Online reviews, love ‘em or hate ‘em, they’re a pivotal part of your online marketing strategy, and Google pays attention to them.

Your online reviews help shape how your potential clients and patients react to your business, and yes, that means all your reviews, not just those on Google. 

Here, we reveal how online reviews, beyond your Google reviews, not only influence consumer choices but also contribute significantly to your online presence and local SEO.

Discover intriguing online review statistics that stress why, as a local business, your focus should extend beyond Google reviews to other platforms like Yelp and Facebook.

We’ll discuss various online review platforms and how they influence your online brand positioning.

We also explore how platforms such as Apple Business Connect and Bing Places for Business pull reviews from multiple sources (and spoilers alert... they aren't from Google).

This episode is a treasure trove of knowledge for local clinics seeking to enrich their SEO and online presence, so let’s get to it. 


Show Notes


In this episode, you’ll learn about: 

  • Statistics regarding online reviews 
  • Why Google isn’t the only place you should focus on getting reviews
  • Other notable platforms for reviews 
  • How to handle negative reviews 
  • And more


Selected links and other resources related to this episode: 

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Episode Transcript

How are your online reviews? If you're a local business and you're only focusing on collecting online reviews on the Almighty Google, then this episode is for you. 

On this episode we're gonna talk about different places you should be focusing your efforts to collect online reviews. 

Hello, and welcome. I'm your host, Darcy Sullivan, with Propel Marketing & Design

Does your company have a plan in place to collect reviews? Are you only focusing on your product and marketing? So, if you're a local business owner, are you only trying to collect reviews on Google, or are you trying to collect reviews on other sites? 

Today, we're gonna chat about the importance of online reviews and where you should focus your efforts to collect those online reviews. 

So, first up, I think most people understand the importance and the power that is behind online reviews. They really do reflect people's decisions on if they should come in to see you if you're a clinic owner or if they should do business with you if you're a small business. 

And the data behind this really is so compelling. Let's look at some statistics. The statistics that I'm gonna share are from ExplodingTopics.com, and they are for 2023. I'll include the link to this in the Show Notes for your reference. 

  • 93% of users say online reviews have an impact on their buying decisions. 
  • Nearly half of all internet users post online reviews every month. 
  • 81% of consumers use Google to evaluate local businesses. 
  • Yelp receives 26,830 new reviews per minute. Hold on; I'm just gonna repeat that crazy number again. Currently, Yelp receives over 26,000 new reviews per minute. That is just crazy. 
  • 75% of businesses do not respond to negative reviews. 

If you've listened to one of our previous episodes, which we'll include in the Show Notes again, where we went into detail about How to Optimize Your Google Business Profile Listing– we've also done a show and have additional resources on your Apple Maps Listing, your Bing Business Listing, all of these talk about how to optimize your listings, but also how to handle those reviews. 

If you do receive a negative review, you do want to make sure that you take the time and energy to look into the review, see what happened, why it was negative. Reply if it's appropriate, or report if it's inappropriate. 

Now, there are a ton of online review platforms out there, and we're going to talk about some of the bigger ones here, but in the beginning, I gave that little teaser of I hope you're not just collecting your online reviews on Google, and we're going to go into where the other locations are that you should consider including collecting reviews. 

Now, the big ones collectively are for review sites Google, Yelp, Facebook, TripAdvisor. And, of course, Google is the clear winner. 

I mean Bright Local has the statistic of 81% of customers use Google to evaluate a local business. I think we all can agree that Google really is the big and mighty here, but this is really what I want you to take in and understand that it isn't the end all be all when it comes to Google. 

There are other places where people go to to get information about your reviews, and there are other sites and sources that pull reviews that are not from Google. 

What do I mean by this? What I mean is that your Apple Business Connect Place Card,  that's what controls your Apple Maps listing, pulls reviews from Yelp. Then you have your Bing listing, which is your Bing Places for Business listing, and it pulls reviews from Yelp and from Facebook. 

So you want to, of course, focus your energy on collecting reviews on Google, but also consider the fact that you want to collect them from a few other locations, and, again, those include Yelp, Facebook, and there might be some other specific industry review sites that you might want to consider. 

So, as you go out and collect your reviews, make sure that you're not directing every single person to Google and that you're spreading out the online love and collecting some of the reviews in other locations as well. 

Darcy’s SEO strategies are easy to implement and effective. She’s the #1 SEO expert I refer to whenever I need help with my rankings.

 

SEO queen! I can’t thank Propel and Darcy enough for holding my hand through the SEO process! I’m loving the podcast and all the insight! Also loving that my business is now getting the brand awareness and sales I’ve always wanted!

 


Wow! Clear, concise and impactful. Excellent details and tips - already seeing a return!! Worth the 20 min listen.

 

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Sponsors

This episode of the Propel Your Practice Podcast is brought to you by Propel Marketing & Design. Propel Marketing & Design helps Chiropractors, Acupuncturists, Physical Therapists, Wellness Practitioners, and other clinic owners improve their website rankings.


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