SEO seems daunting and complicated to many small business owners. They get conflicting information from different sources and aren't sure who to believe. I often run into prospects that have recently been told some secret technique or strategy that is either outdated or unethical. Or sometimes people just totally miss very important factors in the [...]
I may be a little too close to the review world, but each time I hear a radio ad come on that talks about how many five-star reviews they have, it makes me cringe. For one thing, there is no mention of how many 1-star reviews they have or even 2 stars. There is no [...]
The end of October has been a fountain of information around reviews data and Google My Business information. We have had three major studies come out in the past 10 days or so around the different aspects of Google My Business or reviews in general. I wanted to touch quickly on this data before pointing [...]
This is a quick post because it has come up a few times in the past week talking with business owners and even the example image letter I recently got after making a purchase. Please don't risk getting yourself in trouble by offering prizes or rewards for 5-star reviews. Both Google and Amazon have strong [...]
As Google gets more nuanced with its algorithm over time, we are seeing reviews move up in importance and offer a lot more information than simply the overall score. Sergey Alakov recently found Google showing thumbs up and thumbs down to specific features within hotel reviews. This is the canary in the coal mine for [...]
Search Engine Land recently dug into a recent study showing how increases in review score and responses correlated to more conversions. This seems like a no brainer to those that have been following closely and understand that Google rewards interacting with your GMB page, but it is important in that any time we show true [...]
Just last week I talked to someone who explained how they did "Review Gating" for their company. This is a practice that was banned by Google back in the spring of 2018. This means you can get in trouble and in many cases lose all of your reviews if found to be "gating". What is [...]
I recently reached 10 years of being an accredited business with the Better Business Bureau. As with any industry, having a good reputation and being trustworthy is an important piece of success. I have earned my A+ rating by working together with my customers to push them toward their goals so that they can focus [...]
