Just as local backlinks are a digital “vote of confidence” in your business, positive customer reviews on Google are digital “word-of-mouth” referrals.
Why Should I Get More Google Reviews?
About 3 out of 4 people ignore online ads. Instead, your audience is turning to a different signal to decide whether or not they should contact your business: Google reviews.
Google reviews are displayed prominently on your Google My Business profile and offer a world of insight that guides your target audience’s purchasing decisions.
In today’s landscape, where people are increasingly skeptical of traditional advertising and marketing messages, obtaining more Google reviews is crucial. Here’s why you should prioritize getting more Google reviews:
Overwhelming Reliance on Online Reviews
With the majority of people turning to the internet to find businesses, especially local ones, online reviews have become an essential part of the decision-making process.
Over 80% of consumers check online reviews before making a purchase or selecting a service provider.
By accumulating more Google reviews, you increase your chances of being considered by potential customers.
Trust and Credibility Factors
The quantity and quality of reviews, as well as how a business responds to them, heavily influence consumer perceptions. When potential customers see that your business has numerous positive reviews, it builds trust and credibility.
Extended Time for Consideration
Having a significant number of reviews allows potential customers ample time to learn about your business and convince themselves that your offerings align with their needs.
This extended exposure can lead to higher conversion rates as customers become more familiar and confident in choosing your business.
Safeguarding Your Rating Metric
By actively encouraging more reviews, you mitigate the impact of one or two negative experiences.
The more reviews you have, the less likely it is for a few negative ratings to significantly affect your overall rating.
This protects your business’s reputation and ensures that prospective customers receive a more accurate representation of the quality of your products or services.
Google is the Go-To Review Platform
While platforms like Yelp were once popular, Google has now become the primary destination for online reviews, with approximately 6 out of 10 people searching on Google for reviews.
As a result, increasing your presence and positive reviews on Google will have a more significant impact on attracting potential customers.
What are the Initial Requirements for Getting More Google Reviews?
No Soliciting
Before you start a reviews campaign to generate more customer feedback, there are some guidelines from Google you should know. So, check off these boxes before you get started.
It is important to understand and adhere to Google’s review guidelines. One key aspect of these guidelines is the prohibition against soliciting reviews or offering payment in exchange for reviews.
This means that businesses cannot incentivize or coerce customers to leave positive reviews, as this would violate Google’s policies regarding honest and unbiased reviews. Instead, businesses are encouraged to provide excellent service and encourage organic, voluntary reviews from satisfied customers.
You Need to be a "Place" on Google
This one’s simple; to benefit from Google Reviews, you need to have a Google Business Profile. This will allow you to not only show up in local searches, but will also act as your main reputational signal for potential customers.
Make Sure Your Google Business Profile is Verified
When you add your business to Google Maps, it makes a Business Profile for you automatically. However, just adding your business to the map doesn’t give you full control over your profile. To do that, you have to create a Google Business Profile account first.
Once you’ve done that, you can verify that you own the Business Profile and then manage and update it as needed.
How to Get More Google Reviews
“On with it already!”, you’re likely thinking as we continue into this topic of getting reviews. We agree. Let’s get right into the tactics that’ll have people leaving praise on your Google listing.
1. Ask for Them!
It doesn’t get much easier than simply asking someone to leave a review. Chances are that they’ll do it if they received a great product or service.
They just need a nudge:
- Follow-up phone call or email (you can set up an automated review campaign with CRMs like HubSpot!)
- On the order completion page
- Tacked onto the client’s invoice
Every point of contact presents an opportunity to get a Google review.
2. Place a Review Link on the Site
If you have your business name and zip code ready, then you can use a review link generator to make a custom link for your site. You can then use this to send it out for reviews.
Alternatively, you can use the “Share Your Business Profile” link for a shortened Google URL (looks like this: https://g.page/directioninc). This code brings people to Google Maps where they can interact with the listing.
Google offers a tutorial here: https://supprt.google.com/business/answer/7035772
When customers want to leave a review for your business, they’ll likely start by looking at your website. To make it easy for them, you should have a clear and simple link or button that they can click on to leave a review. This link should be easy to find on your website, so customers don’t have to search for it.
