A customer review is a simple, cost-effective measure that can be channeled by all businesses practicing online. With a little encouragement, your online review system could potentially give your online portal some steady growth.

There are many ways to promote an online customer review system, however getting your review system to effectuate presents a bit of a challenge. It’s all about developing a model that slots in nicely with your business cycle. Need a starting point? Here are a few ideas to kick off the thought process:

1. What physical resources can drive your review system offline? Despite having a beautiful review system up and running, you will need to drive word of mouth and encourage your customers to commit themselves to generating a review of your business. You also need to make things as easy for them as possible. Knowing this, how do customers arrive at your online review system when making a real-life transaction? You need something in the physical world to instigate online action.
2. Does your website request reviews? You need to make your reviews system prevalent throughout as many online assets – where applicable. A strategically placed link, placed in the appropriate context, will work wonders for an online review system.
3. Do you have an email campaign set-up? An email campaign is a great way to let your clients and prospects know about your review system, and furthermore encourage them to partake – think of the marketing message as well, as an email campaign is also promoting business objectivity. Want to learn more about email marketing? Check out our services page here.
4. What incentives do you have in place to generate reviews? This one requires a lot more thought, and will be different for every business, but the objective is the same. Reward your customers for going out of their way – at the end of the day, they didn’t have to leave a review. Even if a review is negative, they have still done you a huge favour by leaving you unbiased feedback about your products or services.
5. Are you proactive? If you know that you’ve got a happy customer, don’t be afraid to ask them to leave a review. After all, what’s the worst that could happen – they say ‘no’.

What are the benefits of an online review system? There are many. Your word of mouth will gain momentum, your review system will complement your local search efforts and you will appear objective and proactive in the eyes of your customers – which is what matters the most.

Is it about time that you started building an online review system? We can help you.

Now, let’s get into the juicy stuff. I picked up a nice little piece of information online, taken from the primary source of SMX West 2010. This information was derived directly from the seminar entitled “ranking factors for local search” and has been collated in a very well written piece by author Chris Silver Smith. In short, during the conference there were 10 elements outlined that can attribute to good quality scores and local search rankings. Let’s go through each element one by one, give a bit of an evaluation and examine how it can positively boost your page… I’ve narrowed it down to about 8:

1. Create employee profile pages – This all comes down to adding a bit of personality behind the brand. Ranking factors or not, this can be highly beneficial to businesses such as law firms for example, where the names of employees are frequently search by people online. Setting up an index of pages for each individual employee could be highly beneficial for search rankings when name-specific searches are performed. It could also be of benefit to have these types of pages installed with regards to managing online reputation. According to this seminar, Google has hinted to many that it intends to create a review system around individuals within a business. Conversely, this could indicate that that local search 7-pack could begin to appear listing company names around search for individuals employed by that company. This is just speculation at the moment, but it’s definitely something to keep in mind!
2. Contact us pages – This one is pretty common sense in my opinion. A ‘contact us’ page for local search is essential. This is the first place that the Google bots will look to index your information for local search results. Make sure that all of your business details, including physical address, contact number and even hours of operation are text-based, and included within the main body of the page. Make sure you embed Google Maps on your site to backup your physical business location! These can be found here for those interested, and you can even take it one step further by adding Street View. If you have multiple business locations, try and dedicate a business location to pages of their own.
3. Everything needs to be search-engine visible – Make it blatantly obvious that your contact page is, in essence, a contact page. Sounds stupid, doesn’t it? Not really. A lot of companies go for visually stunning page layouts that often bypass search rule 101: All information that you want the search bots to see needs to appear in an easily identifiable xhtml format. You’d be pleasantly surprised to learn of how many web-designers are oblivious to simple SEO best practices.
4. Customer/Client Testimonials – Of course! It only makes sense that Google want to be seeing this type of thing on your website, particularly when they’ve implemented a review system that has been emphasized by Google as being an integral part of the factors affecting local search rank.
5. Product and service descriptions – This basically entails dividing the services of your website into page themes. This will help leverage your organic rankings by having a dense amount of themed inbound links and keyword rich copy throughout your pages. This will subsequently help increase your organic rank for long-tail and product/service specific keywords. Also, when obtaining business listings across major directories such as Google Places, TrueLocal, Yellow pages etc. endeavour to list product and service keywords in business categories and descriptions. If you have customer testimonials specifically around different core service areas, it will also be beneficial to include these within the relevant pages.
6. Displaying prices and trust symbols – I’ve reworked this point a little bit. I totally agree when the experts say that you should be displaying prices to enhance usability, because in hindsight that is exactly what the consumer wants to see when they arrive at your website – the real bare bones. From a search perspective, this doesn’t really apply… What does apply however, is how your site is construed in terms of trust. For instance, does your company have an online payment gateway? If so… Do you have certification symbols to re-enforce the validity of your website? This will not only benefit your business in terms of increasing customer loyalty, but Google also looks out for this type of thing.
7. Coupons and discounts – If you’re yet to take the hint, Google has mentioned that it endorses local businesses that utilise the coupon feature in Google Maps. It’s a great customer incentive, and Google will boost you up as a trusted site because you’re adding value to the consumer – Google’s primary objective, make the search experience more rewarding for the customer.
8. Images – Images are a great for any business, big or small, because they’re a visual, autonomous way of selling your business. By depicting your products or services online, you’re giving the consumer transparent information to assist them into coming to a resolution about buying into your product or service. Google has identified with this, and the big hint here is that they encourage as much inclusion of images as well as video media within your local business listing as possible. Having a nice catalogue of images can do nothing but help your business increase levels of usability and convenience. Google Maps likes this type of thing.

