Many business owners know a key component to building trust and attracting new clients is having strong 5-star reviews for your business. These reviews may come from Google, Facebook, Yelp, or some other online platform. However, less business owners know that building trust with your customers and potential customers is only a small fraction of how collecting reviews for your business can help you to grow.
When online users are discussing your company online, Google sees this. The more reviews your business collects, the more legitimate your business will seem. This kind of activity piques the interest of Google’s algorithm, giving it a reason to rank your business higher among your competitors online.
Small businesses thrive on good reviews and happy customers. So, you might be wondering, “How Can I Get More Reviews for My Business?”
The first thing you want to do for your customers is make it easy to leave reviews for your company. This means something as simple as sending an email with a call to action link that brings them to a page to write a review. Maybe you don’t collect your customer’s email addresses, but you have their phone numbers, do the same thing but text the link. Most people spend more time accessing the internet on their phone more than on computers anyway!
A Google review may be a quick and simple process, but the benefits are ongoing. The more people you can get to leave a Google review for your business, the more you’ll be able to accomplish in the way of business objectives. If you’re not yet placing emphasis on Google business reviews, now’s the time to change that and prioritize it in your local marketing strategy. Here are some facts and stats to back this up:
More reviews, more leads
Did you know that 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations? Building up your reviews builds up the likelihood that a Google searcher will engage with your business upon finding it.
More positive reviews, more purchases
Consumers research and read reviews before making purchase decisions. In fact, they read a minimum of 10 reviews before feeling confident in making a decision. The more Google customer reviews you have, the more likely a purchase is to be made.
Higher reviews, higher rank
Google rewards businesses that have frequent and positive reviews. They are a definite local SEO ranking factor, as confirmed by Google itself.
Lots of reviews, lower costs
There are no fees to leave reviews or to respond to them. Positive endorsements for your business on your Business Profile serve as free Google advertising for your business on the world’s most trusted platform.
The initial requirements for obtaining Google reviews
A very important thing to note here is that in order to get Google reviews, a few things need to be in place:
You need to know Google’s policies
You must follow Google’s Terms of Service when soliciting reviews. This means you should not offer any rewards and should ask your customers whether they seem to have had a positive or negative experience.
Your business needs to be a “Place” on Google Maps.
This will give you a Google Business Profile on which customers can leave reviews.
You need to have your Google Business Profile verified.
Creating a listing on Google Maps (which automatically creates a Business Profile) does not give you control over that listing. You need to create a Google My Business account and verify ownership of your Business Profile through that account.
The steps to create a Google Maps listing and verify it through Google My Business are here.
These steps are crucial because not only are they prerequisites to the strategies below, but they also allow you to respond to and manage the influx of reviews you’ll be getting once you implement the tactics in this post.
SEO Marketing Experts in Houston
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Houston Small Business Marketing
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1415 North Loop West #950
Houston, TX 77008
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