Public opinion has a global voice with many online directories offering visitors a chance to rate businesses they’ve had experiences with. I’ve always said that testimonials are a critical component of your online presence, but now Google may have made it an even higher priority.

Search engines primarily consider public reviews as objective and assign some value to them as part of their ranking formula. Basically that means public reviews could influence the placement of your website in Google to some degree.

It’s now more important then ever to cultivate a positive image for your business. If negative reviews can hurt your search engine placement and positive reviews can improve your placement over competition it makes sense to get as many positive reviews as you can.

There are several local directories that visitors can leave opinions about your business and you should check them all. The one I’m focusing on is Google Places. If you don’t have your Google Places page then I recommend setting one up, it’s easy and you should be able to do it quickly.

After you setup your Google Places page, send an email to everyone you know and ask them to write a review about your business just like I’m doing.

Here’s the link to my Google Places page. Please go there now and write a short review about AMI Studios. Then let me know when your Google Places is up and I’ll return the favor.