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Your 3-Step Guide to Creating a Successful Review Acquisition Strategy

Posted by McDermott

Wouldn't it be nice if you had an easy way to learn about your competitor's deepest and darkest secrets? An ethical way to peer inside their business — anytime you wanted?

Your competitor's review portfolio provides you with just that. And conducting an audit of their portfolio will give you precious, must-have data that competitors are simply unwilling to share. It's a treasure trove of secrets, pointing to your competitor's strengths, weaknesses, goals, and objectives.

But how do you audit your competitor's review portfolio? More importantly, how do you use this data to inform your review acquisition and marketing strategy?

I'll show you how in three easy steps. Feel free to download this spreadsheet if you'd like to add data as we go along.

Why competitor review audits are essential

But first: What's so special about the review audit anyway? At first glance, it might seem like more work than it's worth. Your competitors have more (or less) reviews than you do, which means you'll work harder — and if they add more reviews, you'll have to put in more work to earn more reviews.  

Seems like the usual marketing arms race, right? Where you and your competitors are jockeying for first place.

Sophisticated agencies will know better. They see the competitor review audit for what it is: A chance to gain leverage, clarity, and intelligence from their most unwilling competitors. Because a competitor audit shows you:

What competitor's customers are unhappy about

Your competitor's desires, goals, fears and frustrations

The core issues and challenges costing your competitors leads, sales and revenue

The objections and risks that keep their prospects from buying

Customer perception in the marketplace

Why customers choose to work with your competitors specifically

What customers want (but aren't getting) from your competitors

What needs to be done to grow your business exponentially

Their customer's knowledge/level of sophistication

Changes in your competitor's business (past, present, and future)

These details are are an exceptional opportunity in the right hands —it's an indispensable assessment tool for local search agencies and their clients. Not to mention it's a straightforward way to learn about your competitor's deepest and darkest secrets: you have literal competitive intel from their customer's perspective. 

Before you begin your audit...

You'll want to take stock of the top three competitors in your local market. There are two ways to approach this. If you're part of a smaller local market or you already have a list of competitors, start there. What if you're a new business and you're not fully established in your local market yet? Which competitors should you audit?

The businesses that are consistently listed in the local three pack or page one of the Google Maps search results, when you click ‘More Places’ on the local pack or the search results (page one) for your queries!

All set with your list of competitors? You're ready to begin your audit!

Step #1: Assess their review profiles

You'll want to take an inventory of your competitor's review profiles. You're looking for three types of review profiles:

Mainstream reviews via large providers like Google, Facebook, and Yelp

Industry-specific reviews via specialty sites like TripAdvisor for hotels, Avvo for attorneys or Healthgrades for doctors

‘Niche’ platforms like the BBB, Angie's list, or Clutch.co

You also want to take note of a few cursory details.

Have competitors claimed each/all of their profiles?

How many reviews do they have?

Are the aggregate reviews on each platform - positive, neutral or negative?

What's the overall sentiment for each profile - positive, neutral or negative?

How recent are their reviews?

How many of their reviews were received over the past one to three months?

Is their NAP data consistent across each of their profiles? Consistent across multiple locations?

Do their profile links lead to active and relevant pages? Any broken links?

You're looking for inconsistencies. Outdated data, inaccurate details, 404 errors, etc.

Step #2: Search for their business + reviews

Let's say you're working with a client in the personal injury space. You're analyzing the three competitors we mentioned earlier.

Where should you start?

First, you'll want to gather a list of branded and unbranded keywords. You can use Moz's Keyword Explorer or your keyword tool of choice to quickly suss out the organic keywords your competitors are using.

You can use a tool like the Permutator to rapidly expand your list of keywords. You can use this tool to identify missed opportunities or further refine the keywords in your list.

Head over to Google and run a search of the unbranded keywords in your list.

Best personal injury lawyer

Best personal injury lawyers near me

Best personal injury lawyers in Chicago

Best personal injury lawyers Chicago Loop

Chicagoland personal injury firm

Chicagoland personal injury firm in Chicago

Chicagoland personal injury firm near me

Chicagoland personal injury firms

Personal injury firm

Personal injury firm in Chicago

Personal injury firm near me

Personal injury firms

Next, run a search of the branded queries in your list

Staver Accident Injury Lawyers

Staver Accident Injury Lawyers reviews

Staver Accident Injury Lawyers testimonials

Staver Accident Injury Lawyers in Chicago

Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard

Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard reviews

Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard testimonials

Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard in Chicago

Take screenshots of the local three pack when it appears, whether it includes the competitors in your list or not.

