clients tweeting and facebooking to no listeners? Try allocating some of that time to Yelp.

YelpCan’t ask for Yelp reviews. *Awareness* not solicitation http://officialblog.yelp.com/2010/08/dont-ask-for-reviews.html

YelpClaim and fully complete your Yelp business page http://biz.yelp.com

YelpClaim and fully complete your Yelp business pagehttp://www.reviewtrackers.com/yelp-help-ultimate-guide-optimizing-yelp-business-page-listing/

YelpPut up your stickers. *if you have themThese stickers have to be earned.you can’t request them. Thecompany doles them out 4 timesa year to businesses with lots ofreviews and and average of 3.5stars

YelpAdd a “Find us on Yelp” badge to your website.Totally sanctioned.They have a Flickr account where you can downloadimages, badges, signs, etc.http://www.flickr.com/photos/yelp/sets/72157623054478330/detail/

YelpPut up a sign in the office/lobby/whateverTotally sanctioned.

YelpAdd a link to your Yelp listing in your email signature.Totally sanctioned. http://www.wisestamp.com

YelpUse a badge to show off your Yelp reviews on your websiteTotally sanctioned. http://www.refmobworks.com/yelp.jsp

YelpUnfiltering reviews

YelpUnfiltering reviewsGet them back on Yelp. Respond, friend, compliment, message

YelpFinding people you know that are on Yelp Welp, that was easy!

Thanks!Darren Shawhttp://www.whitespark.ca@EdmontonSEO

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Review Tactics for Local Rankings - SearchFest 2013

by Darren Shaw on Feb 26, 2013

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Review Tactics for Local Rankings - SearchFest 2013 Presentation Transcript