Comments and Testimonials Add Value to Websites

90% of all people who are using the search engines are looking up products and services that they want to buy. Research provides the information that leads to a purchase decision. But looking at a list of features and benefits for a particular product is not the only thing that people research. Reviews of the product or the company selling an item also have a lot of pull with consumers. Comments that are posted online carry a lot of weight with the individuals who are considering making a purchase. Through the use of online commentaries and information that has been submitted by actual clients or customers of a business it is possible to learn about how you will be treated and what type of results you can expect if you choose to buy from a company to that sells the products or services you are looking for.

Reviews and comments that are posted online provide information that to consumers that is unbiased. If you are looking to grow your business you can promote your website and offerings by requesting comments, testimonials and reviews from the people who have been happy with the service or quality of products that you are selling. With more than 3.45 billion searches conducted online each month, there are a lot of people researching the product reviews that influence their buying decision. 

By adding the ability to post comments on your website, you can influence the future sales of your company. Before posting any review publicly, you can read through the submissions to make sure that every comment is something you want to post. Millions of people look up companies and brands online before buying. The added support of positive reviews that are posted by actual customers goes a long way in capturing the attention of potential customers. 

As you are building and marketing your website, remember to include a page that provides feedback and comments which will allow anyone who searches for your inventory to gain some insight into how well they will be treated. Consumers trust their peers when it comes to making purchases. By allowing comments to appear on your site, you can gain sales from the Internet traffic that is directed from the pages of a search result to your website. When a person finishes looking up the reviews about a business or a product they are interested in, they are ready to buy. Keep that in mind as you are marketing your merchandise and watch how many more sales you will make as people trust in the comments that they find while doing their research.

Comments Left on Websites Influence Search Results

Articles that are written in an unbiased yet positive format are an excellent way to help promote a business. By submitting content to any number of online publishers, corporations across the globe are finding that their rankings within the search engine directories is being influenced for the reinforcement of their marketing efforts that place a website in the resource channels of the search media. By targeting the keywords that are linked to the offerings of a business, the owners and managers are able to coordinate their tactics for driving traffic to their virtual storefront. Any increase their ecommerce sales comes as a result of their constant delivery of new material through articles and blogs that are of interest to the cyber community.

Another useful tool that is gaining recognition in the strategic placement of a website is the incorporation of comments or recommendations that are being made by clients or customers who are satisfied with their experience in dealing with a business. Satisfied customers favorably share the successes that are directly tied to the work or services of am organization that they have hired to help them. Service providers rely on referrals as much as they do their advertising efforts. The feedback that is given by their clients aides in the overall promotion of the business and its offerings. The endorsements that appear online add to the overall promotion of the company and assist in the placement of the website in the search directories.

Online marketing that includes comments and posts from current or past customers is a valuable piece of the puzzle that generates more business for a company. Websites that allow visitors to leave their comments have an influence on the search engines that rank a business based on the relevancy of the content and the links that support the work being done by the company. By soliciting positive posts on your site you can increase the ranking of our landing pages in the search engines.

SEO Strategies to Avoid

Last week I met with a man who had some questions about his website marketing. Although he has been paying out $500 a month for PPC (pay-per-click) advertising his business is not gaining from the advertising that is taking place in the search engines. As we chatted he talked about moving his online marketing from PPC to SEO for the organic results that will do more for his business than he is currently gaining from the money that is being invested in AdWords and other online promotions.

As part of the reputation management work that is supplementing the SEO strategies that are in place the company is doing something that I wholeheartedly disagree with. In an effort to gain customers and give the appearance that the organization is a success (although it is still a startup) the owner has authorized the creation of 1,500 email addresses and social media profiles that are in realty a sham. Without realizing the mistake the company is attempting to generate support through likes and comments that are made by their employees who are posing as customers. This practice is considered to be black hat and is not helping the company at all.

The reason that no one is taking notice of the false success of the number of "likes" is that the search engines know that all of the emails and profiles are linked to the same IP address. Even if the reviews are positive and appear to be coming from outside sources there is no fooling the search engines that identify each URL and email address by the senders IP address and location. Geotargeting is engineered to help customers to find businesses in their immediate vicinity, but it also works to provide the analytical information that the search engines provide to website owners to determine unique visitor traffic. So by creating 1,500 new users that are all using the same router and IP address the search engines are not fooled and therefore are not applying the results of the fraud to the page rank or placement of the site.

Even with the same IP address being linked to 1,500 different emails or social media profiles the search engines see only one unique IP address and that is the reason that a business ranking and links are not being recorded and tied into the statistics that build up the legitimacy of a website and add to the PR (Page Rank) of the URL. Even though the company's social media page might appear to have 1,500 "likes" from each of the unique profiles that are attached to the individual email addresses the long reaching effects of the Internet requires that a business conduct their reputation management legitimately.

As I listened to the frustrations of the executive concerning the lack of interest in the website and subsequent failure of their internal social media campaign I recognized that there are a number of things that can be done to review the website and make recommendations to improving the status of the site in the search engines.

