Do you take recommendations from people about certain services or products?  Of course you do!  We LOVE to listen to people that have gone down the path we were wanting to tread, but were afraid of the risk.  Most of us don’t have time to weight options between different carpet cleaning services, veterinarians or even sushi restaurants.

We want to hear from someone who took the risk.

• Does Mighty Putty really work?
• Is the Perkins on the other side of town the same quality as the one over yonder?
• Does National City Bank leave you feeling confident that they deposited your money in the right account?
• Is the Dyson Vacuum Cleaner worth the accented hype?

Reading reviews or seeing their average “star” rating is huge for some businesses and other businesses should take notice.

As an example, my wife’s grandmother is suffering from Alzheimers and has been getting worse lately.  We took her to a special facility that would monitor her medication and see what needed to be changed and so on.  Not within 24 hours, my grandmother-in-law went to use the toilet and it collapsed off the wall (with her on it) and shattered in several tiny pieces giving her a cut on her hand that needed stitches.

Needless to say my in-laws were there too sweet with choice blunt words and questions of whether this was an appropriate facility.  Meanwhile, I was at home with my finger poised over the facility’s Google listing ready to post a review.  If I had a button that said “smite” on it, it would be about the same thing.

To finish the story, the administrators were on the scene and a personal nurse was attached to my wife’s grandma.

My finger was stayed … for now.

Now it stands to reason that if people were in a similar need for such services, they might do a little “research” online and a review would come up in Google Maps.  What if they saw my review?  How much business would be lost?

Though this spills over into social media, the SEO importance of this is critical.  You can rank high in Google maps by doing different techniques ^[1], but do not forget – the reviews then will be more easily seen.  If you have bad reviews, you might need to take a look at your business before you optimize your business to share those negative reviews with everyone.

For more about reviews, take a look here. ^[2]

Remember, Local SEO is an online version of what you try to do person to person and business to business.  Networking with other business in the area is king.

• Link to businesses you like to do business with and ask for a link back to you.
• Give incentives to customers to review you online, but don’t do it like this guy ^[3] did it.
• Have your site include a blog or community page or comment section that is updated at least every week.
• Mention local landmarks in your website copy.

The more that you appear to be a part of the community, the more your name will easily be passed around when your services are in need.  It’s a slow process, but once it takes root, it is hard tear down … unlike certain toilets at a certain medical facility.