The increasing demand for reputation management in business is not hidden from anyone. According to the local review survey by BrightLocal, “98% of people having the age of 18-34 years trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.” With this in mind if you are a small business owner then you have an opportunity to grow your business via the internet. Here comes the need of generating authentic Google My Business Reviews.
Impact of Google Reviews On Your Business Growth
With an increasing number of customers turning towards online reviews for the final purchase decision-making process, using Google Reviews helps your business to enhance its online presence. This is considered one of the important elements of SEO strategies.
Ranking on the first page of Google’s search engine result pages (SERPs) is one thing. But to grow your business uniquely among all the competitors with lots of positive reviews helps you to gain more conversions and click-through rate. In this blog post, you will come to know the overall importance of Google Reviews for your business which includes an essential explanation, methods/steps, or tools.
Importance of Maintaining a Strong Presence On Google My Business
One of the important elements of local SEO is to make sure that your targeted customers can easily find out your business details in the SERPs. So, if you want your business to appear in local search results then Google My Business (GMB) is the ultimate choice.
It will help your business details like the logo, address, phone number, customer reviews, opening hours, and photos to appear in the Google My business listing to the right of the search results. This will appear when the potential customers conduct a brand-related search.
As a result, it will not only help you establish a reputation through the display of customer reviews but also help you to build trust among your potential consumers and clients. The most common question that arises in your mind might be, how to achieve positive Google Reviews of my business? Isn’t it? Unlock your answer here!
1. How To Get Google Reviews For Your Business?
By owning a small business, you get an idea of how important are online reviews for converting website visitors into customers. From Yelp, TrustRadius, and Angie’s List to Trustpilot, people are sharing their experiences on everything through posting reviews which can be positive or negative. According to the facts provided by Zendesk, “86% of customers say their buying decision gets influenced by observing negative reviews.
Image courtesy: zendesk
One of the best digital analyst Brian Solis says, “Customer Experience is the next battlefield for brands. Those that get it right will not only create long-lasting customer relationships but will also earn a significant competitive advantage over those that solely compete on product, price or promotion.”
This shows the impact of positive reviews on your business but with that, you must know how to handle negative reviews? One of the effective ways to combat negative reviews is to encourage your customers to take sufficient time to write their experiences. To help you with this, here are the tricks and tips that justify your question on how to get Google reviews.
a. Request Your Customers For Reviews
We understand that for a business owner to maintain the balance between online and offline reputation is quite frustrating. In this situation, ask your happy customers for reviews. As far as you provide them with quality service or product customer, don’t feel annoyed when asking for reviews.
So, whenever the customers compliment you via email, phone, or in person then appreciate them and also mention you would do the same if they will review your business on various review sites.
b. Provide an Easy Way To Leave Reviews
There are many customers who seem to be busy in their daily schedule since they find out the time to write you a review. So, it should be your responsibility to make it easy for them to post reviews. The best way you can do this is to provide them with a link that will redirect them to your Google My Business Page. For that, you have to link your business to Google My Business Account and search for your company name in Google.
The company including details will be displayed on the right side of the page. Customers have to click on the “Write Review” button to post any review.
After clicking on the “write review” button, a review box will pop up, copy the URL of the address bar. To make this Google URL more user-friendly shorten it using the renowned URL shorter tool i.e. https://bitly.com/. Send it to both new and regular customers and get reviews for your business.
c. Be Thankful To Your Reviewers
Getting online reviews has become a vital element in promoting your business towards targeted customers. Being thankful for what your customers review about your business is the way to maintain a healthy relationship. You can surprise your top reviewer by sending them a discount code after the review is posted. This will help you hold old customers and also attract new potential customers.
To maximize the success rate for your business, you can add a call-to-action while thanking them. It could be anything like sharing your experience with your friends, signing up for another appointment, or clicking here to find us on social media. What you want to tell your potential customers is totally dependent on your business goals.
