Online Reputation Checklist: How Multi-Location Businesses Can Drive More Leads
Pat Johnson
Local businesses are only as successful as their online reputations.
It’s no secret that the standard buying process for local businesses everywhere no longer starts at the front door – it starts online. In fact, over 46% of all searches online have “local intent”, meaning potential buyers are searching for businesses like yours. And of those 75% of them end up visiting one of the businesses that they see in their search within 24 hours.
Are you confident that potential leads find your business online today? And if they do, will they like what they see enough to learn more, visit your location, and convert?
Use the following checklist to make sure your locations are all putting their best foot forward online.
of local marketers say organic search is the best ROI of any marketing channel.
organic click-through rate when ranked in the top position on the first page of Google.
more likely for your business to be ‘reputable’ if customers see a complete business listing in Google.
Optimize your Business Listings
It’s tempting to think that the your first step should be gathering more reviews, but you should first make sure that all of your locations’ listings are accurate, up-to-date, and include relevant information that a customer would want to know about your business. The goal is to make customers feel empowered with the information they need to make your business the obvious choice to get in contact with.
This can be challenging with a high volume of locations with listings to manage, because things are constantly changing (both internally and on Google’s side). Your business hours, FAQ’s, photos, and more are all small but meaningful examples of putting your best foot forward and making your business easy to learn about and contact – which search engines reward by ranking complete listings higher.
An effective Business Listings solution should give you the ability to add and edit listing information for one or several of your locations, and automatically audit the information on each of your listings to flag any potentially incorrect information.
Verify your Business Listings
As of 2023, only 64% of Google Business Profiles (GBPs) are verified. This is an easy step that businesses can take to prove their credibility to searchers online that has significant downstream effects.
According to Google’s own research, verified businesses are twice as likely to be considered “reputable” by search engine users. Verifying your listings ensures that only specific users connected to the business can change the listing, and also impacts search ranking. And going one step further, a recent study found that businesses that claim their free listings on at least 3 review sites (like Google, Bing, Facebook, etc.) and earn 36% more revenue than those that don’t.
Verifying your listings is easy – especially with a reputation management tool that can help you through the process.
Want more reviews? Ask for them!
Think of reviews as the fuel that drives your business listings – one without the other won’t take you very far. Once you have your listings optimized, it’s time to start piling up those reviews.
This may sound elementary, but many businesses fail to devote attention to requesting reviews from their customers. They often assume that a sales rep asking them to do so is enough to have them do it, but study after study shows that very few customers will submit a review without being solicited for it (and the ones that do are proportionally more negative).
Think of your happy customers as a silent majority – they’ve all had wonderful experiences with you, but often aren’t going to take time out of their day to leave a review on your key listing sites. However, research shows that 77% of people are willing to leave a customer review when asked (Forbes).
That’s why it’s crucial to have a system and process in place that makes leaving a review simple and fast, no matter how many locations your business has.
No review left unanswered
Responding to reviews shows potential leads that your business cares enough about customers to engage with them post-sale. It’s a small but crucial piece of establishing an online presence that builds customer trust and loyalty.
According to a recent study only 75% of businesses don’t respond to their online reviews. But those that do earn considerably more revenue. Committing to responding to all reviews is a sure-fire way to improve your search ranking, generate more leads, and outpace your local competition.
Don’t Fear Negative Reviews
No business wants to get a negative review, but they’re an inevitable part of doing business today. However, they aren’t all bad: negative reviews reflect authenticity in your brand – nobody is perfect 100% of the time.
They can also be a great opportunity for your business to show that you care when your service doesn’t meet consumer expectations. By responding to negative reviews and showing the steps you’re taking to remedy the situation, you accomplish two things:
- You make the consumer who left the negative review feel like they are heard, appreciated, and steps are being taken to remedy the situation.
- You show prospective customers that when the inevitable mistake does happen, you take it seriously and are quick to make it right. In fact, 45% of consumers report that they are more likely to visit a business if it responds to bad reviews (ReviewTrackers).
Choose the right Online Reputation Management tool to establish a strong first impression online
By taking the steps above, you’ll set your business up for consistent success by ranking higher on key review sites, getting found by potential leads more often, and giving them the information they need to confidently choose your business.
A strong Online Reputation Management solution like Reputation can help local businesses with tens, hundreds, or even thousands of locations establish and maintain a stellar online presence – without bogging your marketing team down. Reputation was built to help multi-location businesses generate more leads through Reviews and Business Listings, and generate more insights than any other provider can – like our patented Reputation Score, which gives your team a single metric to track your reputation performance at a brand, regional, or location level.
Visit Reputation.com to see how we can help you drive more leads across all of your locations.