20 Sep Houzz – “Update to Directory Rankings” Penalty Explained
Today Houzz announced an upcoming change to to directory rankings.
This is important as you may be penalized in the directory rankings if you do not follow their new “rule”.
Rule – you must respond to consumer contact, generated from Houzz, within 24 hours.
The reason they are implementing this is to make sure that companies respond to consumers requests.
After all it is in your best interest to respond quickly to people who contact you.
You can no longer ignore the requests that do not interest you.
You must respond even if it is clicking the “not interested” button.
Once this penalty goes into effect, companies will receive lower rankings for not responding.
Houzz has said that you will not improve your rankings by responding quickly but you will be penalized for not responding.
Here are some of the ways that you can respond:
- If you receive a notification, you can click the “view phone number” link.
- If you receive a notification, you can click the “reply” button.
- If you receive an email notification, you can simply reply to the email and it will register as a response.
- If you receive a notification, and you determine that you are not interested, you can click the “not interested” button and answer a 1 question survey. By the way, Houzz will use your response to filter future inquiries.
- If you are using the “Direct Call” tracking feature and you respond to the call.
- If you have text notifications setup for your profile, you can respond via text.
Please note: if you have contacted the person who submitted the request already you can also click the “already replied – let us know” link in the notification.
Houzz will send a reminder 12 hours after someone submits a contact request.
Leads that come to you over the weekend must be responded to on the following Monday.