The importance of online reviews, can not be emphasized enough! If you perform a local search in Google, you will find numerous examples of top performing companies in competitive markets ranking highly on the maps because of reviews.

Some of the social review sites don’t want companies to solicit reviews through bribes or other incitements. But let’s get real! There is one that I know of, begins with “Y” that will hang on to bad reviews for months, and the good reviews disappear after a month. Fair is fair. It’s hard enough to get reviews from your customers.

So, I have created a little form in which you can download and customize it for your use. I suggest if you are a one time company, like a pool builder, that you offer an incentive such as a gift card. And for those of you with ongoing relationships, like a housecleaning service, offering a 10% off your next visit is one of many good ideas.

I know this will help!

One of the biggest hurdles that general contractors have to get past is the trust factor. Are we who we say we are? Will we do what we say we will do? Can we produce what we say we can produce? As a contractor we expect a total stranger to call us, schedule to meet, enter their home or business, tear something apart, then rebuild it to look awesome. That’s asking a lot from someone we just met or talked to on the phone.

That’s what it is all about in the service business – trust.

Today the property owner has ways of getting to know the contractor before ever meeting them face-to-face.

Thanks to social networks like Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter, the general contractor can be “checked out” long before ever meeting him. Before the internet boom, you had a square box in the yellow pages, or a flyer shoved into your door as a first impression to the contractor.

Today we can look at companies and people in a different way. We can see the contractors work, comments they have posted, who they associate with – and maybe that trust can be increased a little by getting to know them better. And there is more that we can do.

In searching for the right contractor that you can trust you probably want someone near you. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way that we could finding someone that we could trust nearby. There are ways to look up general contractors in your area. Here are a few popular sites.

Google , Yahoo, and Bing all have local search directories. Yelp is another. These local searches may help pinpoint contractors near you to help get started on your quest for the trusted contractor. Are there any other ways to finding a service business? Many more. How about the most trusted source of finding a contractor ever – Word-Of-Mouth.

That’s right, people are most comfortable getting a referral based on what their friends and family have experienced. Someone they know has already tried using the contractor and was happy with the results. Don’t have friends and family that have used a general contractor?

Example: Customer Testimonials

Maybe the contractor has a list of past customers for you to contact. Don’t be afraid to make contact with the past customers, it may help you build that trust. And in this business, trust is very important to both you and the general contractor.

There has been a recent trend with all of the major search engines, that you need to take advantage of now. That trend is local search. Going back as recently as 8 months ago, when searching for your company on the internet, a person would have to enter your company’s name and city in the search box. What if the customer knew you were a general contractor, but forgot your company’s name. The same sort of search would be made “general contractor sacramento”.

Local search has changed!

Today, search engines have gotten smarter. To find a roofer in your locality, all one would have to do is enter the term “roofer” and depending where the client was located Google will display a map with 10 options. That too has changed, Google has upped the ante to include just 7 possible choices. This has made it critical to for you to ensure your presence, otherwise you’ll get lost.

I’ve written before about local search, social media and website optimization as sorely needed tools for any business looking to get found on the internet.

Well today, I have good news! You don’t have to spend a fortune to accomplish high rankings in local search. Frankly, most company’s offering similar services are newbies in local search and charge “big bucks” for their website optimization services. That would be great, if you are looking for top rankings in a broad market. What I mean by that, is getting ranked highly for the term electrical contractor means you would have to compete with all of the contractor directories and national organizations.

What’s missing is a laser targeted placement in your local hometown, listing your company and your specialty. And come to think of it, wouldn’t it be nice if you were a dentist, let’s say, and you were listed in the top spot for “emergency tooth replacement”. We all know not many people are searching for that particular service, but when they do, they are willing to pay a premium if your comapny could be found. The same analogy could be used with a roofer, “emergency roof replacement”.  This is where a targeted local search campaign can reward your company with bushels of money!

Until now, if you wanted to take the time to list your company with 40 or more website directories and yellow page sites, you would have to spend a minimum of 10 hours! I know this to be true, because this is one of the most important ways to get your company listed and ranked highly with search engines. Using this strategy alone has quadrupled or more the number of visitors to my clients’ websites. The downside has always been the time it took to get listed.