You also want to take screenshots of the knowledge panel and search results. There are all kinds of juicy data we can work with here! Use a descriptive file name so it's easy to remember key details later.

Here's a short list of the details you're looking for:

Are aggregate reviews listed in the search results? Are these reviews positive, neutral or negative?

Are keywords used on review profiles, media (via images, videos or slides) and landing pages?

Citations/NAP data, is it consistent/inconsistent?

What types of content channels are used (e.g. keyword rich video testimonials via YouTube, on-site reviews, Facebook recommendations, etc.)?

Next, you'll want to read through your competitor's reviews. At this point, you're looking to collect data. You'll want:

Positive, neutral and negative reviews

Featured, highlighted or recommended reviews

To assess the general tone and quality of the reviews listed in each profile (are reviews shallow, detailed or comprehensive e.g. reviews with text, images and/or video?)

To gauge the ratio of positive-to-negative and neutral-to-negative reviews

To identify profiles that are potential outliers (e.g. unclaimed review profiles with no/poor reviews)

You're looking for positive reviews...

...as well as neutral and negative reviews.

The balanced, comprehensive inventory of each review profile gives us more data to work with later on.

You'll want to run these audits at regular intervals. If you're serving clients in a highly competitive market like insurance, real estate mortgage banking, you'll want to run these audits more often.

Why is this important?

You already know the answer! You and your clients are playing a competitive game of moves and countermoves. If they're smart, your competitors will eventually take note of the aggressive changes you're making. They'll quickly adapt, working to circumvent any advantage you've gained. If you're using a review management tool, these details are simple to automate and easy to track on a recurring basis.

It's not rocket science, but it does take work. Now we've arrived at the best part of our analysis.

Step #3: Using your audit to inform your review acquisition strategy

You've uncovered a significant amount of data in your competitor audit. How do we go about putting this valuable data to good use?

We ask questions!

Asking questions gives us a chance to dive deep into the data, uncovering insights that are actionable and useful. Here's a list of sample questions you should be able to extract from your audit. Here's what you'll want to know.

Which competitor has:

The most reviews, per platform? The most reviews overall?

The largest amount of high-quality reviews (e.g. detailed four and five-star reviews)?

The largest amount of low-quality reviews (e.g. four and five-star reviews with little to no text)?

The largest amount of aggregate reviews listed in the search results?

These questions enable you to identify the review sites where your competitors are strongest/weakest. This is important because it helps you identify opportunities for quick wins and big gains.

Next, you'll want to assess trends in your competitor's reviews:

What motivates reviewers to share (e.g. satisfactory outcome, altruism, displeasure, etc.)?

Which customer objections appear repeatedly?

Do competitors respond to customer reviews? Do they respond more to positive, neutral, negative or all reviews?

How long does it take them to respond to a review?

How do competitors respond to negative reviews?

Do customers feel the business' performance has improved or declined overall?

What desires, goals, fears, frustrations, and problems did customers bring into the relationship?

How did competitors handle these issues?

What risks did reviewers face in the relationship?

How sophisticated are their reviewers (e.g. educated and discerning buyer, experienced and unsure, clear and confident, etc.)

Which themes appear consistently in reviewer responses? (E.g. poor communication, open and transparent, patient and knowledgeable, etc.)

So, here's the million-dollar question. How do you use these details to inform your review acquisition strategy? Imagine that we come across 25 to 35 reviews like these in our audit of a single competitor. Customers are consistently complaining about poor communication and poor follow-through in their reviews.

How can you help your clients capitalize on this problem? You...

Brainstorm: You work with your law firm client to come up with a client "Bill of Rights." They commit to daily and weekly communication with their clients or they take 25 percent off next month's invoice. You interview, survey and conversion data to test the effectiveness of this risk reversal.

Advertise: Your client uses their client "Bill of Rights" and their promise to communicate daily and weekly in your PPC and display campaigns. Click through rates begin to climb as the message begins to resonate with clients in the Chicagoland area.

Re-target: Prospects who visit the website are added to a retargeting campaign. This campaign consists of four distinct ingredients (1.) A strong value proposition (2.) An irresistible offer (3.) Strong reviews showing your client communicates daily and weekly as promised (4.) Your clients produce extraordinary results for their clients. Using your client's retargeting campaign, you drive prospects to relevant landing pages and review profiles.

