Testimonials

[casper434]

Over the years I have seen both good and bad when it comes to the posting of testimonials online. Some argue that they are too easily manipulated or contrived and others argue that genuine ones help. Any thoughts on the value of online testimonials?

[Bryan_Loconto]

I think testimonials are vey important for a client, especially nowadays that soo many sites have it, it might add trust to your site. People get comfortable with what they are used to seeing... Since many sites add quotes/testimonials from consumers it looks natural.

[SimpleComputerRepair]

This post is deleted!

[casper434]

Agree with the value of someone linking to my site. Problem is that many of my clients do not have websites but they have agreed to post a testimonial on mine.

[Bryan_Loconto]

Not necessarily, SEOmoz has testimonial on their site by their users and many of my sites do as well. People like to see testimonials on your site, it helps build trust even if it is bogus...

[Bryan_Loconto]

Thats fine having testimonials on your site is great and I recommend it. SEOmoz has them and many other reputable sites do as well.

[ThompsonPaul]

One way to deal with both the issue of clients not having websites and of helping prove the legitimacy of the testimonial is to encourage clients to to leave reviews on established review sites.

Once they've left the reviews, you can copy excerpts to use as the testimonial on your site, then link back to the review page to show the original source.

As a bonus, these reviews can be a big help with local search rankings, which are very valuable for real-estate professional sites.

For example, Yelp.com already a generic listing for you.  If you claimed that listing and filled it out, then started listing it as one of the places satisfied clients could leave a review, you'd be getting a source for both reviews and testimonials.

It look slike you also haven't' claimed your Google Local (Places) listing - another source of reviews as well as being a cornerstone of local SEO. (There actually seem to be 2 lsited - should standardise on one, then claim the second and ask to have it deleted.)

Given that real estate agents are so location-specific, local seo should be one of the primary focuses of your SEO strategy.

Make sense?

Paul

[casper434]

tried google places but too many problems with merged listings and scraped information being added to the page without any input from the so called owner- one of the spammiest things on the web as they regularly contain incorrect information