The good news is, after spending numerous hours of submitting and systematizing my work for my clients, I have been able to offer an affordable option. Starting today, for an annual fee of just $199 I can have your company listed in all of the major search engines and over 40 internet directory and mobile search sites.

So where will my company get listed?

LOCAL SEARCH / MOBILE

Yahoo! • MSN / Live.com • Google • AOL • Citysearch • YellowPages.com • SuperPages • WhitePages • Yelp • Local.com • Quebecor/canoe inc. • InfoSpace/Idearc • Ask • BlackBerry/RIM • infoUSA • Express Update • Acxiom • Dex • iBegin • Insider Pages • OpenList • Yellow Book • Yellow Page City • Yelp • Disney • Topix • VP.com • Zingy • Deep Data • AllPages • LocalMatters • BeanPool • HelloMetro • OneCallNow • Search Iniatives • Switchboard.com • Electronic Directories (Yellow Pages, Inc.)

GPS Navigation / Mapping

MapQuest • OnStar • tomtom • Lowarnce • TeleAtlas • DigiWalker • ALK • ViaMichelin • Zenrin

411

LSSI • INFONXX • V-enable • TellMe

Some list, eh?

I don’t want to turn this blog into a sales page, if you would like to do this yourself, I just provided a great list of websites to go to and sign up and submit your company. If you would like to have our company submit for you, then you’ll have to visit our client services website by clicking here!

In the meantime, I hope this helps to understanding how you can get your business found on the internet. Please feel free to leave us your comments. If you would like to speak to me personally, click the “Call Me Now” button on the right hand side of the page and I will be happy to speak with you.

74.1% of all consumers in the United States use the internet to find and locate companies – Nielsen Online

In today’s economy, if you aren’t marketing your company on the internet you are losing business to your competitors who are.

How To Get Listed, Updated or Delete Bogus Listings.

There are three main types of internet web sites

• Local Search Engines
• Online Yellow Pages
• Local Social Media

So what are these and why are they important.

Local Search Engines - Over the past year or so, all of the major search engines have made changes in the way they display the results for local businesses. They all have gotten smarter. What do I mean by smarter? When a user types in a search, for example “roofing contractor”. The search engines will not only display the top “Roofing Contractor” sites, BUT they will also provide a local listing of companies based on the searcher’s location. They are able to do this because every computer connected to the internet has an unique address or IP address. Here are some examples.

What you notice, is the IP address identifies the Country, Region, City and Zip Code (if in the USA) for any computer connected to the internet. What I haven’t shown you in the above table, is it also indicates the Longitude/Latitude. See sidebar for more information.
Here are a couple of examples from the major Search Engines.
GOOGLE – local search is combined with the rest of the internet results.

BING (formerly MSN) – does combine local search with the rest of the web like Google, but in Bing’s case, it is the first result.

YAHOO – unlike Google and Bing, does require a location keyword. This example if for the search “roofing contractor roseville ca”

Online Yellow Pages - Sites like YellowPages.com and SuperPages.com offer a typical yellow page style ad. Those listings with logos are paid listings

Lastly, Local Social Media - These sites include user submitted ratings and reviews with the listings. It is important to note, you could have bad reviews which will affect your company’s reputation. It is important to monitor your company’s online reputation! In another article, I will take you through the steps to monitoring your company’s reputation using the service Google Alerts.
For the most part, these sites all have an online submission form. Typically this takes approximately 10 to 15 minutes each to submit. Below you will find a listing of some of the top websites to list, update or delete your listings:

LOCAL SEARCH ENGINES
	Get listed on Yahoo!
GOOGLE LOCAL	Google Local Get your copy of a free report with step by step guide.
	To add a free listing on Local.com
	To add or update your listing, you need to submit to infoUSA which provides the data for MapQuest

INTERNET YELLOW PAGES
	Get a free listing.
	Add or edit your listing
	Add or edit your listing
	Claim your listing

LOCAL SOCIAL MEDIA
	To add or edit your listing
	Sign up for a free account
	Sign up for a free account
	Sign up and get listed

These are just a few of the popular sites to list your company.

In today’s economy, it is more important than ever to expand your company’s online presence. With a little bit of time on your part, you can harness the power of the internet to drive more customers to your company.

Be sure to check out our complimentary 30 page guide to getting your company listed with Google Local Business.

