If building your credibility online and increasing your brand visibility are key priorities for your business then Google Reviews should play an important role in your plan.
When it comes to reaching new customers, reviews are increasingly becoming important. People trust ads much less than they do reviews. Have a think, last time you saw an ad for a product or service did you go straight to purchase, or did you do some research and check out any online reviews?
But reviews aren’t just for people, search engines love them too. If you have a good number of positive reviews you’re more likely to rank better in your search results, so google reviews should be part of your SEO strategy.
Why are Google Reviews important for SEO?
Google Reviews are excellent for local search, especially if you are a services business. Google will look at what your business does (product, service, etc), as well as the experiences of your customers from your reviews. If your business has better reviews than others you are more likely to get a higher ranking on the search results page.
But more than this reviews offer people social proof of your business. It’s online evidence that other people have worked with you, or purchased from you, and that they had a good experience.
Are negative Google Reviews bad?
While it’s true that no business wants a bad review, some negative feedback is inevitable for any brand. In many ways, it gives you the opportunity to respond and show the human side of your business and how you deal with your customers, even when they aren’t happy.
If you get a negative review then respond. If someone is disappointed then being ignored often makes this worse. Avoid conflict by thanking them for the feedback and then provide a way to reach out to your customer service team with an email address or phone number.
Asking customers for reviews
There’s a super-easy way to direct your customers to leave a google review for your business with your very own short URL. With this URL customers can leave reviews directly on your Business Profile.
On your computer
- On your computer, sign in to Google My Business.
- If you have multiple locations, open the location you want to manage.
- In the left menu, click Home.
- In the “Get more reviews” card, you can copy your short URL to share with customers.
Mobile