It’s long been understood that what consumers say about your business carries more weight than what you say about your business, regardless of how good your services are or how authentic your messaging is. This has always been true in case of traditional as well as digital business. Word-of-mouth has always been an incomparable way of marketing and customer loyalty. And, recognizing how important customer reviews are to consumers, Google has taken them into account in its local ranking algorithm—not only the quantity, but also the quality of those evaluations.
As a result, not only can Google reviews affect your potential to recruit new clients, but also your ranking. That is why we are going to go through top 10 practical tactics you can use to generate a continuous supply of favorable Google reviews for your company.
Try getting as many good, authentic customer reviews as you can on your google my business profile
The advantages of increasing the number of Google business reviews: Although a Google review is a quick and easy process, the rewards are long-term. The more individuals you can persuade to post a Google review for your company, the more business goals you’ll be able to achieve. If you haven’t already prioritized Google business reviews as part of your local marketing plan, now is the time to do so.
More reviews equal more opportunities (i.e. leads)
It is not that the Digital Dukaan reviews have less authenticity than word-out-mouth. According to research done by wordstream.com, consumers trust internet/digital/online reviews just as much as personal recommendations. Increasing the number of reviews increases the probability that a Google searcher will engage with your business once they find it.
More favorable feedback equals more sales.
Before making a purchase, customers conduct research and read reviews. In fact, they read at least ten reviews before making a selection. The higher the number of Google customer reviews, the more probable a purchase would be made.
More positive feedback equals a better ranking.
Businesses with a high number of favorable ratings are rewarded by Google. As Google has revealed, they are a significant local SEO ranking element.
There are a lot of reviews, and the prices are reasonable.
There are no costs associated with leaving or responding to reviews. Positive reviews for your business on your Business Profile serve as free Google advertising for your company on the most reputable platform on the planet.
How do you go about collecting reviews initially?
The first and foremost requirement is- You must be aware of Google’s rules.
When seeking reviews, you must adhere to Google’s Terms of Service. This implies you shouldn’t give any incentives and instead ask your clients whether they had a good or bad experience.
Second most important factor is- Your company should be listed as a “Place” on Google Maps.
Customers will be able to post reviews on your Google Business Profile after you have created your company as “place” on maps.
You’ll need to verify your Google Business Profile. Creating a Google Maps listing (which also produces a Business Profile) does not grant you authority over that listing. You must create a Google My Business account and use that account to authenticate ownership of your Business Profile.
After you are all set up with your Digital Dukaan, how will you get more customer reviews? Here’s how a customer writes a review for your business:
The customer is required to:
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Start a Google Maps search for your company.
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To access your Google Business Profile, click on it.
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Scroll down to your profile’s reviews section.
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Click the “Write a Review” button.
The above is an ideal way a customer writes a review. But this option is not always feasible as the process is quite lengthy. In a world of shortcuts where things could be attainted on the click of a button, collecting customer reviews must be simpler. Here is how you can create a shortcut to creating customer review:
Creating a google review short-cut:
Find the “Get your first review” (or “Get additional reviews”) card in your Google My Business account’s Home tab. Copy the URL from “Share review form” to your clipboard.
Shorten the link using https://bitly.com/
You can attach the shortened link you get on your website asking for the website visitors to share their reviews or you can share it on any other social media platform using a nice short message asking for their reviews. They can simply click on the link you have shred and it would lead to the review page where they can type in their reviews and post it.
You can also include a Google review CTA in the footer of your website:
You may wish to include it in your website footer in addition to or instead of having a dedicated page for Google reviews (or reviews in general) on your website. You won’t have to worry about determining where to add or exclude the CTA this way. Although the example below includes photos, anchor text will suffice.
You can also create a “leave us a review” cards
This is an offline strategy for increasing Google reviews, and your shortcut link from #3 will come in handy. Make actual cards that say something along the lines of:
“Leave a Google review for us!” Your Google review aids in the discovery of our company by others who require our services. Furthermore, your input allows us to better serve you in the future. Please give us a rating and review at bit.ly/MonkeyAds. Thank you very much!”
