Your typical digital marketing agency will tell clients to do the best they can to ensure they receive positive ratings online. It is good advice. Positive ratings breed confidence. They add to a company’s online authority. But ratings are not foolproof. They also aren’t everything digital marketers think they are.
Salt Lake City’s Webtek Digital Marketing is among the many agencies that advise clients to work on good ratings. Yet at the same time, the Webtek team is cognizant of rating systems and their shortcomings. Companies should be cognizant of them as well. Why? Because it’s not simply a matter of getting positive ratings. It is also a matter of getting the positive ratings that will help a company the most.
Rating Systems Are Different
It would be one thing if all online rating systems were standardized. But they are not. Just look at the travel industry. There are websites that rate hotels and destinations based purely on user reviews. If the majority of people who have posted reviews for a particular hotel are positive, the hotel’s rating is positive as well.
There are other websites that combine user ratings with professional reviews. Still other sites seem to pull their ratings out of thin air. The point is that you just don’t know. Companies should not stress so much about getting good ratings on sites that aren’t clear about how they come up with their ratings.
Some Ratings Are Self Serving
Unfortunately, I discovered through my own research that some ratings are self-serving. For example, I went looking to see if I could find any ratings for Webtek. I ended up on the SEMrush page and found that they had recommended 929 digital marketing agencies across the country. Then I went and looked into how they rated the agencies.
SEMrush ratings are determined by a proprietary score. A digital marketing agency is evaluated based on its own website and its SEMrush Academy certification status. It would appear as though an agency that doesn’t pursue SEMrush certification won’t get a high score, if it gets scored at all.
This isn’t a knock against SEMrush. They understand that their list of the top digital marketing agencies in the country is essentially an endorsement of any agencies that make the list. Of course, they would want to protect their own reputation by concentrating on agencies they have certified. Still, that means their ratings are self-serving.
Google Ratings Are Big
Underscoring everything you have read thus far is the reality that Google ratings are big. There is no doubt that Google runs the internet – at least in terms of search, digital ads, and marketing. Google sets the standards that everyone else follows. So for me, if I were to focus on just one rating system in hopes of bringing in new clients, I would focus on my Google ratings.
My digital marketing agency would be tasked with helping me create a killer Google Business profile. I would expect my marketing team to implement strategies capable of boosting my presence on Google. Of course, I would make the effort to provide outstanding service to my customers followed by asking them to give me a good Google review. The higher my Google rating, the more often my website will show up when potential clients search for my services.
Online ratings are a big deal. However, it is important to pursue the right ratings. Businesses need to know how their customers search for them online and what ratings they pay attention to. Those are the ones to capitalize on. The rest can be ignored.
