While so many things change in business, marketing and the world wide web – one thing has remained a constant for years – real customer reviews & testimonials are a surefire way to convert customers and build trust.

Reviews can be gathered in a variety of ways, and posted to a number of platforms. Let’s dive into the basics of each of these things.

Reviews on my Website:
Contrary to popular beliefs, posting reviews through a platform directly on to your website has wonderful benefits. First and foremost you have great ways for a prospective customer to validate the type of service they will receive if they bring their car to you – however the benefits extend beyond this. Having your reviews posted directly to your website (not imported from another site) like this example  https://www.precisionautorepair.com/reviews

  gives your site free, unique, regular SEO content and it also gives you the opportunity to publicly and strategically respond furthering that SEO benefit. This is the kind of content Google will reward you for.

Reviews on Google, Yelp or Facebook
Having reviews organically generated on these platforms certainly provides a direct benefit to your page on their platform, but not so much to your actual website. If you have a business goal to grow your Facebook following, or improve your GMB listing, then gathering some reviews there is a great idea. Keep in mind though that you don’t always have full control or ownership of these reviews, so the site they are posted to can decide on their own whether or not to publish or unpublish them – this has hurt reputations in the past. Remember that it is always important to respond as well. Be sure to read the rules of soliciting this type of review though, because this can truly make or break your success!

Reviews on other Third-Party Review Sites
This is the least beneficial for a few reasons. First of all, your reviews are often posted to a separate website, something like www.reviewsite.com/MyShop . While these sites may have a great way to get those reviews (more on that later) they aren’t always in a place that’s going to benefit you, or that you can truly control. Remember that every click adds value to that domain – so if you are driving traffic to a review website, you are boosting their SEO via clicks, but not your own domain.

This is why Kukui suggests having real reviews hard coded on your website. Some businesses may give you an option to insert an iFrame so it looks like those reviews are on your website, but in reality it’s the same thing, and all that wonderful content and all those clicks are benefitting the company you are paying each month instead of your own domain.

If you are doing a wonderful job serving your clientele, and they take the time to share it publicly, be sure you are getting the credit for that – AND that you are taking the time to strategically respond!

At Kukui we can help you with all of that. Be sure to talk with your client success coordinator about YOUR review strategy.

 Click here for part 2 on review strategy!

Kayla Ogden
Senior Director of Client Services