These days, when someone is interested in a business, it is easy for that person to find a wealth of information on that business just by searching the Internet. Not only is it possible to browse your business website to get a good idea of what you offer, but potential customers can also use reviews of your business to make the important decision of whether or not they want to work with you. This has very obvious implications when it comes to earning new customers . . . but did you know that online reviews can also go a long way in lending to your business website’s creditability, by strengthening its search engine optimization (SEO)? How so? Here are three ways online reviews can help your business SEO: Traffic. Simply put, having your business listed on review sites increases your online exposure. Increased exposure means more traffic to your business website. The more traffic your website has, the more attention it gets from search engine crawlers (those programs that find, examine, and valuate pages on websites), and the higher it will rank on search engine results lists. Linkbacks. Linkbacks are basically links to your site from other sites. Search engine crawlers identify linkbacks and figure them into your site’s overall relevance when determining your ranking in search engine results. The more linkbacks you have leading to your site, the more relevant your site will appear to be, and the higher it will sit on the results page. Many online review sites allow you to include links to your business site, so the more review sites you are registered with – and the more reviews your business gets – the stronger your linkback value will be. Strength in numbers . There are countless online review sites that you can list your business with, and that number is only growing. Be sure to register your business on sites like Google Places, Yelp, Foursquare, Bing, Angie’s List, and more, in order to get people talking about your business and linking to your website. In this way, SEO is about popularity: the more exposure you have on the web, the better your SEO. Online reputation management is a complex process, but it is also tantamount to your business success. To make the most of your online reputation, you may want to enlist the help of qualified and competent professionals like me, In Sync Web Design LLC. I can be reached by phone, at (913) 825-2587, or by email:amy.kesler@insyncwebdesign.com.

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