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Summary:\nPotential customers look for businesses with lots of reviews\nRecent reviews are key; old reviews don’t count in consumers’ minds\nTo get more reviews, just ask… but do it the right way\nOnline reputation management is not a one-and-done exercise. It requires ongoing attention because your online presence is always changing as customers post new reviews about your business.\nThe good news is your efforts won’t go unrewarded. Online reputation management is the most important investment a local business can make to get more customers. And, the most important aspect of online reputation management is getting a steady flow of reviews coming in. We’ll explain how to do that, and why it matters, in this 7-minute read.\nWhy do you need to get more reviews?\nEvery single day, people search online for local businesses when they’re looking to spend money. In fact, 20% of Google searches are related to location. The results that Google and other search engines pull up in consumers’ internet searches determines where shoppers’ dollars go. Online reviews make up at least 10% of Google’s search criteria, so you won’t get found if you don’t have reviews.\nPut another way, online reputation management is the most effective marketing you can do because people are already looking for businesses like yours. You just need to show up—and show well—in online searches. It’s impossible to check those boxes if you don’t consistently get more reviews.\nConsider these facts:\n98% of consumers read reviews for local businesses\n90% say their buying decisions are influenced by reviews\n94% will use a business with a rating of at least 4 stars\nIf you get and maintain a 4-star rating on key review sites, you’ll get more customers without even trying. The best way to make that happen is to get more reviews, but how you get those reviews is important. We’ll cover those ground rules in the last section. \nHow many reviews do you need?\nThere’s no standard answer, but in general potential customers will be use a business with 300 reviews over one with 30. More reviews sends a signal that the business is popular, and right or wrong, consumers put their trust in the masses. \nYou need reviews on every relevant site, not just one. About \n3 in 5 people\n will research multiple review sites before forming an opinion about a business. If you have a good showing on Google but not on Yelp, for example, you run the risk of losing customers whose shopping journey begins elsewhere. Beef up your online presence by getting more reviews on all the major sites.\nWhat if you have a high star rating but not many reviews? Is it worth getting more reviews? The answer is a resounding “yes.”\nDo old reviews count?\nSort of. Any review you receive increases your total review count and impacts your star rating, which are important parts of the equation. But, consumers probably won’t actually read your older reviews. In fact, \nstudies show\n that customers read fewer than 10 reviews before forming an opinion, and they think reviews older than 90 days are no longer relevant. That’s why recent reviews matter. \nIt makes sense if you think about it. If it’s December and your last review was in April, people researching your business might wonder if you’re not that popular or if you’re even still in business. That’s especially true if a similar business has more reviews and more recent reviews. Sometimes, that comparison is the only thing that matters to a potential customer choosing between two places to spend money. \nCan I buy reviews?\nThere are lots of shady companies promising to sell you positive reviews. Don’t do it. These tactics are bad for business and could hurt your reputation. Also, most review sites have strict rules and penalties to prevent it, and the FTC even has guidelines against it. You should only get reviews from your actual customers.\nDon’t ever buy reviews. It might seem like a harmless way to give your online business reputation a boost, but it’s bound to backfire. There are better ways!\nGo deeper: \nShould you pay for positive online reviews\n?\nSo, how can I get more reviews?\nThis is actually more simple than it seems. Just ask! \nResearch shows that 7 in 10 customers will leave a review if you ask them to. There are several ways to do this:\nPut up signage, including official stickers from sites like Yelp, encouraging customers to leave a review\nMake a verbal request while the customer is at your place of business\nEmail your customers a link to review your business after they leave\nYou’ll get better results if you have a plan. If you have customer email addresses, for example, if makes sense to send electronic review requests. If not, you should consider finding a method to collect customer contact information. \nNo matter how you approach it, there are some things you should never do or you could hurt your brand and get in trouble with review sites. Don’t:\nTrade positive reviews for discounts or gifts\nAsk customers to leave you a 5-star review\nThreaten unhappy customers who might leave a bad review\nThe most important thing you can do to attract more customers is to get and maintain a 4-star rating on key review sites.

