Every time you search for a local business – whether it’s a restaurant, plumber, wedding planner or any of the hundreds of other businesses near you – you notice one thing: their reviews. It’s impossible to Google a business without seeing their review star count. However, as a business owner, you may not understand what reviews can do for you. How do Google reviews help your business? And how does that affect your bottom line?
In this article, we’d like to show you how Google reviews are a powerful tool for your business. They can help you increase local search results, convert more customers, and improve your overall online reputation. However, while there are many ways to get reviews, we need to note that some tactics are against Google’s policies. For example, offering incentives to customers for reviews is against their guidelines.
Let’s dig in a little deeper.
How Do Google Reviews Help Your Business?
1. They Help You Get More Customers
Google reviews are a powerful tool for bringing more customers to your business. They give your company credibility and help potential customers feel comfortable making a purchase online.
One study found that two out of three consumers read online reviews before deciding to purchase a product or service from a local business.
In addition, customers are more likely to patronize a business with a high number of reviews than they are to choose one with a low number of reviews.
This means that a positive Google review can significantly increase your conversion rate and sales. That’s why it’s important to make sure you have plenty of them. Don’t coast on a few good reviews – there will inevitably be an unhappy client who leaves an unreasonably negative review. You’ll need more good ones to balance out the bad ones and keep your review number high. For example, 4.9-5.0 is great. Lower than 4.5, and potential customers may look for a “better” option.
2. They Help to Increase Your Visibility
Google reviews are one of the most important local search ranking factors. They indicate quality and trust. For that reason, if you have them on your business’s profile, they will show up in Google Maps when a potential customer searches for your business. More positive reviews will help your local search rank.
One of the main reasons for this is because Google takes the text of the reviews into consideration when determining your search ranking. This helps businesses with more positive reviews rank better than those without, as people tend to trust online reviews more than other sources of information about a business.
In addition, there’s another way that Google reviews help businesses get more sales. Reviews can increase click-through rates and lower bounce rates for your website. This in turn can boost your website’s search engine rankings and lead to more sales.
3. They Help You Rank for Long-tail Keyphrases
If your 5-star reviews talk a lot about the specific products or services that you provide, this can help improve your rankings for relevant keywords in your area. This way, if someone searches for “plumber near me,” they’ll find you. Even better if they search for “water heater replacement near me” and you have reviews that mention that service. You’ll end up with a highly specific, motivated potential customer.
4. They Help You Engage with Your Customers
Getting more Google reviews isn’t difficult; it simply requires an active approach to asking for feedback from customers. You have several options to ask for reviews. For one, you can email your customers after a service or purchase. You can also set up a dedicated page on your website that is only for reviews. We always recommend personally asking for reviews from customers who seemed especially happy about your service.
One of the best ways to get more reviews is by making it easy for customers to leave you a review. That’s why it’s important to give your customers a short link that allows them to easily visit your review page and leave you a quick, honest review.
It’s also helpful to respond to your reviews, especially if they are positive and genuinely supportive. However, even negative reviews should get a response. Your calm and kind reply can demonstrate that you’re more reliable than an irrational reviewer. You can include useful keywords in your response for SEO purposes, but make sure to keep it professional and respectful.
5 They Prove Your Point Better Than You Can
What makes the case for our services best?
This statement:
“We build beautiful websites that help drive leads and increase customer interaction.”
… or this review on our Google business page?
The crew helped us upgrade and improve our web site. We had been doing the page on our own and it just did not work right. After Will and his crew got on it, everything works right. Beautiful layout, design and customers like it too.
Thank you all so much for all of your help. I would recommend giving them a try. We are getting more customer interaction and leads from our page now!
Thank you all!– Kevin A.
Here’s another example of a client who makes a strong argument, one that potential clients can rely on as trustworthy.
We hired Interactive ID to help us with our logo, business cards and website. The last company we worked with, we had to call them all of the time. I have to say, my experience with these guys was very different. They would give me constant updates on where we stood. If anything, I held them up. After the new website was launched, I’d say in less than a few weeks, we were getting phone calls for paving projects. I’m very happy with them.
– Russell R.
Finally, one more that encapsulates everything we want to be known for:
There has never been a time where we had to call them and ask them where we were on projects. We were impressed with all of our branding materials and love how our website turned out. Rebranding a dental practice can have its challenges and they exceeded our expectations. They took a lot of those stresses away from us. Highly recommend them.
– Premier Dental Group
So, how do Google reviews help your business? Let’s recap. Google reviews:
- Help you get more customers
- Help to increase your visibility
- Help you rank for long-tail keyphrases
- Help you engage with your customers
- Prove your point better than you can
Need help getting more reviews and managing your online reputation? You don’t have to do it alone! Give us a call today at (888) 623-1891 to discuss your options and see how we can help. Or, just fill out this simple form and we’ll contact you.