Inquire about Google reviews in person.
In your store, are you having a nice dialogue with a customer? Have you just ended a fantastic customer service call for which the consumer is eternally grateful? There are several occasions to ask for Google reviews during your contacts with clients. Here are a few instances and examples of how to ask for feedback:
“I’m delighted to hear how pleased you are with our services. Hey, if you could put it as a Google review, you’d be helping a lot more people find us.”
“This input is quite beneficial. What would be fantastic is if you posted that feedback on your website for other consumers to see.”
“I’m happy that we were able to assist you. If you could share a phrase or two in a Google review, it would be really helpful.”
Then there’s that handy little card with the URL on it, or a link to your website’s review page, which makes it simple for them.
Create a QR code for getting reviews:
You can generate QR code using the shortcut link mentioned above which leads to the review page of your google business. The generated QR code can be shared like we do, scanned and it would directly lead the scanner to the review page- quick and easy!
There’s an example of what a review QR code looks like:
You can generate the QR code using the following site:
Now let us learn basics of getting reviews:
IMPORTANCE OF KEYWORDS IN REVIEWS FROM CUSTOMERS:
Let’s imagine you receive five positive ratings from pleased clients. Although you’re off to a solid start, there is undoubtedly a method you might have made this a huge success for your company.
If each of the five favorable reviews included a keyword that customers in your industry use, as opposed to just being positive, that would ultimately make a huge difference.
Why? due to the way local SEO functions.
Think about how online reviews affect your SERPs on search engines like Google and Bing. The point is well-made. You better have a strong, positive online review presence if you want Google (and search engines like it) to recognize your business and connect you with additional customers. These websites direct visitors like you to a particular listing by showcasing reviews that fit your description.
E.g. on searching for something like ‘Digital Marketing Consultants in Surat’ you get the following results:
When it comes to focused local SEO, there’s no reason you can’t outperform your rivals if you have a significant enough online review presence.
IMPORTANCE OF PHOTOS POSTED IN REVIEWS BY CUSTOMERS:
Visual Relationship is the key factor of connection with customers. They can connect with your product visually thanks to review images shared by the reviewers. It’s difficult to think of a better method to visualize how a product will appear than by viewing a photo of a user wearing or using it. Customers can then picture how the product will fit into their own lives. The same reasoning applies to restaurant menu items that feature pictures of meals; customers relate to the visuals.
The best example of sharing photos in customer reviews is that of Meesho.
Here’s a visual representation of what the product was ‘displayed’ as and how it turned out to be for the customer who bought it:
IMPORTANCE OF PHOTOS DISPLAYED ON GOOGLE MY BUSINESS:
In the world of “presentation” where the importance of packaging and decoration is rising, it is becoming all the way more important to showcase the real appearance of the products and services that a company has to offer. Fashion and Cosmetic brands suffer from problems of different shades of lipstick, nail paint or even clothes being delivered than what was “displayed” on the photo gallery while buying the products. Hence, in e-commerce it has become essential to show REAL PHOTOS of the products/services in order to make the customer believe in your brand/services.
Another reason for sharing REAL PHOTOS is to reassure the customers that your profile isn’t fake (as a lot of frauds are being done by accounts that replicate the identity of famous brand), reassuring the customers that you as a brand are REAL and AUTHENTIC, sharing real photos help a lot.
When a photo is present next to a menu item, people are more inclined to order it. Online purchases follow the same reasoning. If the product is associated with a customer image, people are more likely to buy it. Consumers trust other customers, even while brand or store photos of the goods do part of the legwork for you here. In contrast to an anonymous model or a shoe stand supporting the shoes in the photograph, other customers are more relatable to them. They are eager to observe the product in use. A picture is more valuable than a thousand words or even more money.
The blog is compiled and written by Ms. Vidhi Thakar who is a content contributor on our website. If you have any questions or feedback, kindly please write back to us.
