Business development
I completed Newgen’s Business Development Specialist training in February 2004. Customer contact and retention were part of the job from the beginning.
See the certificateMEET GUILLERMO “WILLIAM” RIVAS
A career built on
helping businesses
stand out.
Founder. Author. Speaker. A hands-on marketer with a lasting curiosity about what makes people notice a business, trust it and choose it.
I’m Guillermo. You’ll also see me as William Rivas in my books, interviews and earlier work. Business Marketing Online brings that experience together in one place.
Business Marketing Online.A personal approach. A lasting commitment.
2004Certified in
Business Development
Business Development
2009Launched ReviewBoost
Pioneering reputation management
Pioneering reputation management
2014Business Marketing Online
founded
founded
15,000+Businesses helped, directly and
through the company I founded
through the company I founded
EXPERIENCE, EDUCATION & RECOGNITION
GooglePartner & program history
StanfordInnovation & entrepreneurship
University of
San FranciscoMaster Certified
in Internet Marketing
San FranciscoMaster Certified
in Internet Marketing
Crain’sNew York Business · quoted
CNBC · FOX BUSINESS21st Century Television airings
SAN DIEGO
CHARGERSGame operations · NFL
CHARGERSGame operations · NFL
EXPERIENCE WITH A PURPOSE
What I bring
to your business.
Sales, customer service, original website design, local search and reputation management: I bring those perspectives together to understand where your marketing can work better.
The goal is to make it easier for people to see you, engage with you, recommend you and become paying customers. Each business needs its own plan to make those connections.
The discipline of sales
My work at Chase brought another kind of accountability: understanding the customer, explaining the offer and converting an opportunity.
Business development
& game day operations
Working in game operations meant seeing how many details shape one customer experience. Preparation, coordination and service have to come together when people arrive.
See the Chargers historyFROM LOCAL SEARCH TO REPUTATION
Looking beyond
what everyone
was selling.
I first learned about SEO in 2007. In 2008, I was managing a San Diego call center that sold local-search services as a reseller of Local Splash.
Local SEO was becoming a crowded field. I wanted to help businesses stand out through something more personal: the experiences of their customers.
In 2008, I founded ReviewBoost, the pioneering reputation management company focused on helping businesses collect, manage and promote customer feedback online.
That work taught me how closely reputation, visibility and the decision to buy are connected. It continues to inform how I approach marketing today.
Explore my early local-search archiveReputation management. Built for local businesses.ReviewBoost brought customer reviews, online visibility and customer retention together, pioneering reputation management for local businesses.
More from the ReviewBoost archive +
Original branding, a review directory, and moments from the company I founded.
The MyReviewBoost directoryI created MyReviewBoost.com as a directory for local businesses and their customer reviews.
Reviews appearing in Google MapsThis historical Rockley Music Center listing shows a review excerpt attributed to myreviewboost.com.
ReviewBoost in Times SquareReviewBoost branding and a company announcement on the PR Newswire display in Times Square.
An exchange with Matt CuttsA message addressed to @ReviewBoost: “it was nice talking to you at Google!”
An exchange with Google San DiegoA conversation between @GoogleSanDiego and @ReviewBoost about reviews on Google Places.
A Google Hotpot throwbackA throwback to my early work with local reviews, when Google Hotpot was part of the experience.
EDUCATION THAT CHANGED THE APPROACH
Marketing discipline.
Design thinking.
Experience gave me questions. Further study gave me more ways to work through them. Those ideas continue to influence how I approach a business problem.
Internet Marketing
This Master Certificate brought together three separate certificate programs. Together, they connected strategy, search, usability and measurement.
- Integrated Online Strategies
- Search Engine Marketing and Usability
- Advanced Interactive Marketing and Measurement
The lesson I carry forward: the parts need to work together, and performance needs to be reviewed.
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Design thinking was a lasting influence: understand the person, define the problem, explore an idea, make it tangible and learn from the response.
That is part of why I spend time on the feel of a website and the logic of its next step. The experience should solve the right problem for the person using it.
The lesson I carry forward: a useful solution starts with understanding the need.
GOOGLE · YEARS OF HANDS-ON CURIOSITY
Learning close
to the changes.
My Google experience includes office visits, hosting Partners Connect events, AdWords certifications and Business Marketing Online’s early Google Partner history.
