Boost Your Reputation & The Way Google Views Your Business
Everyone knows that your reputation can be impacted by customer reviews but did you know that your Google rankings can be as well?
Basically, there are 2 types of customer review. On-site reviews and reviews left on 3rd party websites.
- 3rd Party Reviews – These reviews are typically left on 3rd party websites (which are not controlled by the business) including Facebook, Yell, FreeIndex and Google Maps. These may then be displayed via the business website.
- On-Site Reviews – These reviews are usually submitted directly to the business and will then be added to the website in the form of either ‘reviews’ or ‘testimonials’.
The addition of reviews to your website (both good and bad) will offer the chance to add regular unique to your website. Not only this, reviews provide new customers with an idea of the type of experience they should expect to receive.
Make It As Easy As Possible To Leave A Review
Making it as easy as possible to leave reviews is crucial if you want your customers to leave their views on your business.
Very few people will take the time to leave their thoughts without some sort of prompt. A clear guide on your website or an e-mail reminder will prove to be beneficial.
A recent article by Search Engine Land found that up to 79% of people are now prepared to put as much faith on an online review as the recommendation of a friend or family member.
Such is the ease of access that potential customers have to the internet through their smartphones, tablets, PCs and laptops, it has never been easier to seek out online reviews of products and services offered by various companies all around the world — including people who have used your business in the past.
Making A Positive Difference
Put yourself in the position of a customer using a company for the first time. If they have 2 companies offering similar services/products at similar prices, they are very likely to want to draw from another variable to help them make a decision on which company to use.
More often than not, customer feedback is now this variable. The difference between being able to view other customer’s experience and taking a virtual leap of faith can turn a potential sale into a loss of business.
Contact Us
If you would like to speak to someone about gaining more reviews for your business, please contact Footprint Digital on Tel. No. 01883 372488 today.
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Is Your Website Fast Enough?
It is possible that the loading speed of a website can impact the number of visitors to your website and ultimately, the number of sales that you? According to surveys done by Akamai and Gomez.com, approximately 50% of all web users expect a website to be loaded and usable within just 2 seconds and will look elsewhere if it hasn’t loaded within 3 seconds!
A Mistake That Cannot Be Recovered From?
Perhaps even more concerning was the fact that over 75% of the web shoppers who were quizzed that had problems with web site performance expressed that they were unlikely to return again, with just less than 50% saying that would tell a friend if they had a poor experience shopping online.
Please Note – It is important to note though that the speed at which your site is ready to be used is not purely down to the actually loading speed of your website. Factors such as poor internet connection, outdated equipment etc can also play a crucial role.
However, this does not mean that every possible step should not be taken in order to ensure that your site is primed and ready to go.
Going The Extra Mile
At Footprint Digital, we like to go that extra mile to ensure that during the design process, we put everything in place to ensure that your website is primed to load quickly.
By focusing on 3 crucial aspects of web design (plus much more) we will help to ensure that your website is ready to load as quickly as possible for your customers.
- Correct implementation of Javascript and CSS
- Image optimisation
- Cache optimisation
Mobile-First Indexing
With the implementation of Google’s ‘Mobile-First Indexing’, the loading speed of your website does now impact the rankings on mobile search results*.
What actually is mobile-first indexing though? According to Google, “Mobile-first indexing means Google predominantly uses the mobile version of the content for indexing and ranking.” Click here for more.
If you are not ticking the right boxes in Google’s eyes, not only does this mean you may potentially be losing conversions from actual visitors to your site, but you may also even be losing on potential future custom from their friends and colleagues as well. The end result – missing out on lots of potential sales simply down to something which is taking a few seconds too long.
Contact Us
If you would like to know how we can help to improve the loading speed of your website, please contact the Footprint Digital team today on Tel. No. 01883 372488 and we will be happy to help you.
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Why Is Google Maps Marketing So Important?
The premise behind ‘Google Maps marketing’ is basically taking the steps required to ensure that your business presence is optimised on Google Maps with a simple goal in mind – achieve a higher ranking in the search results to increase the chances of obtaining business.
The greater the level of profile optimisation, the better the chances of your business showing up in a Google Maps search for your business type in your area.
Why Is Google Maps Marketing So Important?
With Google handling about 5.6 billion searches per day and accounting for over 90% of all searches, exploring every possible avenue for maximising your online presence is crucial.
Effective Google Maps marketing can play a huge role in the way Google views your business and how or (more importantly) if it appears in organic search in what is known as the local 3-pack.
What Is The Local 3-Pack?
Google Map Results (local 3-pack) appear at the top of the page in this Google Search.
Google Maps can channel thousands of potential customers toward your business. Unless your business ranks in the 3-pack, your chance of being found is much lower.
That is why Google Maps Marketing is now widely acknowledged to be the most important part of local SEO work.
Setting Up Your Google My Business Listing
To set up your Google My Business listing:
- Sign in to Google and go to https://www.google.com/business/
- Then locate or create a listing for your business. Sometimes other factors or inputs have led to an impromptu assumption listing about your business. Make sure you claim and correct it if that happened.
- Fill out all of the information to the best of your ability.
- Make sure to select the correct category and to add a contact.
- Verify your account. This can be done with Google via phone, email, or traditional mail.
- Add quality photos.
- Double-check all of your information.
To find out how to achieve better rankings for your GMB listing, please contact Footprint Digital on Tel. No. 01883 372488 today.