How to get more reviews

In this article:\nBenefits of using general forums to spread awareness of your small business\nThe do’s of participating in general internet forums\nThe don’ts of using general forums for your business\nOnline forums can be a great way to improve brand awareness and help set yourself up as a thought leader in your business category. Find the forums that have discussions you can contribute value to and get involved in the conversation. \nEven general internet forums like Quora, Reddit, and NextDoor offer some unique opportunities for your business to contribute to industry-related discussions. \nLet’s go through some best practices of using these general forums as a way to improve online visibility and attract customers to your business. \nBenefits of using general internet forums\nThere are tons of ways small businesses can benefit from participation in \nindustry-specific forums\n, but you can find some great benefits from using general forums for your business too. \nGeneral forums typically have more total traffic and a greater number of active users than industry-specific forums\nPeople may trust general forums more because they are more widely known and recognized across industries\nThrough relevant “sub-forums” on larger sites, you can set yourself up as a thought-leader and/or stand out in your industry\nIf you’re not sure where to get started, try looking to Quora, Reddit, or NextDoor and see what discussions already exist around your area of expertise. You might be surprised how specific the subcategories can be. \nThe do’s of using general forums to spread awareness of your business\nAs with most things, there are right and wrong ways for your business to engage with general forums. Here are some of the best practices that you should be using as you start getting involved. \nDo be up-front about your business identity\nYou’ll gain much greater credibility (and attract less wrath from forum admin and members) if you are completely forthcoming about your identity and your links to your business.\nYou may choose to either create an “avatar” (online persona) that has the name of your business, or (more preferably), use a variation your own name or something else that doesn’t necessarily mention or call attention to your business association, but that also doesn’t make you seem like you’re hiding that fact either.\nimage of torn paper promoting honesty for forums\n\nIn your forum profile and other visible details, you should be very clear that you represent a business. This is the primary way forum members will begin associating you and your comments/answers with your business, and can proactively search for your business when they want services like yours.\nYou will be much more likely to be accepted and recommended by long-time forum members if you are up-front about your business purposes rather than get exposed as a “company shill.”\nDo contribute to industry-related discussions\nWhen posting as your business, keep your comments related to your industry. Contribute to hot topics and high-traffic conversations that you know a lot about. As you get more involved in these discussions and people recognize your business as a contributor, awareness of your business on that platform will expand and people will look to you for more answers. \nDo follow relevant topics\nAs you are using a general forum like Quora or NextDoor, you can follow specific topics to get notified when new discussions and comments are posted. Follow topics that are relevant to your business and industry so you can quickly get involved and ideally be the first person that responds to a new, intriguing question. \nDo respond and give updates\nPay attention to the responses people post on your comments. Did you answer their questions? Did they have any followup questions? Provide timely updates and make sure you read all of the responses on your answers. Respond to users as they engage with your posts and stay involved in the conversation. \nonline forum speech bubbles for small business marketing\n\nDo make your questions and answers easy to read and skim\nJust like any other content online, your posts on general forums should be easy to read and skim through. Huge walls of text are going to deter users from reading your comments, leading them to skip yours and read the next one down the line. \nBreak up your posts with headers, bullet points, and short paragraphs to make them easy to read. \nDo check your analytics\nAs you are getting more involved on a forum and posting frequently, start checking the analytics that platform provides. Which of your questions or answers seem to be performing the best? How are people engaging with your comments and posts?\nEven if all the forum software provides is a simple view counter, that can tell you a lot about which of your posts and responses are getting the most attention.\nLearn from these insights and use them to help guide your participation on the forum. \nThe don’ts of using general forums to spread awareness of your business\nYou’ve got several things that you should be doing as you participate in general forums. Now let’s go over some things that you should avoid doing as you get more involved. \nDon’t just lurk\nA common thing that people do on forums (usually as individual users) is sign up for an account just so they can read the discussions and comments, and see full content. \nSome forums only allow registered members to view uploaded pics and other content, for example. So people register and go through the member approval process, but then they never post anything, and thus are defined as a “lurker.”\nAs a business, you should be getting involved in the conversation, not just lurking. Sure, in the beginning, reading the comments and threads and becoming familiar with the platform before posting is a good idea. \nBut at some point you need to start posting questions, answers, and comments—otherwise you won’t see any benefit from being there in the first place. \nDon’t use the wrong subcategories\nPay attention to the categories/subforums that you are posting in. Don’t post your questions in irrelevant forums or you won’t get any traffic or responses on those questions. \nLearn how to use the forum that you are involved with and use the correct subcategories to get the most out of your experience. \nDon’t derail conversations\nPeople who derail conversations and start new topics within a specific conversation or “thread” are the worst kind of people on a forum. Don’t be that guy/gal. \nyoung woman annoyed by forum spammer\n\nKeep your comments and answers relevant to the conversation so the followers of that post find value in your contributions and actually engage with your responses. \nDon’t spam or over-promote yourself\nForums are not the place to blatantly advertise your business (unless you are a paid advertiser with the authorization of the forum administrators). \nForums are a place for sharing valuable insights and helping people find answers to their questions. \nDo not spam or aggressively promote your business within your comments and responses. People are likely to blow past your comments when you do this and you aren’t going to see any benefit from the forum—quite the contrary. You will likely be shunned and possibly banned from the forum. \nNo one likes to be spammed, whether in emails, texts, phone calls, or on forums. Don’t do it, even if you think you’ll see significant gains. \nno spam sign\n\nThat doesn’t mean that you can’t or shouldn’t ever mention your solutions in a relevant response to someone’s question.\nWhen you have valuable information or resources that are applicable to the discussion, then by all means, post away.\nJust be conservative about the number of links and self-aggrandizing posts you make, and don’t just provide the same canned answer to every query. \nDon’t link back to your website in comments\nSimilar to not aggressively promoting your business, you shouldn’t post links to your website within your comments. This is seen as a spammy practice and the forums and their users can see right through it. \nIf you want to link to your website, most forums provide a place for this within your business’s profile. If anyone wants to learn more about your business, they can easily access your profile from your comments and find your website from there. \nSomething like “if you’re interested in learning more about X, a link to my website is in my profile” is usually fine—just don’t overdo it.\nGetting involved in online forums can be an effective way to enhance your marketing efforts and spread awareness of your brand. 

