By now, you should be well-aware of the importance of collecting online reviews. That being said, which online review sites you should send your happy customers to isn’t as clear. To help you out, we’ve put together this laundry list of some online review sites your dealership should be aware of.
Hopefully, this is a no-brainer. Google My Business is highly influential when it comes to local SEO. Google’s algorithm factors in relevancy, proximity, and prominence when determining which businesses should rank highest in local search. Reviews will appear in search results along with a map of “near me” locations when individuals are searching for a dealership in their area.
Put yourself in a position to succeed by claiming your Google My Business page. Getting reviews on this page can boost your local SEO. One downside is only customers with a Google account (Gmail or Google+) can leave a review on this platform.
Facebook Ratings & Reviews will appear on your dealership’s Facebook business page. Because it’s an integral part of your dealership’s page, it can’t be hidden or altered. Anyone with a Facebook account can sign in and leave you a review. Since 58% of Americans have an active Facebook account, you can probably count on this being a popular platform for your dealership’s reviewers.
Bing
Like Yahoo and Google, Bing is a search engine which displays customer reviews online. It’s free for your business to set up a profile. You can do that here with Bing Places.
Yahoo!
According to Search Engine Land, Yahoo Is still getting 10% of search engine attention, so don’t count it out. While you might not use Yahoo as your preferred search engine, collecting reviews on Yahoo can only benefit your dealership.
Angie’s List
This one might be a little unconventional considering their users have to pay for a membership, but because of this, the reviews here tend to be very well thought out and detailed. The reviews are given on an A-F scale and are not allowed to be anonymous, which helps prevent ranting and misrepresentation. It’s free to set up a page for your dealership. You can set one up here!
Yelp
Yelp isn’t just for restaurants anymore. You can find reviews for all kinds of businesses here. As with many sites, Yelp reviews are based on a 1-5 scale. If you do elect to collect reviews on Yelp, be sure and engage with your customers by responding to reviews, thanking them for their business, and responding to any complaints.
Dealership-Specific Sites
There are also a number of car and dealership specific sites you can direct your customers to.
- Cars.com is the second largest automotive listing site behind only Autotrader. The site boasts more than 31 million visitors a month. Cars.com offers consumers a number of different services, including vehicle listings, the ability to do a side-by-side comparison, and dealer reviews.
- DealerRater is an online review site focused on auto dealers. The site includes nearly 2 million reviews and its content is exposed to 14 million consumers on a monthly basis. DealerRater also provides employee ratings, employee profile pages, and innovative ways for car buyers to get in touch directly with top-performing salespeople.
- Similar to Cars.com, Edmunds.com offers consumers access to vehicle listings across the United States. The site also includes vehicle reviews, tips for purchasing a new car, and dealer reviews.
- Carfax offers used car listings to consumers, and is an excellent resource to utilize for your dealership.
Be sure to set up an account for your dealership on these three sites and monitor reviews you receive and respond when possible.
Because it is difficult to keep track of your profiles on 8 different sites, you may consider enlisting the help of an online review management platform to help you collect and manage reviews.
Does your dealership use sites that weren’t listed?
