Local Search - You Can Ignore It

... if you don't care what people say about your business.

Businesses that don't pay attention to Local Search are turning their backs to customers and not listening to what they say.

Before seeing a potential internet marketing client, one thing I do,  is check their company on the internet and  search for reviews of the business. I show some of what I found, during the first meeting with new clients.

What often surprises them is the different places that they are listed:

• Google Places
• Local Yahoo
• Bing Local
• Yelp
• Citysearch
• Insider Pages
• Possibly Twitter

Next they start to read what is being said about them. Clients all have reviews where people say nice things about them, but the bad reviews seem to shock them. "I didn't know that was out there." is one of the most common phrases I hear.

For example a photographer had these two reviews about the studio.

The owner, had no idea that these reviews existed or were so easy to find.

What are people saying?

If you want to find out what people are saying about your company try searching on Google for "Your company name reviews". You might be surprised by what you see.

What can you do about it?

Before you do anything, claim your Local search listing on the major sites (Google, Yahoo, Bing). They let owners of businesses edit information about their listing. It is a fairly easy process, it should take less than 15 minutes for each listing. Many sites, such as Google Places, will use your listed business phone number to verify your identity, so have your phone handy.

Then look at the sites where your business has been reviewed. See if they will let you claim your business listing.

Finally, read what was written about your company. Look at the negative comments. Were they fair and accurate? Remember those reviews have been on the internet for all this time, it will not hurt if you ignore them for now.

Unless they are out and out lies my advice it to ignore any negative review older than three months.

Hateful reviews or those based on lies should be addressed calmly. Write your rebuttal and then show it to someone else before posting it. You don't want to end up as an anecdote on how not to handle a bad review. Post it on the same site with the false review making it clear what your position is with the company.

In most cases, the reviews will be based on peoples perception of how they were treated and if they liked the products. The best argument against negative reviews it to have lots of positive reviews.

In the next few weeks this blog will discuss strategies for handling bad reviews and how to get good reviews.

Have a dedicated local search email account
Some businesses like to have a separate email account to use when claiming their local search business listings.

I don't know if that is necessary, but it could be useful if someone else will eventually manage the business listing.