The do’s and don’ts of business participation in general forums like Quora

In this article:\nWhat is remarketing?\nWhat to do before you start\nComplete how-to guide for setting up your Google Ads remarketing campaign\nIf you’re looking for a way to enhance your digital advertising playbook, you need to hear about remarketing. It’s the perfect way to target people who have visited your website and are already showing interest in your services. \nWhat is remarketing on Google Ads?\nRemarketing is a way that you can set up your Google Ads to target customers who have already visited your website. This is a great way to capture leads that didn’t quite make it all the way through the sales funnel to make their purchase or that didn’t pick up the phone to call you. \nYou can target specific pages on your website, like for a specific product you are pushing or a free trial you want customers to sign up for. Set up your remarketing tag on the page you want to see more business from and create your ads around that. More on how to do this soon.\nWhat to do before you set up your Google Ads remarketing campaign?\nThere are a couple of important steps you should take before diving into and creating your remarketing campaign. \nWhat page(s) are you going to track? You need to determine your goals for the campaign and determine whether there’s a specific page that you want to target visitors from or if you want to target your entire site\nIf you are going to run a display remarketing campaign (which we highly recommend that you do), then you’re doing to needs image assets to upload to your campaign. In the image below you can find Google Ad’s supported sizes and formats. We recommend creating at least one in each style: Square and rectangle, Leaderboard, Skyscraper and Mobile. \n(Image)\nHow to set up a Google Ads remarketing campaign\nLet’s dive in. \nStep 1: Sign into your Google Ads account\nGo to ads.google.com and click “Start now” or “Sign in.” If you have a Google account for your business, we recommend using that to sign in here. \n(Image)\nStep 2: Create a remarketing audience\nBefore you get into the creation of your ads and campaign, you’ll want to set up your audience for the campaign. \nTo do this, go to “Tools & Settings” in the top menu bar and click on “Audience manager” under “Shared Library.”\n(Image)\nClick the blue plus icon on the left to create a new audience.  \n(Image)\nTo set up a remarketing audience from your website, click “Website visitors.”\n(Image)\nName your audience something that indicates what this audience is for: remarketing audience, “product name” remarketing audience,” website visitors, etc. \n(Image)\nUnder “List members,” you can show how you want to target your website visitors. The options here are:\nVisitors of a page (this works for your entire website too)\nVisitors of a page who also visited another page\nVisitors of a page who did not visit another page\nVisitors of a page during specific dates (great during holiday specials)\nVisitors of a page with specific tags\nTo keep your first remarketing campaign simple and learn how it works, we recommend starting with “Visitors of a page.” This will allow you to target a specific page or multiple pages on your website. \n(Image)\nNext, set the rules for your visited page. This is where you can specify the URL that you want to track. If you want to target your entire website, you could enter your home page URL into the blank field, like https://solo.co or even just your domain.\nTo target specific pages, enter the URLS for each of those pages. If you are entering multiple pages, make sure to click “OR” and not “AND” or Google will only target those visitors who visited all of the pages you entered. \n(Image)\nOnce you do this, you may see this notice: “Your audience doesn’t have any members. Try adjusting your rules and check the ‘Audience list size’ panel.” \nThat is fine because you are creating a new audience. You’ll have to build up this audience from your website before your ads can start showing. Generally, an audience needs 100 members within the last 30 days before display ads will start showing and 1,000 members within the last 30 days before search ads will start showing. \n(Image)\nFinish up your audience by filling out the last three options. \nUnder “Pre-fill options” you can choose to start from an empty list or start grabbing people who have visited your website in the last 30 days. If there’s still a cookie on their browser, the tag you add to your website can track them. We recommend the latter because it helps you grow your audience and deliver your ads quicker. \nUnder “Membership duration” you can choose how long you want to display your ads to any given audience member–how long they’ll stay in the audience group. The maximum duration is 540 days, but a good rule of thumb is 30-60 days. You don’t want to annoy your potential customers with the same ads over and over again for months on end. \nYou can also add a description to your audience if desired. This is helpful if you have multiple people working in the same Google Ads account so they know what that audience entails. \n(Image)\nClick “Create Audience.” \nStep 3: Add the tag for your audience to your website\nYour audience won’t start to build until you add a tag for audiences on your website. To grab this tag, go to your Audience Manager and click “Audience sources” on the left. \n(Image)\nClick “Set Up Tag” under Google Ads tag. \n(Image)\nOn the next page, check “Only collect general website visit data to show ads to your website visitors.” This is good for a basic website visit remarketing campaign. \nYou might also check to “Exclude California users from remarketing lists,” especially if you don’t have customers in California. This is to avoid violating the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). \nLearn more about why in our article about the CCPA here: \nCCPA compliance: 8 things every small business should know\n \n(Image)\nClick “Save and continue.”\nNext, choose how you will install the tag on your website. You can install the tag yourself, email it to your web developer, or use Google Tag Manager. Click “Continue.”