How to get more Google reviews

Historically, good service will have been discussed through word of mouth. If you had provided excellent service and your customer was pleased with your work, they’d have shouted about you to friends, family and other locals who could utilise your services. Nowadays, with websites and online presence carrying a huge weight in a brand’s importance and image, Google reviews are the way to continue a positive legacy, attract more customers and retain the ones you have.

Google reviews are a hugely important element of your company’s image, reputation and the way it presents itself to existing and potential customers. Ultimately, what genuine customers have to say about your brand and their experience of working with you is far more important than what you yourself can say about your brand. Not only this, but Google considers reviews as part of its ranking algorithm and the quality and quantity of your reviews directly contributes to where Google will position you in its ranking.

For this reason, having good quality and a high quantity of genuine Google reviews is an integral factor to reaching the right audiences, ranking well, and attracting new customers. In this blog we’re going to look at why Google reviews are so important, how they benefit your business and ultimately share some tips on how to get more Google reviews.

5 tips on how to get more Google reviews:

There are a number of ways for you to get more Google reviews, and luckily, it's a free service that takes little to no time for customers to provide. Additionally, more than 60% of consumers are likely to leave a review if a brand asks for one. Below we’re going to give you some tips to make requesting Google reviews much easier.

Create a google link review shortcut

Your customer has to go online to write the review, so creating a review shortcut link to go on your website can really help save time. In order to do this simply go to your Google My Business account, click the ‘Home’ tab and find the “Get your first review” (or “Get more reviews”) card. Click ‘Share review form’ and copy the link to your clipboard. Easy peasy.

Include a google review CTA in your footer

Dedicating a full website page to Google reviews, or reviews in general, provides consumers with a fully stocked page of trusted reviews that they can access from your main navigation menu. The page should contain a CTA to write a review but also include existing reviews that consumers can use and rely on. These not only encourage consumers to become a customer but also provide added inspiration for an existing customer to leave a review. Reviews on this page can be screenshots, but it's much more valuable for it to be in written text. This is because reviews will be heavily populated with valuable keywords that consumers are searching for that Google will consider relevant and help to boost your rankings.

Personally ask guests or clients to leave you google reviews if they express a positive experience with your brand.

As mentioned above, more than 60% of consumers will leave you a review if you request one. If you feel that you have provided excellent service or had a good experience with a customer especially, this can be a great opportunity to ask them to review you and help recommend you to future customers.

Respond to existing google reviews.

Being reactive and responding to existing reviews shows existing and potential customers that you take your reviews seriously and take feedback on board. Businesses should be responding to both positive and negative reviews.

Responding to positive reviews: being specific, prompt and grateful in your responses can lead to more positive reviews.

Responding to negative reviews: responding quickly and politely to negative reviews where you are indicating a desire to resolve the issue can often result in the conversion of a negative review into a positive one. 53% of consumers expect businesses to respond to negative feedback within a week.

Utilise email campaigns to request Google reviews.

Targeted email campaigns are useful for a variety of things and that includes requesting reviews. Sending out a targeted email message to a database of customers that have recently used your services is a quick and effective way of asking a mass amount of people at once to provide you with reviews, and optimises your chances of them actually doing it.

Why are Google reviews so important?

Reviewtrackers research indicates that:

• Google is the top review site, with more people than ever using Google reviews directly from search results.
• Consumers don’t trust companies with less than a 4* rating, the most common filter applied is to see only companies who are rated 4* and above.
• Review interactions are up 50% post pandemic, highlighting how consumers are much more sensitive regarding where they choose to their purchasing habits.
• 65% of people utilise Google reviews before they visit a business.
• 93% of users have made a buying decision based on an online review.

The benefits of more Google reviews

• More reviews = more leads. 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal reviews, and with over 60% of consumers turning to Google reviews before visiting a business, your review page is going to be the first port of call for a potential lead.
• More positive reviews are more likely to lead to more purchases.
• Higher reviews means a higher rank in Google’s search engine rankings, putting you higher on their search page and in front of more people.
• There are no fees to respond or write reviews so positive endorsements and feedback connected to your business on your Google Business Profile serves as free advertising for your business.
• Google is the world’s most trusted platform, so it makes sense to utilise its free services to your advantage.

We can help

At cab Hospitality we can help optimise all elements of your website through dedicated and targeted SEO strategies, including getting more Google reviews. As mentioned above, Google reviews are integral to businesses and help you to maintain existing and generate new customers. If you’re unsure of where to start in boosting your Google rankings, beginning a successful SEO strategy, or generating reliable customer feedback and reviews, our hospitality marketing services can help.

We’re a hospitality marketing agency with over 35 years of industry experience and we love what we do. For more information, please get in touch today.