How to get more positive Google Reviews

When your potential customers are searching for a local service, they’ll find three Google My Business Profiles on the first page of Google search results: 

So what does that have to do with Google Reviews? Read on...

Business owners often get most of their business from word-of-mouth referrals by their clients. They realize that what their customers say about their business is very important to their success.

A review on your Google My Business profile is simply the online equivalent of a word-of-mouth referral, and getting customer feedback onto your Google Maps account is very important for your online reputation.

Here are some statistics from the annual BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey:

• 98% of consumers read customer reviews for local businesses.
• 81% of consumers read Google Reviews
• 77% 'always' or 'regularly' read them when browsing for local businesses

In fact, the importance of optimizing your Google My Business profile (now Google Business Profile) and getting positive Google Reviews have grown every year: 

In the remainder of this article explain how you can get customer feedback onto your company's Google Place account.

Let me start with assuming that you deliver a good product and provide good customer service. Only a happy customer will be willing to provide a 5-star online review, so an excellent customer experience is the starting point.

With that in place, getting more Google Reviews actually is a lot easier than you might think. It’s all about asking your customers for the positive review, and to make it as easy as possible for them to do so.

Here are some practical tips to make it happen:

There is a saying in The Netherlands where I grew up, that goes like this: “You already have No”. It means that f you don’t ask, then then answer will always be “no”, regardless. So the only way to get to a possible “Yes” is to ASK!

Of course some ways of asking are more successful than others. Let me give you a few tips that make the asking more successful.

If your business has a lot of customers, then you’ll want to put a system in place to ask them for the review as soon as possible after the product or service is delivered, when the experience is still fresh in their minds. To some extent you can automate the process, for example by asking for a good review when you send out the final invoice. 

Many businesses, however, don’t have many customers. That is true for our business as well. I’m finding that if I ask a client personally and individually and at the right time, then it’s very likely that I will get a the positive review I am looking for. I’ve had the most success when I asked clients at the time of an interaction I had with them, and when I used the words of the exchange in my ask.

Let me give you an example.

Just today I asked someone to give me a review. It was a potential client, and had spent some time to get to know his needs, the issues he was having with his web platform, and the options he had available to create a website for his business. 

I had come to the realization that we’re not the best partner for his needs, and advised him to go with a different solution and a different provider. He was very thankful for my advice.

This was an excellent opportunity for a GMB review! This is what I wrote him: 

That brings me to the search terms to use in your ask...

• the search terms you want to be found for, for example the services you provide;
• your business name, and;
• the location where your business is located.

So for example if we have created a website for a client in Burlington, then in my review request to my customer I will use the search term “web development company”, the business name "Mawazo Marketing" and the location name "Burlington",

Here is how you do it. Go to your Google My Business account on a desktop, click the Home tab, and find the “Get more reviews” card. Click the “Share review form”:

Here is an example we created for our client A1 Security Systems:

For example, the review link for A1 Security is also accessible with https://bit.ly/A1_review. It’s much easier on the eye! Let me know if you need assistance customizing your link.

• On your website
• In your email footer
• In email newsletters
• In client questionnaires
• On door stickers
• On flyers and other marketing materials
• In social media posts
• Etc. etc.

Google will actually help you with a free media kit which helps you promote Google business reviews. Click here for details

If your client hasn't posted the review after a week, then I suggest you follow up with a gently reminder, and continue to do so for three weeks. Getting customer reviews is important to get a good Google rating and attract future customers, so it's worth spending the time to establish a solid process and even make the effort to create a system of automated email or SMS reminders. 

So far for some easy tips on how to get more good Google Reviews. In the remainder I'll give some quick answers to questions we often get on from our clients:

Some companies pay for reviews, for example by giving a discount or incentive in exchange for it. This is against Google’s terms of service, and it’s best to stay away from that practice.

Here is an article that mentions some of the risks:

• paid-for reviews be removed by Google when they are found
• Google’s algorithm will penalize your SEO traffic
• you run the risk of a customer mentioning the incentive in the review which would defeat the purpose altogether.

Yes! Embedding Google reviews on local business website establishes trust and authority, and gives future customers peace of mind.

The best way to embed a Google review is to pull it directly from the Google account, rather than to copy the content and paste it on your website. There are many tools that can handle this functionality easily. We use Repuso to show selected reviews on each page.

This approach has the following advantages:

• It's more trustworthy, since there is a direct link to the Google Business Profile
• You can select which customer reviews appear where, so you can match the words used in the review with the topic of the web page.
• When a new review is submitted you can very easily assign it to a particular web page, without having to manage the content on your website.

You can implement this functionality on your WordPress website using a plugin, or on any other website platform with simple code that is easily implemented without having to touch the website code.

Here is an example of how we implemented Repuso for our client Digital Fire, an outsourced IT company in Oakville:

Some businesses manage to get only 5-star reviews from their customers, but most will get a negative review once in a while. And that's OK. You can turn a bad review into an opportunity to make a positive impression.

Here are some ideas on replying to negative Google reviews from the support article How to reply to both positive and negative reviews:

• When you get a bad review, then respond as fast as possible;
• Don't take the review personally, remain friendly and polite;
• Find out what the situation is before you reply, and make sure you provide details on what happened and how it will be fixed;
• Show empathy for the issue, and apologize when appropriate;
• However, don't apologize for problems that your company hasn't caused but use the opportunity to clarify the issue;
• Invite the customer to get in touch for a discussion and offer to make your best effort to solve the problem;
• Be authentic and personal. If you're the business owner of a small business, then handle the situation personally and sign off with your name or initials to show that you’re taking the matter seriously.

Sometimes people post reviews on the wrong Google account, either intentionally or by accident. Unfortunately as the business owner you will not be able to remove a fake review. This can only be done by the person who posted the review, or by Google.

So the first step would be to immediately reply to the review and inform the poster that you can't trace the incident and ask for more information. Again, you should show empathy and understanding for the problem described, but don't apologize for something your company didn't cause, and suggest that this is likely posted on the wrong Google account.

If the review is not removed by the poster, then the next step is to inform Google. They will check the post against its content policy and will remove fake Google reviews and inappropriate reviews from your account. Here is the Google support page on How to remove reviews from your Business Profile on Google.

Need help generating more reviews? Creating a steady pipeline of reviews isn’t easy. Book a call with me with this calendar link and we’ll talk about your needs and how we can help you.

• Google Search Engine Results Page Explained gives more information on Google search results/
• Local SEO With Google My Business describes essential steps to claim your Google Business Profile and optimize it.