\n(Image)\nOnce the tag is installed, your audience will start building and you can start showing your ads. \nStep 4: Create your remarketing campaign\nNow go back to the main dashboard for your Google Ads account and create your campaign. Select “Campaigns” in the left menu and then click the blue plus icon. \n(Image)\nSelect “New campaign.”\n(Image)\nNext you’ll have to select a goal. For a display campaign, you can select sales, leads, website traffic, product and brand consideration, brand awareness and reach, or to create a campaign without a goal’s guidance. \nWe’re going to select “Brand awareness and reach” for this guide. \n(Image)\nOnce you’ve selected your goal, select the type of campaign you want to create. Again, we will be creating a display campaign. \n(Image)\nEnter your website into the field that appears. Be sure to include the https:// before it. Click “Continue.”\n(Image)\nNow, fill out the settings for your campaign on this next page. \nName your campaign.\n(Image)\nSelect your location. To target at a local level, click enter another location and enter what areas you want to target.\nAlso, be sure to check the location options. Make sure that you select “Presence: People in or regularly in your targeted locations” to ensure that your audience is relevant to your business. \n(Image)\nYou can leave bidding as “Viewable impressions” for remarketing display campaigns. Conversions is another option if you are trying to track specific actions that your customers take. But this guide shows instructions for “Viewable impressions.”\n(Image)\nEnter the average that you want to spend each day. You may just have to experiment with this amount based on the results that you see from your ads. Take your monthly budget for this campaign and divide it by 30.4 to get your daily amount. \n(Image)\nLeave the “Ad rotation” as “Optimize: Prefer best performing ads.”\n(Image)\nIf you only want your ads to run during specific times, you can set a schedule for them. For a display campaign that brings customers back to your website, we recommend leaving this open 24/7. \n(Image)\nSelect the dates that you want your ads to start and end, or leave it open to run indefinitely. \n(Image)\nCreate your ad group by giving it a name. \n(Image)\nNext, add your audience that you created earlier. Click “Browse.” \n(Image)\nThen click “How they have interacted with your business.”\n(Image)\nClick “Website visitors” and then find and select the audience that you created. Ours is titled “Website Visitors.”\n(Image)\nYou can also add any additional demographics as you see fit for your target audience. \n(Image)\nNow you can upload your image ads that you created by clicking + New Ad. \n(Image)\nClick “Upload display ads” to add your images. You can also select “Responsive display ad” if you want the ability to enter additional copy for your ad. \n(Image)\nUpload your files and click “Add To Ad Group.” Repeat this for as many ads as you’d like to create. \n(Image)\nOnce you’ve finished uploading your ads, click “Create Campaign” and watch as your audience grows and your ads start running. \nMaintain customer relationships with email marketing\nAs your ads start to see results and you get new customers, get an email campaign in place to help maintain your relationships with these new customers. Send them fun deals, reminders about upcoming announcements, and more. 

How to set up a Google Ads remarketing campaign (step-by-step walkthrough!)

In this article:\nHow to tell if your site is mobile-friendly\nDIY steps for making a site mobile-friendly\nOptimizing your online presence\nHave you ever visited your business’s website on your smartphone, tablet, or other mobile device? If you haven’t, you should. It’s good to see what the user experience is like for your customers from a mobile device, especially since over 50% of website traffic comes from mobile devices. \nWhen you load your webpage on your mobile browser, what is the experience like? Can you easily find important information? Or is it difficult to navigate between pages? Are there weird layout issues, missing images, or problems with navigation?\nA good mobile experience on your website is important for getting new customers online. Generally speaking, the majority of your customers probably do a quick search on their phone when looking for a new service or products that you offer. And if they can’t figure out how to use your website from that first visit, they’re likely to go somewhere else. \nSo, how can you make your website more mobile friendly?\nHow to tell if your website is mobile-friendly\nBefore you take the steps to make your website mobile-friendly, find out if it already is. The very first thing you can do is visit your own website from a mobile device. Click through the pages of your website, scroll down each page, click on buttons, and test out forms and links to see if you come across any problems. \nMake a note of any sticky places that you run into. Be sure to note your device and the web browser you are using. Some may cause issues and some may not. \nThere may be some items that you can fix on your own, and some things may require additional support from a web developer. \nAnother thing you can do is run your website, or a specific page on your website through Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test. \nVisit \nsearch.google.com/test/mobile-friendly\n, and enter any URL from your website into the field to test it. \nIt may take a minute or two to return your results, and this test will then tell you if that page is mobile-friendly. \nIf your page is deemed \nnot\n mobile-friendly by Google, they will provide you with additional resources to help make your site mobile-friendly. You can then use these tips to update your website, or hand them off to a web developer. \nDIY tips for making your website mobile-friendly\nDon’t think that you need to use a professional web developer to help make your site more friendly for mobile users. There are plenty of things that you can do on your own (without knowing or understanding coding) to help enhance this experience. \nWe’ll discuss several things that you can do here:\nResponsive content management system\nLegible fonts\nSimple navigation \nSimple design\nOptimize images\nUse a responsive content management system\nIt all starts with the platform that your website