Show notes
Today I've got Deepak Shukla back on the podcast for Part 2. Deepak runs an SEO agency called Pearl Lemon, and he is an expert in SEO. Today we are talking about online reputation management -- one new strategy that will grow your traffic. It's all about managing your online reviews and testimonials because this can have a major impact on how your blog or business shows up in search. You will be blown away by the tactics we discuss, so check it out now. Resources: Pearl Lemon MiloTree StartUp Podcast Moz Capterra Wordpress Plugin Marketplace Shopify App Store TrustPilot Secrets of a Six Figure Lead Gen Consultant Transcript: One New Strategy that Will Grow My Traffic with Deepak Shukla Jillian Leslie 0:03 Welcome to The Blogger Genius Podcast. Brought to you by MiloTree. Here's your host, Jillian Leslie. Deepak, welcome back to the show. Deepak Shukla 2:26 Hey, Jillian, how are you? Jillian Leslie 2:28 It is so great having you back on the podcast. And as I've shared with you, I got such great response from your first episode. If anybody hasn't listened to it... Deepak Shukla 2:39 Oh, thank God. Jillian Leslie 2:40 ...I'll link it in the show notes so you can hear part one. Deepak Shukla 2:45 Yeah, I had a lot of fun. And thank you. I'm really glad and happy to hear that. Thank you. To the listeners. Jillian Leslie 2:52 Yeah, you were so generous with what you shared. And since then, just to get everybody up to speed, we have decided that we're going to start working together for MiloTree. Yes. Amazing. Exactly. And the cool part about it is because there's one thing to sharing tips and strategies like on a podcast, just to be talking about it. And it's another thing to actually do it and see what happens. Blogger lessions in SEO Deepak Shukla 3:23 Yeah, completely agree. Completely agree. Completely agree. Jillian Leslie 3:27 So we had our kickoff call with David, my partner, my husband, and afterwards, we're like, "Oh, I wish we had recorded this." So next time, we do that, we'll record it and we'll release it so that people can hear us strategizing and talking about ways we can dig in with SEO, with marketing to grow MiloTree. Deepak Shukla 3:50 Completely agree. Jillian Leslie 3:52 I know. So it's really fun. And I don't know if anybody has ever listened to the podcast Startup. But the first season was exactly that. It was them trying to raise money and kind of what the journey was, and all the mistakes in the work. So hopefully, you'll get to see our mistakes in the works too, and be kind. Deepak Shukla 4:15 Exactly. Be kind. Jillian Leslie 4:17 Be kind. Deepak Shukla 4:18 I know. I'm happy to be a part of the journey and yeah, I'm excited. SEO Strategy: Online Reputation Management Jillian Leslie 4:24 Awesome. Okay. So today, what we're going to do was we were going to go deep in another SEO strategy. So offline, you and I talked about the topic of online reputation management. Deepak Shukla 4:40 It's how we do everything offline anyway, isn't it? I mean, online reputation management really simply is a fancy way of saying, "Well, what do you think about that, Jillian? What did you think of that movie, Jillian? Or have you shopped at H&M or Prime Mark or Walmart? What was it like?" It's literally that, but just online, the management of a reputation that a business has. So it's, yeah, let's get into it. There's a lot there. Jillian Leslie 5:11 Because when you said it, I was like, I don't even know what that means, or how it would relate to an online entrepreneur or a blogger or somebody like that. So would you kind of start there? Like, what is the benefit? What is online reputation management? Deepak Shukla 5:24 Yeah, absolutely. So really, simply, let's start from a couple of ways. So from the kind of common sense perspective, right? When you're about to make a purchasing decision, it's very typical to be part of your kind of initial filter: "Does this business or does this individual or does this product or does this service or does this restaurant, whatever it may be, have good reviews?" What do people think about it? It's something that's a big pot certainly of our landscape is consumers. Before you go to the cinema, you're looking at IMDb, or Rotten Tomatoes, or Metacritic or something. Before you buy something from Amazon, your look to see if they're a trusted seller, same thing on eBay. And the dividing line between that being different from B2B and B2C is ever blurring. And that's why there's probably been this huge rise, many listeners probably, or some businesses have noticed that you just start as I call it, seeing stars and stripes in search a lot more with featured snippets, and just basically seeing stars when you Google a company name, and that's, everybody, what I want you to have. So when people are deciding or people are thinking about, "Can I trust working with you guys?" they'll quickly look and see that, "Well, everybody's saying good things about them; therefore, this is important." And for anyone who's kind of a technician, if you look up, for