Through the tools and techniques that I have discussed in past blogs I can help this organization to build a marketing media strategy that will get it to where it wants to go. But for anyone reading this article and thinking "I can fake some social media likes too," I have to say please do not stoop to black hat practices that will ultimately do nothing for your website and may cause more damage than good. Remember that online reviews and reputation management cannot be faked and success comes from patience and putting in the work that will build long term results. If you need a refresher review my blog about "The Tortoise and the Hare approach to SEO.”

How to Register a Website with Google

In this post I am going to give you the information that I used to register my website with the search directories. To be honest when I was looking at Yahoo I was redirected to Bing's website registration page, but once I loaded the information and received verification of the registration I was able to find my site on a Yahoo search. Which reminds me, that if you are building your own site or are having someone else develop it you will need access to the host server where you post the verification of the registration that is on file with the search engines.

You will need to set up a sign in or login if you do not currently use a Google account such as Gmail or a Google profile. Once that is done you can sign into the webmaster tools and add a website that you want listed in the search directories. You will be told that it will take 3 days before the spiders crawl through your website, but that is nothing out of the ordinary, a few years ago Google said it would be 3 weeks before they could get your site indexed and registered. The link that I used was www.google.com/webmasters/tools/

For Bing the registration process is almost identical to Google. If you do not have a windows live account or a hotmail or msn email address you will have to create a user name and password but that is not hard to do. On a side note: Because of all the sites that I am registered with I keep a word document with the site URL and the login and password so that if I forget it or do not visit for a few months I can still get into the site without submitting a change of password request.  So the URL for Bing website registration is: https://ssl.bing.com/webmaster/SubmitSitePage.aspx Again they will ask you sign up for a webmaster tools account but with an email that is run through any Microsoft system you are automatically included in the tools account. That is good for Xbox Live accounts too.

So now that you can register with the search engines you can start to search for your website and see where you place in the results. Keep in mind however that optimization and online marketing allow the website to rise in the ranks and are beneficial to making the long slow rise to the top of the search pages. Depending on your competition and the number of other websites that are similar to yours you should plan a slow mediocre rise that builds your reputation and helps to keep you on the first page as you work on link building and other online marketing campaigns.

Managing Online Reputations with Social Media

As I have thought about this blog I have created a list of topics that I am going to be blogging about in the coming weeks. Thinking about how to continue to offer tips or advice to those that working on their own search optimization efforts I realized that I also need to include the trends in social media that are allowing individuals and businesses to gain a stronger web presence. Managing an online reputation is an important piece of the internet marketing puzzle.

After interviewing for a position as a corporate social media manager this morning I sat down to strategize my own approach building a solid reputation as someone who not only uses social media to move my professional profile forward, but also looking at what I can do to help businesses to grow. With link building offering permanent additions to the ranks of search optimized websites, the social portion of internet marketing focuses more on the branding and positive perspectives that a company or individual has online.

For everyone that is not doing anything about managing their online reputation the lack of interest in social network sites is hurting their business. Even with a moderate amount of posting on the networking sites a business or individual can keep a positive vibe circulating about themselves or their work. For myself, the management of a reputation is something that I committing to right now. Although I have been involved in online marketing in one form or another for the past three years I am only now seeing the significance of creating an online identity that can boost my professional interest as an expert content writer. Wanting to add more punch to my resume I am including a healthy dose of social media contacting to my online reputation. The end goal of course is to be at the top of the search engines when someone types in social media networking, online media marketing, or internet marketing consulting. Even though I am a freelance writer who specializes in blog and article content for the web I am expanding my horizons and working to improve my own standing as someone who understands and utilizes social media on a regular basis.

And I am not the only on doing that! Businesses across the internet are invested in the continued improvement of their online reputations. With the ability to post a review about a company in a consumer focused web forum businesses are required to scan the internet for negative press and do all that they can to replace the hurtful dialog with positively reinforced posts and reviews. Through online reviewing sites that allow people to post their feedback about the service and quality that they received from a business, the reputation of that company is established. In some cases the feedback may be perceived as negatively impacting the business which is why it is vital to the organization to ensure that if their name is attached to the results of a web search that comes up as shining the best light on the company. Regardless of whether they are a multinational corporation with tens of thousands of employees or a mom and pop small business that serves the local community the only way to keep a positive light on any business is to promote it positively in as many places as possible.

This is where social media content comes into play. Using the social media networks, consumer reviewing sites and even allowing customer reviews on their own website, businesses can work to continually manage their online reputation and achieve the ranking among the social networks as a company that has integrity and delivers quality to each person they serve. Although it is tempting to keep up on the various activities that taking place in the social networks throughout the day, I recommend keeping the work related posts focused on the business you are in and spending the after work hours connecting to friends and  family members online. With a strategy to promote the positive image of the company, the posts to the social media sites can improve any reputation and lead to more beneficial impact on the search engines that are tracking the reviews and posts entered online.

Until next time...