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Why Google reviews are important | Google My Business

July 18, 2022

As you may already know—what customers say about a specific business carries more weight than what the business represents, regardless of how good their product and services may be. But do you know google reviews have become so critical that Google has included them in its local ranking algorithm?

Please note that google reviews aren’t just a sentence or two about your product by a user.

In this blog, we will discuss Google reviews and why they are super important to ‘Google My Business profile’, plus how you can manage them.

So without any further delay let’s jump straight to what exactly google reviews are;

What are Google reviews?

Google Customer Reviews is a service that allows businesses to collect reviews on their website from their customers. These reviews can help your business stand out by providing important information that helps build the image and customer base of your business.

For instance— When a customer adds ratings and reviews to your business profile Google’s ranking system can then pick them up may display them on your website and other marketing platforms and display them right there on your Google My Business profile.

When someone searches for a query with local intent like “cafe near me”, Google displays three to four relevant local businesses that offer the services they are looking for. This is called the “local pack”.

Each of these companies has a review score in the form of a star attached to its listing.

In order to understand how important reviews are, the list is a little longer than usual but we have mentioned some key reasons why google reviews are important for the success of your business.

Why Google reviews are important?

  • It helps your search engine optimization and visibility

Google monitors our activity and boosts businesses. Google takes these customer reviews as a base and assigns a rating to merchants such as the average star rating and a number of ratings. The higher the rating, the more trustworthy the merchant.

For example, if someone requires a product or service they straight search in google rather than visit the website first, and possible to consider any of the available 3-4 options at his search result.

A positive review rating can work as an engine for your business. It helps your business to reach the Google Local Pack, which displays the first three businesses near the top of the search results based on location. But let’s not forget that the quality of your reviews is of prime importance. 

Positive feedback has a great impact on your potential customers.

Did you know that 91% of consumers examine online customer reviews on a regular or irregular basis to assess if a local business is excellent or bad?

Evidently, 71% of people are more likely to purchase based on social media referrals. A personal recommendation always plays an important role and in the case of google reviews the more positive review, the more chances to convert our potential customers to permanent customers.

  • Increase your website’s click-through rates

If your company has a high review rating, internet users are more inclined to visit your website and learn more about your operations, making your product more visible to them.

Google Reviews can help you figure out what you’re doing properly and wrong as a business. 

Reviews assist you in determining which areas are performing well and which require improvement. Through reviews, you get an insight into your product and services, what products are being liked and what are the key areas where your product needs improvement and attempts to rectify the matter.

How to get reviews for your business?

Now that you how important google reviews, here is how you can get them. 

Expecting that your customers will post reviews on their own is not realistic. People tend to use products or services and don’t pay it a second thought. Here are some ways to remind them:

  • You can create a review shortcut link and put it on your website like the pictorial example given below,
  • Create “leave us a review” cards – This is an offline method of getting more google reviews, Having a beautiful “thank you card” inspires them to say something positive back.
  • Run a Google review email campaign –  Email marketing is another effective way to get more Google business reviews. From personal email messages, you can remind your customers about your product or service and ask them to post a review.
  • Ask for reviews on social media – You can ask your customer on social media to leave a review for your site.
  • Include Google review opportunities in surveys – You can conduct surveys to know more about your customer preferences and last, you can ask them to post reviews about their experiences.

One shoe does not fit all: If you expect only positive reviews you might set yourself up for disappointment. You may frequently come across negative or critical comments but ignoring negative reviews is not the solution. You can manage them, make a note of it and use it do better and continually improve.

Why should businesses do it?

Adding reviews is absolutely free of cost. Through constant posting, google recognises the user and considers them a reliable source. It makes posting reviews even more interesting and popular among the masses. 

As a business owner getting more and more reviews is great as long as they’re all favourable; a single negative review can raise doubts on your productivity and efficacy. As a result, handling reviews is always a necessary part of managing your google profile to maintain your image.

How to manage Google reviews?

Ignoring or deleting all the negative reviews from your profile does nothing to help your business.

Just respond to it!

Through ‘respond to Google reviews, you can actually engage with your customers and establish good customer interaction. Evidently, about 55% of customers expect a response to a review within a day of posting it. Responding to reviews promptly proves that you value your consumers and leaves a good impression.

A combination of favourable and unfavourable reviews can boost conversions and make your online presence more realistic and transparent.

So make sure while dealing with negative reviews that you are transparent and take active responsibility for your course of action. You can even address the issue, provide a solution, and a call to action.

For example, if you find a negative view like so (refer the shot above), simply ask relevant questions and gather more information from the client in order to reply appropriately to the review.

This will initiate a positive dialogue with the customer that will assist you in diagnosing the customer’s problem and you can subsequently propose a solution once you have understood the situation

Why Google reviews are important Watch Video

 

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