OrangeSoda Internet Marketing Blog

The Local Search, SEO, and Rants blog by Stephen Espinosa has some helpful tips on how local businesses can get higher in search engines. Yahoo actually indexes the text of local business reviews.

So if you have reviews, there are more ways people could search and have your business show up at the top of the list.  This is important for local searches (a local search is when someone searches for a city and/or state along with a phrase, such as “dentist, orem, Utah”).  Google pulls reviews from other web sites and takes reviews into account when deciding where to rank sites.

Yahoo Local Business Reviews

Yahoo local business searches actually search the text of reviews. Example: Someone types in the words “cavity, needs filling, Provo UT.” They get back a list of dentists in Provo, Utah. If you’re a dentist that has reviews written about your practice, the chances are better that you’ll show up near the top, if you have some reviews written about your business.

Let’s say someone wrote a review that included the words, I had a cavity that needed filling” and this dentist fit me right in…the words “cavity” and needs “filling” will be bolded and that dentist will probably be at the top of the list.

Google Local Business Reviews

Google takes reviews on other sites for their results. They value reviews. Here’s a trick: Go to Google Maps, and type in your business name. Look for the competitors who rank above you. Click on the reviews tab, see what sources the reviews are coming from (Google pulls reviews from other sites). Other places Google gets reviews are from InsiderPages.com,  CitySearch.com, Judysbook.com, and Tripadvisor.com. They get other details (such as details about a business) from a variety of other sites.
Local Business SEO Tip: Ask your clients or customers to write an online review of your business. It’s one of the best tips your customer can give you.