For most modern business owners, Facebook and Google reviews sit in a privileged position when it comes to publicity, public relations, and online reputation management. The reason for this is clear: Google and Facebook are the top sites consumers are most likely to check before deciding on a particular business. However, Google and Facebook are likely not the only places consumers will encounter your business online, which begs the question, where else?
In this article, we will take a deeper dive into the other review sites and explore why it might be important to list your business in as many places as possible, and how you might manage your reputation on those sites as well. While this list is not exhaustive, it hits a handful of recognizable sites to get you started.
Coming right on the heels of Google, Facebook, and Amazon, Yelp is the fourth most popular site consumers trust for information about a business before making a purchasing decision. Yelp has been around since 2004, and it is well-known as a place where customers can provide feedback and criticism for local businesses. Due to its large database and its popularity, listing your business on Yelp can help you grow your online presence and provide you with another avenue to interact with consumers and potential customers. To get your business listed on Yelp, go to their web address for business owners and follow the instructions for adding a new business to the site. It should be noted that you don’t have to be a business owner to add a business to the site - any user of Yelp has the capability to add a business and review it. Yelp wil check to ensure that one of your eager customers didn’t already add you before going through the process. If a customer already added your business, Yelp will allow you to prove ownership and claim access to the account for your listed business. Once you’ve either added your business or claimed access to the account, you can respond to reviews and interact with your customers through Yelp.
Although it got its name from the bygone era of the phone book, yellowpages.com should not be underestimated in its modern web reach. Sitting in the top ten of the most popular websites that consumers encounter before deciding on a local business, it would be a mistake to overlook your Yellow Pages listing.
To add your business to yp.com, go to their business address and follow the step-by-step instructions. In a similar manner to Yelp, Yellow Pages will check to see if your business is already listed before adding you, but unlike Yelp, they generally don’t allow consumers to add businesses to their listings themselves. After you’ve added your business, you should be able to interact with customers through the site and answer questions and reviews. Yellow Pages also offers various upgrades and packages that help in business promotion through their website, but none of those are necessary to get your free business listing, and even just listing your business should help boost your local search profile and help customers find you when they search the web.
Although TripAdvisor is a travel website, and while that remains it’s primary focus, it does include information about a diverse array of businesses, including restaurants, local shops, and various attractions. TripAdvisor allows tourists to review places they went while on vacation, and checking the reviews on TripAdvisor is so popular that it lands in the top ten websites people consult before shopping. People who are travelling to your town might check TripAdvisor first to see where they should go to shop, so it certainly wouldn’t hurt to ensure that your business is listed on their website as well.
To list your business on TripAdvisor, go to their support web address and follow the on-site instructions. TripAdvisor has a limited number of business categories, but you’ll notice that they have broad categories, including “Things to Do.” Many businesses not directly related to the other categories are listed under that banner, and even if you don’t own a restaurant or hotel, if you think that your business would be of interest to tourists, you can justify listing it on TripAdvisor.
Once you have your business claimed and set up on the site, you should be able to interact with customers through the site.
Outside of the hustle of the big sites that people check for general interest shopping, there is a wide array of sites and apps catered to specific needs. In these places, you are more likely to find a focused customer base. Regardless of your industry, there is probably a site that caters to you, and it is always worth getting your local business listed on a site particularly relevant to the work you do.
Below you will find a list of popular industry-specific sites, alongside the industry they target and basic instructions for getting more reviews and your business listed on the site.
Restaurant/Dining Industry
Zomato - A popular site for restaurant reviews. To add your business to the site, follow the instructions found here
HappyCow - A site that caters to vegans and vegetarians. If your restaurant has vegan or vegetarian options, it is worth listing your business here. To get listed on HappyCow, you must first create an account with the website. Follow the instructions here
Hotel Industry
Hotels.com - A popular website for booking hotel rooms. Affiliated with Expedia, Travelocity, and Hotwire, and other popular travel websites. Luckily, it is easy enough to get your hotel listed on all of these websites all at once by following the instructions here
Healthcare Industry
HealthGrades.com - A website that allows patients to review and rate their doctors, dentists, and hospital visits. This is the most popular website for general healthcare reviews and rankings. In order to claim your profile on this website, follow the instructions found here.
RateMDs.com - Similar to HealthGrades.com, except it focuses exclusively on providers and their personal performance rather than healthcare facilities more broadly. To claim your profile on this website, follow the instructions found here.
Finance and Banking Industry
Wallethub.com - A popular website for rating local banks and credit unions. The website relies on reporting from the major credit bureaus for its listings.
DepositAccounts.com - Similar to Wallethub, but also provides some additional information regarding the financial services each bank provides, along with a snapshot of their financial health. Again, this site relies on reporting from the major credit bureaus for its listings.
Automotive Services
DealerRater.com - A website that allows you to leave a review for car dealerships, along with personal reviews for the technicians and salespeople who work there. List your dealership on DealerRater by following the instructions found here.
CarGurus.com - Similar to DealerRater, except it focuses more on the promotion of individual vehicles, and it does not allow you to review individual personnel from each dealership. To sign your dealership up for CarGurus, follow the instructions found here.
Home Services
Angie’s List - A website that helps people find and review plumbers, painters, electricians, and other home services businesses and personnel. This website is so widely used, it is included in the top ten most popular review websites. To get your business listed on Angie’s List, follow the instructions found here.
Thumbtack.com - An Angie’s List competitor that tries to cater local businesses to your specific homecare needs, based on your description of the work you need done. To list your business on Thumbtack, follow these instructions.
If your business belongs to any of those specialized industries, signing up your business and ensuring that you are listed on those websites will certainly help increase your online presence and drive more customers to you.
Expanding Your Online Presence
Listing your business on as many relevant sites as possible is beneficial for you as the business owner because it helps searching customers find you. It may seem simpler to focus just on Google and Facebook, but studies show that 70% of customers look at more than one review site before making a decision, and they are more likely to shop at businesses with an extensive and well-managed online presence. Don’t hesitate to get your name out there!
Once you have your name out there, don’t forget to interact with your customers on these websites as well. Multiple studies have shown that customers are more likely to engage with businesses that answer online reviews, respond to customer feedback, and make their presence active and known online. It may seem overwhelming to at once spread your name across the web and think about managing your reputation on all those different sites, but making it a priority will help drive customers to your business. And if you need assistance learning how to engage with customers online, don’t forget to check out our extensive Guide to Answering Online Reviews.