example, like Moz, their survey basically indicates that online reviews count up to as much as up to 10% towards kind of local SEO in general. It's got a huge kind of constituent ranking factor as to what will help you rank if you do any level of local service. And that's, again, corresponding the beginning to leak into nationwide search and that's why the sites like, I don't know, Capterra or the WordPress repository for plugin reviews or the Shopify repository for in a plugin review. So it's really looking at that person, right? Because this is about conversions. It's really looking at the person who's about to make a decision whether to install or to add to cart or to download and they're deciding whether your business is one that's trustworthy. "How well are they going to to rank you?" "Well, let's see what my friend, Jillian, is telling me about this app before I download it. Ah, she's given it five stars. Jillian's have given this product five stars. Why online reviews are important for online reputation management Therefore, of course, it's going to be the case that that's going to help you basically get highest up on the shelf at eye level, where everybody's looking, which is where you want to be. Jillian Leslie 8:31 It's a funny saying this because in my head, I haven't really thought about it this way, but everything I do is all about reading reviews. My husband refuses to go to a restaurant that isn't highly reviewed on Yelp. Like we could be walking by a restaurant, we're someplace that we've never been before. And I'll go "How about we go here?" And he'll be like, he'll be like, "No" because he has to get on his phone and see what the Yelp review is. And we just moved and so we're buying stuff for our house and like a lot of stuff on Amazon. And it could be like a trash can. And I am always reading the reviews of the the trash can, like it's something stupid. I am trained now to read reviews. Or my Uber driver, I want that five star Uber driver. Deepak Shukla 9:25 Yes, exactly. Exactly. Jillian Leslie 9:27 But I hadn't even thought about. I mean, it's just part of, it's like just part of my nature now that all I think about is how highly reviewed is something. Deepak Shukla 9:38 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. I completely agree. And when you kind of inverse that and think,"How highly reviewed am I?" Jillian Leslie 9:46 Yes, definitely. Deepak Shukla 9:50 Absolutely. And I mean, at its simplest level, Jillian, the big takeaway for everybody, of course, and people are kind of fearful of the idea of asking somebody or how does it work in practice, but reviews are huge. And your wonderful partner, David, has just demonstrated that by making you literally move away from restaurants that you're outside the front door of... Jillian Leslie 10:17 Yeah. Deepak Shukla 10:17 ...because it doesn't have... How powerful is that? Jillian Leslie 10:21 I know, I know. But it's funny because remember, you'd be on vacation, you see a restaurant, you just go in, and it's like, "Oh, no, we don't do that anymore." Deepak Shukla 10:29 Yes, yes. Exactly. Exactly. And here's a statistic, I think, that is mind blowing to me that local search as in the Google three pack, the stuff that appears in when people run searches, and they are running a local search, apparently, up to more than 60% of the time, depending upon what comes up within the top five, it results in an offline purchase. It's incredibly... It's incredible. And Google My Business, the place on the right hand side, they encourage you to go out and get reviews. It's part of their listed ranking algorithm. And, but Google is saying "Hey, help us help you. Ethically go and ask customers for reviews." Advice: You don't just need to get reviews from customers or clients And to make this really practical. And this is the part that I think sometimes people get worried about, you don't just need to get reviews from customers or clients. You have partners, you have people that you pay for services, people that you buy services from, people that you've worked with in business, people that you've done lots of weird and wonderful things with as long as there's something commercially that's happened, and they feel that they've benefited or vice versa, there's no reason why it isn't ethical to ask them for review. And that is something that is probably the lowest hanging fruit in terms of going out and generating reviews out of the gate, because you'll have friends that you built in business. And LinkedIn recommendations. Jillian Leslie 12:11 Right, I like what you're saying, which is being strategic about how you curate. It is about curating your reputation. It's not just saying "Hey, anybody, write a review for me" but it's saying "I know this person. I've done business with them." That person is going to say something that will shine a light on how good my product or service is. Absolutely, absolutely, I think that you've, you've hit the nail on the head, Jillian, that's within your network through and when I say you, I'm