A cunning use of testimonials to grow your business

The overview

The whole point of writing great content is to wow the reader so that they interact with it in some way: link to it, share it, tell someone about it, etc.

The greater the interaction, the more importance the piece has within Google’s algorithm and up you go in the search rankings.

While shares are becoming more important, links are still the backbone of the internet and you should be actively working to build as many links back to your website as possible.

The testimonial

The best way to get a link back to your website from someone else is to have delivered such amazing service that they feel compelled to write about you – but the second easiest way is to write it yourself.

The concept of the reverse testimonial isn’t exactly new but it sure is effective. Think over the last year of all the products and services you have used, bought, interacted with; are any of them with local business owners, local business owners who have a website?

Writing a testimonial for their business is a win for them – the fact that it contains a link back to your site – well – that’s a win for you!

Do it right

The testimonial shouldn’t be an essay – it should be short and sweet and hit the following points:

• Be specific - mention the product or sales person by name
• If applicable, good customer service that resulted from a problem
• Length of time you have been a customer, if valuable
• How knowledgeable the service was
• How fast the service was

Finally finish with your name, your business and make the link back to your site be around your specific anchor text. So, if you were a sausage maker, you’d finish with:

Hans Richter, Owner of Valley Sausages, Best German Sausages in Los Angeles

Cunning!

Watch the FTC

You should of course be running testimonials on your own site (don’t forget to ask for them,) but just be aware of recent FTC legislation. In order to crack down on the fabulous claims of the weight loss industry (amongst others) you can no longer get away with just adding “results not typical,” you need to actually state what is typical. This shouldn’t be a problem for most of you but if you want to find out more, you can read the FTC regs here.

If you’d like to get rolling with testimonials on your site or get a kick start on how to get on other sites, reply to this email and book a session.