Convert: Your marketing strategy is effective. You're able to convert a significant amount of prospects on your client's behalf. You ensure that your client under promises and over delivers, producing extraordinary results and wowing their clients.

Request: You set up a review funnel for your client. Their customers are invited to write a review via SMS and email autoresponder campaigns. Their clients are sent to a review landing page, where they're directed to the appropriate review profile (e.g. Google My Business, Facebook recommendations, or Yelp reviews). Their clients are encouraged to share openly and honestly.

Respond: You work with your client to respond to positive and negative reviews on their behalf. You work with your clients to maintain a 5:1 ratio. Five positive reviews for every negative review. You use review response protocols to provide reviewers with an appropriate, customized and empathetic response. Traffic and conversion rates skyrocket.

Can you see what's happening? You're using your competitor's strategy to inform your own. Your clients continue to win whether their competitors win or lose. Here's the significant part about competitor review audit. The possibilities are there. You can use their competitor's success or failure to boost their marketing results. You can use this strategy with webinars, guest posts advertising, partnerships, workshops, and even events.

A chance to gain leverage, clarity, and insight

Don't underestimate the power of conducting competitor review audits. It's a powerful strategy, especially when combined with Review management tools as well as display and PPC intelligence tools like Moat, WordStream, and SpyFu. 

If you’re a boutique Local Search, SEO, or Marketing agency working with a variety of local clients, providing review management guidance can be an incredibly valuable supplemental service. In fact, according to Moz’s 2019 The State of Local SEO Industry Report, 91 percent of marketers believe that aspects of reviews, including ratings, quality, positive/negative sentiment, presence of keywords, and/or recency can impact local pack rankings. So if you’re providing local digital services and not touching on reviews, you’re probably doing your clients a disservice. 

Wrapping up

A competitor review audit gives you actionable data on your competitor's strengths, weaknesses, goals, and objectives. With the right approach and consistent effort, your competitors will supply you with everything you need to inform and improve your client's review acquisition strategy.

What other tips or tricks do you use to inform your review acquisition strategy?

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Where did my Search Console errors go?

If you’ve noticed that your Yoast SEO Search Console report looks surprisingly empty, it’s because Google have shut down the system which provides data about their crawl errors.

There’s no need to worry, though – we knew this was coming, and we have plans for the future. Your Search Console report won’t show any information for now, but nothing on your site will break, and you don’t need to take any special action.

The good news is that we’re already building our own, brand new systems for error reporting and management. We think it’ll be even better and more useful than the old Google Search Console integration.

What happened?

If you actively manage your website’s SEO, then you’re probably familiar with Google Search Console. It’s a great way to discover and manage any errors which Google may have encountered when crawling and reading your site.

A snapshot from yoast.com’s own Google Search Console account. We should fix those errors!

Until recently, Google provided us with a way to extract information from their systems. That meant that we could show you Google’s crawl errors and issues right inside your site’s admin area, via the Yoast SEO plugin.

Help! What is an API?

An API is a system which allows software to talk other software. The Google Search Console API allows websites to connect to Google’s systems, and to request information about your website. It used to provide information about crawl errors, but no longer does so.

Having those issues listed inside your side admin area made it easy for you to fix those issues ‘on the fly’. You could set up redirects, tweak pages, and mark individual issues as resolved – without ever leaving your website.

Unfortunately, Google have removed the API which powered this system.

That means it’s no longer possible for us – or anyone else – to get information about your crawl errors. The only way to get this information (at the moment) is for you to manually visit your Google Search Console account.

What does this mean for me?

Nothing will break on your website, and you don’t need to take any action. You’ll just find that if you visit your Search Console admin page in your WordPress website, you won’t see any errors. You’ll see something like this empty table:

You won’t find any errors in your Search Console report, as it’s no longer possible to retrieve them from Google.

That empty table doesn’t necessarily mean that you don’t have any errors – it just means that we can’t fetch or show them to you.

If you want to go and check your errors and issues, you’ll need to go directly to your Search Console account. If you’re not sure where to start, you can follow this handy guide to using Search Console.

Creating and managing redirects

We know that many of our premium users rely on our Search Console integration to create redirects for broken pages and URLs.

If you’ve set up redirects through the Search Console section in the past, don’t worry – nothing’s been lost, and your redirects still work.

