How does your business look against its competitors?

It something all businesses should spend just a little more time on - checking how they show in search against their peers.

Let's look at some examples...

In a specific search - your potential customer knows you, or they are responding to some of your marketing or a recommendation form a colleague or friend. They search specifically for your business. Let's look at a client of ours (nameless for the moment)...

...Google helpfully provides five alternative businesses in their knowledge panel. What is to stop that potential client straying (Google don't just put them there for fun, they know a percentage will click on them)? So what can the business in question do?

They can harness the power of their customers' opinions, first by having lots of great reviews and the resulting Google score...

 

...which leads the potential customer straight to the reviews themselves...

...and to the three rich snippets that Google gets from those reviews...

...then they have independently verified reviews on their own website...

 ...that are pulled through to organic search by Google...

...to give them a star rating and score there. Which, taken all together, mean that your potential customer is much less likely to be diverted away.

Now - local search - where the customer knows what type of business they want, but has an open mind as to exactly the business(es) they are going to contact. Here reviews back up the business's showing in the Google Maps 3-pack and in organic search...

 ...again, ensuring the business looks great, with eye-catching scores and stars in both.

Action?

Perform both searches on your business (we recommend our clients do so at least monthly) and see how your business is performing. Keep a record, so you can track improvements.

If you would like to see the actual numbers (in terms of increased visits and calls) when a business that is doing everything else right from an online marketing point-of-view joins HelpHound read this case history.