On August 1, 2018, Google rolled out a major update. They classified it as a core broad algorithm update with no intent to target a specific vertical however, the search community saw that affected sites are in the health and medical industry thus calling it the Medic Update.

What is a “Core Broad Algorithm Update”?

Here’s what Google has to say about the broad core algorithm update:

“Each day, Google usually releases one or more changes designed to improve our results. Some are focused around specific improvements. Some are broad changes. Last week, we released a broad core algorithm update. We do these routinely several times per year….”

Yes, this is a very vague explanation but that’s how Google operates when it comes to their search algorithm. The key takeaways from this statement about broad core algorithm updates are:

• Not focused on specific improvements
• Designed to improve results

Then what exactly is the Medic Update about?

Let’s start by looking at what Google has said about this update:

Google has confirmed that an update was rolled out on August 1, 2018, referencing a statement they released on March 2018:

“As with any update, some sites may note drops or gains. There’s nothing wrong with pages that may now perform less well. Instead, it’s that changes to our systems are benefiting pages that were previously under-rewarded….”

“…There’s no “fix” for pages that may perform less well other than to remain focused on building great content. Over time, it may be that your content may rise relative to other pages.”

Google’s Danny Sullivan, has also said that this update is global.

Setting up and maintaining the online presence of a brick-and-mortar business has become incredibly simple thanks to modern technology. Still, it might come off as a challenge especially if you are running to stay on top of every interaction on your social media, blog, pay per click advertising, and even an online store. With numerous things to monitor, one of the most basic and critical aspects of Internet marketing is often neglected: your company’s online local listings.

You Risk Losing Potential Customers

According to a recent survey, inaccurate local business information can harm the trust of customers. Around 73 percent of the respondents stated that they expect less from a brand with incorrect online information. Meanwhile, 67 percent say that they completely lose trust in the business if they get lost walking or driving to their location just because of a wrong given address.

Businesses that fail to ensure the accuracy of search engine location data will not only miss out on potential customers but can jeopardize their relationship with existing clients as well. Even when directories like Yellow Pages and Yelp provide the incorrect information, nearly a third of consumers say they would still blame the brand.

How To Clean Up Your Bad Internet Listings

It is not enough to Google your business occasionally. When you poke around at various mapping websites, social media platforms, search engines, and online business directories, you’ll be surprised to uncover that not all of them reflect your correct business info. You may find missing details, old phone numbers, and addresses, or bad links. What’s worse is that they can even get your business name mistaken.

Once you start to correct these, you will learn how much work it requires and how long it should take. Almost every site will require you to verify your ownership of the business. You can do this via snail mail or a quick phone call. Meanwhile, you have to be mindful of sites that allow just anyone to edit listings as they can put erroneous content that may hurt your business. Consider these tips to clean up those bad listings once and for all:

Select The Proper Categories

One way to secure your spot is to select the right category. The categories might differ from one website to another, but try to be consistent with your choice. A golden rule is to not overreach to categories you don’t specialize in because this will only confuse your viewers and it can even lead to more incorrect entries.

Be Consistent

After establishing the right name, phone numbers, and address of your business, you have to stick with them. Make sure they are formatted and spelled exactly the same for all pages on the web.

Be meticulous when it comes to every entry and make corrections even on the tiniest details, such as word spacing and capitalization. It’s important to note that most of the time, it won’t be a human reading that listing, but rather a search engine bot. Any inconsistency can be seen as completely two different businesses.

Document Your Listings

Your business could end up on literally thousands of places online. While it’s virtually impossible to repair every single one of them, having a record of listings you fixed can help you from making any unnecessary work.

Have a spreadsheet for all the updated entries and include a link to the site. If your business happens to add a new service or move to a new location, you’ll know which sites to edit with a simple click of a mouse. Also, do not forget to take note of directories that feature reviews and ratings so you can go back and check them often.

Add Relevant Content Where Needed

Take advantage of sites that let you add a description for your business. This is your chance to make your brand shine. Use keywords and words that accurately reflect the nature of your business.

You don’t have to overdo it – just try to be concise and clear. If there’s a spot for a video or photo, by all means, upload your best one. The added content will help attract customers to check out your business.

Go Big, Then Go Local

Before correcting local listings, check for the biggest sites first where most of the traffic comes. Start with Google Maps, Google+, and Facebook. Next, hit major search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and Bing. Fix inconsistencies as they come up.

Your next visit has to do with online magazines, local newspapers, and events in which your business sponsored or participated. Look up news that could possibly mention your brand and leave no stone unturned. Remember that one bad address spread onto many other websites.

