by Marcus Mackell

Ever wonder how customers in your area find out about your business? The short answer is that they do an internet search. The good news is that when customers search the internet, they’re most likely looking for a business in their local area.

According to Forbes, 97% of consumers now search for local businesses online. So how do you win your share of these customers? To start, you’ll need to have an effective local search engine optimization (SEO) strategy in place. Local SEO helps you promote your products and services to local customers.

Search Engine Land says an effective local SEO strategy includes items such as claiming your Google page and having an efficient way to generate and manage online reviews. Yes, you heard it! Online reviews play a huge role in customers being able to find your business online! MOZ.com, an industry-leading source in SEO, tells us there are 6 components to using reviews that help your local SEO.

1. Set the stage: Set a policy and train your staff to manage customer feedback.
2. Be complaint friendly: Catch a complaint and manage it before it turns into a negative review.
3. Claim your pages: Find your most popular review sites and claim them, like Google.
4. Encourage reviews: Find ways to encourage and generate reviews and follow the rules.
5. Negative Reviews: Be professional and follow these helpful tips in responding to negative reviews.
6. Respond: Act quickly! Remember, it is also really important to acknowledge the experience of a customer who left a good review by responding.

Encouraging your consumers to write reviews and then staying on top of managing and responding to them can be time-consuming — and daunting. But it doesn’t have to be! Take a look at some options to automate these processes. For example, Mitchell 1’s SocialCRM auto repair marketing service has a great program that allows you to:

• Automatically ask for reviews via email or text message just by closing an invoice or with the click of a button
• Verify that reviews are coming from real customers
• Receive notifications when reviews, especially negative reviews, are left so you can immediately resolve issues before the review goes public
• Syndicate your reviews to your website and blog to improve SEO and bring more customers to your page.

These are just a few of the features that can help you manage your review system. For more information on other review features and other ways Mitchell 1’s SocialCRM can improve your online visibility, you can learn more at https://mitchell1.com/socialcrm/ .

Also read: Reviews and Ratings from MOZ.com