You’ve heard us talk about how important reviews are to your restoration business but here a clip from our recent podcast with Zach (Liftify) where he gives a lot more insight on this topic including how reviews have a huge impact on Google’s organic local search algorithm, social proof and most importantly the reputation of your business.
“When we’re talking to people, we’ll share kind of four principles. Like, if you think, should I get reviews? Like, is it important to my strategy in how I’m doing it? Whether you work with us or you do it on your own, you work with somebody else.
The first and most obvious factor that I’m sure you preach, Ben is, it has direct ramifications for your Google search algorithm. I mean, if you, yes, do not get reviews, you will get beat in showing up in the local maps “Power Pack”, as Google calls it in your local results, not even just for your Google profile, but it also ties to your website, right?
So yes, if you wanna rank high on Google and get free organic leads, reviews is a primary driver of that page that you have. So it absolutely matters for search. It also matters for consumer confidence or getting chosen, you know, just like you do in your personal life, when you go into a restaurant or you’re looking for a home service company, if one company has 500 reviews and the other one has five, which one are you gonna click on to call?
And it needs to reinforce all of your other marketing. And so, that’s the obvious one. Everybody knows that they do influence when they create bias. When you’re searching towards, the companies with more reviews and you may even be willing to pay more because they have the proven customer track record, right? With those companies.
And so the obvious one, you know, it impacts search. It matters to consumers, but long term, we always really challenge people to think about, your reviews are really your reputation, right? And when you go to sell a business or you’re looking for evaluation, or you wanna get out of it one day, what are you selling? You sell some equipment, you’re selling your reputation, right?
You’re selling the trust that you have. And we’ve had many of our customers go through that process, work with a lot of. Franchises, different businesses where they might sell their business and every time they sold their business for more, because they were the most attractive company in their area to buy in that industry.
And so if you’re better at getting reviews and building an online reputation than your competition, not just today or tomorrow or next year, but what about over the next five years or 10 years, then your business, you’re gonna change the multiple, you know, you can sell that business for one day if you want to.
And so, a lot of times people aren’t thinking long term, right? How do you build that reputation? But we always push on that. And then lastly, the other factor that we see is it always helps, it actually helps with recruiting talent, as well. A third of employees have turned down jobs because of a company’s online reviews.
So as you’re looking to hire technicians, office staff, have marketing person, a sales rep, those people are looking at your reviews and they’re saying, “Is this a place I wanna work? Is this a place I’m gonna be successful if I go here?” And you want that answer to be, “Yes, I want to work in this culture like their customers love them. They do a good job. This is gonna be a good place for me to grow as an individual.”
And so kind of share that lens of, yes, it’s good for search, but it also really impacts people’s buying behavior. It matters to your long-term value and it drives employees. So really touches every part of your business. And the better you do it, the more it’s going to help.
There’s really no negative, right? Having a really strong online reputation. And companies reputations have always mattered. It’s just now it’s online. Right? And if so many great businesses had a great reputation for so long offline as people just doing word of mouth. Well, the internet is the new word of mouth, right? And you have to have a good reputation there.”
Liftify is an online reputation and review building company whose comprehensive solutions are finally solving the review gathering problem once and for all.
Here’s the link for the full podcast episode:
📌 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy9JtguD-oQ
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Benjamin Ricciardi is the founder of Ironclad Restoration Marketing, A digital marketing agency that specializes in the Restoration and Cleaning industry based in South Florida. Benjamin is the author of The No Bulls**t Guide to Internet Marketing for Restoration Contractors and hosts The Restoration Rundown Podcast, a podcast that is focused on everything related to marketing and owning a Restoration and Cleaning Business. Connect with Benjamin and Ironclad Restoration Marketing on social media for the latest tips and tricks on how to grow your Restoration Business.