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Looking for ways to rank higher on Google? The answer could lie in how you manage your reviews with online directories like Yelp and your local Chamber.
Looking for ways to rank higher on Google? The answer could lie in how you manage your reviews with online directories like Yelp and your local Chamber.
Do you actively encourage your past and current customers to leave reviews?
Do you incorporate online reviews across your website?
Before diving in to how you can better promote and manage your MSP’s online reviews, let’s discuss why they’re so important in the first place.
Essentially, only reviews can tell search sites like Google that your business is active and trustworthy. That’s because, more than you, Google trusts reviewers.
Of course, a large swath of negative reviews is not going to promote the same authority as positive reviews. That should be a given. Ideally, however, you’re successful in your industry, and your customers are happy and satisfied with your services. Now the challenge is simply to get these customers to publicly rate your company. If you’re lucky, they’ll even explain how and why they’re satisfied with your services.
When this happens, you not only build authority with Google and other search sites, but you build authority with those potential customers and clients who are using search sites to look up your industry.
Chances are, your MSP clients are local. That is, if you offer managed services for dental offices in Tucson, you’re working with dental offices in Tucson and the surrounding area — not dental offices in Chicago.
Naturally then, your SEO practices that utilize local keywords (such as “Tucson dental IT services”) are going to help you rank high for local potential customers. But even more than local keyword-based SEO, a large number of online reviews, featured in a variety of online directories — ideally, local ones — are going to rank you high for local searches.
How well you manage your online reviews is directly correlated to how well your MSP ranks on local searches.
In terms of Google searches in particular, if you have a healthy online review quotient, your company is going to show up in Google’s “Local Pack” — which is extremely desirable. This is that box that shows up after you make a local Google search. It includes a map of the local area as well as organic search results of local business options pertaining to the search input.
You should consider the following factors as you begin to promote and better manage your MSPs online reviews.
1. Start by asking your past and current customers and clients to leave reviews. Even Google itself recommends doing this:
“Remind your customers to leave reviews. Let them know that it’s quick and easy to leave business reviews on mobile devices or desktop computers.”
Give customers this option:
2. Make leaving a review easy. Most people don’t have a lot of time on their hands to leave reviews for every company they work with. Therefore, you need to make leaving reviews super simple. Put a link on your website in a prominent place, for example.
3. Collect reviews from multiple directories. You want Google reviews, certainly, but you should also be looking for Facebook reviews, Better Business Bureau reviews, and notably, Yelp Reviews. Even though Yelp did start off as just a review site for restaurants and similar businesses, it is now highly regarded in a number of industries. Additionally, make sure you’re seeking reviews on local websites like your area’s Chamber of Commerce.
Call (863) 451-3088 and speak with Ulistic today to learn more about our business development, marketing, and sales services for managed IT service businesses.
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Stuart Crawford serves as Creative Director and CEO with Sebring, FL Ulistic, a specialty MSP Marketing firm focused on information technology marketing and business development. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience pertaining to how technology business owners and IT firms can use marketing as a vehicle to obtain success.