2. How To Leave Google Reviews?
Another important aspect to consider for getting Google Reviews is to make sure your customers know how to leave Google Reviews. As mentioned above it should be your responsibility to provide customers with an easy way to leave a review if in case online technology is not their forte.
Wondering how to encourage customers to leave Google reviews for your business? Engaging with your customers and developing strategies are the core elements of excellent customer service. Strategies to help your customers leave Google reviews for your business depend on three major factors timing, integration, and ease.
Good News! Over recent years, the process of leaving Google reviews has been made easier. Let’s observe some of the ways to help your customers or clients to leave a Google Review for your business.
Alert!!! To leave a Google review it is essential you have a Google account.
Different Ways On How To Leave a Review on Google
a. Leave a Google Review Through SERPs
SERPs i.e. search engine result pages are the pages that are presented by the search engine as a result of a query search by the customers. If your Google+ page is perfectly integrated with your website, then only you will able to search your company’s name on the SERPs.
Thinking about why Google+ page? Actually, when you create Google+ page it will integrate your small business into the Google ecosystem. Therefore, it will make it easy for your targeted customers and clients to find your company and review it while searching on a Google page locally. According to the survey by ReviewBuzz, “ 92% of customers read online reviews on the regular basis.”
After the search, the business information with the “Write Review” button will appear on the right-hand side. Clicking on the button, a new box will appear, enter your star rating with any comments and posts. This is the easiest way to review any business for its quality service.
The reviews you receive are a mixture of both positive and negative comments. Although, each one of them will provide your targeted audience with valuable information about your business. Overall, it also depicts that your company not only provides quality service but also you care to get engage with customers and listening to their valuable comments.
b. Leave a Review on Google Maps
Another way to leave a Google review is using Google Maps. This is the place that helps to discover the world around them. However, your customers can view your business details and reviews by other satisfied customers which helps them to make an informed purchase decision. As a result, your targeted consumers get converted into potential clients.
To write reviews and add ratings of places, log in to your Google account. Type the name of the business or company with a location in the Google Maps search bar for the perfect result.
Scroll down on the left-hand side of the page until the reviews section is available. After clicking the “Write a Review” button a new box will appear.
This new box enables one to rate and review the business where a 1-star rating is known to be the most negative and a 5-star rating is the most positive.
With writing a review, one can also upload a photo which has more effect on your business’s overall rating and towards other reviewing customers. Posting reviews can also be done on mobile devices. The steps are the same as mentioned above for a desktop device.
3. How To Remove Fake Google Reviews?
Image courtesy: Revinate
Knowing the facts on how to get and leave Google reviews, what if you receive fake reviews on your Google My Business Account? This is a common occurrence that many businesses have experienced. Being renowned review sites, Yelp and Amazon have gone under-covered to crack down the fake reviews.
Handling fake Google Reviews becomes even more challenging with Google as despite having machine learning and artificial intelligence are not able to identify fake reviews. There are many reviews that can fall into the category of fake reviews if they violate Google guidelines for online reviews/content. Therefore, ensure you read the guideline and that the reviews you have examined violate the rules.
After seeing the fake Google reviews with the same posting date, initially, you must be thinking about how to remove them. Unfortunately, it is difficult to remove fake reviews from Google as only the reviewers can remove them from the site. However, this does not mean that as a business owner, there is no way to fight against fake reviews.
Don’t get frustrated with fake reviews! Instead, follow the below-mentioned steps to remove the dummy Google reviews.
Strategies to Remove Fake Google Reviews
a. Get in Touch With the Reviewer
As you don’t have a right to remove the fake reviews, same as that you cannot reply to the posted review. So, contact the reviewer to have a positive conversation about his or her concerns or problems and also ask them to remove the reviews.
You might have observed that many reviews are posted with no name i.e. anonymously, making it hard to identify the person. In such a case, request a particular website to help you with the identification of the name and take the necessary actions.