is built on. If you did your own website through a low-cost or \nfree website builder\n like Wix or Squarespace, then it’s likely that your website is already responsive. \nWhat this means is that your website adapts to various screen sizes by resizing and adjusting placement for text and images. \nStart from a website builder that already has that “responsive” or “mobile-friendly” web design built into its platform so you don’t have to worry about getting a developer’s help with this. \nUse legible fonts\nAs much fun as scripty, swirly fonts are, they can be difficult to read, especially when they shrink down on a phone. Choose standard fonts for your website and use a font size of at least 14 px for the body content on your site. \nStandard fonts usually come with your website builder, so try clicking through your font options to see which you like best, and then preview what it looks like on a mobile device. You can do this by pulling up your site on your phone or changing the size of the window that you are viewing your website in. \nKeep your navigation simple\nThe navigation of your website is the menu that customers use to click to different pages on your website. On a desktop or laptop, the navigation generally spreads out across the top of the screen, but on mobile devices the navigation often shrinks down to what we call a “mobile menu.” This is the little hamburger menu icon that appears in the corner of your screen. \nAnd when someone clicks on that icon, it brings up your full menu. But if this menu has tons of items on it and large dropdowns, navigating the site can quickly become overwhelming. \nBy keeping your navigation simple, with 4-6 items and minimal dropdowns, you can provide a more friendly experience for your visitors. \nWith DIY website builders and easy-to-use content management systems, you generally have control over this and can edit your menu from the dashboard of your website editor. \nKeep your design clean\nAlong with a simple navigation, the design of your website should be fairly simple, too. That doesn’t mean that it has to be a bland page with little to nothing on it, but it should be well-organized and have a simple flow to it. \nDon’t overwhelm your visitors with tons of overlapping imagery, flashy animations, and buttons all over the place. Keep it simple so that your visitors can scroll down a page on their phone without becoming overwhelmed and not knowing where to look first. \nGo deeper: \nHow to design a simple small business website\nOptimize your images\nOne of the biggest problems that can make websites unfriendly for mobile devices is large images. \nImages that have a large file size can take a long time to load, and this can leave large portions of a webpage blank, or even keep the entire page from loading for several minutes. \nTo avoid this problem, you can easily optimize your own images before putting them on your website. Optimizing your images simply means resizing them and compressing the file size. \nYou can upload your image to an online photo editor like \nPicMonkey\n or \nPixlr X\n to resize it. You can generally resize your image down to 1920 pixels wide, and that will be large enough for any place that you add it to your website. \nAs soon as you upload an image to Pixlr X it will give you the option to “Pre-resize” it, and one of the options is set to 1920 px. You can choose that option and then save your image and continue to compressing it. \nOnce you’ve saved your resized image, you can then compress the file size of it by uploading it to a site like \nTinyPNG\n. It will compress your image within a few seconds, and then you can download your new smaller file and upload that to your website. \nEach of these steps will contribute to a better mobile experience for your customers, and if you need further help or you aren’t fully satisfied with your website on a phone, there are additional steps that a web developer can help you with. \nGet more visitors to your website by optimizing your online presence\nWhen you’ve finished making your website mobile-friendly, make sure that you are taking all of the steps you need to get optimize your online presence and \nlocal SEO\n to drive more visitors to your website—whether on a computer or mobile device. \nSources:\n
\nhttps://webtribunal.net/blog/mobile-percentage-of-traffic/\n

How do I make my website mobile-friendly? DIY tips

In this article:\nBuilding your own website from scratch using Squarespace\nThings to consider before you get started\nTutorial: 11 steps to build your business site\nBuilding your own business website can seem like a daunting task, but there are several great website builders out there that allow you to seamlessly integrate your brand and business into a professional-looking website. \nIn this article, we’ll walk you through the steps to create your own website on \nSquarespace\n. \nOne thing to keep in mind as you start building your Squarespace website: this isn’t a free solution. Squarespace has several different subscription plans currently ranging from $14/month to $49/month. Each plan has varying features and levels of support. (We’ll provide more information on this later on, too.) \nNote: pricing and details are subject to change.\nBefore you get started building your small business website\nBefore you jump in and start putting together your website on any DIY platform, it’s important to first map out a plan for your website. \nThis includes:\nDetermine the main pages that you want on your site (home/landing page, about us, services, products, FAQ, contact, shopping cart, etc.)\nDetermine which pages you want to be in the main navigation of your site (this is the main menu along the top of your site to help visitors find the information they need)\nWrite (or hire out) any content that you want featured on your website (we strongly urge you to write your own content and not to copy and paste from another website, as this can hurt your online visibility and may be illegal in some cases)\nDecide what content you will want on your home page\nGather other assets that you’ll need on the site (logo, images, videos, graphics, etc.)