Online Marketing Expert Brian Saviano Says, “Online Reviews Are Now Essential for Local Businesses”

Elmhurst, IL- Marketing expert Brian Saviano has commented on a number of recent studies that show that local business owners need to pay close attention to their online reviews now, more than ever before. After reviewing the results of numerous studies of online reviews, Saviano concluded, “Insuring your customers are happy extremely happy with your service and building an online reputation are the the single most important actions business owners can take.”

“Far too many business owners leave their online reputations to fate or simply neglect them all together and yet online reviews are one of the first things people look at when researching a business,” Brian Saviano said.  He concluded, “Furthermore, the major search engines use online reviews to help determine the most relevant search results and having bad reviews or no reviews could get your business penalized resulting in showing up lower in the search engines.”

Saviano men some of the alarming statistics: “According to a Consumer Review Study, 92% of consumers read reviews for business for local businesses. A Local Consumer Review Study shows that 97% of consumers age 18-34 use reviews to judge a local business. This means millennials are  more conscientious of online reviews and if you miss this group, that could be your whole business could suffer.”  Saviano mentioned, “In a recent study from the University of California, Berkeley, they found that a half-star improvement in ratings can increase a restaurant's business during peak hours by 19%.”

The average consumer reads between 5-10 reviews, and yet the overwhelming majority of businesses out there have less than 2 reviews for their business and many times business owners don’t even know their negative reviews exist.

Saviano concludes, “Business owners should make it a practice of consistently collecting reviews from their clients and market their positive reviews to potential consumers.”

Those who would like more information on how to improve their companies online reputations should visit www.IncreaseMyReviews.com or the Trackable Results website.