Online reviews have been around for a while now and while most of us know that they are important, we might struggle to articulate why.

But it's pretty simple. Good reviews help persuade potential customers that you are prepared to deliver great products or services.

In fact, a 2014 study found that 88 percent of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. That same study found that the more online reviews a business has, the more trustworthy it is deemed.

Consumers read an average of six online reviews before making a decision, so it's important to have a number of online reviews for your business.

Here are some recommendations and best practices that could help.

When you look online and see stars, many or few, you’re given a unique opportunity for engagement with your customers.

With the advent of spring comes the urge to spruce up, tidy, and fix things within your business that may have been neglected throughout the cold winter. You may already be working away at the interior of your store or meeting with employees about fixing up internal processes to make things run smoother. Your website could also benefit from a nice once-over to ensure everything is running properly within your digital storefront.

Here are some tips to give your website a spring cleaning:

There’s a line snaking out the door, one of your employees called in sick at the last minute and there’s an angry customer asking to speak with the person in charge (that’s you). If you’re a small business owner, you’ve probably had days when it seems like nothing is going right. On days like this (and often others) marketing opportunities are such a low priority that they’re not even on your list. That’s completely understandable - as a small business, we recognize the challenges associated with making your own marketing plan come to fruition. 

According to CMO. by Adobe, total online sales for holiday 2016 were over $90 billion. Online shopping continues to grow, and if you’ve been toying with the idea of an online shopping option for your customers, you should make sure you can provide a few perks to ensure the experience is optimal.

According to Marketing Charts, there are a few things that are important to offer in addition to your online shopping options:

A couple walks through the door of your restaurant, are greeted warmly by your host or hostess, seated promptly, receive excellent customer service, and are delighted by the dishes you’ve quickly placed in front of them for their meal. What that couple doesn’t know is that you’re fully staffed, fully stocked, and don’t have many customers – a confluence of factors that contribute to a wonderful dining experience. Much to your delight, they both leave glowing online reviews.

If you want your pay-per-click campaign to succeed, you need to consistently monitor and manage it. Because the bidding auction is continuously changing with the addition of new advertisers and keywords, managing these campaigns can require some additional knowledge. There are multiple ways to ensure that your campaign is performing its best.

Here are five tips to help manage your pay-per-click campaign:

If you’re new to pay-per-click advertising and want to get started on a campaign for your business, the first and most important step is learning how to do keyword research. Keywords are relevant words to help people find the products or services your business offers.  Your selection of keywords can include a combination of single words and search phrases like “coffee” and “gourmet iced coffee.”

About two years ago, Google opened Gmail Sponsored Promotions, also known as GSP, to all advertisers. Gmail Sponsored Promotions are advertisements that show up in personal Gmail boxes in the social and promotions tabs. 

Paid search advertisements are a form of marketing within the sponsored listings of a search engine. These can be charged in one of two ways: by paying each time your ad is clicked or each time your ad is displayed. Pay-per-click, also known as PPC, is the most common form of paid search advertising and charges advertisers each time their ads are clicked, while cost-per-impression charges advertisers each time their ad is displayed.

Paid search advertisements are an effective way to market your business online, but if you’re not sure how they work, how to set them up or how to track their effectiveness, this is for you! 

Here are the three key points to know: