‘How Do You Manage Online Reviews?’ #LocalSEOChat Recap

On Wednesday, August 15th we ran the first ever #LocalSEOChat, on the topic of online reviews. The format was simple: we fire out a new question every ten minutes, and you share your experiences and keep the conversation going!

I think it’s fair to say we were overwhelmed by the response. So many great minds imparting their wisdom, and for free, too! We’ll definitely be planning another as there’s certainly an appetite for a Twitter chat devoted to the specifics of local SEO. In the meantime, we’ve picked out some of the most popular responses below.

Q1. What advice would you give to someone responding to a negative online review?

A1. Remain calm and respond in a polite and professional manner. Do not yell at or call the reviewer a troll. #localseochat

— Jason Brown (@keyserholiday) August 15, 2018

A1.1. It’s okay to get negative reviews – let potential customers know that you want to resolve the issue offline. Show them that you are the better person#LocalSEOChat

— Nathan Driver (@natedriver) August 15, 2018

1. Take a chill pill, relax and do not take it personal.
2. Ask the reviewer to contact you to resolve the issue.

Remember the response is just as important for the reviewer as it is to prospective clients.#LocalSEOChat

— Ben Fisher (@TheSocialDude) August 15, 2018

A1. Don’t get defensive. Have a more neutral party help you craft your response. Don’t use words you wouldn’t say to your grandma. Criticism makes us better at what we do – learn from it. #localseochat

— Carrie Hill 🗺📌 (@CarrieHill) August 15, 2018

A1. Cont – your response to a negative review is more for FUTURE customers than that one disgruntled customer. Show them how you handle problems so they’re confident if something comes up you’ll resolve it. #localseochat

— Carrie Hill 🗺📌 (@CarrieHill) August 15, 2018

A1. In addition to what has been said, make sure you follow up on your promise. For example, if you promise a discount or any other incentive, make sure it gets done. It’s also true if the negative review is true, make sure the negative thing gets fixed #LocalSEOChat

— Blas Giffuni (@BGiffuni) August 15, 2018

Q1 A1: Business owners: Consumers know that you cannot be 100% perfect all the time, so getting a negative review is NOT the end of the world. It shows you’re human, too. Respond politely and take the unhappy customer offline by asking them to give you a call. #LocalSEOChat

— Sherry Bonelli (@sherrybonelli) August 15, 2018

Q2. What’s unique about your industry when it comes to online reviews?

A2: I mostly work in the food industry and one thing I’ve noticed is that it’s easier to get reviews from users and satisfied customers almost always tend to review the business #LocalSEOChat https://t.co/1sGaX3G9Vs

— Carlos Castro 🚀 (@carloscastro_4) August 15, 2018

A2. I work with a bunch of different niches/industries so hard to pick one thing. in hospitality, for example, there’s lots of fear around opening the door to a negative review, so they wont solicit reviews or ask at all. This is hard to overcome. #localseochat

— Carrie Hill 🗺📌 (@CarrieHill) August 15, 2018

A2. In hospitality, a lot of guests review proximity to things to do. So while there are reviews about the front desk and service, location is as key as service for building a new hotel or restaurant. #LocalSEOChat

— Masaki Okazawa (@saksters) August 15, 2018

A2. Some review sites in the software industry (like @Capterra and @G2Crowd ) facilitate incentivizing reviews and have transparent mechanisms to indicate if the source of a review was paid a nominal fee. Some industries allow that, some highly discourage it. #LocalSEOChat

— GradeUs (@GradeUs) August 15, 2018

A2 plus in healthcare you have to think about HIPPA, and privacy, but probably reasonable for all to be aware about exposing private details not shared in the review. #LocalSEOChat #onlinereviews https://t.co/XMgJEnqNQD

— Joel Headley (@headley) August 15, 2018

Q3. How do you go about identifying and removing fake reviews?

A3. Each review site has their own guidelines, first ensure the review truly violates guidelines and can be proven. Then, escalate #LocalSEOChat #onlinereviews

— Krystal Taing (@krystal_taing) August 15, 2018

A3. Click on the profile, reverse image search and report them. For GMB, report them to GMB forum: https://t.co/gVDVqrnQlN For FB, i flag the review/ user. For Yelp i write a novel explaining wjhayt is wrong with the review(er) #localseochat

— Jason Brown (@keyserholiday) August 15, 2018

A3 – good luck. This is REALLY hard to prove unless there’s a negative review network you can trace/track. #localseochat

— Carrie Hill 🗺📌 (@CarrieHill) August 15, 2018

A3. Fake reviews can sometimes be discovered by reviewing the pattern of behavior. For instance I saw one that negative reviewed 30 yaght companies all in the span in 3 days. Document it and report it to Google support or on the advertiser community.#localseochat

— Ben Fisher (@TheSocialDude) August 15, 2018

Q4. Which review sites do you find generate the best reviews for your business?

