According to one analysis, more than 27 percent of potential
customers will look for reviews of an enterprise in the
search engines before making an online purchase from the
company. Moreover, a separate study showed that
approximately 25 percent of patrons search for testimonials
on at least one social media network.
The Importance of Dominating the First Two Pages
of the Search Results
When a person types a phrase into Google's search box,
each page will typically contain 10 organic results. An
extensive study indicated that only 12 percent of
customers who are researching a company will view the
third page of the search results, and approximately five
percent of potential buyers will reach the seventh page.
The first page is the most important. Focus on getting
positive results for your brand on the first page.
Boosting the Rankings of Pages With Positive
Reviews
Many marketers establish backlinks for webpages that
contain favorable testimonials about a business. These
incoming links will substantially enhance the page's
authority, and in order to improve the impact of the
backlinks, an advertiser can add a targeted keyword
phrase to each link's anchor text.
Decreasing the Number of Negative Testimonials
When customers have posted unfavorable testimonials on
an independent site, some businesses opt to offer the
reviewers discounts if they remove the posts that are
potentially damaging. If the testimonial contains false
claims, the advertiser can ask the owner of the site to
remove the falsified review.
Answering Questions
When a buyer posts a negatively phrased question on the
social media networks, the business should publicly
respond within 12 hours. The company can also add a link
to a webpage that contains the answer to the question.
If the company answers to the negative response promptly
and with care it can not only turn a negative customer
into a happier one but will send trust signals to the
potential customers reading the review. Oftentimes,
people just want to know that the company will care
about their experience.
The Impact of Extensive Content
The more often a marketer adds fresh content to the
website, the more swiftly the site will reach the first
page of a search engine. By posting especially long
articles that focus on the business, an advertiser will
cause the rankings of the website's pages to eclipse the
positions of webpages with negative reviews, which
typically have a length of less than 250 words.
Do Positive Things in the World
Really positive things that companies do will always
make its way onto the search results. Westjet bought
their customers their most desired Christmas present,
surprised their customers and filmed it. Many big media
outlets wrote articles about the brands actions which
created all sorts of positive search results for the
brand. Other brands started charities that add more
positive results to the search engine. Newmans gives
back a great majority of their profits to their
foundation. Other companies like UPS, Starbucks and Nu
Skin have their own charities which help them establish
their positive nature.
Selecting Keywords
When creating a webpage that contains positive reviews
of a business, the marketer may add words with a
negative connotation to the page's content. As a result,
the webpage will appear at the top of the results if a
person searches for negative keywords and for the
company's name.
Yelp
Due to its design, Yelp's website typically receives a
large amount of traffic from visitors who are searching
for local businesses. The site's reviews commonly reach
the top of the search results because the level of
competition for local keyword phrases is much lower than
the competition for groups of words that are utilized
nationally.
A business can provide a discount for patrons who add
positive reviews on the site. Subsequently, the
advertiser may share each excellent review on Facebook,
Twitter and Reddit in order to increase the
testimonial's position in the search results.
Google+
If a person posts a review on Google+, the testimonial
is automatically added to the company's page on Google
Maps, and frequently, this type of profile is
automatically catapulted to the top of the search
results. Furthermore, approximately 35 percent of people
will read reviews on Google+ or on Google Maps when they
are utilizing their mobile devices to find a local
company.
In Conclusion
Positive search results about a brand is a form of PR
and it might become the most important as customers
become more acquainted with search engines over time.
Positive content online that ranks high for your brand
will always be the solution, being creative to get the
positive content is your job.
Google
alone gets over 2 trillion searches a year. Brands are heavily
searched for on Google. Consumers use search engines to learn as
much as possible about a brand before making a buying decision.