Although, if the reviewer has full confidence in the posted review, they might feel defensive about being contacted on this issue. To help you with customer response, Google has provided tips for responding to reviews. It shows the importance of responding calmly to the customers and states that the way you respond to the customers is the reflection of your business.
b. Flag The Improper Review
Another way to deal with reviews violating the Google review policy is by flagging the particular review. So, to flag, the review, open the review panels from Google Maps. Hover over the review and a flag icon will appear.
Clicking on the flag will redirect you to the report a policy violation page. Just enter the email address and select the violation type.
After this, you have to wait for a response from the Google support team member which can be witnessing the information needed from you or the details they want to share with you.
c. Report to Google Small Business Support
If the flagging method fails to remove the fake reviews, then it is time to report a review to Google small business support. Log in to Google My Business Page and go to the reviews section. After that, hover over the home menu and select the support section. Now choose the method to contact the support team i.e. via phone or email.
Go through the details provided in the “need more help?” section and fill in the essential contact parameters or screenshot of the review. Generally, the Google support team member takes 48 hours to respond to your queries.
You can also send a tweet to the Google Small Biz Team from your company’s Twitter account. However, the Google community team can also help if you with any queries related to spam policy. For that go to the Policy section on Google Business Profile.
Here, you can observe the questions previously asked by the members related to yours or can ask about any issues about fake reviews. You will get solutions from talented community experts.
d. Undertake Legal Actions
This is the least preferred step to remove fake reviews because winning the legal battle is not as easy as everyone thinks. Under this, you can sue the reviewer and provide them a court order that instructs the reviewer to remove or modify the review.
However, if you file a lawsuit then there is a huge possibility that the reviewer may ask you to resolve the case to avoid the frustration of a legal battle. The case you have filed must contain all the answers to the following questions:-
- Why it is a fake review?
- How it violates Google’s review policy?
- For what reason, the reviews should be removed?
If you have any images, links, or any other evidence that backs up your claim, then it should be there in your case file. Besides this, the best way to handle negative reviews is to opt for the best online review management system. It helps your business to grow, attracting potential customers to your business or service.
Till now, you have come to know how to get Google reviews, useful ways for your customers to leave Google reviews and strategies to remove fake reviews. But the question remains the same, how to manage Google reviews? Keep reading to unlock your answer!
4. How To Manage Google My Business Reviews?
In today’s world, it is very important for a business to have an online presence. Everyone is dependent on the internet when it comes to purchasing. When it comes to online marketing the most important thing is a strong online presence and it is only possible with “great reviews”.
The majority of people say that their buying decision is totally dependent on reviews. So, having an online presence is vital, but parallel to that it is also essential to have positive and great reviews. You need to understand the power of online reviews. Google My Business page reviews can grow your business with the help of customer reviews.
Before we start with how to manage reviews on (GMB) Google My Business Page, you need to understand what is Google My Business and how it is useful. So, to begin with, GMB. Google My Business is a free tool that offers small-scale businesses to create and manage their Google listing, this listing reflects on Google Search and Maps when customers are in search of relevant services or product.
It is beneficial for businesses as they can attract new clients and share information about what makes them stand out from the crowd.
Google My Business provides a chance for companies to have two-way conversations with customers. Google My business’s review and reply feature are not only essential for business owners, it is also essential for creating a long-lasting relationship and loyalty with consumers.
If your business is not registered on Google My Business, claim your business now on Google Business Profile. If you have a Google My Business account, it is vital to know how to manage the reviews you are receiving on your page. In case, you want to give reply to the existing reviews or flag something that may be considered improper, there are very simple steps you can take to manage your page.
Grow Your Business With The Help of Google My Business in 2019
Let’s see how it can be done:
Firstly, make sure that you’re logged in to your Google account. Then simply visit the page where the review is posted. Click on reviews (see the image given below). To make it more simple, Google My Business provides a sorting of reviews that you have replied to and those you have not replied to yet.
a. Reply to Reviews
If you want to give reply to your customer’s question or thank him for the excellent reviews he has given to your business, replying to reviews is a simple way to interact. Click on reply in the review section and then a dialog box will appear. Then type your response and click on “Post Reply”.
