Tag Archives: Reputation Management

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Google Reviews: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Google Reviews drive local search and online branding more than almost any other ranking factor. Most plumbing professionals have some notion of the impact reviews have on their business. However, most don’t fully understand how to effectively collect and manage their client feedback.

To help guide your plumbing company toward stronger brand growth, we’ve created a quick how-to for gathering, managing, and protecting your client feedback. These reviews aren’t going to collect themselves!

Key Takeaways for Plumbing Professionals

  • Google Reviews are the most visible form of feedback.
  • They directly affect rankability for local search results.
  • Google Reviews are best earned right after a successful service visit.
  • Negative reviews are opportunities to showcase your customer service prowess.
  • Fake reviews are not worth it. They’ve killed many businesses.

Understanding Google Reviews

Tied directly to your company’s Google My Business listing, Google Reviews represent your brand’s overall service quality to the entire local search community. Homeowners (and/or commercial clients) can leave a rating by directly searching your business name and submitting a review in the knowledge graph located on the right hand side of the screen. On mobile devices, the review tab on your listing houses the collection and submission area for new client ratings.

There are a few crucial truths you’ll need to when it comes to Google Reviews and their uses.

They are Necessary for SEO

Absolutely essential. To Google, these reviews provide undeniable proof that your business is both active and trustworthy. That means they can depend on your listing, and send more traffic your way by ranking up your website. That’s why many of the top listings on local map packs, some of the best traffic earners, feature companies with dozens (even hundreds) of Google Reviews!

That makes sense, because those reviews represent activity tied directly to your GMB account. Your GMB heavily influences local search results. If you want to win those premium map pack placements, you’ll need to consistently gather reviews on a job by job basis. By the way, if you want more detail about local map packs and optimizing for them, be sure to check out our video guide on Search Marketing, which covers the 3 major aspects of a search engine results page.

They’re Crucial for Sales

Even back in 2015, Pew Research studies showed that at least half of all Americans consider online reviews prior to making a purchase. Five years later, that number continues to climb. That’s because reviews are essentially personal recommendations from other consumers, less biased than the word of the associated business. Even with essential services like plumbing, reviews can make or break a purchase decision.

It’s not enough to gather one or two. Fresh reviews, at least in the mind of local homeowners, provide the most dependable representation of your service quality. The more, the better! After all, don’t you consider reviews on your key purchase decisions?

They Won’t Collect Themselves

Did you know that the vast majority of plumbing clients never leave a review, positive or negative? In fact, a business could consider themselves luck if even one in ten of their clients remember to leave a rating. On the other hand, most plumbing clients would be more than happy to provide a review when asked. According to a study covered by Search Engine Land:

“…if asked, approximately 71 percent of consumers will leave a review for a business.”

Those are good odds! Just imagine how many reviews you could collect in a given year if even half that percentage left them when asked. All you have to do is ask. Add in a geotagging review software (like BrandREVU), and you’ve got the makings of an outrageous improvement in local search rankings! This, of course, could mean significantly more revenue for your business.

Responding to Negative Reviews

Now comes the unpleasant, but necessary side of reputation management: negative reviews. When an angry client leaves a disparaging rating on your GMB, it’s easy to take it personally. With a little ingenuity and a lot of patience however, you can turn negative reviews into unique branding opportunities. Master the art of turning a low rating into a customer service moment, and you’ll wow all your future prospects!

Keep Calm and Carry On

First of all, don’t sweat every negative review that shows up on your GMB. If you’ve been doing a good job providing exceptional service, odds are these negative reviews will be few and far between. Continue to gather positive feedback every time you finish a job by immediately ask your clients for reviews.

The more reviews you gather, the less impact those stinging complaints will have!

Respond to the Problem

Some complaints are legitimate, while others are simply caused by misunderstandings. Either way, it’s best to respond to complaints quickly and courteously. Politely ask the client to provide more information about the circumstances behind their poor service rating. Be sure to take the conversation offline. Email or direct phone calls work best.

