Red Kite Creative

Business Credibility

Displaying Only the Best Reviews on Your Website? You May Want to Rethink That…

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If you’re like many (most?) small business owners, it’s a point of pride to show those 5-star Google reviews on your website. There are a number of WordPress plugins that will enable you to do this easily. But whether or not this is a good idea requires some thought…

Did you hear about the case the FTC (US Federal Trade Commission) brought against an online fashion shop called Fashion Nova in January 2022? It was the first case of its kind, alleging that the retailer was deceiving customers by only showing positive reviews on their site.

Fashion Nova settled the case for $4.2 million.

The FTC says it has sent warning letters to 10 companies that offer some type of review management/filtering services, so it is definitely cracking down on potential manipulation of online reviews.

What does this mean for you? It’s probably best practice to show all of your reviews on your site instead of filtering out the negative ones, if you’re going to display them at all.

And a negative review isn’t necessarily a bad thing – it gives you the ability to respond publicly to a problem and perhaps fix the situation for the customer. Sometimes this results in an edited and improved review. And at the very least, 56% of consumers say seeing a response from a business owner made them feel more positive about that business.

However, the plugins I’m familiar with that make it possible to filter out the negative reviews don’t seem to offer a way to show the business owner’s responses. That’s a big problem that I’m doing some research on now, if I find one that does show responses I’ll mention it in a future post.

Here are the guidelines from the FTC about displaying online reviews – see the section under Review Publication in particular.

Weekly Links Roundup – WordPress and SEO, Google or Facebook Ads, Blogging, Getting Testimonials

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The top website and online marketing links of the week.

It’s true that WordPress is my favorite CMS (content management system). That doesn’t mean it’s the right CMS for every business. However, WordPress may be one of the best CMS platforms for SEO. Learn what makes WordPress so SEO-friendly and why it may be a good fit for your business if search engine optimization is important to you.

If you’re considering advertising your business on social media, you have some big questions to answer. One of them may be where to advertise. Are Google Ads or Facebook Ads better for your business? This is a big article with a lot of info and it may provide the answers you need to move forward with your ad buys.

Here is yet another ultimate guide to blogging, but this one from Yoast is an easy read. It covers everything from how to get started and what to write about to marketing and maintaining your blog.

Finally… I always encourage clients to collect and share customer testimonials on their websites. Whether they are within your site (my favorite plugin for managing them is Strong Testimonials) or on a third-party site like Google Reviews, it’s easy to display them on your site and gain the credibility and trust benefits. Learn how to get good testimonials from your customers.

Did you find this information useful? Please share with your friends and colleagues! And comment below with questions or observations.

Weekly Links Roundup – Great Photos, Free Stock Photos, CCPA Compliance

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The top website and online marketing links of the week.

Are you a stickler for great imagery on your website to show off your products or services to the max? Or is it just one of those things that doesn’t get a lot of attention – you either have little imagery or use photos you took on your phone? Whichever camp you’re in, the quality of your site images says a lot about your business. Learn why having great images is so important to giving a professional impression to your customers and how high-quality photos improve your credibility.

To follow up, here’s a review of 10 sources for free stock photos that have pretty good variety in their collections.

By now, you’re likely very familiar with GDPR (the European regulations that improve consumer privacy and control over personal information). Now we have the CCPA, the California Consumer Protection Act. CCPA is similar to GDPR but compliance will require you make some additional changes in your website, especially if you have customers in CA.

Many smaller business will not be impacted because they don’t meet at least one of the thresholds, which are:

  • annual gross revenues of $25 million;
  • annually buy, sell, receive, or share for commercial purposes the personal information of 50,000 or more consumers, households, or devices; or
  • derive 50 percent or more of its annual revenues from selling consumers’ personal information.

However, it’s still a good idea to get familiar with the new regulations because we’ll likely see more of these in the future. Learn how to make your WordPress site comply with CCPA.

Did you find this information useful? Please share with your friends and colleagues! And comment below with questions or observations.

