BBB Accreditation, worth it?

[Laustin1878]

General consensus, is it worth it for a business to become BBB Accredited? Some people I've dealt with find the cost too high. Looking at their listings on BBB.org, you see the business information with their rating. Why not just link to the company profile page?

Anyone have more experience with this? I'm not very familiar with the differences between paying for an "Accredited" listing vs. leaving the business profile as is (which displays the rating). I have not rummaged through their TOS's yet so I'm not sure if you are technically allowed to link to the page for a companies listing. Obviously, if it's free it's for me but I have not been convinced of spending funds on accrediting.

 

[Ben Bowen]

Phil had a good article on this, here is the thread.

 

[Laustin1878]

Thanks for sharing. It was a good read.

The comments seem to echo some of the concern I've addressed, that is the value in paying. I'm not looking to use the logo on a site or anything of the sort. I would only be interested in linking to the BBB page of said company(ies). Some clients have their wallets stretched as far as it can go. There are better uses to put said dollars towards IMO, in some cases.

 

[theitsage]

In certain industries where you deal with an older demographics, BBB has some weight. I'd tell the clients to give you a rough estimate of his/her customers that are over 50 and the amount they spend. If both of those numbers are significant, spending on BBB accreditation is worth it.

 

[Laustin1878]

Interesting point. Never thought about it from a demographic perspective. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Kristen]

In certain industries where you deal with an older demographics, BBB has some weight. I'd tell the clients to give you a rough estimate of his/her customers that are over 50 and the amount they spend. If both of those numbers are significant, spending on BBB accreditation is worth it.

I can second this. Older demographics still actually use the yellowpages phone book (believe it or not) and they do rely on the BBB.

We have a client in the marriage coaching industry, a client who does garage door repair and an IT company who all paid for BBB accreditation. The marriage coach in particular gets a lot of people doing inquiries on their business because people are afraid it's some kind of scam (since he markets to people worldwide).

The two others had a good number of inquiries as well about their business at the BBB.

 

[Tim Colling]

There has recently been a major change since the publication date of Phil Rozek's excellent article: the link from the BBB listing for paid-up members is now a nofollow link, not a follow link.

I stopped recommending BBB accreditation when that occurred. In my industry niche, the target audience consists largely of the adult children of the elderly. The audience is primarily women between the ages of 45 and 65.

I owned a non-medical home care business for 13 years until I sold it at the end of December 2015. We served nearly a thousand clients during that time. More than half of the clients we served came from leads that we obtained from people searching the internet. We were paying "members" of the BBB during the entire 13 years.

Almost all of those "online leads" came from folks who began their searches using Google or some other search engine.

Only a handful (fewer than 10 or 20) ever told us that they found us via our BBB listing, or that they chose us because we were BBB "accredited".

In my other business, which has been providing website dev and SEO and online marketing for other companies that serve the elderly and their families since 2013, we used to recommend that our clients "join" (pay for advertising on) the BBB, largely for the sake of the "follow" link's value, but we have stopped making that recommendation now.

Your mileage may vary, of course...

 

[theitsage]

While I agree the nofollow took away some of the benefits in having BBB accreditation, it makes no difference to customers who care whether a business is BBB accredited.

I'm not a proponent of BBB because only a very small percentage of my customer base cares about it. However, I've dealt with people who specifically search "business name + BBB" as a last check before making the call. The real value here is in conversion rather than rankings.

 

[Tim Colling]

I agree that it depends upon whether the target audience is more likely to convert based on the BBB "accreditation".


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[Laustin1878]

I agree that it depends upon whether the target audience is more likely to convert based on the BBB "accreditation".

This is exactly my point and what I'm trying to understand.

I can finagle a link to the BBB page from the clients site which clearly shows the rating of said business for free. I know BBB does have some SERP real estate so they would see the business listed there as well.

My understanding is you "pay" for usage of that logo on your site, which shows your rating. Personally, makes me feel a little more comfortable to see that on a website but for some of my clients who have crocodile arms, some of the fees seem a bit excessive and my overall impression is its not worth it. I can better allocate that money elsewhere.

Thanks for the feedback and personal experiences folks.

 

[aaronwatters]

Losing the followed BBB link dropped the necessity of the membership.

However, the BBB is still important for a lot of my clients from a reputation management standpoint. Home service companies use the BBB to show potential customers that we care about our reputation and customer satisfaction. If a client has the BBB, we tend to place that rating very close to our conversion forms.

 

[Phil Rozek]

In all cases I've looked at recently, the name of the business is a "follow" link, even if the link in the "website" field is not. It may depend on the specific BBB chapter, though.

I recommend getting accredited anyway, because BBB is a good place to get reviews. They're prominent, especially in the home-improvement industries. (And from what I've heard from clients, customers actually care about them.)

 

[Tim Colling]

In all cases I've looked at recently, the name of the business is a "follow" link, even if the link in the "website" field is not. It may depend on the specific BBB chapter, though...

Hey Phil -

It's hit or miss, in my experience, perhaps indeed having to do with the chapter. For example:

This one has the company name no-followed:
Accredited Home Care Business Review in Woodland Hills, CA - Serving the Silicon Valley BBB
and so does this one:
Carenet LA Business Review in Los Angeles, CA - Serving the Silicon Valley BBB

...and this one does not:
AALL CARE In Home Services Review - Home Health Services in San Diego, CA - BBB Business Review - BBB serving San Diego, Orange and Imperial Counties

The first two are from one BBB "chapter" (franchise, really) and the second one is from another one.

So go figure.

...I recommend getting accredited anyway, because BBB is a good place to get reviews. They're prominent, especially in the home-improvement industries. (And from what I've heard from clients, customers actually care about them.)

I'll check on getting reviews, I haven't tried that for my clients, lately. As far as BBB being a trust factor, I think they're beginning to lose whatever trust they once held as more and more people learn more and more about them...and as more and more people rely upon other review sites like Yelp, etc.

And, of course, it depends upon the market and the industry.

 

[Gsmithmike]

General consensus, is it worth it for a business to become BBB Accredited? Some people I've dealt with find the cost too high. Looking at their listings on BBB.org, you see the business information with their rating. Why not just link to the company profile page?

Anyone have more experience with this? I'm not very familiar with the differences between paying for an "Accredited" listing vs. leaving the business profile as is (which displays the rating). I have not rummaged through their TOS's yet so I'm not sure if you are technically allowed to link to the page for a companies listing. Obviously, if it's free it's for me but I have not been convinced of spending funds on accrediting.

Good question and i will tell you my personal experience with BBB. I was working as a marketing manager and SEO specialist for a huge auto transportation company, they were getting calls directly from people who have visited the BBB page directly. It was amazing. I think the calls covered the yearly investment the company made on BBB and getting accredited.

"It all comes down to the field and the industry you are in" Some businesses need to have BBB because it makes them to be trusted by more people, but for instance plumbers need to be licensed, and they might not do the BBB.