Looking for more customers? It’s time to talk about reviews and more specifically, top review sites. Roughly 97 percent of consumers report that the customer reviews they read influence their purchasing decisions. But not all review sites are viewed the same.
Do you know what review sites are best for your business? Rather than just one, the answer is many. There are a variety of top review sites to help boost your online presence, manage your reputation and bring in more business.
As you probably already know, a great way to promote your business is by online reviews — and lots of them. Customer reviews can increase conversions by 270 percent. And the best part is that most sites are 100 percent free.
Here are some of the top review sites to help promote your business and manage your online reputation.
Angie’s List started as a review site for local businesses and was essentially the first of its kind. It was the first site to use local listings, so their reviews are reputable and carry a very high trust factor. Note that this site is best for service businesses.
Keep in mind that because customers are required to subscribe to Angie’s List before browsing listings and providing feedback, they’re more likely to provide you with useful and thoughtful reviews.
Your business may already be listed on Angie’s List, so it’s important for you to take the time to claim your business profile. You can also take advantage of their dispute resolution services when customers have complaints.
Facebook is a free social network that allows you to create a business page. Once you do that, you are able to receive reviews, ratings and message customers directly on Facebook.
Every time a follower likes or shares your business page, potential customers will see the raving reviews, which will inevitably influence their impression of your business — free advertising. Facebook also provides an option to purchase ads as well as a variety of options and functionality for your business. It allows you to customize your page and provide essential information as well as pictures.
It’s no surprise that Facebook is the largest social network in the world. Facebook caters to more than 2.5 billion monthly users. If you don’t have a Facebook business page, you need to create one as soon as possible.
Google is the king of all search engines, which makes it among the top review sites as well. Google has 57.5 percent of the total number of reviews on the internet. Being the largest search engine in the game, Google gets the most traffic and provides more exposure than any other site — which is a lot of visibility. More than 63 percent of all consumers check for reviews of businesses on Google.
Claiming and verifying your business on Google My Business is a great move for boosting local search rankings factors. Once your business is verified, you should post information about your business, including hours, location, pictures, a link to your website, and a description of what services or products you provide.
When customers search for your company (or a business in the same category) on Google, they can tap to call or get directions directly from the browser to your location. In other words, Google makes it easy.
Admit it, we all check Yelp. We can’t help it. Like Google, Yelp is one of the most well-known local business review sites on the web. Once you add your listing to Yelp, you’ll receive clear instructions on how to claim and optimize your business page.
Note that Yelp prohibits you from directly asking customers to review your business, but you can use Yelp branding and in-store signs to indicate to customers that you want their feedback.
HomeAdvisor.com is a great review for service businesses, especially home services. If you own any kind of home repair business it’s a good idea to register on HomeAdvisor.com.
Some popular home repair businesses include:
Customers are able to search for local service providers by inputting a kind of service and a zip code. The search result page will display your business as well as your ratings and reviews.
Manta offers free business listings for companies looking to grow their online presence. Manta is especially great for small businesses and it lets you manage and update important business information like services, hours, products, locations, to keep customers and prospective customers up-to-date.
Manta is one of the largest online communities for promoting and bringing small businesses together. It has over one million registered users and 64 business listings, which provides ample opportunity to build connections. Business owners use Manta to market themselves, make their company stand out from the competition, and get their business found in the digital world.
Depending on what you are looking for, paid review sites can also be a great option. One of the prominent ones is Yellow Pages (YP), which provides listings for local businesses. YP has been around for a long time and is a highly regarded review site, but it does require you to pay to claim your page.
Similarly, Better Business Bureau (BBB) is another paid top review site with a very reputable name that requires payment. The paid options are great and provide different features, but it depends on what your business is looking for.
What review sites does your business appear on? Chances are, not enough. Reputation management is no joke and it should be something small businesses prioritize and take seriously. Eighty-four percent of people trust online reviews as much as they trust recommendations from friends — reviews matter.
Managing reviews across a bunch of sites can be tough — we understand that you’re busy and you don’t have an infinite amount of time to spend on reputation management. But it’s not something that can be neglected and it doesn’t have to be hard.
That’s where GoSite’s Reviews comes into play. The Review tool allows you to view, respond and manage your reviews from all the top review sites on a single dashboard — reputation management made easy.
It’s time to focus on boosting reviews on sites that really matter. Are you ready to take control of your online presence?