Don’t Shell Out Cash

So you want to correct your listing, but the site admin wants you to pay for access to your information – don’t believe it. You should never have to shell out money for this matter. People will not trust websites with inaccurate information, so it’s in everyone’s best interest to let the business correct their listing. Be patient in looking for the link to verify your ownership and don’t fall victim to the gimmick that they would only let you update your info for a price.

Check Reviews and Ratings

As you sift through your several online listings, you may stumble upon sites with reviews and ratings of your business. If you see a dissatisfied customer, follow up in a courteous and professional manner.

One bad review can impair your brand and prevent people from further checking your products and services. Actually trying to address the issue and showing concern for your customer’s feelings and experience, on the other hand, can do wonders for your business’s name.

Appreciate what potential clients have to go through to look for your business. From their initiative to search you online to driving to your location, it will be a huge disappointment for them to be directed to the wrong place.

If you need help with spotting incorrect listings and connecting with your customers online, PrimeView can provide you with a very effective strategy and solution. We can manage your brand’s reputation and tailor the best experience for your clients. Talk to us at 480-970-4688 and we will be delighted to assist you!

Nevertheless, receiving negative reviews is not something that business owners should take lightly. If you ignore these negative comments, your brand can come off as someone that just doesn’t care about customer service. If you appear to be too accommodating, then a lot of people will just complain to get free stuff.

Are you curious how you should properly address negative reviews? Here are a few tips to help you.

1.  Respond immediately

If people are posting negative reviews on a consumer website such as Yelp or on social media, such as on your Facebook page, you can almost always assume that a lot of people would have read it. If the complaint on social media was particularly juicy, then the complaint would have the tendency to go viral. Therefore, it would be in your best interest to resolve the issue before the post receives a few thousand shares. If the complaint goes viral before you had the chance to rectify it, then the damage it may have done on your brand would be lasting.

However, what are you to do if the negative complaint was posted in the wee hours of the morning, or when you are unsure of how to address the comment? Having an auto-responder of “Thank you for your comment. We’ll be glad to respond to you during our business hours” usually does the trick for the off-business comments. On the other hand, saying “Thank you for your feedback. Rest assured that we are looking into this,” and actually getting back to the customer after a few hours would be appreciated.

2.  Provide a solution

Nothing is as frustrating as airing your comments and being told that they are looking into it and not receiving any feedback in time. When you tell your customers that you are going to “look into the problem,” make sure that you actually have someone follow-up the concern within the day.

The quality of the solution is indicative of your brand, too. Do not just offer discounts or rebates for bad service; rather, personalize the solution based on the problem. Is the customer complaining that your services caused them personal injury, such as an allergic reaction to your food that was not disclosed on the menu? Have them send their medical bills and offer to reimburse them, adding that you would be correcting the menu. Did a server provide subpar service? Assure them that you are retraining your server to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.

3.  Own up to your mistakes

There have been countless instances wherein instead of responding objectively to a negative comment, businesses would instead engage in a word war with the customer. If you are in the wrong, admit your mistake and apologize sincerely. For example, was there a delay in the service? Explain what happened (a tour just reserved at the last minute and the staff are frazzled), apologize for the bad service, and promise to do it better the next time around. Whatever it is, reassure your customers that you are working on the mistakes so that they will not happen again.

4.  Don’t be afraid to be honest

On the other hand, there are commenters that are just plain abusive. These are customers who have resorted to name-calling, shaming the brand, and threatening your business. If what they are complaining about is not true, then do not be afraid to call them out and back this up with evidence.

For example, if a customer complains that you canceled her reservation at the last minute, but the truth was that she arrived late to the reservation and you actually held on to her table for another 10 minutes, then say so. Oftentimes the complaints would become a case of he said-she said, but if your brand is being dragged through the mud for lies, then do not hesitate to be honest — particularly if you have the evidence. In the case of our example above, a CCTV snapshot with a timestamp would suffice.

5.  Don’t always take the resolutions offline

If the complaint has gained traction and is getting a lot of interest from the public, then it would be in your best interest to resolve it in public space as well. If the complaint is about something you can easily rectify, then provide the solution then and there.

For example, if a customer says that he didn’t receive timely service despite having no fault on his end, ask for the reference number and look into the matter. Once you have established that it is your brand that has been lacking (such as you are understaffed), comment back a solution. You can say “We have identified the problem and we apologize for the inconvenience. Please send us a private message so we can give you instructions on how to get a replacement.” This way, the people who are following the exchange on social media would then understand that the issue has been resolved.

