Insights, Advice, and Intelligence from Sage 50

[#1]

A while back I wrote an article for the Peachtree Insider about how to list your business for free online. Since I just ran into a Yelp review for a church – yes, a church – I thought it might be good to bring these to your attention.

• Google Maps. People use Google Maps to find businesses and other places of interest, as well as to get driving directions. Make sure your business is listed accurately. You can attach coupons, photos and videos, and Google helps you learn where users are coming from and how they’re searching for you.
• Yelp. With features similar to Google Maps, Yelp organizes businesses by major city, then by category, neighborhood and surrounding town. Customers can write reviews and post ratings. The Business Owners Guide will show you how to get listed, give you tips on responding to reviews and help you track visitors to your page.
• Bing Local Listing Center. Bing is newer than the other two major search engines (Yahoo! and Google), but is growing thanks to the power of Microsoft. It has most of the same features as the other local listings, including customer reviews and rankings.
• Yahoo! Local. Yahoo has three plans for businesses to get listed, but they’re not all free. Business Basic is the place to start. It’s free and offers you some flexibility. For example, you can choose up to five categories for your listing.

There could be other online directories in your area, but these will give you a good start.  Encourage your customers to post a review, even offering them a discount on their next product or service when they do.

Be sure to set a reminder to check your listings every so often for accuracy -- and monitor those customer reviews. A negative rating provides insight into how to make improvements and gives you a chance to turn around an unhappy customer.

Shari Willman

Marketing and Product Manager

[#2]

Yelp update. Over the last year there’s been some controversy around Yelp’s policies. You can learn about the issues here on CNet News, and read Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman’s rebuttal here. What’s important for you to know is that Yelp is a free service and you do not have to buy advertising on their site to use their service.

Around the issue of whether or not Yelp sales reps manipulate reviews when businesses do or do not purchase advertising – the best practice is to regularly check all online review sites to see what your customers are saying, and use that information to improve your products and services.

[#3]

Here's a great article with more tools to help you promote your business online -- for free! It's a quick read and loaded with good ideas.