Imagine someone selling their house asks a friend if they could recommend a good estate agent, and they replied: “I used Jones’ to sell mine last time, and they sold my mothers’, couldn’t have had a better service; I couldn’t recommend them high enough and I wouldn’t anyone else – but there’s Smiths on the corner opposite, but I’ve never used them and I don’t know anything about them”.

Which agent would you expect is most likely to get chosen? It doesn’t mean that Smiths is no good: it just means that you do not know what their reputation is.

Now imagine that, that same person asked 10, 20, 40 or even more people, and every single one of them gave the same answer.

Your online reputation is just like that. If potential new customers look online and see that dozens of past customers are recommending one business, and none of them are saying they know anything about other businesses in your area: You’d have a much higher chance of new customers choosing your agency that they know has a great local reputation than any agency they have no idea what reputation they have.