In the future, you’ll just need to use the ‘Redirects’ section to create them, instead.

You can create redirects for broken pages or URLs in Yoast SEO premium, via the Redirects system

We knew this was coming, but we expected a replacement system

We’ve known that Google planned to remove support for error reporting from their Search Console API for a while. It provided data from the ‘old’ Search Console system, which has been gradually replaced or removed as they moved people to the ‘new’ Search Console system. As such, we knew it had a short lifespan.

We’d hoped and assumed that they’d replace the API, in the same way that they’d moved or replaced other functionality from the old system.

What we didn’t expect was for them to simply ‘turn it off’, without providing an alternative or updated solution. We’re a little disappointed about how this has been handled by Google, but, we have some options.

What happens next?

For now, you don’t need to do anything.

We’re chasing Google for updates, and once we hear more from them about what they have planned – if anything – we’ll update our information to reflect that.

Their documentation and communications have hinted at planned future capabilities and support, but there’s nothing out there yet. So we’re waiting, watching, and asking questions about what’s in the pipeline (we’ve particularly high-hopes for Google’s SiteKit WordPress plugin, which is currently in beta).

In the meantime, we’re considering alternative options, processes, and ways in which we can replace or supplement this data. We already have some exciting plans:

In the short-term: We’ll be building an import tool, which lets you upload error reports which you’ve manually downloaded from Google Search Console. We’ll also support uploads from some other tools, which we’re excited about. We’ll share more news that soon.

In the mid-term: We’ll be looking to partner and integrate with a wide variety of your favourite SEO tools and platforms, so that we can import their data about your website’s errors and crawl issues. That’ll give us much richer, more diverse, and more interesting data than ever.

We’ll keep you updated with our progress, and we’ll let you know if we hear back from Google about their plans.

The post Where did my Search Console errors go? appeared first on Yoast.

from Yoast • SEO for everyone https://yoast.com/where-did-my-search-console-errors-go/

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Car smashes into electricity pole and overturns in Brookwood leaving almost 600 customers without power

The driver was taken to hospital with injuries that are not thought to be serious following the crash in Brookwood from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/car-smashes-electricity-pole-overturns-16217420

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Man arrested on suspicion of theft and fraud after officers called to Barclays in Cranleigh

Officers were called to the bank in the High Street after a member of staff reported seeing a man acting suspiciously from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/cranleigh-barclays-high-street-arrested-16215579

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Motorcyclist airlifted to hospital with serious injuries after car crash near Farnham

His next of kin have been informed from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/motorcyclist-airlifted-hospital-serious-injuries-16213197

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How and where the Conservatives could lose their grip on Surrey

The Tories currently control nine of the county's 11 boroughs from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/how-conservatives-could-lose-grip-16215032

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Residents unable to vote due to 'clerical error' at polling station in Woking

A small handful of voters at Methodist Church Hall polling station in Woking experienced some difficulties on election day from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/residents-unable-vote-due-clerical-16214461

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Two hectares of woodland damaged following large fire near Cranleigh

Firefighters were at the scene in Winterfold Heath for more than an hour from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/two-hectares-woodland-damaged-following-16214419

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Council to pause buying property out of Surrey to reuse or sell off empty buildings

Surrey County Council owns land and property worth £1.5bn from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/council-pause-buying-property-out-16213570

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Renewed appeal to find girl, 15, last seen in Wanborough six days ago

The teenager was last seen in Wanborough from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/renewed-appeal-find-girl-15-16214535

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Surrey County Council to sell advertising space at recycling tips and roadsides to make money

Up until now the council has only been able to use bus shelters and roundabouts for sponsorship opportunities from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/surrey-county-council-sell-advertising-16213700

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Meet Cleo, Rue and Button - the adorable dogs banishing exam stress at Caterham School

The school has won an award for its wellbeing programme with the help of its four-legged friends from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/special-features/meet-cleo-rue-button-adorable-16077349

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Woman airlifted from M23 crash still in 'very serious condition' after suffering head injuries

The motorway was closed southbound for around ten hours from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/woman-airlifted-m23-crash-still-16212798

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360 new homes proposed for Surrey section of Copthorne at Tandridge and Mid Sussex border

The proposed development site at Roundabouts Farm has already been rejected as part of Tandridge District Council's Local Plan from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/360-new-homes-proposed-surrey-16206549

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Sir Paul Beresford should be forced to apologise over traveller comment

Mole Valley's MP said the arrival of travellers was "like a disease" during a debate in Parliament from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/sir-paul-beresford-should-forced-16208822

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Thanks a million! Fundraising goal reached for George and the Giant Pledge

Every penny from the appeal is going towards treatment and research into children’s cancer at The Royal Marsden Hospital from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/thanks-million-fundraising-goal-reached-16208805

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What is Google’s Knowledge Graph?