Once you’ve identified the cause behind the complaint, consider what you can do to satisfy the unhappy client. For repair problems, that might mean scheduling a next day service visit. For pricing or payment issues, that might mean giving a discount. Obviously, you’ll want to find a solution that meets their needs without breaking the bank!

Finally, make sure the client is completely satisfied before moving on. When you’re confident they feel happy, ask them if they’d feel comfortable updating or deleting their review. Be sure to emphasize just how essential their review is to your business, and how you’d appreciate their help. Odds are, you’ll see a higher star rating soon and earn a happy long-term client for your trouble!

Dangers of Fake Reviews

Fake reviews are bad business, whether they come from Google Reviews or somewhere else. Yet they’ve been a growing concern across multiple industries these last few years. Tech giants, such as Amazon and Google, have done their best to lessen the impact of these fictional ratings, but high demand means that review-writing services still manage to thrive.

How do fake reviews threaten your business? Consider the viewpoints of both clients and Google.

From a Client’s Perspective

Trust is everything in business, especially when it comes to essential home services. If a consumer can’t trust that the reviews on your GMB account accurately represent your service quality, they’ll turn to other options fast. So zealously guard your ratings from any sort of manipulation. If anyone suggests buying up reviews, don’t. It’s not worth the risk to your local search results.

Remember this: consumers understand if you don’t have a perfect 5-star rating. In fact, they may even prefer if your score is less than perfect, because it suggests your reviews are authentic! Just keep getting those new ratings.

From Google’s Perspective

A business caught with fake (purchased or incentivised) reviews creates risk for Google. After all, that company may be struggling for business or suffering from low service quality. Google takes risky company listings and ranks them on the backside of search results. At the very least, they could cancel any suspected reviews and remove them from your collection.

In worst case scenario, we’ve seen companies lose their GMB account overnight. That means no showing up for local-based searches. Worse yet, it means a tremendous loss of traffic and leads coming into your website. That’s an expensive mistake not worth making!

Closing Thoughts

As one of the most important factors affecting your local search ranking, Google Reviews deserve consistent attention. Collect them as often as you, immediately after service visits if possible. Not only does this protect and grow your brand, it promotes stronger results on Google Search. That’s easy money for your business.

If you’re looking to automate and empower your reviews process, talk with our team at Plumbing Webmasters. Each of our custom websites come with integrated review software, enabling you to automatically ask clients for reviews and post them on your website (and any citation sources you desire). We’ve helped plumbing companies, such as the Chattanooga Water Heater Co, dominate local map packs and earn premium leads in a matter of months.

To learn more about Google Reviews and our related services, call us at (877) 388-9884!

Posted: | Updated: Jul 11, 2023 | Categories: Podcast
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Plumber SEO Conference 2020

Plumbing SEO changes year after year. In fact, the industry shifts so much, we go to conferences to stay on top of all the latest news and practices! In this latest podcast, Jason and Nolen share some of the juicy tidbits they picked up from their latest SEO conference.

Look for key changes GMB management, online brand development, on-page optimization, and more! If your website has struggled to break into premium rankings, be sure to listen in.

Helpful Lessons for Plumbing Professionals

  • Keyword strategies must incorporate synonyme usage. Variety creates healthier optimization.

  • Remember the big four: Google, BBB, Facebook, & Yelp. You need reviews from all of them.

  • Continue to monitor your GMB account, including your Q&A section in the Knowledge Graph.

  • Keyword optimization and mobile friendly optimization are basic essentials.

What’s Changing in Search Marketing?

Let’s start by analyzing some of the key industry updates that your business will need to keep on top of. In 2020, your Google My Business account will become even more important to your success in local search. The search engine continues to add new functionalities to the listing service, including new ways for potential customers to interact with your company.

Thanks to the Knowledge Graph, people can check reviews, operating hours, location, and contact information without ever interacting with your website.

While that might seem like an intimidating prospect for some plumbing SEO professionals, these changes could mean great things for your business in 2020. For one, clients who direct search your name won’t need to dig through your site to find a phone number or determine if you provide emergency services. This increases the chance of people calling your business.

