Every year, BrightLocal puts together their Local Consumer Review Survey. The most recent survey came out a bit ago but we have never touched on it here. That's what we are going to do today. We'll highlight a few of the most notable figures and add some commentary on what it means for you. You can read their entire survey conducted by BrightLocal at this link. 97% Of Consumers Looked Online For Local Business, 12% Looked Every Day Obviously, a massive number. The more intere

It doesn't seem like a big deal but in reality, it's a really big deal. Google is the digital age first impression. Many times, prospective customers will make their decision regarding your business after viewing your Google snapshot. Is it fair? Maybe not. But it's the reality of today. The most underutilized aspect to GMB (Google My Business), definitely locally and perhaps nationally, is the lack of attention paid to Google reviews. Many are more concerned with Facebook re

Most people don't realize it but spam in your local search results is an ever growing problem. Casey Meraz posted a blog over at Moz going into further detail than we will here. It's worth a read but a lot of it is more relevant to larger metro areas and more competitive cities and search terms. Instead, we'll point out a couple things we've seen locally that you should keep an eye out for. First up, the relatively new Google Local Guide program is a great start in getting th

The recently released Google Local Guide platform is doing a lot of good. But it's also bringing a lot of spam. I was first notified about it by a client last week. Check out these two reviews that came at almost the exact same time, left for Parisi's Restaurant. There are a few problems, starting with the reviews themselves. Chess Night? At Parisi's? For sure not. That's not even mentioning the 'light' supper, something that Parisi's isn't exactly known for. You better be re

Reviews have always been important but the bar has been raised. There have been a couple of news pieces today and both of them are relevant to business owners in a big way. First up, it was ruled that Yelp is not liable for the reviews posted to their site. This is kind of obvious but there have been plenty of business owners that have taken issue with the site and the ways reviews are relayed. In short, you are fully responsible for your negative reviews and that will not ch