REALTOR® Reviews

With the surge in social networking and the resulting transparency that comes with it (do I really need to know what you had for lunch?), there is an increasing need for those in service oriented businesses to aggressively and proactively protect their reputation.

Of course, the first line of defense is to provide excellent customer service. In the end, that's much cheaper insurance than any of the other alternatives. However, what happens when circumstances beyond your control lead to a sour real estate deal that leaves a bad taste in a client's mouth? What if they decide to go viral with that and post their unvarnished, maybe even unfair or untrue opinions on the web?

What do you do? Well, the first thing you can do is talk to them. Explain that there were misunderstandings, accept your 1% of the blame, and maybe even send a nice thank you gift for their trouble. If all else fails, however, you'll need to do more to preserve your good reputation.

Defensive SEO is another word for online reputation management, and simply consists of optimizing websites and web pages to rank well on the search engines for keywords like "Your Name Reviews." Defensive SEO can be proactive or reactive. If there's already some negative information showing up on Google when someone searches your name, you need to react quickly before it damages your business.

It's always better to be proactive than reactive (and is much cheaper). The goal is to create and/or disseminate the positive reviews you have worked hard to obtain. In old-style marketing terms, this is nothing more than creating a bunch of brochures about you and making sure they get distributed in prominent places. Of course, it has to be done in a way that is not spammy or untruthful, but as long as your clients gave you permission to use their testimonial, you should be okay posting it appropriately on other sites.

The best way to engage in defensive SEO, whether it is reactive or proactive, is to make full use of your happy real estate client's testimonials. (What, you haven't been collecting them after every deal? Shame on you!)

Most agents don't put their clients' voices to work for them. Most agents don't even think of that.

Here's a simple plan to make full use of your clients' past testimonials:

1. Collect testimonials religiously. Even if you had a rough transaction, you can still foster good will and get a good testimonial by showing a strong effort to keep the wheels on the bus.
2. Don't be afraid to ask several times if you sense that the client is happy to do it but is forgetful. Remember, it doesn't mean as much to them as it does to you, and they may not understand the importance of it to your livelihood.
3. Ask permission from those who have provided you with testimonials to use their name in your online marketing materials.
4. Post your testimonials prominently on your website. Personal stories are much better sales copy than marketing language.
5. Create new websites and web pages to host and disseminate your testimonials, and make sure they get indexed. Use HubPages, Wordpress.com, Blogger, etc. Don't be shy about creating a site you only intend to update once or twice a year.
6. Optimize those websites and pages for keywords like "Your Name REALTOR Reviews" or "Your Name REALTOR Ratings." These are terms that Google is starting to "suggest" as soon as someone starts typing in the name of real estate agents.
7. Build backlinks to those new pages so they rank highly on Google for those terms.