Showing Up in Google Maps Listings

In search marketing, visibility equals success. That’s especially true in the case of Google Maps listings, whose top ranks generate some of the most impressive traffic. Apart from the usually website optimization (more on that later), we’ve seen GMB play a larger role in these search listings. Since Google only awards this premium search real estate to dependable businesses (as best they can), it’s essential that your GMB data is continually checked and re-checked for accuracy.

Local Maps Listings
Local Maps Listings Earn Exceptional Traffic and Lead Generation.

Reviews also serve as a make or break criterium for Google Maps listings. Lately, Google has emphasized diversity in review sources as a healthy indication of trustworthiness. In other words, don’t put all your rating eggs in one basket! While there are hundreds of rating websites to choose from, start with these four:

  • Google Reviews

  • Facebook

  • Better Business Bureau

  • and Yelp

These four feedback sources are considered by many to be the most essential citations for plumbers. If you want even more plumbing SEO power from your client reviews, we’ve seen a rising trend in geotagging. That’s the tagging of reviews with GPS location data. It provides stronger evidence to Google’s search engine that you provide services in tagged locations, giving them more reason to rank your site over competitors.

Breaking Digital Language Barriers

With the release of Google’s BERT update still fresh in our minds, the search giant continues to advance towards a deeper algorithm understanding of human speech. With latent semantic indexing (LSI), keyword optimization has gone beyond the simple “3% focus keyword formula” – no more flooding pages with unnatural keyword volumes – to create a more human reading experience. Keywords still play a foundational role in SEO for plumbing. They determine how Google understands and ranks, but now professionals must take a different approach to writing content.

Keyword Synonyms for a Plumbing Term Search
Mix in Related Phrases and Synonyms of Your Focus Keyword for Better Content Performance.

It’s more essential than ever before that your content provides unique insights for would-be clients. Businesses can finally stop the ridiculous barrage of “plumbers near me”s and start presenting information in ways that people can easily digest. The most insightful content (usually) gets rewarded these days, not the most keyword redundant. Keyword spamming is a remnant of past plumbing SEO strategy, but it will hurt your results today.

What elements can you use to create more helpful resources for your customers?

  • Bullet points,

  • Keyword synonyms, 

  • Infographics,

  • Related (original) images, 

  • and Numbered lists.

Continue to produce keyword (and synonym) optimized content, but infuse all your expertise and problem solving skills into the mix! If consumers truly find your content valuable, your rankings will naturally rise and your broad excel.

The Question and Answer Section of a Plumbing Company's Knowledge Graph
Keeping Your Google My Business Updated, Including the Knowledge Graph Q&A, is Essential!

Final Words of Advice

Because Google My Business and the Knowledge Graph continue to draw in more eyeballs from the community, it’s important that you monitor these tools for information accuracy. If your company makes significant organizational changes, or if you start offering new services, make sure your GMB reflects the updates. Also, be on the lookout for consumers in your Questions & Answers section (halfway down the Knowledge Graph). This Q&A section is open to the community, meaning anyone can contribute questions and answers.

You don’t want a random stranger (or worse, a competitor) answering questions on your behalf. 

If you carefully manage these assets, your business can expect continued growth for your company brand. In the meantime, keep creating fresh content for your website filled with hot topics and questions from your target market. Even if you can only blog once a month, it’s worth the effort!

If your team doesn’t have the time, knowledge, or capacity to manage these online marketing activities, our team at Plumbing Webmasters can help. We provide custom website design, keyword-rich content, citation assistance, GMB support, and reputation management. Our clients continually earn premium rankings in local search, creating more traffic and better leads!

To learn more about our SEO for plumbers, contact us today at (877) 388-9884.

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Posted: | Updated: Jul 11, 2023 | Categories: Podcast
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True Client Stories: A Brand New Client’s Worries

Do you ever feel frustrated buying leads from another company? Not only do thousands of plumbing businesses purchase their leads from online services, they’re forced to share them with local competitors. That’s a hard pill for any professional to swallow, especially when competition is so fierce! Yet many businesses feel trapped into perpetuating the lead-buying process.

How can you break free of the cycle?

