Previously we have spoken about whether Google reviews matter but is there more that you could be getting from your Google reviews? These days every successful business owes part of that success to online reviews, it is the modern day version of word-of-mouth recommendations. Almost all potential customers will look at your business’s reviews before they make their purchasing decision, if you aren’t paying attention to your reviews you may be missing out! You can grow your business organically by focusing your efforts on generating great reviews and letting those bring in more customers for you.
Why Do Online Reviews Matter?
In the ever-growing digital world online reviews play a big part in the perception and success of your business. Almost 90% of consumers read online, according to some research done by BrightLocal, to help them decide what to buy and where to buy it. If you aren’t checking in with your reviews, managing them by responding to them or reporting irrelevant (or spam) reviews, then you may be missing out on a huge growth opportunity.
Even if you aren’t looking at your online reviews, search engines are. Reviews have an influence on your ranking factors; better reviews could mean better positioning for your business. Bing directly imports your Facebook reviews to your Places listing automatically, so if you’re reviews on Facebook aren’t looking great you should address them immediately. Alongside Google My Business, Amazon, Places and Yelp, Facebook is of vital importance when it comes to online reviews. These are top and trusted platforms and if you have a presence on them, you need to make sure it is a positive one. Some places you may not even know you have a listing on, so be diligent and check where your business is listed.
How To Get Good Online Reviews?
Once you know where you’re listed and have access to those listing, you will need to start generating good quality reviews. But how do you build up those positive reviews? We’ve touched on a couple of these points already but here is what you will need to action to nurture your online reviews:
- Encourage reviews; offer a discount or free product/service in exchange for a review. This will see an immediate impact on your reviews.
- Regularly review your platforms; manually take a look at your latest reviews and make sure none need addressing.
- Respond to negative reviews; quickly and politely reply to any negative reviews. The original reviewer may change their mind and any potential readers will be affected by the response.
- Ask in person; if you’ve just had a great interaction with a customer there is no harm in simply asking for a review online – be sure to ask the right person.
Prioritizing your performance on platforms like; Google, Facebook, Bing, Yell and Amazon will be important but also keep an eye out for any other websites your business may be getting attention. A brand new niche audience may just be one 5 star review away!
Get in touch
If you need help managing your reviews or even simply finding where you need to go from here, get in touch with the 427 Marketing team today on 01323 400010 or email us at info@427marketing.co.uk. Keep up to date with our latest insights and information from our blog and browse our services for more information on what we do best.