According to the guys at SMX West, there’s approximately. 200+ ranking factors that make up the Google Local search algorithm, all unknown of course… But what you can see from the above, there’s a common trend emerging for local search: Usability. Google wants to make its local centre bigger than the phone book, more interactive, more engaging and more comprehensive.

Boost your usability = boost your quality score.

Each facet of Google.com is at all times two steps ahead of its competitors. They’ve established themselves as one of the most valuable worldwide data mines, they’re API technology is yet to be matched by any other competitor, they’re Maps data is so comprehensive that you can even view Area 51 from a bird’s eye view. With Google street view, the fact that you can virtually walk from one place to another online may indicate that augmented reality isn’t so far away after all. It’s ubiquitous and futuristic, and the choke-hold that this technology has over the rest of the market is strengthening. Google Chrome, despite using Apple’s Safari browser technology, has produced some admirable competition amongst the big wigs of browsers. What about Google Apps? This business model has diverted over 25 million businesses away from Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes.

Google Maps is arguably one of Google’s most prized possessions, and biggest seed for growth on the search engine’s path to into local search and mobile search domination. It was only a matter of time before Google started cashing in on one of their most significant works to date. Australia looks to be the guinea pig to test the fiscal outcomes of the new Maps venture. It’s all very exciting, but does this actually signify the end of the online paid directory for anything other than linkbait?

Hotfrog.com.au is Australia’s largest independent online directory, but even Hotfrog makes a vast majority of their revenue from Google AdSense and bases their location data on the Google Maps API. It really is a working example of how Google AdSense, in conjunction with Google Maps, has set up the search engine giant for greater influence. But will sites such as Hotfrog continue to make a profit off Google AdSense through their high amount of site traffic? Unlikely.

Unless Google gives an independent directory a “leg-up” in search, these independent businesses are going to suffer as a result of the trend shift towards Google Maps. Look at TrueLocal and the YellowPages, they’ve got nothing to worry about… But why? You would think that the Yellow Pages would be sweating buckets in the digital age with their phone books having more use now as drink coasters, arm rests and booster seats for short people rather than for locating local businesses. In my optinion, the Yellow Pages have covered their tails well here. They are well networked with Sensis, one of Google’s primary data sources for Australian business information.
TrueLocal on the other hand, despite being networked with Yahoo! Australia’s online search directory, are still closely networked with Google as it appears to favour the business directory as a “trusted source”. You would think that a business directory that is relatively new to the game would suffer, but luckily for them they’ve had the financial prowess of News Ltd. to back their venture.

With Google now planning to sell branded ad-space on Google Maps, the game just got interesting. Businesses, big and small, will now have the incentives to go to Google’s Local Business Directory directly. The implications for the smaller business directory websites here is that unless they can achieve Google’s trust, they will not have the backbone necessary to sell their service as a local business directory. After all, why would a business want to buy into a service that isn’t recognised by the biggest search engine in existence?
Welcome to Google’s inner-circle of local business directories. The game of local search is rapidly becoming the game of Google Maps.

The notion is pretty simple to understand, we see it as a hybrid of the classic Street Directory advertisements with conventional PPC cost schemes where the company will be charged based on an agreed number of impressions. Check out this example that we managed to snap of the National Australia Bank in Sydney:

The branded logos pinpoint the location of the advertisers’ store locations, sort of like the McDonalds logos in the old UBD street directories… Anybody remember these?

The Google product manager mentioned that the idea has been conceived to make map references more useful to users by using the logos that they would see on the street. The intention of this is questionable, seeing as Google already have Maps street view to help users identify their destination before they get there. It could be a way of making the satellite view user friendly, but the agenda seems to be for pure profit in our opinion. The new scheme has been expressed as non-relative to the existing local search listings, rather it will work alongside them. Removal of local search listings would have a devastating impact for SMEs, and although Google don’t plan on neglecting local search, does this new development indicate that they may be planning to cash in on basic business directory listings?