Today, we’re going to explore the process of improving your local search performance and generating your own leads. While we talk with plumbers with all kinds of backgrounds and stories, this strategy can help practically any business develop more traffic and higher quality plumbing leads. Let’s get started!

Interesting Tips for Plumbing Professionals

  • You need to be active in asking for reviews, especially if you average a 3.5 rating or lower.
  • Always test your website content with Copyscape to spot copied content.
  • Service pages tend to perform better than landing pages.
  • You need quality SEO to allow your PPC campaigns to convert.

https://youtu.be/hYf7qftI_Y0

The Same Old Story

Most of the plumbing professionals listed online experience some form of lead sales. Some buy leads through large household brands, while others purchase them via Google Ads. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with supplementing business with additional work from these sources. However, depending on these channels as your sole sources can severely limit the quality, scale, and effectiveness of your lead generation.

This also limits your ability to grow the reputation of your brand.

If you want to start growing your own sustainable, affordable leads, you’ll need to invest in the right channels. One of the easiest paths to lead growth is local SEO (search engine optimization), which focuses on making your business more visible to consumers in your service area. While it may require some continued effort on your company’s part, this channel offers a very dependable supply of customers and brand growth.

Why Choose Local SEO Over PPC?

First of all, SEO vs PPC is not an either/or choice. You can easily use both types of search campaigns to generate even stronger performance for your brand. However, SEO proves time and time again that it offers more dependable results than PPC. As a matter of fact, PPC campaigns have a very difficult time converting leads into customers without an organically optimized website to support them. If you click on an ad but the resulting website doesn’t make sense, will you buy from that site?

SEO and PPC Results

Organic SEO Still Provides a Much Higher Percentage of Site Traffic.

A website optimized for search will also provide a more pleasant user experience. If you’ve felt the 5-star user experience on a site before, you’ve already felt the effects of local SEO. An optimized website also delivers fresh, insightful content that encourages more meaningful relationships with the associated brand.

To put it simply: SEO is cheaper, more reliable, and contributes directly to your brand’s growth. That’s a winning combination that lead sales and PPC can’t provide. So why not invest in a channel that’s better for your company’s long-term success?

Key Factors in Local SEO

There are four crucial factors when it comes to local SEO:

  • Content
  • Web Design
  • Reviews / Recommendations
  • Citations

Content and Web Design

Like any other marketing activity, SEO requires a solid foundation. For most, that foundation is a well-crafted website design with structured service pages. While a PPC management company might try to bypass this requirement with short, sales-y landing pages, they typically don’t perform well without service information to back them up. 

The best websites combine informative content with streamlined design.

Service pages make it easy for both Google and potential clients to understand exactly what you do. Without them, even people who find your website probably aren’t staying around for too long. Your Google Analytics should confirm this through average time on page and bounce rate.

Most successful web designs use a simple dropdown menu to direct people to their desired services. They also organize content by service category, making it easier to find and digest information in a timely manner. Finally, an optimized design heavily relies on schema coding to make content easily recognizable for Google crawlers.

Reviews and Citations

Among its many goals, Google strives to present the most dependable results to its user base. The search engine examines both information provided by a plumbing company and feedback presented by the community to determine whether that business deserves a spot in page 1 results. That’s where the majority of consumers pick their essential services from.

If local listings provide conflicting information about a plumbing company (such as different addresses or operating hours), it may choose to look to another contractor instead. Likewise, if client reviews indicate the business is not to be trusted, Google will not rank the company well. Reviews and citations work together to determine a plumber’s overall dependability.

Crucial SEO Requirements for Plumbers

  • Continue asking customers (especially happy ones) for reviews!
  • Never try to cover up negative feedback.
  • Gather reviews from a variety of sources, especially Google, Facebook, and Yelp.
  • Make sure your listings provide the same contact, location, and operational info.
  • Get citations from as many reputable companies as possible (BBB, Yelp, etc.)
  • Claim and complete your Google My Business account ASAP

Need Help With Local SEO?