\nHave a few ideas for your domain name (your exact choice may not be available)\nOnce you have your plan in place, then you can jump in and get started. \nStep-by-step tutorial: how to build a basic website for your business\nAs we mentioned, we’ll be walking you through how to build a website on Squarespace, but most of these steps will be similar to other DIY website builders (Wix, Weebly, etc.) And no matter which site you start from, you’ll need to create an account before you can move forward with launching your new site. \nWe’ll go over the following steps:\nGet started and pick a template\nCreate your account\nStart building your site\nEditing your pages\nEditing images\nAdding a new section\nCreating a new page\nEditing the main navigation\nEditing you header\nPublish your site\nRegister your domain\nStep 1: Get started and pick a template\nOn Squarespace you don’t have to have an account in place before you are able to look at the various templates they have available. \nSo if you prefer to check out your options before signing up, let’s start here. Click “Get Started”\n(Image)\n\nFrom the next page, you can describe your business or website with the buttons or text field provided. This will help Squarespace show you the templates that are a good fit for your industry. Alternatively, you can click “I’m just browsing” in the top right corner to look through all of their template options. \n(Image)\n\nNext, you get to pick your template. You’ll have tons of options to choose from, and if you need help narrowing it down, you can browse by category (see the left side of the screen). \n(Image)\n\nWhen you hover over one of the template options, you can choose to start building your website on that template, or you can preview it first. We suggest looking at the preview so you can get a feel for that template and all of its pages before you start. \n(Image)\n\nWhen you preview the site first, you can see what it looks like on desktop, tablets, and phones so you get an idea of how the experience may vary across different devices. Click through each of these options and the different pages on the site to make sure you like it. \n(Image)\n\nWhen you find the template you want, click “Start with this design” in the top right corner. \nStep 2: Create your account\nIf you haven’t created an account yet, this is where Squarespace will prompt you to do so. You can use a Google, Apple, or Facebook account or continue creating an account with your email. We recommend using the email or Google account that is associated with your business. \nOnce you’ve selected your option, click “Log in” in the top right corner to log in and get started. \n(Image)\n\nStep 3: Start building your site\nOn the next page, Squarespace will provide a mini-tutorial/welcome message to help you get started. You can choose to skip this if you want, but it’s helpful information. \nOn the first page of this tutorial, title your site. \n(Image)\n\nThe next couple of pages will just be brief tips on how to edit, create, and style pages. \nClick “Get Started” on the last page. \nAs you get started, your page will look similar to this:\n(Image)\n\nClick “Edit” at the top left of the website template to start putting your site together. \nStep 4: Editing your pages\nYou’ll notice that as you hover over different elements (Squarespace calls these “content blocks”) on any page of the website, you can edit the text and images. \n(Image)\n\nClick in the box to rewrite the text and style it how you want it:\n(Image)\n\nYou can also choose to remove any content block by hovering over it and clicking the little red trash can icon:\n(Image)\n\nIf you want to add additional content blocks, you can hover over the left above or below the current elements and you’ll see a gray teardrop that you can click on to add something in that spot. \n(Image)\n\nYou can scroll through the different options to see what kind of content you can add.\n\n\nAs you can see here, we chose to add a line to help separate the text. \n(Image)\n\nTo update the size, content block alignment, and colors of any section on the site, just hover over the larger section and click the edit icon.   \n(Image)\n\nUnder “Format,” you can adjust the height of that section, the content width (how wide it stretches across the screen), and the content alignment. \n\n\nYou can easily change the look and feel of the site with just the click of a few buttons. \n(Image)\n\nUnder “Background,” you can choose what you want the background to look like: if you want an image, video, solid color, overlay, or for the background to stretch across the screen or have some white space around it. \n\n\n \n(Image)\n\nUnder “Colors,” you can select a color theme that you want for each section. If you don’t love the color choices available, then you can click the edit icon on the theme that is closest to what you want and customize the colors yourself. \n\n\nYou’ll be able to look through every possible element and choose the color that it should be. There are a lot, so this can feel overwhelming. We recommend sticking to one or two main colors for headings, links, borders, and backgrounds, and using one or two neutral colors (black, white, gray, tan, brown) for the rest. Choose colors that coordinate with your brand’s aesthetic. \n\n\n \n(Image)\n\nIf you want to rearrange the sections on any page, you can hover over it and click the up and down arrows to move the entire section. \n(Image)\n\nIf you just want to rearrange the content blocks within a section you can drag and drop them. \nStep 5: Editing images\nSquarespace is helpful in that it has tons of free and premium stock photos for you to choose from, and it has an image editor built into the site so you can easily adjust colors and the cropping of the image within the engine.