Reputation Management

YMYL Websites: It’s Time to E-A-T

Website content is critical to search engine optimization (SEO), but according to Search Engine Journal (SEJ), when it comes to ranking content related to health, finance, and other YMYL (your money or your life) topics, John Mueller – a Search Advocate over there at Google – shares that the most important factors are expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-A-T). These so-called YMYL sites are held to higher standards, and if you count yourself among them, you should maintain a laser-like focus on ensuring that your content is steeped in expert authority that inspires your users’ confidence and trust.

3 Tried-and-True Techniques for Building Online Trust

In the digital shopping arena that is becoming increasingly more relevant, building online trust is critical. No one would argue with this sentiment, but figuring out how to foster trust in this nebulous arena is less clear. Fortunately, the precepts of successful marketing apply fairly evenly across the board and translate nicely to online marketing – especially with the application of savvy tweaks and nuanced adjustments that are in keeping with the medium and that experienced digital marketing specialists have on tap.

Churn, Baby, Churn: How to Limit Customer Breakups

The term customer churn rate refers to the rate at which customers cease trade with a specific business during a specific period of time, and it naturally strikes fear in the hearts of business owners everywhere. A better understanding of why customers break up with you in the first place – and making adjustments in response – can go a long way toward improving your company’s bottom line. The digital marketing experts at The Web Guys are committed to putting our reserves of experience to work for your business.

Not Just Customers But Brand Advocates

Customers are great, but brand advocates are even better. When your customers are all in, they can be more influential than any old marketing strategy – completely free of charge. We naturally tend to put more stock in recommendations that come directly from people we know or are connected to, and customers who advocate on your behalf can be invaluable. For every customer advocate you have, you can bank on his or her social media connections, which can easily run to an audience of hundreds (or more, much more).

Customer Feedback That Gives Back

When it comes to your online business, stellar customer reviews are the gold standard. If you don’t have firsthand knowledge of a company’s wares and services and you don’t personally know anyone who’s already taken the plunge, there’s no better way to assess what a company has to offer than to read up on what their customers have to say. Because it’s gotten to the point that many of us go online for everything from toothpaste to legal services, savvy shoppers are in the habit of regularly perusing customer reviews when they’re in the market for just about everything.

Building Brand Trust in the Digital Age

The best relationships are solidly forged on a framework of trust. In fact, the only relationships worth having, in the long run, are trust-based. The fact is that this truth about interpersonal relationships also applies to your brand’s relationships with your customers and potential customers. The good news is you can use the same principles of trust that apply to your close personal relationships to your brand’s relationships – and can reap the rewards in the process.

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Customer Reviews

You know that customer reviews matter in some capacity, but how much do they matter and why? For content marketers, search performance is king, but do customer reviews really have much influence? The fact is that yes, they certainly do. Google itself confirms that positive, credible customer reviews lead to both enhanced visibility and higher conversion rates. To better understand what customer reviews mean to your business, it’s important to distinguish between the objective and subjective responses your potential customers encounter during their search queries. Objective Responses When a potential customer goes online to inquire about a business, they encounter objective information that you generally control. You are the master of your own marketing content, and no one is better qualified for the position. Objective information generally includes information about: The products and/or services that you offer Your company’s history Your team Contact information While this represents the nuts and … Continued

Google Ads: 2 Fresh Ways to Target Users

Google Ads, the goliath of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, recently launched two new offerings to help you reach your target audience in Google Search, and it’s pretty big news. The rollouts include Affinity Audiences and Seasonal Event Segments for In-Market Audiences – just in time for the holidays. Read further to discover more about these targeting options and to find out what they might have to offer you. What’s It All About? When potential customers – and there are likely far more than you realize – are in search mode, they are exploring their personal interests, searching for inspiration, and digging around for things that matter to them. If you can provide these potential customers with what they want (even if they’re not aware of what it is they want in the moment) when they want it, you’re golden. Google Ads’ latest additions are focused on helping you make your advertising … Continued

Your Helpful Guide: Yelp’s New Review Solicitation Policy

Yelp recently announced that it will be more aggressively enforcing its “Don’t Ask” policy, penalizing companies that show signs of “organized review solicitation.” Specifically, companies that Yelp believes to be actively soliciting reviews are now at risk of having their pages demoted in the platform’s search results as well as having a “Consumer Alert” warning placed on their Yelp business page. A Yelp spokesperson explained the company’s reasoning for its “Don’t Ask” policy stating, “A business is more likely to ask their satisfied customers to write reviews, and when businesses heavily solicit or offer freebies or discounts in exchange for reviews, that puts other businesses that play by the rules at a disadvantage.” Whether or not Yelp’s policy is a sound business decision is yet to be seen. In the meantime, business owners need to figure out their next move. If you’re working on your own to collect more reviews … Continued

Should I Respond to Customer Reviews? #FAQuesday

Word of mouth travels much faster these days with the dawn of the digital age. Reviews can spread like wild fire and do wonders for your online presence. That’s why we at The Web Guys put so much emphasis on our clients inspiring customer reviews. Not only do good reviews attract new customers and leads, they can lead to higher rankings on Google and other search engines. Recently, Google added a snippet to their “Improve Your Local Ranking” support page that highlights how important it is to respond to all customer reviews. While it’s always been important to respond to negative review, this new update from Google solidifies just how important customer reviews are for your business. Let’s go over some best practices when it comes to writing responses. Stay Brief Get in, say thanks, get out. There’s no need to get long winded, even if it’s in response to … Continued