Web consumers (end-users) have long used business reviews in their decision making and today's savviest digital brands know where they need to be in order to gain the most traction.
Let's take a look at the most essential business review sites for enterprises today so you can prioritize your management/monitoring time on these networks efficiently.
Google and Bing account for nearly 80 percent of all search traffic, so reviews found on those networks is obviously of the greatest importance. Add to the mix Yahoo (which has access to a rather vibrant ecosystem of local sites) and Yellow Pages - perhaps even Local.com - and you've pretty much locked down the local traffic that you're going to get from a search-based perspective.
Enterprises must, of course, also have a presence on social networks including Twitter & Facebook which have slowly been releasing solutions aimed at businesses (specifically local ones). That's good news but there are still other channels demanding attention from enterprises such as Yelp.
The review site is quite popular but it's causing headaches for business owners as out-of-control Yelp users wield the power of their reviews with an often wicked sense of entitlement. That's causing many to crack down on Yelp and seek out some alternatives. While these sites don't really compare in terms of user-activity volume, they are networks your brand should have a presence upon.
Foursquare: As the most similar network to Yelp, Foursquare offers business owners a smaller but equally vibrant community of users to connect with making it a important business review site to participate within.
BBB.org: A bad Better Business Bureua review can cause quite a few headaches; being in their good graces and responding promptly to complaints is in your best interest (being a member could help as well).
Amazon: It might seem somewhat strange to see Amazon on a list of review sites, but if you're selling products at all, the marketplace is probably going to be one of the most important channels you're going to be on and that makes reviews appearing there vital to monitor.
UrbanSpoon: A restaurant information and recommendation service which provides a rather active userbase features including a simple rating system and social sharing making it an important destination to monitor for restauranteurs.
Angies List: As a long time provider of reviews and recommendations, Angie's List remains one of the most important referral sources for small businesses participating on the network.
TripAdvisor: The travel booking site has avery active community providing reviews on a variety of local businesses and even provides a solution for businesses to manage customer reviews.
G2Crowd: There is no shortage of websites offering up reviews of software, but emerging business software and services review network G2 Crowd is one to watch. The network collects and publishes user ratings, reviews and social data related to software solutions on their sites and in periodic reports.
There are many, many other review sites where a business might find a review of their products or services. Website Magazine identified a long list of others including JudysBook, TrustedPlaces, Boorah, Buzzillions, InsiderPages, ViewPoints, RateitAll, SharedReviews, Revoo, Loopt, and BrightKite to name but a few.
As a webmaster/website owner or digital marketer, what business review site do you believe to be of the greatest importance? Share a comment below and join the conversation!