6.  Don’t let your emotions get the better of you

No matter how angry a comment may make you remember to keep your words professional as they would reflect your brand. Thank the customer for bringing the issue to your attention and provide a speedy resolution. If you are too upset to respond objectively, then have someone else read your drafted reply, ensure that it is at least professional, and then respond. Never, ever, respond whenever your emotions are getting the best of you.

Need help with reputation management?

We understand that negative reviews can leave bad imprints on a business, and you can’t get ahead by ignoring what’s being said about you online. If you require assistance in managing negative reviews, PrimeView can help you navigate the delicate path of online commentary. Call us at 480-970-4688 to request a free proposal over coffee — on us. “

Much has been said about “customer is king,” but did you know that this analogy can actually help boost your business?

Customer feedback is among the most taken for granted facets of the business that many businessmen would rather ignore than to spend resources on. See, gathering customer feedback can be a tiresome and thankless job, what with the many survey forms you have to print out only to have one or two back. Your staff would also have to kowtow to customers to try to get to their better side, although admittedly the customer’s satisfaction should be foremost in your staff’s mind. Make no doubts about it: trying to get customer feedback is sometimes difficult and frustrating.

However, this method actually offers several benefits to your business. If done correctly, customer feedback would be able to help you transform your services and products to better fit the needs of your clients. Here are some of the reasons through which you can do so:

• Customer feedback helps you identify weak spots

By asking your clients what they liked and hated about their experience, you would be able to find weak spots in your service and address them. There have been countless instances wherein managers thought that the service was flawless from start to finish, only to find out from a customer’s feedback that there was a glaring error they have overlooked. By listening to your customers, you would be able to remedy a problem before it can start to eat away at your business.

• Customer feedback helps you improve your products and services

By listening to your customers, you would then be able to improve your products and services and be able to give them exactly what they want. This has a direct impact on your bottom line, as you would be guaranteed to see an upwards improvement in the consumption of your products, since your customers have stipulated that this is the thing that they want. How so?

For example, a coffee shop that sells traditional cakes with their coffee might be missing out by not listening to a customer who said he would want to eat matcha cakes. On the other hand, the café across the street was given the same sentiment and thought it was a great idea – they then started providing matcha cakes. The result then is instantaneous: those who wanted matcha cakes transferred to the second café, leaving the first one with fewer loyal customers.

• Customer feedback helps you measure customer satisfaction and improve customer retention

Likewise, it is not important that you provide good service, you have to continually improve your customer’s satisfaction too. Asking for customer feedback is very helpful in terms of finding out what you can do to make the service more satisfactory for your customers.

Once you start listening to your customers, particularly those who gave high scores to your products, then you would be able to glean more information about your services and improve them to increase customer satisfaction. The more satisfied your customers are, the more likely they are to become advocates for your brand and be more likely to refer you to their colleagues and family.

• Customer feedback gives you tangible data to make better decisions about your business

Finally, listening to your customers can have the added benefit of saving you money in the long run, particularly in terms of killing off products that aren’t doing as well as you thought they would be. Think of the customer’s insight as your own personal market research, more so in terms of what works and what doesn’t for your business. You would then be able to make informed business decisions based on the feedback you receive from your clientele, and from then on act from them.

These are just some of the evident reasons that make customer feedback integral to your business. Finding out what it can do for you is all well and good, but how do you get this information in the first place? Here are some options to consider if you want to get customer feedback.

• Give out survey forms

Whether it is a physical form your customers have to fill in in the shop or a digital form that you send out to your clients after their experience, make sure that the form is concise and direct to the point. Also, make it a point to add “Thank you for your feedback! We will be responding to your concerns within 24 hours,” or a similar promise that your clients would hear back from you. However, once you make this promise, ensure that you have the means to follow through, as there would be few things as annoying to clients as having the service provider back on its words, no matter how simple the matter may be.

• Never be intrusive

Whatever you do, do not call your clients out of the blue to ask them for their feedback about their recent experience. Instead, ask them politely how they would want to be contacted – via email, SMS, or a phone call – and when they would want to be contacted. This way, your clients would feel that you have their best interest at hearts as you would never be imposing on their time – you would simply be following their request as to when they should be contacted.

• Open lines of communication with your client

Finally, make it easy for your clients to contact you. Have a dedicated phone line or email address whose sole purpose is to respond to customer feedback and complaints. Once your clients know that you are actually listening to them, they would be keen to let you know what they think – and you wouldn’t have to ask them for feedback in the first place. Display this contact information in a prominent location on your website or in your store, so that your clients would immediately know how to contact you in case they have something to share.

