How To Get More Google Business Reviews

Ella Hickman

10 months ago

Utilising Customer Reviews to Enhance Your SEO

As the owner and Principal of a family law firm in Perth, I’ve used all different kinds of marketing channels to grow my business. From SEO to paid advertising, investing in different social media channels to print materials, we’ve done it all.

But one of the most successful and impactful areas for us as a service-based business has been the work put into our Google Business profile and the growth of our Google reviews. We’re very proud of our current 4.9-star rating and of having over 140 reviews and counting.

It’s been much discussed online just how much the number of reviews and your overall rating affects your local SEO results, and I can say we’ve seen a steady growth of both website traffic and enquiries with our focus on SEO and getting more Google reviews for years now.

So here are my tips on how to get more Google Business reviews to drive more traffic to your site, and get more leads and sales.

Verify Your Profile

The first step to fully controlling your Google Business profile, which includes responding to reviews, is to have a verified profile.

How you can verify ranges from uploading a photo of the physical location of your business, getting a code sent via text to your phone, to the old-school postcard method, and a video

Many still need to get a physical postcard at your business address from Google, and this should take 2-4 weeks to arrive. The postcard has a code you need to enter on your profile to verify it. If you don’t get the postcard within 4 weeks, request another and it should arrive after that.

Once verified you’ll be able to control every aspect of the profile, including responding to reviews – more on that later.

Create A Review Landing Page

Having a bespoke landing page on your website asking for reviews is one of the simplest ways to get more Google reviews.

Give Clear Steps On How To Leave A Review

While many people have good intentions when it comes to leaving a review, they can be put off when things get too hard or complicated.

Depending on how tech-savvy your customers are, they could usually benefit from some clear, step-by-step instructions on how to leave a review, so they don’t give up halfway through the process.

Make it as simple and pain-free for them as possible.

Make Sure All Staff Are On Board

One of the main reasons we have been quite successful at building our Google reviews is that we work as a team to get more reviews.

We’ve set expectations as a business that everyone makes the effort to get clients to leave us a review, and it’s not just left to one person to be responsible for growing our online reviews.

Ask For Reviews Face-To-Face

It may sound simple but asking for reviews in person is one of, if not the most, effective means of getting more Google reviews.

You can also back up your face-to-face request with an email that includes a link to review, or a physical card with QR code to leave a review easily (more coming on those below!).

Ask For Reviews Via Email

A good way for any business, not just service-based businesses, to ask for a Google review is by sending an email with a link directly to where to leave a Google Business review.

You can find this link on your Google Business profile under the ‘Get More Reviews’ button:

After clicking this button, a pop-up will appear with a link you can click to copy and then use wherever you want to share this link.

Include A Review Link In Your Email Footer

Adding this review link to your email footer is a clear reminder to anyone who receives email communications from you that they can leave you a Google review.

Keeping steps to a minimum will help you get more clients over the line to write a review, so even if you have a review landing page on your website, you could choose to send them directly to your profile to leave their review.

If your clients are more likely to need some hand-holding when it comes to how to write a review on Google for your business, sending them to your landing page with step-by-step instructions is probably a better option. You know your clients best so choose what will be easiest for them.

Create A QR Code For Print Material

If you have business cards, brochures, flyers, packaging, or any other kind of promotional print materials, it could be worth getting a QR code made that people can scan and it takes them directly to the Google review link.

There are several free tools online, including Canva’s free QR code generator, that you can use to create a QR code for your business. Make sure you include a compelling call-to-action with the QR code, so they know what it’s for otherwise, they may not know what it’s for.

Adding a QR code to a receipt or invoice is another option to get clients to leave a review after they have paid your business too.

Ask For Reviews On Social Channels

Remind your social followers that they can leave you a Google review.

Facebook reviews are great but they have less immediate impact than Google reviews on your local SEO.

If you’re going to focus on one platform to generate reviews, Google should be your number-one choice.

Create regular posts asking for Google reviews on your social media platforms with a link to leave the review. This is easy on Facebook, and has been made easier on Instagram now that you can add multiple external links to your profile instead of just one. That means you can have a link to your website and a link to leave a review as well.

Respond To All Reviews – Positive And Negative

No matter what kind of review clients leave, we like to respond to every one of them. Positive reviews get our thanks as we know it takes effort and time for clients to write us a review on Google. If we get a negative review, we take a look at who has left it, and why they had a negative experience.

Google can be quick at picking these up and removing them as they go against the Google guidelines for adding content to Maps and Business profiles, but if they are not removed by Google, we ensure we respond to them level-headedly and factually. We do this so that when existing or prospective clients see these reviews, they also see how we handle these reviews and comments on how we conduct ourselves. This often speaks far louder than the original negative review.

So, if you get a negative review, don’t just jump straight in and attack right back. Consider who wrote the review, and why first. Then craft a measured response that communicates to your potential customers how you deal with negativity about your business.

Share Your Reviews

Sharing your reviews can encourage others to leave a review of their own – social proof is an amazing thing!

Create posts on your social media channels quoting snippets from positive reviews, share the latest reviews in your email newsletter, or even include them on marketing materials or signage.

Post To Your Profile And Keep It Brand Consistent

Using Google Business posts regularly shows that you are still active and open for business. When people land on your Google profile to leave a review, you want them to know they are in the right place and have the right business.

An old profile with outdated information and no recent posts can put them off and make them wonder if there is a newer listing they should be using instead.

Keep your imagery and wording ‘on brand’ across your profile. This includes your business information, description, images and updates (updates are similar to posts on Facebook).

Give Great Service

By far one of the best ways to get more Google reviews, and positive ones at that, is by giving the best customer experience you can.

When people have an awesome experience with a business, they are more likely to go to the effort of writing a review for it.

Hopefully, you’ve found this useful and picked up a few tips to try with your own business to get more Google Business reviews.

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