\nTo edit the image in any section you can hover over the image you want to change and click the edit icon. \n(Image)\n\nFrom the content tab in the new window that pops up, you can change the image that is being used. You just need to delete the current image and upload a new one or search through the images that Squarespace has available. (They pull their free images from Unsplash.com.) \n\n\n\n\nIf you click “image editor” below the picture you just uploaded, you can make the following edits to your image if you need to:\nBrightness\nContrast\nSaturation\nSharpness\nBlur\nHighlights\nShadows\nCrop\nRotate\nFlip\nAdd filters\n\n\n(Image)\n \n(Image)\n\n\n(Image)\nClick “Save” in the top left corner when you are finished editing your image. \nYou’ll then be redirected back to your website. In the image window, there are a couple other adjustments you can make to your image to help style it the way that you want. \nUnder the “Design” tab, you can choose where the text resides in relation to the image (if there is any) and you can add a link to your image if you need to. The link can be a button on or next to the image or it can be in the image itself. \n\n\n\n\n(Image)\nUnder the “Animations” tab, you can choose if you want the image to have an animation when it loads onto the page. Play with these and test them out to see if any fit the tone you are going for on your website. If you have multiple images on one page, we recommend using no animations or the same animation for all of them. Too many different animations can make the site feel overwhelming or busy. \n\nStep 6: Adding a new section\nSimilar to adding new content blocks, you can add new section to any page for different types of content that you have. Just click the plus icon above or below any section to add a new one. \n(Image)\n\nThen you’ll get a popup window with all of your options. Click through the menu on the left to see what each of these items looks like and scroll through the different configurations available. \nAnd remember, you can always adjust the colors, images, and layouts once the section is on your page. \n(Image)\n\n \n(Image)\n\n \nWe added a contact section with a form to our example home page. \n(Image)\n\n \nStep 7: Creating a new page\nNext let’s create your pages! When you’re ready to make a new page, you can click “Done” in the top right corner to return to the main menu. \n(Image)\n\nFrom there, you’ll click “Pages” to edit or delete the current pages and create new ones. \n(Image)\n\nThe next menu will look something like this. If you want your new page to be linked up in the main navigation, you can click the plus icon next to “main navigation” and create a new page from there. You can choose between a blank page and start from scratch, or you can choose a prebuilt page layout to start from. \n\n\n\n\nIf you choose a page layout, you’ll have several options to choose from, depending on the kind of content that will reside on that page. You can also select “Add Blank” from here if you choose not to use a page layout. \n(Image)\n\nOnce you pick which option you’ll use for your new page, you’ll need to title it. \n\n\nIf you click the little gear icon next to your new page, you’ll have several settings that you can adjust, including SEO options, the featured image for social media, and other advanced page settings. \n\n\n(Image)\n\nYou can also use the general settings on any page to duplicate that page if you want the same layout for other pages (for example on services or products pages).\n(Image)\n\nJust make sure that whatever changes you make, you click “Save” in the top left corner when you are done. \nIf you added the page into your main navigation, you’ll be able to see it linked up there once you’ve created it. \n(Image)\n\nFollow the instructions for editing a page and editing images above to design your new page. \nStep 8: Editing your main navigation\nEditing the main navigation is super quick and easy. \nWhen you are under the “Pages” menu from the last step, you can click and drag your pages to wherever you want them in your main navigation. If you created any pages in the “Not Linked” section, you can also drag those up to the main navigation. \nWe recommend not adding more than 5-6 items here because it can start to get busy and wrap weirdly if there are too many items. \n\n\n\n\nStep 9: Editing your header\nWhen you are editing your website, you can hover over the header (from any page) and click “Edit site header.”\n(Image)\n\nFrom here, you’ll have the option to change the layout of the header, update the site title and logo, add different elements to the header, change the colors, and adjust the style. \n\n\nAt the very least, we recommend adding your logo and scrolling through the header layouts to see if there’s another layout you might like beyond the default. \n\n\n(Image)\n\n\nStep 10: Publish your website\nWhen you are finished building your website, adding all of your pages and organizing it the way you want, then it’s time to publish!\nUnder “Done” in the top right corner, make sure you save your changes, and then click “Done.”\n\n\nWe recommend taking advantage of this “Assistant” that Squarespace provides. If you scroll down to the bottom of the window, you’ll see a “Launch Your Site” option with a checklist. \n\n\nClick “See the checklist” to review final recommendations for publishing a complete and professional-looking website. \n\n\nOnce you’ve reviewed the checklist and are satisfied with all of your final touches, go to your assistant or the bottom of the page and click “Subscribe.”\n(Image)\n\nFrom here, you can select the plan that you want from Squarespace. They lay out all of the different features that each plan comes with and you have the option to pay annually or monthly (there is a discount when you pay annually). \nOnce you select your plan you will need to enter your payment information. \n\n\nJust one more step. You’re almost there!\nStep 11: Register your domain\nWith all annual plans on Squarespace, you get one custom domain free for the first year. You can choose to purchase your domain through Squarespace, or if you already have your domain from a third-party domain registrar, you can follow \nthese instructions \nto get it registered with your Squarespace site. \nTo find a domain through Squarespace, go to \nsquarespace.com/domain-name-search\n. Type in your desired domain name right on this page to search for the right domain for your website. \n(Image)\n\n \n(Image)\n\nYou can find instructions \nhere for registering your free Squarespace domain\n. \nOnce your domain is registered and you’ve purchased your plan, you can launch your site and start sharing it on your social media accounts, business cards, and other marketing platforms. \nGet your site out there so that it can start working for you and bringing in new customers. 

