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 your potential customers that you intend to do business with.
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 which 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 a comment on your listing. Make good use of the suggestions and watch your profile thrive, while the number of reviews increases quickly. Mind you, 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 it is essential that you learn to talk to your customers.
But first things first, let’s take a 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
Internet is a vast space. You cannot be everywhere at once, but Google My Business should be among the first few platforms to consider if you wish to make your presence felt. To gain customer reviews, a business listing is required, 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. Turning away from your customers, you will miss the chance to build a brand community as well as forsake valuable feedback.
A complete and verified listing
Speaking of setting up a listing, here are a few tips on the type of the 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 on personal level.
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 also it 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.
Optimise your business listing
Here’s another important issue. Getting a listing is a good start, but now you will need to focus on optimising 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 favours informative content. It’s time you advanced.
You can learn more on SEO for Google listings from our previous article on how to (surprise, surprise!) Optimise you 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 a range of 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 a short term, sooner or later Google will realise what is going on, and may suspend or remove your business profile. Keep in mind 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? Well, most importantly respond to any appearing reviews 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 as regards queries on any service or products your business has to offer.
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 it’s 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 you stand for you brand.
If you are wondering how to respond to deserved criticism, here’s our advice. In all honesty, there’s only one way out: acknowledge your mistakes, apologise and move on. Flimsy excuses, attempts at shaking off responsibility and any other evasive behaviour will only produce opposite results to the ones intended.
Once your customers realise 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 you customers will come more naturally. This applies mostly 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 you could hint on 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 whether they comply with the Google 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, which could prevent some costly mistakes.
Steer clear of buzz marketing
Admittedly, buzz marketing might seem enticing. It’s tempting to just spend a sum of money so as to generate hype around your listing. Mind you, it is not a good idea. Google pays attention to authenticity, monitors listings and above all it 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 ferret out all the fake reviews eventually. 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, just as long as you think over your actions. We hope you enjoy reading this post.