Weekly Links Roundup – New Business Location, URL Shorteners, Small Businesses Without Websites

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The top website and online marketing links of the week.

Adding a new brick-and-mortar location to your small business empire can be very exciting! But even though you’ll probably remember to update your website with your new location’s information, you might not remember to edit your Google My Business local search listing. Here’s a guide to understanding how opening a new business location can impact your local search strategy.

Not using Google My Business? Even if you don’t have a physical location, it still matters for most businesses! We can help get you set up.

If you use Google URL Shortener as a way to provide short, memorable links to your customers and prospects, you know that a simple link is better than a long one. Google URL Shortener stopped its service in March (though old shortened links still work). Here are 8 alternatives to Google URL Shortener that will do the trick, too.

Here’s a big one as far as I’m concerned – small business that still don’t have websites. Studies show that 30% of people won’t choose a business if it doesn’t have a website. People turn to online search first these days. If you’re not one of the sites that comes up for them when they search for a product or service, most of them will never know your business exists. They want an easy way to learn about your business, and whether it fits their needs, and whether your business has credibility.

Social sites alone don’t cut it – if you rely on Facebook alone and your account gets removed, then where are you? And by relying on social sites, you’re letting them create first impressions for your business – they call all the shots. You don’t own the page or the contacts you made, the social media network does.

All small businesses need websites. Contact Red Kite if you’re ready to get started – we won’t judge, and we’ll make the process as pain-free as possible!

Did you find this information useful? Please share with your friends and colleagues! And comment below with questions or observations.

Weekly Links Roundup – Business Blogging, Scannable Content, Testimonials Slider, Video Galleries

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The top website and online marketing links of the week.

Think blogging is a waste of time? (Hint: it’s not, if you do it with a focus on quality and consistency). Here’s a quick guide on starting a blog for business and why it really does matter if you’re trying to make your website the strong online base for your marketing efforts that it should be.

And if you’re taking the time to write well and frequently, make sure your content is also very easy to read. Most people today scan instead of reading – so you need to focus on great headlines, short paragraphs, lists and subheadings to break up your content. Here’s a guide to making your posts more scannable.

One of the most important types of content you should include in your business site is testimonials. Comments from your customers often have a big impact on potential new customers wondering if your product or service is a good fit for them. They increase your credibility. Learn how to use one of my favorite plugins, Strong Testimonials, to build a testimonial slider in WordPress.

Finally… recently I needed a video gallery plugin for a client site. Here’s one of the reviews I found for the best WordPress video gallery plugins. I actually wound up using GridKit, which was perfect for our particular project.

Did you find this information useful? Please share with your friends and colleagues! And comment below with questions or observations.

Weekly Links Roundup – Contact Pages, Phone Numbers, Branding, Video Editors

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The top website and online marketing links of the week.

Contact pages – not the most exciting topic, right? But so important: getting that user to get in touch with you may be the most critical conversion on your site. Here’s a great post on 25 amazing contact pages that may help you rethink the typical boring contact us page and make it something a bit more special for your users.

And speaking of contact pages… should you put your phone number on your website? And do you? This article on posting phone numbers (or not) grew out of a forum discussion on Australian entrepreneur site Flying Solo, and goes over the pros and cons of posting a number.

Did you know that research shows 54% of users say that a lack of phone number/contact info will drop the credibility of a site and the likelihood of buying from you or filling out a contact form? But what about junk calls and so forth? If you’re a very small business or solopreneur, consider getting something like a Google Voice number that allows you to forward calls and provides voice mail when you’re not available to talk.

You’ve probably heard that you need to work on ‘building your brand’ if you run a small business. But what does that really mean? And why is it so important? Learn more about the benefits of branding – including increased credibility and trust – even for the tiniest of companies.

Finally… video marketing is hot! Studies show that customers are 4x more likely to watch a video about a product than read about it. But how do you get started? First, choosing video editing software is a key step. Here’s a review of 16 video editors, both free and commercial, that can help you get started.

Did you find this information useful? Please share with your friends and colleagues! And comment below with questions or observations.