At Plumbing Webmasters, we help hundreds of businesses develop a reliable source of leads through organic, local SEO. Not only do our customers enjoy higher rankings in search, they also earn more traffic and better lead quality! We’d be thrilled to talk with your plumbing company about your future growth plans.

Call (877) 388-9884 anytime for a free consultation.

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Posted: | Updated: Jul 10, 2023 | Categories: Podcast
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Branded SEO for Plumbers in 2020 | The Plumbing SEO Podcast

Apart from employees and equipment, your brand is the most important company asset. Effective branding separates fledgling companies from industry champions. Despite this, thousands of plumbing contractors continue to neglect branded SEO online. Below, Jason and Nolen discuss how to unlock your brand’s potential in organic search. They’ll also point out some disastrous mistakes that hurt local businesses.

If you desire stronger online lead generation, be sure to listen closely!

Pro Tips for Plumbing Contractors

  • Never abandon an established brand name or URL, unless you absolutely have to.
  • Treat your digital brand with the same respect as you would your physical brand.
  • Don’t try to “game the system” using your GMB account. It could cost you!
  • Negative reviews lose their impact when surrounded by a host of positive feedback.
  • Make sure your website is optimized for local search.

What is Branded SEO?

Branded SEO refers to optimizing your online assets in a way that makes your brand more recognizable and trusted by Google. Just like developing trust with someone takes time and effort, so does establishing your trustworthiness with the world’s most popular search engine. As you prove your company’s reliability, local search rankings almost always rise as a result. 

Why Trust Matters

Google Search strives to provide finely tuned results for all of its user base. If you want to buy tickets to a football game or purchase a gift for a family member, the search engine wants to make sure the results you see not only match the keywords you typed but that they bring you much closer to your desired service/product. If they believe a website won’t provide dependable results, that site will never see page one rankings!

In other words, Google needs to know that you’ll provide the quality services you claim to. Any plumbing company can say they provide “professional water heater repair in San Antonio, TX”, but only a handful get listed. How do these businesses achieve such fantastic success? Let’s break down that process.

Branded SEO in the Form of a Featured Listing

Premium Listings Like These Only Happen When Google Highly Trusts a Business.

Strategy for Successful Branded SEO

Complete Your GMB Listing

Everything starts with your online company listing! Google My Business (GMB) provides a free, convenient way to get your plumbing business listed. Without claiming and completely filling out this profile, it’s almost impossible to achieve top rankings in local search. Then again, businesses that take full advantage of GMB tend to enjoy higher rank and website traffic! If you haven’t already, make sure your business listing has been claimed and finished.

Again, it’s free and from Google. That alone makes GMB worth the minimal time investment! Just make sure that the address you register with Google is the same one you use for all your other citation sources (such as Yelp and BBB), and vice versa. Even differences in abbreviation can make Google suspicious.

Optimize Your Website

We could spend hours talking about what makes a website appear more trustworthy to Google. The company website is an integral part of branded SEO. Google Search regularly combs through your site, searching for new pages and content. If its crawlers (bots used to examine a site) discover these elements, it’s much more likely to judge your company favorably.

  • Service Pages
  • A Company Blog
  • Clearly Visible Branding (Logo, Contact Info, Etc.)
  • A Sitemap
  • Applicable Keyword Usage
  • Professional Content Formatting
  • Optimized Imagery
  • Schema Coding

Gather and Integrate Your Reviews

Reviews, reviews, reviews! Nothing breaks down walls faster than a glowing recommendation from a customer. If you don’t already, make sure you’re asking all your clients (especially the happy ones) to complete a reviews. Sooner is better; people tend to forget their enthusiasm months after service.

For plumbing contractors that really want to supercharge their branded SEO, be sure to integrate reviews into your website. There are a handful of capable tools, but we recommend Righteous Reviews. It compiles reviews from your favorite sources into your website, and even produces geotagged data – Google highly values this data – through check-ins and automated feedback requests.

Branding Tactics to Stay Away From

While successful branded SEO takes time to cultivate, it only takes one wrong step to doom your brand online. While Google is willing to forgive many mistakes, there are some foolish tactics that will inevitably lead to a permanent de-listing on the search engine! What sort of strategies should you stay away from?

  • Attempting to sabotage other company listings.
  • Creating fake reviews.
  • Paying for reviews.
  • Making false claims about your services or industry.
  • Using racist or overly-disparaging language when speaking with customers online.
  • Creating fake locations to appear larger.
  • Using tactics explicitly banned by Google.

Of course, not every poor strategy is banned. For instance, anyone can change their brand name, even though it will almost certainly set back their branded SEO for years! Unless legal action compels you to, never change your brand name.

Want to Learn More?

Our team at Plumbing Webmasters would love to talk with you and answer all your questions about branded SEO! We support hundreds of businesses around the country, producing stronger rankings, site traffic, and leads. To learn more about our services, check out the links below or call us at (877) 388-9884.

Additional Resources from Plumbing Webmasters

Other Podcasts and Articles
– Forced to Brand (Podcast)
– PPC vs Organic 2020: True Client Stories (Podcast)

Plumbing SEO Services
– Plumber Reputation Management
– Organic SEO for Plumbing Contractors

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Posted: | Updated: Dec 12, 2022 | Categories: Podcast
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The Coolest Review Software Ever | The Plumbing SEO Podcast

Out of all the activities that our plumbing SEO specialists recommend, getting reviews clearly offers the greatest benefit for businesses. Not only do they draw more attention to your brand, they knock down the psychological walls that stand between you and potential clients. In our latest podcast, Jason and Nolen discuss the amazing results that feedback produces for your plumbing company, plus how our custom-made software makes getting reviews ridiculously easy.

Be sure to listen in if your business has struggled with local map ranking in the past.

Key Points to Listen For

  • Getting reviews from multiple sources makes your company appear more trustworthy.
  • Righteous Reviews makes it much easier to ask for and collect reviews.
  • Our software also provides geotags for reviews and check-ins, supercharging your SEO.

The Typical Process of Getting Reviews

Did you know that no one is quite so effective at getting reviews for your business as you? “Ask and you shall receive” certainly applies here, but not everyone has the same skill at soliciting feedback from their customers. In fact, some plumbing contractors are downright terrible at asking for reviews!

That’s too bad, because customer feedback plays a huge role in SEO for plumbers. When Google crawls (examines) a website to judge its content, the search engine looks for three key characteristics commonly referred to as the “E-A-T factors“:

  • Expertise
  • Authoritativeness
  • Trustworthiness

When Google examines a company and sees a hearty collection of 4-5 star reviews, it interprets those reviews as a signal of trustworthiness. In other words, the search engine believes it can trust your business enough to direct people to the company website for your given service category (ie: plumbing). Getting feedback on Google Reviews isn’t enough, however. It’s best to procure them from a variety of resources.

The Problem With the Normal Reviews Process

Not all plumbing contractors faithfully collect reviews for their business. There’s just enough active plumbers however, that trying to compete on basic reviews alone won’t produce the premium search rankings that your business craves. When Google takes two companies with outstanding reviews and stands them side by side, the oldest local business typically wins out in search results.

That is unless your company displays better plumbing SEO practices.

Plumbing Companies Doing a Good Job at Getting Reviews

Getting Reviews is an Essential Part of Your Local SEO!

We talk a lot about organic search engine optimization at the Plumbing Webmasters, especially when it comes to aligning your website with Google preferences. In the past, we noticed that most businesses don’t know how to effectively tie in their client reviews into their website performance. It’s not the fault of plumbers or their marketing team! There simply weren’t many great options for posting reviews on the official company website (again, effectively).

Since WordPress widgets and tacked-on solutions weren’t cutting it.  So our team produced a completely new tool that not only greatly simplifies the process of collecting reviews, it also supercharges them for the purposes of SEO. We call this in-house developed solution Righteous Reviews. 

“E-A-Ting Up” With Righteous Reviews (RR)

Remember how Google uses normal reviews as proof of your business activity? That effect only goes so far when competing against other more experienced companies who also collect reviews. With the Righteous Reviews platform, every 5-star rating comes tagged with the specific service(s) you performed for that customer.

