![Is Your Practice Losing to the Local Competition in Search Results? [Infographic]](https://www.lifelearn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Losing-to-Competition-1.png)
Is your practice being pushed out of the spotlight by your competitors? Do prospective clients skim past your practice name in search results? If you’re not paying attention to online reviews, that may very well be the case!
Online reviews – many practice owners find them intimidating, or even downright terrifying! After all, giving people the opportunity to write a review is essentially taking a risk on whether or not they’ll say something positive about your practice.
However, the numbers don’t lie. People largely search for local businesses online. In fact, according to the following infographic, only 15% of clients did not find a local business through the Internet in the past year.
And when they search for local practices online, whether you want them to or not, they’re going to encounter your online reputation (or lack thereof!). 76% of clients say they occasionally or regularly use online reviews to determine which local business to use. This means that if your business doesn’t have online reviews, it can be almost as damaging as having negative ones!
In order to compete with other local businesses online, you have to be paying attention to, and cultivating your online reputation. This goes beyond simply having a website. Before they even see your website, it’s likely that clients will encounter your Google and Yelp reviews. If your practice doesn’t have any reviews and your competition does, that will count against you in a big way.
Businesses with reviews stand out because searchers feel like they are being given a better sense of the quality of the business. Without online reviews, your business fades into obscurity behind all those practices that local pet owners can immediately see are great, based on the stellar reviews and 5-star ratings given by clients.
If you’re ready to improve your practice reputation with more great online reviews, check out the following resources:
Online reviews – many practice owners find them intimidating, or even downright terrifying! After all, giving people the opportunity to write a review is essentially taking a risk on whether or not they’ll say something positive about your practice.
However, the numbers don’t lie. People largely search for local businesses online. In fact, according to the following infographic, only 15% of clients did not find a local business through the Internet in the past year.
And when they search for local practices online, whether you want them to or not, they’re going to encounter your online reputation (or lack thereof!). 76% of clients say they occasionally or regularly use online reviews to determine which local business to use. This means that if your business doesn’t have online reviews, it can be almost as damaging as having negative ones!
In order to compete with other local businesses online, you have to be paying attention to, and cultivating your online reputation. This goes beyond simply having a website. Before they even see your website, it’s likely that clients will encounter your Google and Yelp reviews. If your practice doesn’t have any reviews and your competition does, that will count against you in a big way.
Businesses with reviews stand out because searchers feel like they are being given a better sense of the quality of the business. Without online reviews, your business fades into obscurity behind all those practices that local pet owners can immediately see are great, based on the stellar reviews and 5-star ratings given by clients.
If you’re ready to improve your practice reputation with more great online reviews, check out the following resources:
- Are You Missing This One Crucial Step When Asking for Online Reviews?
- Dos and Don’ts of Dealing with Online Reviews
- Why Online Reviews Are Good SEO
- The Benefits of Negative Reviews
- 4 Ways to Handle Negative Reviews Online
If you’re not sold on online reviews quite yet, check out the infographic below for more stats about the importance of online reviews:
