How to get Google Reviews?

Nowadays, a Google My Business listing is a must-have. It’s an integral part of marketing campaigns, which are to promote your company among as many people as possible. After all, they are the potential customers with whom you intend to do business.

But a listing may not be enough. You will need reviews, comments, and ratings written by your customers. You won’t go far without the reviews, seeing that an incomplete business profile triggers unpleasant associations.

Unsure where to get Google reviews? Here’s some good news – we know where to get them and will be more than happy to share our insights. In this post, you will find a series of suggestions that will help you enrich your business listing. Though a perfect recipe may not exist, there are ways to achieve your goals if you apply the methods comprehensively.

How to get numerous Google reviews

These tips will help you encourage users to leave comments on your listing. Make good use of the suggestions and watch your profile thrive while the number of reviews increases quickly. Mind you, as important as the customers’ opinions are, often they do carry criticism. Just learn to accept all comments. Naturally, you don’t need to agree with all the feedback but must learn to talk to your customers.

But first, let’s look at the listings themselves. Here are a few valuable pieces of advice to help you encourage your customers to leave a comment on your Google listing.

Show yourself, aka GMB listing basics 

The Internet is a vast space. You cannot be everywhere at once, but Google My Business should be among the first few platforms you consider if you wish to make your presence felt. A business listing is required to gain customer reviews, full stop. 

What’s more, if you fail to create a listing, it is very likely that someone else will create one for you. However, should this happen, you will not be in control of the listing, which is the worst-case scenario, trust us. If, by any chance, someone happens to create a listing for your business, it’s imperative you attempt to claim the listing yourself. 

Your online presence is an opportunity for your customers to write an opinion. By turning away from them, you will miss the chance to build a brand community and forsake valuable feedback. 

A complete and verified listing

Speaking of setting up a listing, here are a few tips on the type of must-have information. Above all, ensure quality content for your listing, and customers will engage more readily. The link is quite simple: your efforts are appreciated by your customers, who, in turn, are more likely to contribute personally.

Enter your primary contact data: name, address, and phone number. Describe your business and upload several photos. Not only does a structured, complete listing entice customers to leave an opinion, but it also appears more trustworthy.

Credibility also requires that you verify your listing. To do this, log in to your Google My Business panel first. Your business will be verified by traditional post, which might take up to a few weeks.

Optimize your business listing

Here’s another important issue. Getting a listing is a good start, but now you must focus on optimizing your listing to rank at the top of search results. Unless users can actually see your listing, they will not leave a review. 

Now, you are ready to manage SEO for your business listing on Google My Business all by yourself. You have already taken your first step by providing accurate content for your listing, as suggested above. Remember that Google favors informative content. It’s time you advanced. 

You can learn more about SEO for Google listings from our previous article on how to (surprise, surprise!) Optimize your Listing for Google Maps. The post brims with tons of useful and accessible insights. We hope you enjoy it.

Google listing: Review policy

As you may know, Google has introduced various policies on user-contributed content, such as reviews. Let’s make something clear from the very start: it pays off to play fair and adhere to the outlined restrictions:

• never purchase reviews,
• steer clear of buzz marketing,
• don’t set up fake customer accounts to leave reviews on your listing. 

Although such actions may prove effective in the short term, sooner or later, Google will realize what is going on and may suspend or remove your business profile. Remember that your goal is to build a solid, lasting business, and both the listing and Google reviews are a means towards that end.

Monitor Google My Business listing to react quickly if needed

Keep your listing active. What does that entail? Most importantly, it responds to any reviews that appear fairly quickly. It’s of significance as it allows you to interact with users so as to show how important they are to your business.

Mind you, fairly quickly does not equal straightaway. It simply means that users shouldn’t have to wait two weeks for a reply. This is particularly important concerning queries about any service or products your business offers.

Leave no review unanswered and learn how to talk to your customers

Google reviews are a specific tool in that they vary. Unfortunately, praise is not all you will receive. You might also get some negative feedback. Moreover, be prepared for a fair share of unjust criticism! 

How to deal with it? 

Simply learn to respond to all reviews left by users, irrespective of whether they’re positive or negative feedback. If you find some comments offensive, just breathe in deeply, or better yet, wait a few hours before you write a reply. Whatever you do, remain calm and emotionless. Always bear in mind that you stand for your brand.

If you are wondering how to respond to deserved criticism, here’s our advice. Honestly, there’s only one way out: acknowledge your mistakes, apologize, and move on. Flimsy excuses, attempts at shaking off responsibility, and any other evasive behavior will only produce opposite results to the ones intended.

Once your customers realize you respond to all comments and are happy to engage in reasonable discussions, they will publish reviews on your listing more willingly, which is what you want.

What you say matters; how you say it could be even more important

Keep your business communications coherent. It’s an important issue, although many entrepreneurs pay little or no attention to it. Granted, it’s no easy task, but once you develop your own style of communication, interacting with your customers will come more naturally. This applies mainly to those customers who do leave a review on your listing. Your posts and comments should follow a well-defined character, which, in time, naturally, will become associated with your brand.

Encourage customers to leave Google reviews

Not all customers are web-savvy. Their unwillingness to write a review on your listing may simply stem from their discomfort. Make it easier for your customers to reach your listing and your online traffic is bound to increase.

Also, share links to your listing on your website. If you send out a newsletter to your customers, you could also place a link to your listing there. An online store owner might prepare a post-purchase email to thank the customer for choosing their products, offer support in case of troubleshooting, and request a Google review.

If you run a brick-and-mortar store, you could hint to your customers that you are listed on Google and ask for a review later. The key is to keep it subtle; you mustn’t get impatient or pushy. It’s challenging work, but practice makes perfect.

Put your multiple opportunities to work. Some might come short of your expectations, but in order to select those that suit your business best, you must be prepared to test each option.

A picture is worth a thousand words (or reviews)

Pay attention to reviews with photos attached. To start, verify if the photos are authentic, review their quality, and determine whether they comply with Google’s terms of use and policies. Next, consider the immense value of such comments as they can spark discussions and, consequently, are well worth your attention. 

What to avoid managing your Google reviews?

We hope you will be able to apply the above tips successfully. Before you start chasing after the precious Google reviews, take a moment to consider some important questions that could prevent some costly mistakes.

Steer clear of buzz marketing

Admittedly, buzz marketing might seem enticing. It’s tempting to spend a sum of money to generate hype around your listing. Mind you, it is not a good idea. Google pays attention to authenticity, monitors listings, and, above all, is getting smarter and smarter about it.

What does it mean to your business?

Nothing at first, surely. However, it’s very likely Google will eventually ferret out all the fake reviews. Your account can then be temporarily suspended or, in extreme cases, even deleted. You are far better off building your listing step by step to benefit from it for years to come.

Now you are ready to increase the number of reviews on Google, so on your marks, get set, go!

Internet waits for no one. Ergo, don’t dawdle. The sooner you learn to appreciate the possibilities offered by the Google My Business platform, the better. Pay attention to your customers, respond to their comments, and soon you will see what a valuable asset Google listings are.

Also, our blog features a post where you will learn how to earn positive Google reviews.  It doesn’t have to be hard as long as you think over your actions. We hope you enjoy reading this post.