Either way, keep an eye on this development because if successful, it could be redefining Google Maps for local businesses.

Firstly, you’ll need to search for your listing and then claim it as the business owner. Google pulls it’s Australian data from trusted sites such as truelocal.com.au and yellowpages.com.au – if you are already listed on truelocal, then you should already have a listing in existence. The search engine will allow you to ‘claim’ you listing as a business owner, so you can manually edit and optimize your listing with more content.

When you are confirming a listing, you will be prompted through a confirmation process either over the phone, via mobile text or via a mailout. Once you have claimed a listing as a business owner, you can update it whenever you want at your own discretion simply by logging in to the google local business center.

Now, there is a lot of speculation as to what actually affects a Google Maps rank. In order to elucidate any myths or rumours you may have been hearing, let’s take a look at what Google’s Business Listing Quality Guidelines have to say:

“Business Listings in Local Business Center must have correct information about physical, local businesses, as they appear in the real world.”

1. This is the most common ranking factor misconstrued by many users simply wishing to manipulate the Google Maps algorithm in order to achieve a rank in the infamous “top seven” maps listings in the first pages of search. Based on the above, the fact remains:
   Your business must be registered at a physical address. Where Google obtains this data remains undisclosed, but know that they do have the information that indicates to them that a specified address is one registered as a business. This also implies that your business must have a physical mailing address – Google has made it clear that it will no longer accept PO boxes for local business listings.
2. URL – You should be using a URL that best identifies your individual location, this means that your URL should be a unique domain, registered with a business, and reflect your brand name.
3. Phone numbers – Google is extremely stringent in pushing the phone confirmation process. This process involves manual validation by prompting a Google call and subsequently receiving a pin number. To do this, ensure that the number you are providing Google is a land-line and not a switchboard. If you confirm via mobile, be well aware that your personal number will be appearing in public search – this method of confirmation is generally not advised unless you run a mobile business. Do not select the postcard option unless you want to wait 2 weeks to confirm your listing!
4. Customize your listing – A claimed listing goes along way, Google makes it clear that an owner-verified listing, that factors in all of the above, receives a favourable ranking in local search. But this is still only one piece of the pie. You want your Google local business listing to be performing at its peak.
   • Once your listing is owner verified – Go back into the Google local business center, double-check that your listing declares 100% completion. Make sure you have a diverse range of media in your listing: both images and video. Upload the images and video from a location on the web if possible.
   • Check your business categories – everything must be niche relevant, if you’re running a plumbing business, make sure you’re in the “plumbing” category. Pretty basic stuff, but it’s easy to miss.
   • Reviews – Trusted review sites are becoming a quintessential part of Google’s plans for local search development. Don’t know what “trusted Google sites” apply to your business niche? Do some competitor research. Search for your competitors on Google Maps, are they receiving any reviews from external websites? If they are, make sure your business is listed on those websites before confirming your Google listing.

What is local search?

Local search is the digital equivalent of a phone book. There is a major point of difference between local search and the conventional methods of looking up business details – that difference is the heightened level of interaction and convenience. Online local search not only provides you the basic business contact information, it can direct you to the business. In some cases, you may not need to call the business – say for example you’re looking to book in a car service. Rather than calling the mechanic, you could click on their website via the local search listing and make a booking online.

How local search is relative to the conventional phone book

Like the phonebook, online local search works on the notion of you searching through the index based on a keyword relevant to the goods or services you require. In a phonebook, when you locate the category pages you are presented with a compendium of businesses who offer services based on that parent category. Local search is the same, you can search based on a target category (or ‘keyword’, in search lingo) and you are confronted with a detailed list of highly relevant businesses – the difference is, these businesses are listed based on a measurement of your computer’s location, so not only do you get the mechanic you’re looking for, you get a complete list of mechanics in your local area as well as sophisticated directions that can take you from your garage to theirs.

The concept of ‘Farcasting’

What’s cool about local search is that it allows you to ‘farcast’ goods and services in an external region, something you could never achieve with the limitations of a regional ‘white pages’/phone book. Say for example I’m travelling from Sydney to Newcastle on the NSW mid-North coast. I’m arriving at night so I know I’m going to be pretty hungry after a long drive. I feel like having pizza for dinner so all I have to do is search for “Newscastle Pizza” and I can note down the locations of all the pizza restaurants in the region. I can even get directions from the hotel I will be staying at, to the front door of the place that I want to dine. This technique is known as ‘farcasting’ your search

The Power of a Local Search Rank

Google.com has the most comprehensive maps data available on the internet, as a result of their innovation and revolutionary technology, they are listed as the number one maps resource in terms of features and usability. With an almost unfair proportion of the online market-share, ranking in Google Maps should be an imperative part of any local search plan. To find out more on Google Maps ranking factors, check out local search optimisation resources page.