talking to you, the audience, right, you're in business, or you're going into business, but you at some level, have done something that constitutes advice. One of the things that I've began doing when I was starting my agency in the early days, the first two months, when I was scrambling, I would have 20 minute calls where I give some great advice. People would say "Amazing, thank you." It wasn't commercial. That was just a conversation. And at that moment, though, they would say, "Wow, thank you so much for this advice. Can I help you any way?" I would, at that moment, have a link ready and they "Actually, David, you can." Is it okay if you just leave a review for me just reflecting what you just said, that you had a consulting call with Deepak, it went really well, or whatever you want to say that you think is relevant? Could you do that for me? And who's going to say no, after that, and that was probably where I got my first 30 reviews from across the board online. Well, okay, today, just before I got on this call, I got an email from someone who I don't know, and who just said, "I want you to know, I'm really enjoying the podcast." And I wrote back "Thank you so, so much for reaching out. I'm so glad. We've got some great episodes coming up. So stay tuned." And now, I'm kicking myself that I didn't say "Hey, by the way, could you write a review on iTunes? Here's a link." How to ask people for online reviews Deepak Shukla 14:14 Jillian, the goodwill is not lost. I would recommend and advocate that you go back through your inbox, search keywords that relate to anyone who's left an enthusiastic response and spend two hours crafting a shit load of follow ups to say, "You know what, I'm kicking myself. Is it okay that what you wrote here, insert quote, you could reflect that, you putting a review online? I really appreciate it, like smiley emoji, prayer hands and see what it throws back." Because I've also done that exact same thing. And that's always how I followed up and 20% of the time, people say, "You know what? Yeah, I can definitely write that for you. Because there's still goodwill between us." Jillian Leslie 14:57 Oh, okay, because I have to say, I don't know, putting maybe some emojis in there, like it's hard. We talked about this the last time. It makes me cringe. It's hard to ask. Deepak Shukla 15:09 I understand. You have to, when we go in, I always go into conversations like that within mind that everybody favors the underdog. So position yourself as the underdog. And when people feel like they're doing something to help you succeed. And that you're being really kind of nice with it, I found that I get way better responses. And the best way in absence of my body language and tone of voice and my loveliness on call is emojis. Jillian Leslie 15:42 I just have to tell you, there's a reflection on my screen right now. So I can see myself and as I'm talking to you, I am like holding my mouth because I can tell that, like not consciously, but I can tell how uncomfortable this is for me. I have my hand like over my mouth going "Oh, this seems so." So I have to work. I feel like this is like our therapy session that I have to get better at being okay asking for that. Deepak Shukla 16:15 And if it helps to the technically minded people out there, Google is beginning to index emojis as part of search. Oh, really? So you can search with a burger icon plus near me and Google will bring up burger joints near you. It's something that has begun to start featuring recently. Therefore, this is a thing the young kids are doing it. So let it be known that there's data to support the rise of the emoji even from a Google ranking perspective. Jillian Leslie 16:48 That's so interesting. Please leave a review for me and The Blogger Genius Podcast on iTunes Hey, it's Jillian and I am doing the uncomfortable. I'm doing what Deepak suggests. I am asking you to rate me and to rate The Blogger Genius. So if you head over to iTunes, please leave a review or rate us. I am so curious to hear what you have to say. And remember, if I can do this, so can you. So now back to my interview with Deepak. How a food blogger can ask for reviews Okay, is there a use case for a blogger? Let's say, I'm a food blogger. We have a lot of food bloggers. Is there a use case for reputation management for a food blogger? Let's say I don't even sell any or let's say maybe I do affiliate marketing. Maybe I sell a cookbook, and I make a lot of money via traffic and working with brands. Deepak Shukla 17:43 Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think that it's a really amazing place to get reviews because the biggest number one thing when it comes to converting traffic, you're a food blogger, you talk about food that you love, what we want is some kind of audit-able trail of people saying how fabulous your recommendations have been. And that was a couple of things. So number one, in terms of, let's answer the practical question, where would those revie…
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