What’s the very first thing you do before deciding to visit a new business?
If you’re like 95% of modern consumers, it’s to check out online reviews.
After all, it would be a shame to waste your hard-earned money on subpar products or services. Reviews act as a form of social proof that something is actually worth it, which is why they’re so popular.
Among the countless reviews you can find online, Google hosts 73% of them.
That means you have a very real incentive to generate lots of Google reviews.
If you have mostly positive reviews on your Google Business Profile, your prospects will see lots of first-hand accounts demonstrating how your brand outshines the competition.
Does this mean you should pay writers to make up glowing reviews with 5-star ratings while deleting every slightly negative review?
Not at all!
In fact, users often see a flawless review profile as a red flag for manipulation.
Fake reviews are a very real thing, which is why people crave authenticity above all else.
In this guide, we’ll teach you how to consistently generate honest, positive Google reviews. We’ll also show you how to turn negative reviews into wins, so you shouldn’t shy away from occasional negative feedback (it’s all about how you handle it).
As a reminder, this is part 5 of our 5-part learning series on Google Business Profile (GBP).
In previous chapters, we covered:
For now, let’s dive into why Google reviews matter for your business.
Why Do Google Reviews Matter?
There are more than a few reasons why your GBP listing needs reviews, including:
- Earning your customer’s trust
- Improving your SEO
- Boosting conversion rates
These are significant benefits, so let’s take a closer look at them.
Benefit #1: Build trust with your target audience
The main reason why you need positive reviews on Google is to earn the trust of potential customers.
As stated in the intro, practically everyone looks at reviews for a business before becoming a paying customer.
It’s important to note that this is unanimous, so it doesn’t matter your target audience or geographic focus.
If your GBP listing has mostly positive reviews coming from authentic customers, your audience will trust that you’re a real brand that provides truly helpful products.
The importance of negative reviews
What about if your profile has a few less-than-stellar reviews?
That’s totally fine, as long as you respond to each one.
We live in the real world, and mistakes are bound to happen. What matters most to prospective customers is how your brand reacts to bad experiences.
If they see an honest, respectful response that provides a solution (like offering a gift card in response to an extra long wait time), they’ll know that you value your customers.
Surprisingly, research shows that the occasional negative review can make your audience trust you even more.
52% of buyers claim that they trust a product more if it has a few negative reviews.
Why is that?
It comes back to what we mentioned before about valuing authenticity.
By including the bad with the good, it’s a sign that you aren’t manipulating your reviews. As a result, customers will believe your positive reviews even more (and will forgive negative ones if you respond).
Benefit #2: Improve your SEO for better online visibility
Whenever you search for a local business, you don’t want to settle for just any old company, do you?
Of course not, which is probably why you begin every local search with the word ‘best,’ which is an extremely common search habit.
For example, if you want to search for a dentist in St. Petersburg, Florida, you’d likely search for ‘best dentist st. petersburg.’
Well, whenever Google’s algorithm sees ‘best’ in a local keyword, it will only display Google Business Profile listings that have a rating of 4.0 or above.
So, if you want to capitalize on ‘best (your product or service)’ searches (and you DO, believe us), you need lots of Google reviews.
If your GBP listing has mostly positive reviews, you’ll show up in ‘best’ searches on the Google Map pack (also called local pack). We’ve covered this in previous chapters of the guide, but as a reminder, the local pack is a powerful search feature that looks like this:
Map packs appear for 93% of local searches, and 42% of users will click on one of the businesses listed in them, so you definitely want your site to qualify.
By improving your online visibility, you’ll funnel more traffic to your website, which leads us to our next benefit.
Benefit #3: Boost your conversion rates
This benefit is a direct result of the other two.
With more organic traffic and increased customer trust, you’ll likely see an uptick in sales (assuming that your website is designed to convert).
For online businesses, organic visitors will get directed to your landing and product pages, giving you the chance to convert them into customers.
For brick-and-mortar businesses, a healthy review profile can lead to more foot traffic.
The proof?
Research shows that 76% of users who conduct a ‘near me’ search will visit the business within a day.
Best Practices for Accruing Google Reviews
Okay, now that you know Google reviews are nothing but good for your business, how do you get them?
After all, you’ll have to generate a ton of reviews to achieve a balance of mostly good with a few bad eggs thrown in.
