Results with a capital 'R'

Google introduced Google My Business performance statistics back in 2017. Sent to each business in an email from Google that lands in your inbox every month* they look like this...

This report is for the first month after full implementation of HelpHound's service by the business in question: Calls up 18% and website visits up a massive 27% - and the only difference? HelpHound (and for a month - August - when they would normally expect falls)

*should you be unable to find your monthly GMB report (a not uncommon occurrence) please call us and we will help you track it down

There is a strong message from Google here - and that is that looking great in reviews is vitally important if you are to maximise returns from search.

Look like this when someone conducts a specific search on your business...

 ...with your own reviews, gathered with HelpHound, showing the star rating, review score and number (top left) and your Google reviews (heading the Google knowledge panel on the right) as well as and rich snippets (below, under 'Reviews' at the base of the Knowledge Panel), all working in concert to produce the kind of uplift in calls and visits reported by Google in the top screenshot. In this case the overwhelming majority of Google reviews were copied, by the reviewer, from an original posted on the business's own website after being automatically invited to do so by HelpHound.

The Google knowledge panel (above) and local search (below) are so important for businesses now - the days of tagging your website with relevant keywords and hoping for the best are well behind us, and with the day when Google serves the 'best' businesses in local search fast approaching (they effectively do this with the reviews filter in map search already) any business that does not take its review management seriously is bound to suffer - after all, there can only ever be one number one in organic search and only one page 1. With professional review management you massively increase your chances of achieving both

Here's an example: in the Google 3-pack (the 3 businesses at the top of every local search), with so many reviews as to dispel any doubts as to their authenticity, and the business is leading in organic search with the score, stars and number of reviews hosted on their own site pulling through to further impress searchers. Bear in mind there are more than sixty - 60 - businesses competing in this local search. Just how much do you think a business ranking lower than the ones shown above - not on page one of local search and not in the 3-pack - would give to be where Winkworth is, and has been since very soon asfter they joined HelpHound?  

We think the message is now even clearer - that professional review management pays dividends - we know, like Winkworth, your business will see the benefits too. One thing is for sure: you will know within weeks of joining because Google will tell you!

And please note: While the business in this example is an estate agency the same principle will apply to any business from accountancy to, well, zoos!


Further reading:

•  A comprehensive guide to everything we do here at HelpHound

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