Why does that matter for your business?

Any business can claim to provide “high-quality, professional water heater repair in Fort Worth, TX” (for example). Google churns through dozens, sometimes hundreds of these website claims, but only a handful ever make page one in local search results. When Google starts seeing dozens reviews associated with a specific service in a specific geographical area, it heavily prioritizes these reviews in local search. The search engine craves this geotagged data, because it proves legitimate service activity (instead of just claiming to provide a service).

How does the collection process work? It all starts with a process your team controls. Every time your plumbers finish up a project at a jobsite, they fill out a simple form. All you have to do is describe the service provided and the location of the job, then fill in the client’s name, number, and email. You can even take a picture of the finished work! Plumbers can easily complete this all in 60 seconds.

After completing the form, your client automatically receives an email or text with links to your favorite review platforms (Facebook, Google Reviews, etc.). When the client follows those links and submits their rating, the review is automatically geotagged with their general location and the service(s) provided. All of these check-ins and reviews are uploaded to your website, were Google and your future customers can browse them.

An Example of Getting Reviews That are Geotagged

Getting Reviews is Great, Getting Geotagged Reviews is Better!

The Geotagged Review Collection Process

  1. Step #1: Your plumbers finish a job and perform a 60 second check-in.
  2. Step #2: Your client automatically receives a request for a review via text or email.
  3. Step #3: The data from both the check-in and review get uploaded to your website.
  4. Step #4: Google and your future customers see the reviews.
  5. Step #5: Your local search rankings climb!

Other Fantastic Benefits of RR

Our team produced Righteous Reviews to work specifically with our custom, optimized websites. Since the software is fully integrated with your site (not tacked on as an afterthought), you don’t have to worry about bugs or other performance issues. This enables our team to provide a number of other invaluable benefits through the reputation management platform.

Unhappy customers happen. That’s why our team created an early warning system that automatically generates an email alert whenever a client rates your company 3 stars or lower through Righteous Reviews. This means you can quickly contact any frustrated customer and work to fix the situation. Deal with low ratings, and discover new ways to improve your customer service in the process!

As we mentioned before, geotagged check-ins and reviews automatically upload to your website. Each event is tagged to a specific service and city page (if your site has them), where they show up as pins on a local map. Readers will also see the latest reviews you’ve received from the field. No more losing customers because of dated reviews from 5 years ago!

The Righteous Reviews Website Banner

Simplify the Process of Getting Reviews from Your Happy Clients!

Why Does Righteous Reviews Matter?

That’s the real question, isn’t it? Our team at the Plumbing Webmasters wants your team to earn continued growth through better Google Search rankings. Our clients who faithfully perform these check-ins often experience tremendous growth in their website traffic and generated leads. With your reviews working twice as hard to advocate your business, you’ll enjoy stronger plumbing SEO than ever before!

To learn more about Righteous Reviews, getting reviews, or any other aspect of local search marketing, talk with one of our experts at Plumbing Webmasters. Get a free consultation today when you call us at (877) 388-9884! We can’t wait to serve you.

Related Webmasters Articles & Services

Articles and Podcasts
– Plumber Online Marketing Confusion (Podcast)

Related Services
– Google Reviews for Plumbing Contractors

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Posted: | Updated: Dec 12, 2022 | Categories: Podcast
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2 Ways to Enhance Your Reputation Management (Podcast)

Reputation management encompasses multiple marketing aspects of your plumbing company, including reviews, content creation, and social media. In today’s podcast, Jason and Nolen dig into the subject and explore how plumbing contractors can make their reviews, service pages, and city pages work much harder for their businesses.

If you’ve struggled to improve your local rankings, even if your company has plenty of reviews, be sure to listen in!

Be on the Lookout for These Key Points:

  • Do reviews alone improve my local search engine rankings?

  • Should new plumbers focus on reputation management or social media marketing?

  • Is there a way to coordinate reviews across different platforms?

  • Are city pages worthwhile?