- Click here to reply.
- Type your response and click on “Post reply”.
But, make sure you follow the Google guidelines when posting a response to a review. To make it easier we have also posted images, have a look to given images below.
Here are the Google posting policies:
- Don’t break any law or regulation
- Don’t make robotic replies
- Don’t use remarks in a forum for advertisement
- Don’t post or link to such content that is offensive, hateful, or intimidates others.
- Make sure you don’t spam or publish fake reviews just to boost ratings
- Never link or post content that is sexually explicit or includes profanity.
- Never post or link any file that contains viruses, corrupted files, “Trojan Horses,” or any other contaminating features that may ruin someone’s computer.
Now, let’s see some additional tips for replying to reviews:
- Keep it short and sweet – there’s no need to go into detail with reviews
- Be nice! For business owners, it’s very essential to understand that you can catch more flies with honey rather than vinegar. So, be kind and sweet with replies.
- Never forget to thank your reviewer because even the unpleasant one can provide some valuable feedback.
b. Flag Inappropriate Reviews
Certainly, reviews were introduced so consumers can give their opinion of your business and the service they received. However, sometimes these reviews can be inappropriate, abusive or fraudulent – hence, it is essential for these to be flagged and then removed if necessary.
To flag a review, click on the 3 dots in the right corner of the review and then select the option “Flag as inappropriate”. See the images given below.
- Click on the 3 dot option and click on “Flag as inappropriate” if you want to mark the review as inappropriate for your website.
As you click on this, it will take you to a new tab in your browser where you need to submit your objection towards the review. Next, you just have to fill the form provided and click “submit”. Though you have submitted the form, flagging a review doesn’t assure that a flagged review will actually be removed. Google parameters for acceptable content are very generous, but feedback is taken into consideration for the immediate issue.
If implemented properly Google My Business reviews can provide amazing benefits for your business.
By considering these tips and guidelines your business will be on its way to increasing customer satisfaction and engagement.
5. Multiple Ways To Generate More Reviews For Your Business Growth
Apart from giving answers to your search queries, Google is the most used and fastest-growing customer reviews platform on the internet as well. Being a business owner, you must always be in search of how to get more reviews for your business on Google. This will not only build your business’s online reputation but will also help your website to rank higher on search engine results as well.
Requesting clients to drop an online review can be really something difficult task. Especially if you are not following any system in place. We will break down the process, and provide you with simple ways to start encouraging online reviews.
Simple Tips To Ask Customers For Leaving Reviews
Ask your clients to leave a review on your business Google review. A study by LSA showed that 68% of customers gave a local business review when they were asked to. This recommends that every business should simply ask for reviews. Here are the tips suggesting the right way to ask your customers for leaving reviews.
Get back to customers within 24 hours: After delivering any product or service to customers, ask them the feedback or any suggestions and provide them a link to your review page. Customers will always appreciate the level of transparency when they know their suggestions are being taken into consideration. As a result, it provides the motivation to share their review for your business.
Request when customers are happy: Ask when your customer is happy. This may seem like a no-brainer, but a customer has a positive experience. A happy customer may not leave such great review weeks after the service is done. Don’t let a happy consumer go away without politely asking them to leave a review. What if your customer is not happy and leaves a negative review?
At that time, you can assure them to provide a service or product as per their expectations and ask them to modify or post a positive review. As a result, it will help you convert unhappy customers to loyal customers, improving your brand reputation.
Never ask for 5 stars, just urge them to leave feedback: Customers do not like if they are being told what to do, and if you’re begging for a 5-star review, you could leave a bad taste in your customer’s mouth. Instead, tell your customers you would really appreciate it if they could leave some feedback on their experience. This way of requesting will feel much more inclined to compliment you in their own words and they won’t feel forced, which could lead to negative reviews.
