How to Get More Reviews on Google With 9 Actionable Tips

Importance of Google Reviews

Google reviews are playing an ever more important role in telling the world that you’re a trustworthy business who provides a top quality product or service.

The importance of having a good rating on Google is underlined especially for:

• Local businesses
• Small businesses
• Startups
• Competitive industries
• Anyone doing business online

In many cases, your Google reviews are going to be the first impression potential customers have of you because Google search results present them automatically.

Because people do search for your business online.

Benefits of Having Google Reviews

As more and more people are using Google before they even consider buying from a business, it pays off to pay attention to the number of reviews you have there.

But did you know that your star rating and number of reviews can also impact your SEO score?

1. Improve Google Search Results

Improve your search engine ranking – Google loves businesses that engage with their customers and good reviews will push you to the top of the results.

Or at least get you closer to ranking on top for your most relevant keywords.

2. Establish Trust in Potential Customers

As people read Google reviews, they’re essentially trying to decide whether they trust you – or if they should move on to check your competitors’ offerings.

Seeing a handful of positive reviews (that are recent!) can be a game changer.

3. Avenue of Communication

Having Google reviews is a way to talk with your clients. It shows you care about your customers – Engaging with and responding to reviews tells customers you value their opinion

4. Better Conversion Rates

Having a lot of Google reviews can lead to a higher proportion of sales

This is especially true for small or local businesses, so you should definitely sit up and take note if you own one!

We’ve gone into more detail here on how to market your small business, but having more Google reviews is definitely going to differentiate you from the competition.

Just think about your own Google searches when you’re looking for a local service, you always tend to go for the one with the most (and best quality) reviews right?

Word of Caution

You might be tempted to start paying for Google reviews as a quick way to boost your numbers. However, we’ve gone into great detail explaining why you should never pay for Google reviews, as the consequences can be dire.

Instead, let us guide you through some useful tips to help you get more authentic Google reviews.

9 Simple Steps to Get More Reviews on Google

1. Set Up & Verify Your Google Business Profile

If you haven’t done so already, you’ll need to verify your business with Google. They’ve laid out detailled instructions to follow here. If you haven’t verified your account, you won’t be able to manage your business information like location, uploading posts and photos. Additionally, you won’t be able to respond to those all the received reviews.

Google will verify you via post, email or phone and then you’re good to go.

2. Simply Ask for a Review

This is the easiest way to get reviews and something a lot of businesses tend to neglect. If you ask for reviews in the right way, you are more likely to get more reviews and increase their quality at the same time.

Win-win!

You could try following up a couple of weeks after a customer purchase via email. This two week delay gives them the chance to thoroughly use the product and allows them to leave a detailed review.

You could experiment with other avenues too. Some examples include texting customers if you have their number or handing out business cards or flyers if they visit your store asking them to leave a review. Remember to include a QR code that directly leads to the review site!

3. Try and Follow Up on Review Requests

People have a lot of distractions these days. An email or text requesting they review a product can often fall to the bottom of their priority list.

Try and follow up on your request asking them again if they’d like to leave a review. It might be that your last request caught them at a bad time. Sending a followup request could prompt them to complete one.

Don’t do this more than once or twice though as you’ll be more likely to annoy the customer and push them into leaving a negative review because of it!

4. Create a Direct Link to Your Google Reviews Page

Google has made it easier than ever to get reviews by providing a direct link via your Google business account.

Add this link to all your correspondence with customers such as emails, texts, post and flyers with a QR code. This way, you make it easy for them to review you if they happen to feel like it.

If you have a bricks and mortar store, you might want to have QR codes or signage displayed around the shop to show you’re on Google.

In case you own a restaurant or a café, you can add a QR code to the receipt, to the mirror in the bathroom or even on the exit door. This way, they’ll be able to provide you with positive and negative feedback if they have any!

Don’t forget to add the link on your website too and put it in an obvious spot.

Additionally, if you embed existing Google reviews to your website, it’s a great idea to also add a direct link visitors can use to rate you on Google.

Below is a perfect example of how this can be done.

Did you know that people are more likely to review you after seeing reviews from others? It’s called social proof: People tend to follow the example of their peers.

5. Personalize the Experience of Leaving a Review

This can be something as simple as using the customer’s name when sending an email. It can extend up to training your staff to build relationships with customers before asking them to leave a review.

Remember, customers who leave reviews feel a personal connection with the service you provided (whether good or bad) and the more you personalize your service the more compelled they’ll be to leave a review.

6. Respond to All Reviews

We talked earlier about engagement being a key element of your online reputation management. Make sure you respond to as many as possible, both positive and negative reviews.

Responding to reviews makes customers feel like their opinions are being respected and can encourage others who might not have ordinarily left a review to post one.

A good review can teach you about your business and highlight improvement points to focus on. If you’ve learned something or will do something differently as a result of a review, make sure to let the customer know they’ve had an impact.

Always remember to apologize for any mistakes made!

7. Keep Customers Happy

This seems to be an obvious point, but it can easily be neglected in the hunt for as many reviews as possible.

It can’t be stressed enough that excellent customer service should be at the core of every action you take.

In case your service or product just suck, there’s no point in trying to get great reviews. That’s why you should first focus on doing your core business well!

Nowadays, people so rarely encounter companies that do go the extra mile to please their customers. Whenever we come across a company that provides us with excellent service, we become advocates for them.

When they’ve had standout service they’ll be much more likely to leave a review. You just need to identify the moment they’re most likely to experience excellent service and leave a review right afterwards.

8. Have Multiple Avenues for Leaving a Review

This means posting instructions across multiple platforms. Actively listen out for mentions of your company on social media, you may find a lot of people talking about your product who haven’t left reviews. Reach out to them, offer the link to leave a Google review and ask if they’d be happy to provide some honest feedback. This helps get the conversation going and could lead to even more reviews.

You essentially want as many avenues as possible open to allow people to leave reviews. You could also try the referral route too, asking customers if they’d like to have their family and friends leave a review too.

9. Add Review Requests to Daily Processes

Make asking for reviews a standard part of any sale. Whether this is at the point of contact with the customer or in a follow up period, when staff are trained to ask for reviews the numbers of responses will start to increase dramatically.

Following these tips ensures you have a solid review marketing strategy.

Bonus Tip: Showcase Google Reviews on Your Website

Once you have collected reviews on Google, you should make the most out of them. Add them to your website to build trust immediately when new visitors land there.

The easiest way to highlight Google reviews on your website is using Trustmary’s Google reviews widget.

Final Thoughts

Remember to keep your reviews authentic. We’ve already mentioned that you should never even consider buying reviews, but don’t try to game the system either. Don’t try and get negative reviews taken down or only focus on customers you think will leave a good review.

Don’t offer incentives either, such as money off a product in exchange for a review. All of these tactics come off as disingenuous and defeats the whole purpose of a review, to gather honest feedback that you can take action on.

Experiment with the different methods we’ve listed above and discover what works best for you and start to apply it consistently. You’ll soon see the reviews come piling in.

Further Reading

• How to Ask for Google Reviews: The Dos and Don’ts
• How to Add Google Reviews to Website (for Dummies)
• Finding The Best WordPress Google Review Plugin 2023