SearchInfluence

Yelp is intended as a review site where users can write and read reviews for local businesses to help make informed buying decisions. It’s a powerful tool in that users trust the real opinions and feedback from their friends and neighbors. Yelp’s user-driven reviews allow everyone to add in their opinions of products and services at local clubs, restaurants, and businesses in all forms.

There is obvious value to a small business owner in getting users to leave positive reviews. The question is how much should a business pay for a review? No, no, no … I’m joking. The question really is how do you encourage customers to leave Yelp reviews naturally and organically without abusing the intent of the site?

BBB, BizzSpot partnership takes a shady tack to entice local businesses.

So, it’s taken me a few days to get back to this, but I was blown away by a recent cold-call from a company purporting to be the marketing arm of the Better Business Bureau.

I think everybody knows that the BBB is a commercial venture, but this was a little over the top.

Here’s why I liken it to Merchant Circle: The caller says “This is Valerie calling for William Scott. Calling on behalf of the better business bureau if you could please contact me at 888-xxx-xxxx. Thank you.”

Private Links Builder is trying to help me rank better for Plastic Surgeons New Orleans. I’m highlighting some particularly amusing stuff.

These are actually pretty good from a sales perspective. What they lack is any kind of real preparation and review.

See also: Links Hog and High Web Rank

Subject: I visited your searchinfluence.com site and had a question

I was looking at websites under the keyword plastic surgeons new orleans and came across your site searchinfluence.com. I see that you’re ranked #10 on page 5 in google.

High Web Rank is trying to help me rank better for Chiropractor New Orleans with their 13,000 sites.

For a little background please see my Links Hog post.

Hello,

I was looking at websites under the keyword ‘ chiropractor new orleans ‘ and came across your website http://www.ifindsales.com/. I see that you’re ranked number 2 on page 15.

I’m not sure if you’re aware of why you’re ranked this low but more importantly how easily correctable this is.

Are you aware of what the difference between first page and page 15 would mean to your business?

I happened to stop by Mihmorandum, the blog of Portland Oregon Website Designer David Mihm and David solved a problem I didn’t know I had.

WordPress Spam Injection = Google Penalty for My Blog (But Not Website)

I had been wondering for about two weeks why I was no longer ranking for “Locomotive Consultant” and reading David’s post made me check my code.

Darn spammers ...