How to build your own business website (step-by-step walkthrough)

Getting a bad review on Yelp can feel like a punch to the gut for small business owners, especially if it was unwarranted. It’s frustrating and sometimes it seems like there’s nothing you can do about it. But wait! There might might be. If you’re hoping to remove a Yelp review, you’ve come to the right place.\nBefore we explore how to remove a review from your Yelp page, let’s back up. How often do bad reviews happen and what does a bad review mean for your small business? \nHow often do bad reviews happen on Yelp?\nIf you’re distressed about getting a bad review on Yelp, don’t worry, it happens all the time. According to Yelp’s Factsheet, there are over 171 million reviews on the platform and given that 16% of those are 1 star reviews, that’s roughly 27,360,000 awful reviews on Yelp. So if you get a scorcher, it’s okay. It’s part of the program.\n(Image)\n\nBut what if it’s a completely groundless review? Let’s see what we can do about getting it removed.\nIs it possible to remove a Yelp review?\nYes, it is possible for a Yelp review to be removed. However, business owners cannot directly remove them (reviewers can delete their own reviews). \nOnly Yelp can eliminate reviews from its platform. Never work with an individual or a consultancy that claims they can bypass Yelp’s platform to remove a Yelp remove, or a reputation management company that purchases fake reviews to boost your star rating. Short of requesting the removal of a definitively bogus or defamatory reviews, legitimate reviews from actual customers should be your only recourse in improving your star rating on Yelp and other review sites. \nWhile Yelp takes a somewhat “laissez faire” approach—they keep discretion mostly in the hands of Yelpers— there are reasons the Yelp moderators or recommendation software may remove a review. Keep in mind that one or more of these reasons will have to be true for your case in order to get a review removed from your page. Otherwise, the review—good or bad—will remain.\nPlus, research shows that negative online business reviews aren’t necessarily as harmful as you might think. Businesses with between 10 and 25% negative reviews make the most money!\n5 instances that justify the removal of a Yelp Review \nYou can have a Yelp review removed if you can prove that an undesired review is “questionable” by demonstrating to the Yelp team one of the following things.\nThe review is fake. Similar to \nhow Google detects and removes reviews\n, Yelp will dismiss any spam reviews (content posted multiple times from different accounts or many reviews from one IP address), conflicts of interest (reviewing your own business), and impersonations (representing the views of someone other than yourself).\nThe review violates \nYelp’s content guidelines\n. Yelp prohibits inappropriate, promotional, irrelevant content, and violations of people’s privacy, intellectual property.\nThe review is “not recommended.”\n Yelp’s recommendation software automatically filters out reviews based on dozens of signals, including lack of quality, unreliability, and questionable user activity. According to Yelp, 25% of reviews are not recommended. They’re filtered out and not displayed (and don’t affect anything) on your business’s profile. \nThe author deletes the review. The only other party besides Yelp that has the power to remove a user’s review is the user himself/herself. To remove a Yelp review, a user simply navigates to their account, opens their Reviews, selects the review they’d like to remove, and taps “Remove” (the trash can icon).\nLegal process proves the review is defamatory. According to Yelp, if a questionable or fraudulent review is NOT removed by Yelp’s moderators or recommendation software,  \n“you or your lawyer can obtain a final adjudication from a court of competent jurisdiction indicating that the review is defamatory”\n and \ncontact Yelp’s Support team\n.\nHow to flag and remove Yelp reviews that violate the terms of service\nIf the Yelp review you’re hoping to remove falls under one of the above criteria, you may have a chance of having it taken down. Here’s how to flag and report a review (keep in mind that reporting doesn’t guarantee a review will be taken down).\nNote: Before reporting a Yelp review, read this helpful article from Yelp  first: \n“When should I report a review?”\nLog in to your Yelp account (the “Report review” button won’t show up if you’re not logged in).\nFind the review you’d like to report. \nOn desktop, select the “Report review” button that looks like a flag.\n\nNote: if you’re on mobile, the “Report review” function is located in the “three dot” menu.\n\nAfter you report the review, Yelp will assess and analyze the best decision based on its content guidelines, which may take several days. \nFortunately, Yelp will email you regardless of their decision to remove or keep the review. Either way, you’ll hear back. \nWhat if I can’t get a Yelp review removed? \nAlas, if you’ve exhausted all possible options and you’ve found the negative review cannot be justified for removal and it must remain, there are some things you can do that will lessen its pejorative impact.\nMessage the reviewer privately and try to work things out. Without being a jerk, see if you can make amends, solve the problem, or redress the situation. The best case scenario is they edit, update, or remove their own review.\nRespond publicly and diplomatically. If the reviewer still won’t take down their review, respond to the review with professionalism and objective problem solving. Keep in mind that hundreds or even thousands of potential customers may see your response, so use this as an opportunity to bring in more business, not to shoot your business in the foot with an overly-defensive or emotional retort.\n

127 articles found in “Online presence”

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How to build your own business website (step-by-step walkthrough)

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