SearchInfluence

Tonight, I was logged into the Place Page account for my husbands’ business adding a Coupon.  I haven’t looked around his Place Page in a while, and I was trying to see what I have missed in the months since I last logged in.  (Just as the cobbler’s children go without shoes, the Place Page accounts most personal to me tend to get ignored.  And that is not my husband in the picture.  That is a cobbler.)

Then I saw some newness .. what’s this? … The reviews are separated out.  Check it out on this Place Page …

I was looking for more contact info for Luther Lowe and noticed his tweet about a blog post explaining Yelp’s Review Filter. Luther does a good job of explaining the Yelp Review Filter and Yelp has commissioned a video which tries to explain it in a friendly way. The review filter, Yelp’s legal woes and the general state of Yelpdom have been the topics of many conversations lately.

While in Portland last week presenting on Facebook Marketing at SEMpdx SearchFest I had a couple great dinners with some really smart people. One of those dinners included the aforementioned smart person Luther Lowe who is part of Yelp’s business outreach team.

SEO experts are almost unanimous in their agreement that customer reviews play a crucial role in boosting visibility and rankings in the local search results. So how can you use this information to leverage local search rankings for your own business?

In a previous post, we discussed how a pro-active approach to customer service and feedback can boost your business reputation online. Positive reviews are a sign of trust, and that carries a great deal of weight in search rankings. Happy customers are an excellent source of positive feedback and reviews.