Google’s Knowledge Graph is hard to find, but its results are not. Take for instance that big block of information that appears on the right-hand side of your desktop screen after entering a search term. This block – also known as the Knowledge Graph Card – contains relevant, context-specific information regarding your search, powered by the Knowledge Graph.

If you search for a specific company, the Knowledge Graph will show an almost complete profile, depending on how well they did their SEO work. Searching for a recently released movie will show posters, reviews and screening times for your local cinema. As you see, the graph is a powerful and fascinating tool. But what can you do to get your information in the Knowledge Graph?

It’s Google’s way of connecting information

Google’s core business is providing people with a correct answer to all their questions. To do that, it doesn’t just present the result that closest matches a search term, but also by making broader connections between data. Google, therefore, collects and analyzes massive amounts of data on people, places, things and facts and develops ways to present the findings in an accessible way. These are often rich results, like featured snippets, images carrousels or the famous Knowledge Graph Card mentioned in the intro of this text.

The Knowledge Graph and its card

This is where it might get confusing: many people mix up the Knowledge Graph and the panel you see on the right-hand side of your screen. The Knowledge Graph is the engine that powers the panel that’s officially called the Knowledge Graph Card. In this card, you’ll find the most visible result of the work the graph does. When there’s enough data about a subject, the card will be filled with all kinds of relevant facts, images, and related searches.

Check out Albert Einstein’s card in the screenshot below, and you’ll see how much information it provides.

This Knowledge Graph Card gives you all the facts about Albert Einstein

Read more: Elements of the Google search results page »

Anatomy of the Knowledge Graph

When Google released the Knowledge Graph in 2012, they made an excellent introductory video. This explains in easy to understand language how exactly the graph works and how it influences the results you get when you search for a specific term. Check out the video; it is still as relevant today as it was then:

Examples of search results

In recent years, content presented by the Knowledge Graph has become much more interactive. At first, it featured only static content, like images, social media profiles, and general information about the search. Today, it is continually expanding in possibilities. If you search for a movie, you can directly book tickets to see it at your local cinema. Search for a local store, and you know exactly when the busiest times are. On mobile, rich results are even richer! Google likes to experiment with the graph, what it shows and how it’s presented.

Let’s look at some examples of Knowledge Graph listings.

Nutritional information:

Movies:

Places:

List sliders:

Getting your content in

To get your content in the Knowledge Graph, you need to become an authority on your subject. Find out what people search for by doing keyword research, write excellent content and make sure your site is fully optimized and mobile-friendly. Use structured data to mark up important elements of your site to make it easier for Google to understand what it is all about. Register your site with Google Search Console and My Business. Keep in mind, structured data in the form of Schema.org is becoming increasingly important.

If you are a well-known person or if you own a particular company, you can claim your Knowledge Panel. After verifying, you can edit the contents of the panel to a certain extent.

Yoast SEO and the Knowledge Graph

If you are a person or a business and need help getting your information in the Knowledge Graph, fear no more, because Yoast SEO can help. As of now, Yoast SEO outputs a complete Schema graph for your site, ready for search engines to use.

Just by setting up Yoast SEO — optionally supported by Local SEO — and filling out the information on your site, you automatically enable the data that Google needs to fill the Knowledge Graph. After that, you can use regular SEO tactics and structured data to fill in the missing pieces. Keep in mind though that it’s Google that determines what it adds to its Knowledge Graph.

Conclusion

The Knowledge Graph is an important part of the search experience in Google. It powers many of the innovative new ways data shows up in the search engine. Getting your information in there is of the essence, especially if you have a business. If so, you have to make sure your business details are correct, sign up for Google My Business and add everything you possibly can. Many other parts of the Knowledge Graph are generated from structured data, like reviews, movie information, events, so be sure to mark up your data in any which way you can.

Keep reading: Structured data: the ultimate guide »

The post What is Google’s Knowledge Graph? appeared first on Yoast.

from Yoast • SEO for everyone https://yoast.com/google-knowledge-graph/