Managing Your Company Reputation

In a way, reputation management revolves more around the perception of your plumbing company than anything else. Along with the obvious consumer perceptions created through reviews, your site’s graphic design, and navigation, there’s another crucial aspect that all too many plumbers forget about. How does Google perceive your business?

In the past, we’ve talked about the crucial E-A-T factors: expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. When Google spiders (re-examines) an existing plumbing contractor website, it attempts to identify data elements showing that your site, content creators, and business possess these qualities.

Where Google Looks for E-A-T Factors

  • For Expertise: Content creator bios, content organization, and quality.

  • For Authoritativeness: Content, creator bios, reference sites, keywords, & web design.

  • For Trustworthiness: Reviews, geo-tags, check-ins, images, navigation, and link profiles.

These character traits impact both Google and customer perception of your business. Of course, that also means you can expect two-fold benefits when you nail all three elements! Below, we’ll dig into three of the most crucial aspects of reputation management.

Review Management

Reviews can make or break a plumbing business. While almost any plumber could tell you they need reviews, many don’t know how to collect them effectively or what to do with them once they start pouring in. While they certainly contribute to a company’s perceived trustworthiness, reviews don’t automatically cause your site to rank higher on google. 

So how can you get the greatest value from your customer testimonies and all those 5-star ratings? First, make sure your reviews come from a variety of sources. In other words, don’t put your eggs exclusively in Google Reviews, Facebook, or Angie’s List. While Google once prioritized recommendations through its own platform, the search engine now prefers a more diverse collection from multiple sources.

Second, be sure to take time to display customer reviews on your website! Not only does this please Google, but potential customers will also feel more confident about using your services. It may take a bit of research to find a widget that presents reviews in a way that matches your tastes.

At the Plumbing Webmasters, our team uses our special platform, DataPins, which conveniently pulls recommendations from Facebook, Google, and other top providers.

Site Optimization – Navigation & Service Structure

Continued site optimization also impacts your reputation management. After all, few things affect a customer’s first impression of your company more than your website design. Will they have a convenient time of browsing your services when they land on your homepage, or will they get frustrated and leave?

We’ve encountered many plumbers over the years who ask why their site isn’t performing well, only for our experts to learn their design was creating a terrible user experience.

Simplistic, concise navigation makes for the best visitor interaction. That’s why many of the most successful plumbing contractor websites simply rely on a few service categories to showcase their work. This simplistic navigation also makes it easy for Google to explore your website and identify your key services.

Content Creation

Of course, professional content also impacts your company’s reputation too! Not only does the quality of the material affect Google’s perception of your business, but the quantity also affects your ratings as well. Companies that release new content on a regular basis tend to earn better rankings in the long run.

What Types of Content Can You Use?

  • Blogs

  • Podcasts

  • Videos

  • Images

  • Guides

  • Infographics

  • and More!

Two Ways to Enhance Reputation & Rank Up

As we’ve mentioned, our Plumbing Webmasters team utilizes our in-house tool to collect reviews. DataPins allows customers to leave reviews directly on their preferred platform (Google, Facebook, etc.) on a client’s website. It also collects reviews left on those platforms and citation services.

While that cross-platform functionality certainly offers convenient reputation management, the really exciting benefit of DataPins is geo-tagging! When a customer receives a request for a review (usually via text), their submission gets tagged on Google Maps without revealing their exact address. Google loves this input and ranks up websites that display them.

Our reviews platform also allows plumbing professionals to check in on a job site, provide a tag of the service they’ve provided, and even post pictures of the work they completed. Again, this information gets geo-tagged in Google Maps and displayed on that client’s related service page and city page.

Even if each plumbing truck only checks in a few times a day, that leads to dozens of check-ins within a single week! This provides extremely visible proof of your activity to Google, and the search engine greatly rewards the effort.

If you’d like to learn more about the processes behind reputation management or if you’d like additional details about how DataPins can help your business, give us a call. At Plumbing Webmasters, our clients regularly dominate the rankings in local searches. They earn higher traffic volume, stronger user engagement, and better lead generation. We’d love to partner with your plumbing business too.

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Posted: | Updated: Dec 12, 2022 | Categories: Podcast