If you would like to have our experts list your company to all three of the top internet search engines and 7 other internet directories and local social media sites visit SiteDesign.HomeBuildR.net We provide a very affordable service to help expand your company’s presence on the internet, with or without a website.

In this case, the reviewer mistakenly gave a bad review to the customer because of a similarly spelled company. My customer, ABEL Garage Door, was mistaken for another contractor “ABLE Garage Door.” You might also be in a similar situation if you have a competitor in your market trying to piggy back your success. Or as in the majority of cases, we can’t please all of our customers all of the time. Especially when it comes to those “techie know it alls”, need I digress

All business owners have to take a proactive stance to make sure their reputation remains undamaged.

So the first question one has to ask is “How Do I Monitor How My Company Is Reviewed?” With the answer to this question, we can then discuss damage control.

The easy solution for monitoring your reviews on the internet is Google Alerts. With Google Alerts you can setup a notification that is sent directly to your email anytime anyone mentions your company.

Once notified of a problem, you can take steps at minimizing the damage. I found a great post in Google’s Help Center. While this advice is mainly targeting Google, it also works well with most user review type sites.

Hi Rick

I can understand your frustration. This is only my advice and it could work but no promises. First create some other accounts on review sites that Google pulls reviews from like
Yelp
Yellowbot
Tupalo
MojoPages
Judy’s Book
and ask your customers to give you some honest reviews about your business. Even if the false review still stays there it will push it down the list and people will see it is only once and not everybody.

Second have some other customers simply flag it as inappropriate with the reasons why and leave a good review on Google. Google would expect to have the business owner flag it as inappropriate and will give that little weight in the deletion on the listing but if you get a small group of people who can say this is false it will go a lot further.

It will take some time.

Let me know how it turns out.

Andy – LocalSEOInc

In particular, when it comes to a bad review on Yelp.com, as a business owner with a Yelp Business Owner’s Account, you have the ability to post a public response to a bad review. To capture your business owner’s account on Yelp go to biz.yelp.com

I hope you have found this information useful relating to damage control for handling a bad business review.

I never did explain Google Alerts. With that in mind, I will create a “Step by Step Guide to Setting Up Google Alerts” in another post.

Please feel free to leave your comments and questions below.

Thanks,

HomeBuildR

Yellow pages are DEAD!

4 out of 10 consumers use local search to conduct research and make purchasing decisions. – Business Wire

So what is local search engine marketing?

Your potential customers have rapidly changed their buying habits. Right now 40% of consumers use the internet when making their buying decisions, and this number has grown 31% in just the last year 2008.

Which brings up the question, how do consumers use the internet to find you?

• Area search – An example of this is “roofing contractor sacramento”
• Hands On search – This is a search where the consumer is looking to visit your place of business to see what options are available or to compare prices first hand. Example – “tile store chicago”
• Finding a specific business – This type of search was traditionally done with the yellow pages, which is time consuming at best. Instead, using the internet one can quickly find the business they are looking for – “lumber yard sunrise blvd”

Consumers looking to do business with contractors use the internet to find you. By far the most common type of search for contractors is an area search. And for those of you who rely on a storefront, like kitchen and bath design centers, to aid in your sales process, the hands on search is also relevant.

Your sales are impacted by local search!

Let’s take a moment to see exactly what is seen by your consumers when they do a local search for your company. Google is constantly trying to determine if the search has local intent. For example, when someone is looking for a specific company in an area Google will display a specific location.

At other times, Google can’t determine if the consumer is looking for a specific company. In this example, the consumer is looking for a contractor in an area. When Google see this, it will display a map with many of your competitors. If your company isn’t shown, you are not going to get the call!

One last way, that Google serves up a search is when they know the business, but can’t determine the location. This is what I call a 3 pack.

As you can tell, local search is important for your company to embrace. As a business, you need to take the steps necessary to list your company and take control over your listing. Doing this well, will have you placed near the top of Google’s local search.

Consumers are using the internet to find contractors and businesses. Can they find you?

In the next article in this series, I will discuss mobile search and the rapidly changing way your customers are using not only their computers to find you, but their iPhones and other smartphones.

Please feel free to give me your comments and suggestions as to what you would like to learn in future articles by commenting below.