Have a physical location? You need online reviews. How do you search for a business near you? You Google it.
According to a survey by Bright Local, in 2020, 93% of U.S. consumers searched online for a local business. Of those, 34% searched every day, while 73% searched at least once a week.
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Getting reviews for your business has always been an important tool to attracting new customers, as well as retaining them. While certain platforms like Yelp and TripAdvisor have been around for some time, Google Reviews has become the new leader in online customer feedback aggregation. More customers and businesses are turning to Google to both find and list important information, such as revised store hours, safety policies, and more.
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Regardless of the platform, online reviews can either be a gatekeeper or fantastic word of mouth for your business. In a lot of ways, your Google My Business profile is like the new homepage of your website. In fact, most people searching for your business or others like yours within the industry will see your Google profile before ever clicking on your website. Since first impressions matter, you want to make sure that you’re putting your best foot forward on Google.
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Businesses with a high number of reviews will show up first in local searches for a particular brand keyword. Essentially, any business that has a physical presence needs to have a strong online presence as well. To build up your online presence, your business needs at least a dozen positive reviews. If a lot of your competitors have a large number of positive reviews, it could make you look small-time in comparison, or not as engaged with your customers. There are also tangible SEO benefits to user reviews.
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These reviews not only will show up on Google’s search engine, but on Google Maps as well. When customers have visited your business and their location is enabled on their devices, Google will prompt them to write a review of their experience and even include photos if they’d like. Further, if customers are searching for businesses near them within Google Maps, reviews that have already been written for your location will pop up right within the app.
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Google also includes the option for individual product reviews. Similar to Amazon, in an e-commerce situation, you have to anticipate that people will leave reviews on a Google product listing as well.
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If you get enough reviews, Google will start pulling out frequently-asked questions or topics based on keywords in customer reviews. Similar to how your Google My Business profile can serve almost as a front page of your website, a large number of customer reviews can double as a FAQ webpage for prospective customers.
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Online reviews are an incredibly useful tool in influencing opinions, with many potential customers making decisions on whether to use or avoid your business before ever getting in touch with you. Companies with a poor review profile are denying themselves a vast number of new leads without ever knowing a consumer considered them.
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Customers are rightly wary of what companies say about themselves. However, if an unbiased, third-party reviewer tells another customer how great you are, that carries a lot more weight. As Google is the most used and trusted search engine, people also consider third-party Google reviews as reliable information to make conclusions about a specific product or a service.
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According to a 2020 survey, 94% of consumers say that positive reviews make them more likely to use a business. Reviews with a high star rating or a positive outlook have a significant impact on consumers’ decisions to use a business, and it is easier to convince people when it comes from their own peers.
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SETTING YOUR BUSINESS APART WITH REVIEWS
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Google reviews have become the biggest differentiator when it comes to businesses, especially during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. What sets you apart from your competition? How are you building trust? Your reviews are how customers can become your brand advocates.
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Customers are generally pretty intuitive. It isn’t the end of the world to have a couple of negative reviews– what matters is how you respond to them to earn back some trust. Not to mention, having all glowing reviews can come off as much of a red flag as too many bad reviews does. Having a mix of reviews and responses just proves that you are a real business that doesn’t have to pay for canned messages.
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It may seem like a lot of work at first to collect some (positive) reviews, but putting yourself out there to your customers goes a long way for the future of your business.