Most business owners know that customer reviews are important. They build authority and trust with those that don’t yet know you or your brand. How often have you used reviews to verify a service or product before you buy? Probably quite often! It’s simple, high quality reviews lead to more sales. So, how do you get more 5 star Google reviews for your business? Well we have some tricks up our sleeves for ya!
Why should you capture reviews for your business?
Positive, high quality reviews generate trust amongst a cold audience. It also can boost your credibility within your industry. In fact, 79% of consumers say they trust the reviews they read online as much as personal recommendations. That’s a powerful statistic! It’s not just about building trust with your audience. It’s also about building trust with Google and other search engines.
Why are reviews good for your SEO?
There are multiple benefits to your SEO that comes from having high quality reviews and a process for getting them often.
- Positive reviews send trust signals to Google. Every trust signal is a ranking factor in determining your site’s position on a search engine page.
- Getting reviews often creates fresh content. Just like most algorithms, Google is hungry for fresh content. This tells Google that you are an active business which also promotes better rankings.
- The review copy from your audience organically generates long-tail keywords for your business. This helps you index and rank higher for your product and services.
- It will drive more traffic to your website. In fact, 48% of people will visit a brand’s site after reading a positive review.
Where should you capture reviews as a small business owner?
There are so many places to capture reviews from your customers such as Google Business, Yahoo, Bing Places, Better Business Bureau, Amazon, Facebook, Yelp, Yellow Pages, Merchant Circle and so many more. There are also industry niche review sites such as The Knot, Angie’s List, Open Table, Thumbtack, Airbnb, Home Advisor and more depending on which industry you are in.
So which should you choose? Our recommendation is always your Google Business Profile. It’s completely free and extremely easy to create that review for your clients and customers. Plus, having an optimized Google profile can do wonders for your SEO.
Do not copy your Google Reviews on your website
Simply copying and pasting a review from your Google business profile to your website or any other review platform (like Facebook, Bing, etc.) actually violates Google’s policy. Not only is it duplicated content, which is a big no-no, it’s also takes away the rights of your customer. Your customer owns that review and if they were to choose to remove it or edit it on Google, they can. If that review is also posted to your website, they don’t have any access to adjust it.
Now including reviews on your web pages, especially sales pages is still extremely important to drive better conversion. So what can you do about this?
- We recommend you email your customer or client and ask for their approval to post the review on your website. In these cases you might want to modify the review slightly to avoid any duplicated content. But you should always, always ask for approval. Then save that email approval for proof if any issues arise.
- Ask your clients for a separate more specific review related to the content on that page of your website. Sometimes you can zone in on a specific topic which will only help your sales page conversion. Believe it or not, our clients and customers actually love to help and all you need to do is ask.
- You could also install a plugin that would automatically bring in those reviews from Google without it being duplicated. There are multiple options out there such as Plugin for Google Reviews for WordPress or Embed Social, which has multiple templates and works for Google, Facebook, Shopify, etc.
Our secret on how we get more 5 star Google reviews
We make things SIMPLE. Like super simple and we cannot wait to share the one question that will transform your testimonial emails moving forward. But before we share that, here is what you need:
- a consistent workflow
- a testimonial / review email template
Consistency
Do you ask for a review after every single purchase? Because you should! You need to create a consistent workflow that tells you when to send out your testimonial or review email. Maybe it’s one week after they received their product in the mail. Maybe it’s immediately after you deliver the final item in your clients package. Whenever it is, you should have a clear idea on when this is happening. Then comes the hard part; following through!
Testimonial & review template
Asking this simple question has transformed our review process, bringing in more high quality reviews, more often. Here is part of that email template:
We want to make this super simple for you! Please feel the freedom to make it as short or long as you want, and we only ask that you answer one question for us with your review:
What would you tell someone who is on the fence about working with us on [fill in the blank service]?
What would you tell someone who is on the fence about buying [fill in the blank product] for [fill in the blank niche or occasion, if you have one]?
That’s it! This question encourages your customers to do the selling for you in an honest and organic way. It also encourages the use of keywords which is great for SEO purposes!
Tips To Help Better Your Review Conversion Rate
- Ask for the review by a certain date or time. This encourages your client and customers to add it to their to-do list rather than putting it off for an unknown amount of time, especially during busy seasons.
- Do at least one follow up. We are all busy and sometimes these emails get buried. No need to bombard your customer with emails, but one reminder is certainly okay. For us, we like to do this with a feedback survey where we gather additional insights into the project and how we can improve our workflows.
- Surprise and delight with a little treat. Notice how we didn’t say “bribe”? You cannot bribe your customers with free coffee and candy, but you can show them some appreciation. If they complete a review by a certain date, you can thank them for their time by sending a $5 Starbuck gift card. Just be careful of your wording. You can ask for a review, but you can’t ask for a five star review.
- After you’ve received a review, be sure to share it on social media and tag them. It’s a nice little boost for everyone and showcases that credibility and trust with your social following.
After you listen to this episode, we hope you feel the fire to conquer your Google reviews and boost your trust worthiness with your audience and search engines. If you liked today’s episode on The Duo On Air Marketing Podcast, don’t forget to leave us a review & subscribe!
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Abbey Oslin and Courtney Petersen are Minnesota-based marketing experts, educators, and co-founders of boutique marketing agency Duo Collective, which specializes in SEO, social media strategy, and branding for small business owners and creative entrepreneurs. To learn more about Duo Collective, or to inquire about working with our team, head over to www.duocollective.com.
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And to submit a topic or a question for next week’s episode, send us a DM on Instagram! See you on Monday!
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