For example, you might have a button that says “Leave a Review” in a prominent spot on your homepage. Making it effortless for your customers to leave a review for your business can be a great way to build your online presence and reputation.
4. Create a Reviews Page on Your Website
Showcasing your positive reviews whenever possible is a great method for encouraging other customers to leave reviews; while also adding a positive signal to first time buyers.
Create a web page on your website that showcases all of your Google Reviews. If you have a multi-location business, you can display reviews for specific locations on each landing page.
It’s best to use a Google Reviews plugin or embed reviews using HTML so they look official. Customers most often don’t trust reviews that are simply displayed as text on a website, because it can be made up. So, use a verified plugin instead.
5. Include a Google Review CTA in the Footer
If you want to make it easy for people to find reviews of your business on your website, you could add a link to your review page in the footer. This means the link will be in the same spot on every page of your site, so visitors don’t have to search for it. A picture can be used, but text will work too. This way, you don’t have to worry about deciding where to put a call to action (CTA). By making it simple for people to find and read reviews, you can help build trust and credibility with potential customers.
6. Take Part in the Conversation
found a Google business listing that seemed dead? You wouldn’t waste time leaving a review if you thought it as such. Your clients could think the same, especially if your Google listing was barren and outdated.
What can you do?
- Make sure the listing has your most recent information
- Answer questions posed by the community and Google users
- Respond to reviews as soon as they get posted
People often want to see some activity before getting involved. The listing’s liveliness could have them inclined to share their opinion and review!
7. Get Relentless With Requests
Casually dropping a “hey, don’t forget to review us!” is forgotten the moment customers exit the shop. The same could be said about most follow-ups in general.
What to do? Well:
- Ask for reviews
- Ask again
- Keep asking
Set up the review request on a CRM if needed. Stage the request a week, month, or a few months out. Dig through sales logs, too, and get old clients coming back on board to boost the Google review count.
8. Run a Retargeting Campaign
Retargeting is ridiculously neat for something like getting reviews.
What’s retargeting? Well, it’s delivering a message to someone who’s already seen your site or ad campaign. This happens later, usually on another site, to keep your brand in their face. These campaigns are super effective at having people return to your site to buy products or services.
See where we’re going with this? Exactly, run a retargeting campaign.
You could target those who’ve seen the order confirmation page. This gets a “please review” in front of the exact people that have done business with you!
9. Offer an Exceptional Experience
People love talking about awesome experiences. They love making solid recommendations to friends and family. It’s a thrill discovering something great and being able to share it with others.
Think about what fuels this from the business side of things:
- Offer an environment that’s unique and welcoming
- Go above and beyond with helpfulness
- Deliver on promises and give a bit more
Figure out what the best of the best do in your industry. Then, see what you can learn from what they’re doing right but also morph it into your own thing. The great experience (combined with asking for Google reviews) will get people talking online.
10. Own Your Mistakes
Many businesses try to detract users from leaving bad reviews:
- Asking for positive reviews but anything negative goes to a survey
- Targeting a reviewer and asking for them to take it down
- Outright bribing a person to “fix” their review so it becomes positive
Don’t do these.
Remember that thing where people can read into ads and marketing messages? It goes the same with reviews they’re finding online. Sometimes too much positivity seems a little suspect and artificial.
Own up to mistakes by embracing the negative reviews:
- Respond to them to the best of your ability
- Do a follow-up or blog about how you fixed a mistake
- Use the review as part of the feedback and development
People often spend a ton of time looking at negative Google reviews. It’s in these unadulterated comments they discover the real issues and brand image. If you’re positive there then it changes people’s minds.
Because you’re open to praise AND criticism — you may get more reviews.
11. Get the Team on Board
This one is super simple and effective.
- Talk to the team about the importance of Google reviews
- Teach them about the platform and write a basic script to learn
- Encourage them to ask for reviews when they interact with customers
Boom! Now everybody is on board with getting more Google reviews. It builds and builds and builds as more and more people become customers!
12. Explore Some User Generated Content
Reviews work so well because it’s real customers talking about the products. The reviews tend to do a bit of storytelling which is highly engaging. The person reading the review gets sucked into the story and feel like they’re using the product.