It goes without saying that customer feedback is one of your best tools when it comes to improving your services. With these tips, you’re hopefully on your way to maximizing it.

Img c/o Pixabay.

With over one billion websites in the World Wide Web, it is more complicated to determine what the truth is, versus what are hoaxes. The number of fraudulent websites is on the rise as well, while scams become more convoluted and creative. Due to this, research such as for the academe and industry trends, have become complicated as well.

Today, you have to double check each reference to ensure that you are citing the right figures, and that your source is not biased towards a topic, as well as to ensure that there is no conflict of interest. How so? Think of it this way: a study that leans towards the success of a particular medicine and is published on the website of the pharmaceutical company would have some people doubt the results. However, if the same results were published by a reputable medical journal, then the findings would be accepted as credible and authentic.

You can apply the same principle with your website. There are a number of ways through which you can gain the trust of your audience, as well as become their go-to-source on topics that are relevant to your business. To do this, you must become an authority on certain topics and to turn your website into a resource page for it.

Does it sound complicated? Don’t be intimidated. Here are some tips on how you can increase your trust rating among your website visitors.

• Design Matters

  In a study published by the New York Technology Council, it has been emphasized that businesses only have six seconds to make a lasting impression on a web page visitor. That said, this means you only have six seconds to impress them with your relevance and authority. However, how can you convince them that you are the right company for the job, if you only have six seconds to convince them to stay on your website.

  The answer lies on a sophisticated and professionally done website. If your website is reeking of templates and flashy display that is oftentimes seen on scrupulous websites, then your web visitors would be quick to click the “X” icon.

  This doesn’t mean that your web design is the only thing that is up for scrutiny. Web visitors would also check out your content and see if you have anything relevant to offer them. Therefore, if you have obvious grammar or spelling mistakes, then they would be quick to leave your site as well.

  The take away on this item would be this: make sure that your website appears professional, and you have no glaring grammatical or misspellings. This way, a single browse at your website would give your visitors the impression that you are trustworthy.

• Convince Them

  After focusing on your web design and content, you need to further convince your web visitors to stay on your pages. You can do this by putting badges and testimonials on your website, or at least prominent logos of your previous clients. This way, you would be igniting a “me too” facet in every person who wants to be a part of something successful.

  Likewise, if you are offering products or services on your website, then you can put logos of your merchants and/or payment methods, such as PayPal. This would be able to reassure your viewers at a glance that you wouldn’t just run off with their money as they would be able to see a logo they easily recognize.

  Finally, try to incorporate an RSS feed on your website. This way, your visitors would be able to see that your company is also active on social media, and they would be able to see the number of fans you have on your page. Assuming that you have at least 20,000 fans on your Facebook page, then your visitors would be reassured that you’re the real deal: after all, 20,000 fans couldn’t be wrong.

• Be Showy

  This doesn’t mean flashy designs filled with marquees; rather, you need to show off your accomplishments. Aside from the testimonials and logos of your former clients, do you have any awards and certifications you can display prominently on your website? Having certifications would go a long way in convincing potential clients that you have what it takes to provide their needs.

• Be Relatable

  After showing off your professionalism and abilities with your sophisticated design, and convincing them to stay by showing off your testimonials, accomplishments, previous clients, and social media presence, then it would be time to be their friend. Visitors react positively to websites that seem to “speak” to them, in the sense that the web page seems to have the information they sorely need.

  You can do this by providing timely and authoritative content about common inquiries in your industry, as well as giving them credible content on other interesting topics. You should also put the faces of your key personnel on the website, as it would be easier for web visitors to trust a website if they can put a face to the nameless entity they are about to contact for services.

• Be Approachable

  Once you’re sure that your potential clients would have an idea of what you do, who your previous clients are, and why you are the right company for the job, you would have to be easily approachable. Provide your contact information, as well as your physical address, and your emails. If you have other platforms through which your clients can contact you, then indicate them as well.

  Providing many ways of communications would ensure your clients that your business is being run professionally, as you would have the staff to monitor all these forms of communication. This includes your social media pages – make sure that your community managers are competent enough to respond to all the concerns of your fans.

The Bottom Line

Once you follow these tips, you would hopefully be on your way to increasing your trust rating. Remember, people would only buy from businesses or entities that they are sure would be able to provide the service and would not scam them. It is therefore imperative for you to send the right impression from the get-go.

Img c/o Pixabay.