Explain how reviews benefit them: Reviews are not only beneficial for business owners, but they are also beneficial for customers. Explain to them how it is possible, and tell them how their review can help them to enhance the service for the next time.
So, now that you are aware that Google Reviews matter a lot and you’ve brushed off the nerves about asking customers to leave a review, there’s only one section left to boost your online visibility. With the above-mentioned tips, you can encourage customers to visit your Google Business Page. But, what if they can’t leave you a review due to a lack of knowledge? Here are some great ways to help bring people right to where you want them: your Google Business Page.
6. Methods To Be Followed For Generating Google Reviews
Make sure you have a verified Google My Business Listing page. You might be thinking that it’s a no-brainer, but it is important! You must have a Google My Business page and it should be verified if you want people to drop reviews on your page. Google My Business has a separate segment dedicated to managing and building reviews on Google. Once you are done with the sign-up process, you can see all the reviews for your business on the dashboard.
a. Email Method
Till now, you must have got an idea of how important are Google reviews for your business reputation and brand image. One of the best ways to generate more Google reviews is through sending an email asking the customers to leave a review. This is an easy and quick method to get reviews. It is suggested to send your email to the happy customers having positive thoughts in their mind about your service because they act quickly to write a review.
Another excellent way to use the email method for receiving Google Reviews is to use a professional Online Review Monitoring service. It will send a follow-up email asking how was the customer’s experience with the product or service. The email will have a message thanking the customer and reminding them that they are available at the service in the future.
Giving a personal touch to the email such as addressing them by name will make the reviewer more enthusiastic about dropping a positive review on your Google my business review page.
If the customer has a bad experience, nothing to worry. The bad reviews are sent to your customer service department so you can help to solve them. Once you have solved the issues for the unsatisfied customer, you can request him to share positive feedback on the review page. This will leave a good impression in front of other customers.
b. Utilize Posters and Review Handouts to Create Google Reviews
Stick a poster with QR codes linked to your store location, asking your customers to leave you a Google Review. Make sure that it is appealing and can grab your customer’s attention. You can use a tool like Canva to create your posters.
To ensure your QR codes don’t look generic, you can create custom ones using any best dynamic QR code generator and then link them to your Google review page.
You can also give out review handouts or flyers to your customer, instructing them on how they can leave your business reviews on Google. You can use any free review handout generators available on the internet for this.
c. Generate Reviews with Google Feedback forms
The feedback form is the smart step as you will be able to handle various types of reviews you get on the Google My Business Page. Asking your consumers about their experience with a particular product or service will help you analyze the positive and negative suggestions.
You can manage all your business reviews and feedback from Google My Business Page. Customers with negative feedback should be your focus. Try to fix their problem and assure them that you will provide satisfactory service in the future. Once you have solved their problem and built confidence in them, you can ask them to share positive feedback on Google about your quick response to their issues.
d. Target Customers with Social Media Sharing
Social media is one of the crucial parts when it comes to online presence. Marketing experts recommend that social media marketing should be a part of every business. Social media sharing will not only boost your sales and brand building but also generate more customer reviews. Posting positive reviews on social media can also help you build trust among the audience.
Most people visit their social media account multiple times a day, so this helps your brand to stay at top of the mind. This will also help your brand to connect with the fans. All in all, if your business is not taking benefits of social media you’re missing out on an entire marketing channel. So it is good to be social with your business.
The Bottom Line
The importance of having positive reviews for a business is not hidden from anyone. Getting more Google reviews will help your business to rank on the first page of Google. This blog covers everything needed to generate more Google reviews including unique methods.
To help your customers leave a review on your business website, the blog also integrates the best techniques and strategies to write a Google review. Worried about fake reviews on your Google My Business Page? Don’t worry! Here you will find all the latest techniques to remove fake reviews.
