There are many of us who see the BBB sticker posted on trucks and business buildings around town, and the meaning of it kind of surpasses those of us who are less savvy with internet marketing. Yes, the Better Business Bureau has some awesome implications for your business in the physical world, if anyone knows what it is or what it stands for. But the real power of the BBB can be seen in your web presence. Being a member of the BBB and having a listing on BBB.org can be one of the strongest things you can do for your online presence. The most important “person” to see your online influence with the BBB is Google, and other search engines. Here’s seven reasons why your BBB listing will improve your search engine results!

7. Ooh, shiny! That’s right. You’ll get your very own Better Business Bureau Accredited Business web badge, sticker, plaque, whatever, to adorn your office and website. Nifty, eh? It definitely helps with my next point.

6. Visitor Trust. One reason you’d want that shiny BBB badge for your website is the same reason that a business might want the BBB plaque for their office – to establish trust between your potential customers and your business. Even if they don’t know what the BBB is or what it stands for, the word “accredited” has a nice ring to it. From an SEO standpoint, it is helpful to have links going out from your website to other high-authority websites, and BBB.org is about as high-authority as it gets.

5. Bragging Rights. Alright, here’s where some real SEO happiness starts kicking in. You can take your acceptance into the BBB and turn it into some pretty nice content to help promote your site. Write a press release about your acceptance or your years of good standing in the BBB and send it to several local papers, as well as online press release sites. Likewise, you can write a blog entry about the importance of a BBB.org listing to show your audience how web savvy you are!

4. Natural Links. Another great benefit from a listing on BBB.org is that you will likely over time receive some pretty decent natural listings as well, meaning that you didn’t have to ask for the links or actively pursue them in any way. For example, our internet marketing company, Page 1 Solutions, got a great listing in the Denver Better Business Bureau, which resulted in another listing from this mock-BBB site.

3. Kick-Ass Link. Even if you aren’t swimming in gorgeous natural links as a result of your BBB listing, the listing that your website will get on BBB.org will come with a great link! For example, the link to our website on the BBB.org site is coming from a page with a PageRank of 4. Not bad for an internal page!

2. Local Association/Citation. The same thing is true for your local listings, such as Google Local. Local listings do look at your links online, but they also look at “citations” – places where your address is posted. Having your physical address on the BBB.org website is hugely helpful, and here’s why…

1. Trust Value. This is really the whole reason to get your business listed on BBB.org. To be a member of the Better Business Bureau, you have to agree to their code of business practices, which revolve entirely around truth, honor and honesty in your business practice.  Search engines like Google are fully aware of this, so when you become a member and get a listing on BBB.org, you’re basically waving a huge flag at Google, saying, “Look at me, and how trustworthy I am!”

One of the few things that SEO’s know about search engines like Google for an absolute certainty is that trust is a HUGE ranking factor. If you want search engines to think you are a more trustworthy business than your competitors, a BBB.org listing is a great way to go.

What do you think? Do you have a BBB.org listing? Have you noticed a significant benefit from it? We’d love to hear your comments!

Tags: better business bureau, Google, internet marketing, Link Building, local link building, local seo

This entry was posted on Monday, April 5th, 2010 at 9:30 am and is filed under Bing, Bing Local, Google, Google Local, Internet, Link Building, Local Search, Search Engines, SEO, SEO Tools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.