why you need reviews

Property of Reach Communications

Why You Need Reviews and How We Help You

February 19, 2014

% of consumers that use online reviews?

% of consumers that TRUST online reviews?

% of consumers that use the traditional yellow pages?

86%

79%

2%

Test Your Knowledge

Where To Spend on Marketing?Editorial content

in newspaperRadio Ads

Magazines Ads

Text Ads to

Mobile Phones

TV Ads

Infomercials

Search

Engine Ads

Billboards

Ad before movies

Brand

sponsorships

Newsletters

Online Video Ads

Branded Websites

Ads on social

networks

Consumer

Opinions

Posted Online

Personal

Recommendations

from people

Advertise in places consumers

trust most

Marketing Mix & Trust In Advertising

29%

33%

33%

36%

36%

40%

40%

41%

42%

46%

47%

47%

47%

47%

50%

58%

58%

70%

92%

71%

67%

67%

64%

64%

60%

60%

59%

58%

54%

53%

53%

53%

53%

50%

42%

42%

30%

8%

Text ads on mobile phones

Online banner ads

Display ads on mobiles devices

Online video ads

Ads on social networks

TV program product placements

Ads served in search engine results

Ads before movies

Ads on radio

Ads in newspapers

Ads on TV

Brand sponsorships

Ads in magazines

Billboards and other outdoor advertising

Emails I signed up for

Editorial content such as newspaper articles

Branded Websites

Consumer opinions posted online

Recommendations from people I know

To what extent do you trust the following forms of advertising?

Trust Completely/Somewhat Don't Trust Much/At All

Neilson Global Trust in Advertising and Brand Messages 201228,000 Interest Respondents in 56 countries

Consumer opinions posted online

The likelihood that a customer would initiate business with a vendor:

No Ratings

84%

80%

14%

1%

0%

2%

Source: Pepperdine University School of Business Study – June 2012

Only 3% of potential new customers categorize themselves as “likely” to try a business with 0, 1, or 2 stars.

How Review Sites Can Pump Up Your SEO

Your Company Websitehttp://www.url.com

Testimonials

Disclaimer: Your search results will likely fluctuate daily and will vary

Your Company Testimonialswww.url.com/testimonials 107 reviews

Your Company Facebook Pagewww.facebook.com/yourcompanynameShort description of your company

Your Company Google+ Pageplus.google.com/231246353573 42 reviews

Your Company Yelp Pagewww.yelp.com/231246353573 12 reviews

Your Company Twitter Pagewww.twitter.com/YourCompanyNameThe latest news from @YourCompany

Your Company Websitewww.url.com/homeShort description of your company

Harness the power of dozens of review sites compared with a handful of social media sites

Easily and quickly build many high quality links that promote your website and enhance SEO

Local Search Ranking Factors

Source: http://moz.com/local-search-ranking-factors

Place Page Signals19.6%

External Location Signals16.0%

On-page Signals18.8%

Link Signals14.4%

Review Signals10.3%

Social Signals6.3%

Behavioral & Mobile Signals6.1%

Personalization

8.3%

• Place Page Signals(Categories, Keyword in Business Title, Proximity, etc.)

• External Loc. Signals(IYP/aggregator NAP consistency, Citation Volume, etc.)

• On-page Signals(Presence of NAP, Keywords in Titles, Domain authority, etc.)

• Link Signals(Inbound anchor text, Linking domain authority, Linking domain quantity, etc.)

• Review Signals(Review quantity, Review velocity, Review diversity, etc.)

• Social Signals(Google+ authority, Facebook likes, Twitter followers, etc.)

• Behavioral/Mob. Signals(Clickthrough rate, Mobile clicks to call, Check-ins, Offers, etc.)

• Personalization

Top Local SEO Ranking FactorsFoundational Ranking Factors

1 Proper Category Associations

2 Physical Address in City of Search

3 Consistency of Structured Citations

4 Quality/Authority of Structured Citations

5 HTML NAP Matching Place Page NAP

6 Quantity of Structured Citations (IYPs, Data Aggregators)

7 Domain Authority of Website

8 Individually Owner-verified Local Plus Page

9 City, State in Places Landing Page Title

10 Proximity of Address to Centroid

11 Quality/Authority of Inbound Links to Domain

12 Quantity of Native Google Places Reviews (w/text)

Competitive Difference Makers

1 Quality/Authority of Structured Citations

2 Quality/Authority of Inbound Links to Domain

3Quantity of Reviews by Authority Reviewers (e.g.Yelp Elite, Multiple Places Reviewers, etc)

4 Consistency of Structured Citations

5 Quantity of Citations from Industry-Relevant Domains

6 Quantity of Native Google Places Reviews (w/text)

7 Domain Authority of Website

8Quality/Authority of Unstructured Citations (Newspaper Articles, Blog Posts)

9 Quantity of Citations from Locally-Relevant Domains

10 Page Authority of Places Landing Page URL

11 Association of Photos with Local Plus Page

12 Quantity of Third-Party Traditional Reviews

Areas shaded in yellow are monitored and/or improved with ReviewInc

Reviews: Impact on SEO(Simplified Version)

Balance Recent

BreadthQuantity

Quality

Consistency

Name Address Phone # Website

Dunder Mifflin 1357 Scott Road, Albany, New York 12205 (212) 555-4532 www.dundermifflin.com


Funder Difflin 1357 Scott Road, Albany, New York 12205 (212) 555-4532 www.dundermifflin.com




Dunder Mifflin 1357 Michael St., Albany, New York 12205 (212) 555-4532 www.dunder-mifflin.com


Dunder Mifflin 1357 Scott Road, Albany, New York 12205 (212) 555-4532 www.betterpaper.com


ConsistencyDunder Mifflin1357 Scott RoadAlbany, New York 12205(212) 555-4532www.dundermifflin.com

Breadth

In this example, this pizza restaurant is all over the first page of the Google search. It has reviews on FOUR listings, but it would even better if they had more

(Google will produce results based on your location, so a search for Pizza Nosh the emanates from Agoura Hills would yield the same result)

Business BBusiness A

8 Reviews on

50 Reviews onwith one overall rating

Which One Has the Better Reputation &

SEO?

10 Reviews on

15 Reviews on 5 Reviews on




Breadth

Quantity

17 Reviews

3 Reviews

17 reviews (vs 3 reviews) for a coffee/bakery shop will impress customers. Also if there is any concern with fake reviews, while it may be easy to fake 3 reviews, it’s much harder to fake 17 or more reviews.

Quantity

232 Reviews

1075 Reviews

171 Reviews

10 Reviews

1. In this example, coffee shops with more reviews appear higher. Google appears to combine the rating and the number of reviews to determine the order displayed.

2. Here “Spring For Coffee” has less reviews than “Intelligentsia Coffee” but it has a higher rating.

3. “Urth Caffe” has slightly lower rating than “Downbeat Café” but it has far more reviews.

Quantity1. Google’s new

carousel highlights the importance of reviews. Typically (but no always), local businesses with high review quantities appear at the front of the carousel

2. Here “Spring For Coffee” has MORE reviews than “Alana’s Coffee” and has a lower rating.

Recent

Reviewed a year ago

Reviewed a year ago

Reviewed a year ago

Reviewed a year ago

Reviewed two weeks ago

Reviewed a month ago

Reviewed 5 months ago

Reviewed 11 months ago

• Two dentists, one with 6 reviews and one with 4 reviews.

• The one with 4 reviews has two reviews in the last month.

• The one with 6 reviews has reviews that are at least a year old!

• The more recent reviews carry more weight when making a choice. If you had to pick one, which would you choose?

Balance

• Although reviews for 2KRacing are a little old, there are 23 reviews of which only one is negative.

• The 22 positive reviews counter the single negative review to provide a more balanced review of the business

• This transmission service has 49 PERFECT reviews! Really?

• Which one would you choose?

23 reviews

QualityMentions of Keywords related to your business service

Paper Company

Dunder Mifflin paper is excellent quality and they deliver their paper right to your office

Auto Body Shop

Dentist

ABC-BodyShop restored my damaged vehicle like it was new. The body paint looked perfect.

Mr.Smiley Dentist has a really soft touch. He replaced my veneers in two quick visits and it was painless.

Summary: Reviews & SEO Impact

Balance• Best way to overcome negative reviews is balancing them with

positive reviews. Obviously a good rating is critical, but it should look balanced. Google SEO likes “review diversity” as well.

• Well balanced reviews quell concerns that reviews might be faked• 20 “perfect 5” star reviews can be less believable than “18 perfect 5’s,

1 three-star and 1 two-star”

Recent• New or more recent reviews are more relevant. • Older reviews have less value to consumers because they may not

indicate current service levels. • When there are only old reviews, consumers assume that there

aren’t any more happy customers

Breadth• The more review sites that have reviews, the more those sites show

up on a Google search• This also impacts SEO• Include reviews on your own site

Quantity• At least 7 reviews on a review site (per studies)• Google requires 5 reviews for a rating• More reviews on a site can impact category searches• The more reviews on site, the less likely fake reviews will have an

effect (positive or negative)

Quality• The text of reviews impacts SEO.