This means you’ll need a few hacks for attracting reviews from your customer base.
Here are some effective tips for generating Google reviews.
Tip #1: Have excellent customer service
This tip may be the most obvious but it’s one of the most potent.
It should go without saying that the better service you provide, the better reviews you’ll generate.
Stellar service inspires customers to leave reviews simply because they want to share their amazing experience. Here are a few ways you can improve the customer service at your business:
- Personalized support. Don’t load up a basic AI chatbot and call it a day for your customer service. Instead, offer live agents who provide support that’s tailored to your client’s needs.
- Collect customer feedback. Make a habit of gathering feedback from your customers through brief surveys, suggestions, and comment cards.
- Train your team. Do some in-house training to ensure your team A) knows how to solve common customer issues and B) treats everyone with respect and manners.
Also, it’s important to personalize your interactions with customers. In today’s age, customers expect companies to not only know who they are but also to be familiar with their preferences and past purchases.
Doing small things like referring to customers by name and reviewing their profiles before interacting with them will help you personalize their experience.
Tip #2: Create or claim a Google Business Profile listing
In order for your reviews to appear on Google directly, you must claim or create a Google Business Profile listing.
Otherwise, your customers will have to visit third-party websites to see reviews for your brand, which you’ll have far less control over.
The good news is that creating a GBP listing isn’t difficult at all.
As long as you’re the true owner of the business, you’ll be able to complete Google’s verification process to prove ownership. There are several ways to go about this, including email, recording a video, and sending a postcard.
A previous chapter in this guide on claiming a Google Business Profile contains a step-by-step breakdown for getting set up on the platform, so defer to it for more detailed instructions.
Once you have a GBP listing up and running, you’ll be able to start encouraging customers to leave reviews. You’ll also be able to respond to any review that you receive, positive or otherwise.
Tip #3: Optimize your Google Business Profile
It’s not enough to simply create or claim a GBP listing. Once the basic setup is complete, it’s time to optimize your profile by filling out each section.
Most importantly, you need to ensure your business’s contact information is accurate and up to ****. You should start with your business’s NAP (name, address, and phone number), and then work your way down.
GBP is pretty extensive, so it’s easy to miss a section if you aren’t thorough.
Sections you should fill out include:
- Products and services. You’ll get the chance to showcase your products and services through GBP, so include your hardest-hitting product descriptions and photos.
- From the Business: This is essentially your ‘About Us’ section on GBP. Provide a brief yet compelling overview of who you are, what you do, and why the customer should care.
- Q&A section. GBP gives you the ability to create a Q&A section to answer the questions that you hear from customers the most. A thorough Q&A section will cut down on the number of service requests you receive, and it will show customers that you care about answering their questions.
- Business category. You get to select one primary category and up to 9 secondary categories that best describe your business. It’s important to select all the secondary categories that apply in order to expose your content to the right audiences, but just ensure they’re truly relevant.
Another chapter of this guide is solely dedicated to optimizing your GBP, so check it out if you want to learn more.
Tip #4: Make sure you know Google’s policies
Next, it’s crucial to know Google’s guidelines surrounding reviews. If you skip this step, you risk accidental violations that could result in removed reviews or a suspended account.
To quote Google on fake reviews, “Where reviews distort the truth, we will remove content.”
They go on to say, “Your content should reflect your genuine experience of a product, and should not be posted just to manipulate a product’s ratings. Don’t post fake content, don’t post the same content multiple times, and don’t post content for the same product from multiple accounts.”
In other words, they have a very similar policy for reviews as they do for SEO: anything that tries to artificially boost ratings (rankings for SEO) is considered a violation.
This means you should not inflate your review profile with fake or solicited reviews.
Instead, follow the guidelines on this list to generate positive reviews, and respond to the less-than-flattering ones.
Tip #5: Ask your real-world customers to leave reviews
Asking for reviews is very natural and a widely accepted practice, so you shouldn’t shy away from it.
Truthfully, a direct and personal request is often the best way to elicit genuine positive reviews from customers.
Stick to regular customers that you know on an almost personal basis. Since they’re clearly a fan of what you do, politely ask them if they would write an honest review of your brand on Google.