A1: Use @mblumenthal ‘s article as a reference.https://t.co/EOP927HDSj #LocalSEOChat

— Joy Hawkins (@JoyanneHawkins) August 15, 2018

A4: We admire closed loop systems like @opentable where you can be more confident that the reviews are legit #localseochat

— Review Chat (@ReviewChat) August 15, 2018

A4. Again, niche matters – for service SMBs and the right area, AngiesList and Thumbtack can be good. Overall Google, Yelp & Facebook are the big 3 – also they show nice stars in the SERPS. Powerful for your branded queries. #localseochat

— Carrie Hill 🗺📌 (@CarrieHill) August 15, 2018

A4. Depends on the industry. Never ignore @GoogleMyBiz but be wary of gamification by @localguides. @Yelp critical for service and hospitality businesses. Don’t forget your industry specific sites like Vitals, Healthgrades, Urgentcarelocations… #LocalSEOChat #onlinereviews

— Krystal Taing (@krystal_taing) August 15, 2018

A4. 9x out of 10 its Google for me#LocalSEOChat

— Nathan Driver (@natedriver) August 15, 2018

A4: Also never under estimate the word of mouth testimonials you can get in Facebook Groups! Harder, more labor intensive for biz owner, but super powerful. (see what I did there, @headley?) 😄 #localseochat

— Carrie Hill 🗺📌 (@CarrieHill) August 15, 2018

Q5. What’s the biggest benefit you’ve seen from managing your online reputation?

A5: Owning the SERP. I don’t find a lot of leads coming directly from 3rd party review sites, but the stars and review snippets are read after prospects search a business on Google. That overall impression adds to the idea of Google being your new front door. #LocalSEOChat https://t.co/PfA3hWFGoR

— Joel Headley (@headley) August 15, 2018

A5: The opportunity to have a negative review changed to a positive! #LocalSEOChat

— Joy Hawkins (@JoyanneHawkins) August 15, 2018

A5. Beyond the obvious ability to show your worth to prospects, you can learn what others truly value about your business. Good and bad reviews are valuable.#localseochat

— Ben Fisher (@TheSocialDude) August 15, 2018

A5: also a great way to pump up employee morale – carefully. I love reviews that mention an employee’s name! #localseochat

— Carrie Hill 🗺📌 (@CarrieHill) August 15, 2018

A5: I’ve seen some businesses completely turn around negative sentiment in reviews by responding, owning up to their mistakes, and making real changes to their service. #LocalSEOChat

— Matt Lacuesta (@MattLacuesta) August 15, 2018

A5. New content ideas. Customers are directly telling us our strongest assets, so we like to surface that content in the site architecture or create new content to reinforce what buzz is already there. They also highlight what improvements can be made operationally #LocalSEOChat

— Masaki Okazawa (@saksters) August 15, 2018

A5: It also helps employee morale! We always share positive reviews on Slack and give shout outs when employees are mentioned by name. Everyone loves it. #LocalSEOChat

— GradeUs (@GradeUs) August 15, 2018

A5. Opportunity to learn about and improve your business #LocalSEOChat #onlinereviews

— Krystal Taing (@krystal_taing) August 15, 2018

A5: More MONEY! 💸💵💴💶💷💰 #localseochat

— Carrie Hill 🗺📌 (@CarrieHill) August 15, 2018

Q6. What’s the biggest challenge for you when managing online reviews?

A6. For enterprise brands, it’s convincing them to take the first step. Then corporate compliance and governance #LocalSEOChat #onlinereviews

— Krystal Taing (@krystal_taing) August 15, 2018

A6: I think the first hurdle is determining WHO will be responding? Will it be location owners or at the corporate level? What’s more scalable? Who will be on message? Can you trust owners not to be offended and go off the deep end? #LocalSEOChat https://t.co/FTrUt2Cn7r

— Matt Lacuesta (@MattLacuesta) August 15, 2018

A6: Ensuring that reviews is about listening and acting on feedback to improve your business. SMBs need to work at exceeding customer expectations. To do that, you need to know their expectations! Feedback is critical. #LocalSEOChat

— Joel Headley (@headley) August 15, 2018

A6: Trying to use happy customers and brand ambassadors to help with negative/fake reviews that can’t be removed. #LocalSEOChat https://t.co/wwVX1ju3C9

— Carlos Castro 🚀 (@carloscastro_4) August 15, 2018

A6: Overcoming the fear of the negative review is hard. I tried getting my former agency to implement a vacation rental ORM training program back in like, 2008(?) and was told “nobody wants to talk about it because they’re all afraid of negative reviews.” #localseochat

— Carrie Hill 🗺📌 (@CarrieHill) August 15, 2018

A6, remaining sane when you manage a nationwide brand, the negative reviews can sour your mood. #localseochat

— Jason Brown (@keyserholiday) August 15, 2018

Thanks to everyone who joined in!

It was great fun, really insightful, and has certainly inspired the agenda for our next webinar, which you can sign up to here.

Feel free to let us know what you thought of the Chat and if you have any suggestions for the topic of the next one.

You can talk to us on Twitter (we’re @bright_local over there, and yes, the sadly-necessary underscore will haunt me forever) or in the comments below.

We hope you can make it for the next one! (Top Tip: Sign up to our emails to find out when we announce the time and date of the next #LocalSEOChat)