How can you leverage this for more reviews?
- Encourage customers to submit longer reviews that get published on the blog
- Have customers send in video reviews you could publish on YouTube or FB
- Use the reviews as part of a marketing campaign or ad creative
People that are already ecstatic about your business may want to talk about it more. So, why not give them a platform? Your platform. This user-generated content does wonders in convincing and converting those who find it.
Find people from the Google reviews you’re getting!
13. Set up a Review Station
Those with a brick and mortar location could set up a review station:
- Get a cheap tablet and tablet stand
- Pull up your Google business listing
- Set the review station at the front desk
- Ask for a review when people are leaving
The person could log in to their account and do the review there. Or, it could act as a visual reminder so they do it on their phones at that moment.
14. Run Customer Surveys with a Review Link
When you ask your customers for feedback, it shows that you care about what they think and want to make sure they are happy.
If you’ve already asked them to fill out a poll or survey, they’re already thinking about your business. You can capitalize on this by asking them to leave a review for your business on Google while they’re at it. This way, you can take advantage of their willingness to share their opinion and potentially get more people interested in your business.
Encouraging feedback and reviews from customers can be a powerful tool in building your online reputation and attracting new customers.
PRO TIP: when running a Google Reviews campaign via surveys, it’s best to gather feedback from the survey before requesting a review. If a customer replies with a happy experience, that’s the time to request a review. On the other hand, if a customer reports a negative experience, that’s your opportunity to remedy the situation off-line so you can safeguard your hard-earned reputation.
15. Ask for Reviews on Social Media
Social media sites like Facebook are great for having open and honest conversations with your customers. You can show people what others have said about your business by posting a picture of your best review and asking customers to share their own feedback, including a link to your Google review page. It’s also important to remind your followers that this is a chance for them to tell other people about the benefits of working with your business.
It’s important to remember that Facebook has its own review system, so make sure you take that into consideration when you’re asking for reviews or feedback. You may want to direct people to your Facebook page instead of your Google review page, depending on your goals for social media.
Ultimately, being open and transparent about your reviews and feedback can help build trust with your customers and make them more likely to recommend your business to others.
16. Get Google Reviews from Partners and Vendors
Even if they aren’t your customers, vendors and partners that you work with on a regular basis can provide helpful feedback about your business. They may also be more likely to leave a review for your business on Google if you write one for their business first.
This can be a great way to build relationships with other businesses and show that you value their feedback as well.
Just keep in mind that it’s important to only leave a review for someone else’s business if you have actually worked with them and had a positive experience. By building relationships and showing appreciation for other businesses, you can create a network of trusted partners who can recommend your business to others.
17. Add Your Google Reviews Link to Your Email Signature
You can encourage people to leave reviews for your business on Google by adding a link to your email signature.
This means that everyone you send an email to will see the link and can click on it if they want to leave a review.
This can be especially helpful if you send a lot of emails to customers or clients. However, make sure you’re not being pushy or asking for reviews too often. It’s important to only ask for reviews from people who have actually used your services or products, and to always be respectful and polite in your requests.
Tools and Services That'll Make Things Easier
There are two investments that’ll make this whole thing easier:
- A reputation tracker tool
- A reputation management service
A reputation tracking tool does as it sounds. The tool monitors the Web and sends alerts when certain things get said or mentioned. For example, you could get an alert when someone tweets about your business.
With these tools you can:
- Follow-up with people and ask for those reviews
- Keep track of any negativity so you can quickly squelch issues
- Have data on what people are saying, why they reviewed, and more
Reputation management services are kind of the same as these tools. Except, professionals keep track of the brand and handle a lot of the interaction for you. They’re also the ones that go after getting more Google reviews for your biz.
You could combine efforts, too, to really amp up those Google reviews!
Need Some Direction? Let's Chat!
We’ve covered just about everything worth knowing on how to get Google reviews in this post. Now it’s on you to put these tactics into effective. Try one, or all, of the strategies to get more reviews if you’re serious about seeing your business succeed.
Looking to get more Google reviews and the leads that come with it? Let’s chat!
