To Market We Go | Do You Have A Google Review Strategy?
Yay Or Nay
My hope is that you do have a Google review strategy implemented for your business. If not, keep reading and I’ll tell you exactly why you ought to have one.
What Are They?
Google reviews are populated by folks like you or me, who have received a service from a business and feel compelled to write a review about it, either because they did an excellent job or maybe they really sucked and you want to alert others. If I Google “electricians near me” the Local 3 Pack will come up and you can see a company’s Google rating.
Those yellow stars indicate the business has reviews. If you click on the two that have stars, you’ll be taken to another page where you can read the Google reviews. You can see that Top Redondo Beach Electrician has no stars, meaning no one has reviewed them. Hopefully someone will forward them this blog :)
What’s The Big Whoop?
Google ads are crucial to shaping a potential client’s perception of you and your business and they help perfect your local SEO and position in SERPs (Search Engine Results Page). While reviews from Yelp, Facebook and other sources are authoritative, Google gives you the most bang for your buck. Google is the king of search engines and having positive reviews there only boosts your credibility.
Need More Convincing?
Here are some online review stats from 2020 I just researched:
Local businesses that show up top of the local SEO pack have 47 or more Google reviews
Nearly 95% of consumers read online reviews before making a purchase
93% of consumers use reviews to determine if a local business is good or bad
Prospective customers will read an average of 10 online reviews before they feel they can trust a local business
89% of prospective customers read the response to online reviews
Over 1/2 of all consumers expect businesses to respond to negative online reviews within 7 days
95 percent suspect fake reviews if there are no bad scores
The likelihood of purchase peaks at a star rating of 4.0 – 4.7, then decreases as the rating approaches 5 stars
Now read those bullet points again, so they can really sink in.
How To Get Google Reviews
Have an active Google My Business page. Read more about GMB here
Share your review link, within GMB homepage, and have the short link include your biz name
Include link on the homepage of your website with a clear Call To Action (CTA)
Build a dedicated Google review page on your website
Include written or video instructions on how to leave a review on the dedicated webpage
Add Google review CTA in the footer of your website
Create a Google review email campaign where you ask current and past clients for a review
Ask for a review as soon as service is done: via email, printed card or in person
Add Google review link to your email signature and for all employees
Create language for response to all reviews: existing, new & negative
With negative ones have an acknowledgement of their issue and an offer to discuss a resolution
Every time someone adds a Google review share it as social media content
Do NOT Do this:
Review yourself, or ask employees to do a review
Don’t incentivize your clients to provide reviews
Don’t have reviews placed on a device at the firm, Google picks up on this and thinks you are doing the review. For those of you that play Among Us, don’t be sus :)
Get These Freebies!
Google provides a free marketing kit that is super handy! Click the blue button below to get your business set up with videos, posters, social posts, and more that you can set up within minutes. You must have a GMB account already set up to benefit.
Practicing What I Preach
I’m in dire need of following my own advice. I have a GMB page with no reviews. Shocking, I know! But now I have a plan to implement and I’m going to start with an ask. If you have received services from Taylor Digital Marketing, I’d be ever so happy if you could take a moment to review me on Google. Click the blue button which contains the link to my GMB page. Thank you!