• The best reviews should include keywords associated with a business or a service provided by the business

Consistency• Name, Address and Phone Number should be consistent across all

review sites.

• Search engines will give preference to businesses that have consistent listing data on review sites

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep

Return on Investment?

Reviews = $

Sources: Harvard Business School Study – October 2011Woodbury University Business School, January 2014

$A one-star rating increase leads to a 5%-9% increase in revenue

79.5% of business owners expect revenue to

increase at least 1% with a one point star improvement.

65.3% expect revenue to increase by at least

5%!

Increasing overall rating from 3.5 to 4.5

= $ $ $ $ $

• Online Reviews Are Critically Important

• Reviews are Everywhere• Reviews will help my

business grow

So why do I need help?

Reviewers Motivated by Emotion

Left on their own, angry customers are more likely to post negative reviews than happy customers who would post positive reviews

Happy Customers are more passive

Angry Customers Like to Vent

It Takes Time and Effort…

Staying on top of all the review sites take time

Following up with customers takes time and effort

Tracking progress takes

analysis

Dealing with review sites takes time

One bad review can “kill” a business

Unless you have help

The Answer

• An automated Reviews Management Service

• Keys to Collecting Reviews:– Easy– Accessible– Follow-Up

• Monitors, Alerts, Collects, Follows up, Tracks Progress related to private and public reviews

• Value to Your Business?Priceless!

SIGN ME UP!

• We’ll analyze your business reviews and we’ll show you how it works!

Take Control Now!

Want a Free Demo?

• Please contact us to see what we can do for your business!

• Telephone: +44161 929 6269

• Email: [email protected]

• Follow us at: @ReachCommsUK

• Or on LinkedIn: Reach Communications ltd

APPENDIX

CONSUMER SURVEY: If you were to select a company to remodel or furnish your home, what

would you base your selection on?

• 1500 consumers surveyed in July 2013 across across the United States.

• Each answer choice order was randomized for each respondent

• Each respondent could only choose ONE of the responses thus forcing them to choose the most influential answer

Background

• ReviewInc surveyed 1,500 consumers on how they would make a selection when choosing to remodel or furnish their home.

• The study included consumers from across the United States with a minimum age of 18 years old of both males and females.

• The study took place from July 26th through July 28th, 2013

Demographics

18-34301

35-54373

55+480

Unspecified372Female

544

Male629

Unspecified353

1,526Responses

Age GroupGender

Survey Question & Design

If you were to select a company to remodel or furnish your home, what would you base your selection on:

• Each answer choice order was randomized for each respondent

• Each respondent could only choose ONE of the responses thus forcing them to choose the most influential answer

• Because personal referrals were already known as one of the highest selection methods, we chose to exclude it from the questions, but respondents could specify “friends” or “people I know” and other such answers in the “Other field”Reviews on Google+, Yahoo, Yelp, etc.

Company’s website

Traditional Yellow Pages Book

Advertisement on TV/Radio/Newspaper

Online Advertisement

Other – Specify:

Generation Gap?

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

14%

Review

s on

Go

ogle+, Yah

oo

,Yelp

etc.

Co

mp

any's W

ebsite

Traditio

nal Yello

wp

agesB

oo

k

Ad

vertisemen

ts on

TV/R

adio

/New

spap

er

On

line A

dvertisem

ent

Reco

mm

end

ation

s from

Peo

ple I kn

ow

Oth

er

18-34 35-54 55+

Interesting that ALL AGE groups showed a high preference for selecting a remodeling or furnishing company based on online review sites.However, aged 55 and over showed a more than twice the younger generation a preference for use of the traditional yellow pages

Most Angry Customers Vent Once

0sites

1site

2sites

3sites

The vast majority of unhappy customers will only post 1 negative review*

If you can capture their frustration before they vent publicly, you can prevent negative reviews

69% 19% 8%4%

*Source: Pepperdine University School of Business Study – June 2012

Everyone On a Smartphone

Smart Phones & Local Reviewsby Age Group

Source: Google and the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) , May 2012

Smartphone Usage on Social Networks

Source: Google and the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) , May 2012