Here are some tips for asking customers for reviews:
- Timing is everything. The trick is knowing when to ask, even with your most coveted regulars. Only ask for reviews after a positive interaction or purchase. The last thing you want to do is ask a customer for a review when they’re having a terrible day (or if your business screwed something up for them).
- Who to ask. As stated before, it’s best to stick with loyal customers who avidly use your products and services. However, you can also ask recent buyers who show high levels of satisfaction with their purchase.
- Make it easy for them. You shouldn’t simply ask a customer for a review and leave it at that. After all, everyone is busy, so they’ll likely forget that you asked after a few minutes or on the ride home. To ensure leaving a review stays on top of their minds, hand them a printed business card that has the QR code for your GBP review page. This makes it incredibly easy for them to leave a review, and they may even do it on the spot.
If you’re not sure how to generate a QR code for your Google reviews, check out this detailed guide.
Tip #6: Run a Google review email campaign
Your mailing list is another potential source for Google reviews, so you should definitely leverage email.
It’s as easy as sending out an email to past customers asking for their feedback. Embedding a link to your Google review page will make it quick and easy for your customers to leave an honest summary of their experience, which is what you want.
Here’s a template for such an email:
Hey (first name),
Thanks again for being a recent customer of (your brand). In our continuous effort to improve, we’d like to politely ask for your honest feedback on your most recent interaction with our brand. Here’s a link to our Google review page. We greatly appreciate your time.
Best,
Your Brand
Tip #7: Include a link to your Google review page in your email signature
While we’re on the subject, here’s another email-related tip for generating Google reviews: include a link to your review page in your email signature.
Doing so will transform every email into an opportunity for a review on your GBP listing.
All you have to do is include a line like, “We appreciate your feedback! Please leave us a review on Google.” Don’t forget to include a hyperlink to your Google review page!
Tip #8: Include a CTA on your website that encourages users to leave a review
You should also use your website as a magnet for generating reviews by including a CTA on one of your web pages.
Ideally, you should include the CTA on your homepage or another one of your high-traffic pages. You need to put it somewhere that the majority of your users will see it to increase the chances of landing reviews.
The copy doesn’t have to be fancy here, just let your users know that you value their feedback and would appreciate a review (and include a hyperlink to your review page, of course).
You can also embed a few glowing testimonials to the page to add social proof (this can encourage customers to leave positive reviews).
Tip #9: Ask for reviews on social media
You can also turn your social media profiles into review-generating machines. Post updates where you ask users to provide reviews and share some of your more positive reviews from the past to encourage them.
The best part about this tactic is that you can use every social channel you have.
Whether it’s Instagram, Facebook, X, TikTok, or YouTube, you can always post reminders for your audience to leave you reviews on Google.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Before we wrap things up, there are some common mistakes and beginner pitfalls that you should avoid at all costs.
These mistakes could draw the ire of Google down upon you, which is the last thing you want.
Here are the top things to avoid when trying to generate Google reviews:
- Buying reviews. Fake reviews are never worth it, as they tend to stick out like a sore thumb. This isn’t good because Google actively cracks down on fake reviews (remember the quote from before). Therefore, you should stick to honest reviews that your customers write for you instead of hiring a service.
- Ignoring negative reviews. A negative review is only a loss if you fail to respond to it. Negative reviews that go unaddressed will have dire impacts on your brand’s reputation, so always respond to your critics.
- Being pushy with review requests. You shouldn’t get pushy with your customers when asking for reviews. Treat it as a special favor your customers are doing for you, not something that they owe you.
- Not following up. Certain methods, like email campaigns, require you to follow up whenever you don’t hear back from your prospects. If you don’t follow up at least once, you’ll miss out on valuable opportunities to gain genuine feedback.
Also, it can seem spammy to Google if you suddenly receive a huge batch of positive reviews. Do your best to space things out when requesting reviews to avoid suspicion of manipulating your ratings.
Start Generating Google Reviews to Gain Your Customer’s Trust
To recap what we’ve covered so far:
- The vast majority of users online look for reviews before they make purchases
- Google reviews build trust with your customers and can boost conversions
- There are a wide variety of ways to get reviews, such as email, social media, and your website
- You should avoid buying reviews or being too pushy when asking customers to write reviews
As long as you follow Google’s guidelines and use the techniques mentioned in this article, you’ll have a robust, healthy review profile before you know it.
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