From local search on Google Maps and Google My Business to partner programs and All-Stars gatherings, my involvement with Google has always centered on making its products useful to the businesses I work with.
More from my Google archive +
What that means for your business: curiosity has to become something practical. I look for ways technology can make the work clearer, the customer experience easier or the marketing more useful.
CURRENT LEARNING & PROFESSIONAL PARTNERSHIPS
Keep learning.
Make it useful.
My work has always combined business development with an eye for design. Websites, graphics, video and customer stories are all part of how I help a business present itself. I keep exploring new ways to bring those pieces together.
I completed Google’s Introduction to AI in 2025. In 2026, I continued learning through Google Skills and completed Canva Design School’s AI Essentials course and earned its certificate of completion.
Business Marketing Online is also a Hostinger Partner, adding a professional partnership to the website work I do for businesses.
I apply that experience through thoughtful design, useful content and technology chosen for a clear purpose: helping you attract more customers and generate more sales.
ON STAGE. ON SCREEN. IN PRINT.
Taking the conversation
beyond the office.
Reputation management can be a sensitive subject. I’ve discussed it with business owners, industry audiences and interviewers, at trade shows, franchise-wide conventions and speaking engagements around the country.
The subject was always practical: how businesses respond, earn trust and move forward.
MILESTONES ALONG THE WAY
The work has
a history.
Certificates, recognition and a few things I’ve kept along the way. Each represents a different part of the experience I bring to Business Marketing Online.
More from the learning and personal archive +
THE NEXT EVOLUTION
You earned the trust.
Why leave it
in one place?
As reputation management became more common, I kept asking what would make one company stand out from the next.
Many businesses have five-star reviews. What sets them apart is the customer experience behind those stars. The details tell people what it feels like to work with you and give them a reason to choose your business.
That became the foundation of Review Advertising: turning customer feedback into original creative for social media content and paid advertising. Through ongoing social media management, those stories become part of an active presence that gives people reasons to notice, engage and choose your business.
What are we marketing? Your happy customers.
See how we put it to work
Explore the paid campaign service at ReviewAdvertising.com
ReviewAdvertisingTHE EVOLUTION OF REPUTATION
Oak & FieldLandscaping
★★★★★
“They explained every step and left us with a garden we love.”
Old customer
review
review
Oak & FieldLandscaping
EVERY STEP,
EXPLAINED.
Turn testimonials
into a powerful
story
into a powerful
story
Oak & FieldLandscaping
Amplify
on social
on social
PUTTING THE EXPERIENCE INTO WORDS
Reputation.
Sales.
The decision to choose.
Writing has been a way to organize what I’ve learned and make it useful to someone else. The books follow the same thread: how a business earns trust and moves a conversation forward. amazon.com/author/guillermorivas
PUBLISHED BOOKInternet Reputation
Internet Reputation
Management for Businesses
A practical examination of how customer feedback affects a business’s reputation and daily operations. The USF interview recounts how an instructor encouraged the project.
UCLA Anderson School of Management · Dean’s Office
Sent a personal thank-you letter for Internet Reputation Management for Businesses in May 2014.
A BOOK IN DEVELOPMENT
Book on Selling
My ongoing work on the steps of a useful sales conversation: listen, understand, explain the benefit and help someone make the next decision.
That thinking also informs Sales With Steps, a separate project focused on lead response, follow-up, appointments and the sales process.
Explore Book on Selling Visit Sales With StepsBUSINESS MARKETING ONLINE · SINCE 2014
All of that experience.
Working for you.
I founded Business Marketing Online in 2014. It brings together the things I care about: a thoughtfully designed website, a useful online presence, real customer proof and a practical path to new business.
You work directly with me. I look closely at your business, your customers, your local market and the experience you want to create. That becomes a customized plan, from the feel of your website to the content we share and the conversations we help move forward.
A strong foundation, original creative and purposeful social media management should support each other. Your customer stories give that work substance. Ongoing review helps us decide what to improve next.
Guillermo “William” RivasFounder, Business Marketing Online
LET’S MAKE IT ABOUT YOUR BUSINESSYou’ve seen my story.
You’ve seen my story.
Let’s look at yours.
A personal marketing assessment video. A look at what you have, what could work better, and where to start.