A one star review can often be seen as a huge black mark on your reputation. Everyone else likes me, what is wrong with this person? This really is an opportunity to own what this person says and examine what really happened. It could be situational, as in this person had a bad day, or maybe you do really have a problem you need to address. Examine this problem as a larger part of the business to determine the root of it and see how it fits in. You might find that “big problem” to the review that may be something your regulars are just overlooking.

Key Takeaways:

• Don’t try to tell your side of the story, this can make a business look defensive
• Do not ignore the bad review, you may look uncaring
• As a business you can’t make everyone happy so the occasional negative review is to be expected

“Fall on the sword. Readers of reviews want to see a business owner who is trying to make his customers happy, even those who are in the wrong and those who are unreasonable.”

Read more: http://www.rentalmanagementmag.com/Art/tabid/232/ArticleId/29616

Google is starting to enter the professional and local services market in a new way, and this is going to have profound implications for people who provide such services. While Google has long provided advertisements for services, its new Local Service Ads platform take the company’s involvement to a new level. This is more of an Uber-style model, where Google will serve as a clearinghouse to directly connect customers with businesses. However, the way that it does so will be opaque, so it will be allowed to manipulate prices. This could result in major price pressure and lower wages for professionals.

Key Takeaways:

• Google is looking to privatize most industries allowing more subcontractors to exist like uber drivers
• The services would be cheaper and everyone would make more but cutting out business owners
• The author pointed out that while we prefer this contract it kills central businesses and business owners

“Google has gotten pretty good at squeezing most of the profit out of every industry it touches via Adwords, Google Shopping, etc. And Google’s Local Service Ads look pretty much like more of the same.”

Read more: http://www.localseoguide.com/local-businesses-ready-goober/

While 33% of your internet traffic comes from searches you need a way to keep people coming back. One of the first ways is to decrease your load time. There are many other approaches to improving your Plumber SEO ranking. 14 of these are covered in the article in QuickSprout and are summarised in the video below. They are all applicable to a plumbing business who wants to get ahead SEO.

Key Takeaways:

• Improve your load speed. It’s one of the top reasons a user won’t stay
• Add more relevant content and graphics to your pages to engage your readers
• Make sure you’re mobile friendly you ensure they are able to visit easily.

“The reason why other [plumbing] websites are ranking higher than you on Google is because they are making a conscious effort to improve their SEO”

Read more: https://www.quicksprout.com/2018/02/05/the-top-14-ways-to-improve-your-seo-ranking/

Good will get you everywhere. While the mantra of the 80s was “greed is good,” modern companies need to change their mantra and tactics to meet the demands of their clients. Today people want you to do social change, whether broad strokes on the environment or local things in how you give back, but those social focuses need to be there to be a modern and effective company that will attract gen y and z customers for years to come.

Key Takeaways:

• The key to business success is to be socially and culturally responsible to everyone you conduct business with.
• There are statistics that prove that companies who are supporting good causes while making money at the same time are preferred by global customers.
• Being socially responsible is in vogue and should not be ignored. Customers will flock to companies who are good in the heart and in business acumen.

“In all cases, the transformation starts with placing leaders with a purpose at the core, hiring talent with a purpose at the frontier, and then building and extending the culture of purpose both inside and outside the organization.”

Read more: http://blog.startupprofessionals.com/2017/12/businesses-with-higher-purpose-also.html

Every business owner wants the opportunity to not only reach more customers but to impress them. When you show more, you can say more. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then surely your video is worth at least that. Your video has now gone viral or could go viral. Might this bring you more customers? No matter what type of business you own you should consider uploading your videos. Now how do you get started? It’s very easy, follow the instructions mentioned here and you can have your video posted in no time.

Key Takeaways:

• Google has added the option for business owners to add videos to their Google My Business
• Countless studies have shown that videos receive more likes, shares, and clicks than traditional online marketing practices
• The ability of a video to go “viral” just magnifies the importance of video marketing.

“educating customers about your product or service is empowering them to make the right choices”

Read more: http://blog.staylisted.com/7-reasons-to-upload-videos-to-google-my-business

SEO is constantly changing to meet the demands of better algorithms at Google. Here’s a set of tips that will help you keep your SEO up to speed in the new year. You’ll need to keep on digging into keyword research to fine tune subcategories rather than stuffing. And re-use already optimized content by merging old articles or updating them. You’ll also want to develop links and combine them with FaceBook ad requirements. Follow all the tips below to get the most of your 2018 SEO.

Key Takeaways:

• Most of the articles written on the top SEO techniques are recycled “listicles” that are light on substance and are of little overall value.
• The best SEO techniques that are written about come from true experts in the field, people such as Tom Bennett, Head of Product at Built Visible, and Kelly Shelton, VP of Marketing at Boostability.
• To stay on top of what is working in the fast-paced SEO industry, it’s critical to always be in learning mode, reading about best practices and testing them in the marketplace.

“The beautiful part about Google Search Console is it shows you what keywords Google is associating with your article.”

Read more: https://ahrefs.com/blog/seo-techniques/

SEO is one of the most important parts of keeping a website filling up with traffic. It’s important to monitor your SEO metrics properly and consistently to make the most of it. Some metrics to put at the top of the watch list include traffic and bounce and conversion rates. Don’t forget to track exit pages too. These will tell you if your traffic is leaving due to content or to a finalized purchase or signup. There are tons of metric analytics to use but keeping on top of primary ones can get you ahead faster.

Key Takeaways:

• It’s very important to track organic traffic on your website.
• Collecting data about geographical insights to your organic traffic is very important.
• Devices, browsers and search engines are important in determining what actions need to be taken to maximize reach.

“Two of the best utilities, Google Search Console and Google Analytics, are not only offered for free, but most of the metrics you need to focus on can be gathered from either one of those tools.”

Read more: https://searchengineland.com/12-most-important-seo-metrics-to-monitor-285190