Local review sites are clearly reshaping the way smaller businesses are operating. These sites apparently with a narrow focus have ‘virtually’ and literally become the new powerful Yellow Pages, acting as one-stop platforms that let customers locate a business in their requisite domain. By visiting them, they can also check independent reviews and critiques of its performance as well as track record, to finalize their purchase decisions.

Growing clout of local business search and feedback sites

There are a host of sites that can be classified as local search sites. The prominent among them are Citysearch, Yahoo! Local, and Yelp. According to recent figures, more than 32 million users visited the site in May 2010. This well amplifies the rising reach and power of such sites.Here is why smaller businesses in particular cannot afford to ignore local search and review sites.

Features of the local search sites

Following are the features of the local search sites that make them popular:

• Local search sites ensure that your business irrespective of its size and domain is listed and noticed.
• The more comprehensive your listing, the greater chances of your business drawing excellent search responses.
• Sites like Yelp allow consumers to share their experiences of local businesses and also allow businesses to share relevant information about their products/services with customers.
• Yelps also offers them a suite of FREE tools to maximize the benefits of their online presence.
• Simultaneously, platforms for customer feedback have also come up online. Myriad niche sites and online communities have sprung up, too. There are a host of other utility sites like Google Maps, TripAdvisor, OpenTable, and Epinions.

What does the leading review sites essentially do for you? With them, you can:

1. Communicate with your valued customers.
2. Track the number of people viewing your business page.
3. Add detailed business description, photos, other information like history and specialties plus latest developments.
4. Announce incentives and special offers.
5. Publicize upcoming events.
6. Recommend other businesses.

Once you chalk out a substantial and sustained presence for your brand on the Web, it is essential to enhance its credibility and maintain the reputation. Imagine a practical scenario where one of your prospective customers does a Google search for your company. He or she notices a Blog about your organization’s false promise of a timely product delivery not kept. How do you feel the user will react to this piece of information? Will the person still opt to do business with you?

The next post in this series will offer you tips and guidelines on best practices to make sure that when a user searches for your brand, products, and services on top search engines they don’t come across negative and if they do, how to deal with the situation!