The first thing people do before they visit a business is look them up on Google and check reviews; so having the best reviews possible is a huge step in encouraging new customers to commit to you.
WHY ARE GOOGLE REVIEWS IMPORTANT FOR YOUR BUSINESS?
Google Reviews can help provide very useful information to new and existing local customers online and help your business stand out and grow. Google is the most used and trusted search engine, and people pay attention to online reviews that are left for businesses, especially if they are in the market to find a new local product or service. That’s why it’s so important to have consistent Google reviews for your business.
People are more likely to visit your website or place of business if they see many good local reviews, but on the other hand, positive replies to bad reviews can have the same impact. If Google sees many good online reviews of a business, your Google listing will be ranked higher in search engine results due to the fact that you are popular and offer customers a good experience. This is all due to Google’s algorithm.
Along with that, good reviews lead to a star rating. If you have 4 or 5 stars on your business this opens customers’ eyes to want to click on your business over others. These helpful reviews show up next to your Google Business Profile when searching on Google. The best things you can do to encourage customers to leave reviews is verifying your business profile, reminding customers to leave reviews if they visit your business or use your product, reply to any reviews you do receive to build trust, and ensure you have a fully filled out and optimized GBP.
As for asking customers to leave reviews, asking them to also be as descriptive as possible in regards to your product or service is the best thing they could do also. They should make sure they include whatever service/product you offer and the area they live in, this will only help more customers be interested.
STEPS TO TAKE TO GET MORE GOOGLE REVIEWS
Verify Your Google Business Profile
- Verifying your profile makes your business and its information show up on Google Maps, Google Search, and other Google services. Verifying your business is the only way to see and reply to reviews.
Remind Customers to Leave Reviews
- As a business owner, you should not make customers feel like they have to leave reviews, customers should feel like they WANT to leave them. All you need to do is let them know that it is quick, easy, and helpful.
Reply to Each Review
- Replying to reviews lets customers know that you care to read their words, whether it be positive or negative. It makes them notice and respect you as a business owner and shows that you value their input.
Value All Reviews
- Reviews are always useful to business owners, whether they are good or bad. Good reviews help you understand that what you provide is helpful for customers, whereas bad reviews can help identify any problems you might have. Any review is a good review. Having a mix of good and bad reviews can help gain the trust of new customers. It leaves the impression that your business adapts. Responding to bad reviews also proves that you value different opinions and want to work towards making things better.
Along with encouraging customers to leave reviews, you can also create and share a review link for them to leave reviews. You can include this review link in an email, a chat interaction, or even on a receipt. This makes it convenient for customers to leave reviews.
FINDING YOUR LINK FOR GOOGLE BUSINESS REVIEWS
Log into your Google Business Profile Manager, and then look for the Ask For Reviews section. Click the Share review form, and then the Google review link should appear. Click the link to copy it, and then you can share wherever you need to.
CAN YOU TURN OFF GOOGLE REVIEWS FOR YOUR BUSINESS?
You cannot turn off Google Reviews for a business. Google Business reviews are there to allow anyone that has a Gmail account to leave an online review for a business. If you as a business owner are worried about your reputation, the thing to do is ask your customers for reviews online.
IS IT A GOOD IDEA TO BUY GOOGLE REVIEWS FOR YOUR BUSINESS?
It is not recommended by any means to buy Google Reviews for your business. Not only is it untrustworthy from a customer standpoint, but it violates Google’s guidelines and can negatively impact your SEO. Content and reviews should be organic, honest, and unbiased. It is very easy to distinguish between fake reviews and honest reviews.
If your business consistently has positive 5 star reviews with no fluctuation between them, customers can spot the dishonesty. Instead of buying reviews, the best thing to do is ask real customers for real reviews. As said above, asking through email, chat inbox, or receipts are the easiest.
HOW TO REMOVE GOOGLE REVIEWS FOR YOUR BUSINESS
Sometimes, your business might receive an inappropriate, spam, or overall hateful Google Review. Bots and unfortunate circumstances happen, so this is what you can do to remove the reviews.
When going through the process of removing reviews, you cannot simply delete them, they have to be reported to Google. There are many policies in place that can be flagged and taken down. For example, harassment, hate speech, offensive content, personal information, impersonation, misinformation, misrepresentation, profanity, sexually explicit content, violence, gore, child safety, terrorist content, off topic content, solicitation, and repetitive content. It is recommended to take all of these into consideration when reporting a review. Do not report a review just because you don’t agree with it or don’t like it. Report those that violate the policies.
To report a review, you can use Google Maps or Google Search. Find your Business Profile, find the review(s) you’d like to report, click Google Reviews, and then report review to select the type of violation. Along with the ability to report reviews, Google also has automated detection, which helps delete reviews that are most likely irrelevant and/or spam.
HOW TO DISPUTE A GOOGLE REVIEW
- Involve the Google Team. Keep in mind, there is no guarantee that a review will be remove
- Capture screenshots of any reviews that need to be removed, that will support your claim
- Find any inappropriate reviews on Google Maps/Search
- Click the 3 vertical dots and select ‘Flag as Inappropriate’