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Reviews matter when it comes to helping prospective customers choose between your company and your competition. Responding to reviews and engaging with someone about their experience helps people to gain trust in you and builds your online identity. Read the following article to get step-by-step instructions on how to ask for reviews on Google My Business.
When you patronize a business that gives you an unparalleled customer experience, featuring high-quality products and service fit for royalty, you’re not going to keep it a secret. You will share this with everyone you know. The same goes if you frequent a business that has low standards and a product that doesn’t last until you get it home. You’ll be eager to let people know that this is a less than reputable business.
This is why reviews matter when it comes to attracting customers and helping them choose between your company and your competition.
Here at FineView Marketing, we understand that online reviews are a critical piece of your marketing strategy and we can help with this piece of your plan. If you’ve decided, however, to handle reviews on your own, the following information offers step-by-step instructions on how to ask for reviews using Google My Business.
Still not sure about the power of reviews? Hostingtribunal.com has compiled a staggering 67 statistics that will enlighten you as to why reviews are so important. Following is a sampling of some of these stats.
You can get your reviews on various sites, however, most search traffic comes from Google. The reviews will appear prominently when people search for storage-related phrases such as “self storage, my town” or “climate-controlled storage, my town.”
For this reason, you should focus your energy on GMB. Your first task is to set up and verify your business on Google. Detailed information is provided on How to Add or Claim Your Business Profile on Google. Once you have that completed, it’s time to start getting those reviews.
We understand that organic reviews are the best reviews. When customers leave a genuine review of your business, it sounds natural. That’s not to say, however, that you can ask for reviews. It’s great customer service to engage with someone directly about their experience with your business.
Your customers are busy, so you want to make the process as easy as possible for them. Do this by giving them a simple link to click on that will take them directly to your GMB page.
There are two options to link your review form. We recommend the first, which is the shorter and less complicated of the two.
Google provides an easy way to get a direct short URL to the review form from the GMB platform.
To do this go to your GMB listing and from the menu go to “info” and then “Add short name.”
Enter the short name of your choice into the text box. It must be unique and have a maxim of 32 characters. If Google doesn’t approve this short name, it will suggest an alternative.
Once your short name is approved, it will appear on your business profile.
You’ll see a “Get More Reviews” prompt, together with a link on the “Home” page of your GMB listing. Copy the link and use it in emails or other communication that you send to your clients requesting reviews.
If your company name is generic, it may be difficult to locate. Adding all or part of your address to your search query should make it easier to find your business.
When you click on the Google review button, a box will appear. Copy the URL from the address bar into the box. It will look something like this:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=superb+digital#lrd=0x48718c32cd8ff36d:0x9a6103cc070a8c6e,3,,,
Shorten the URL to make it more user-friendly. A good URL shortening service is https://bitly.com/. Copy and paste your long URL into the box that says “Shorten URL” or “Shorten Your Link.”
Copy your short URL and paste it into emails and other communications that you send to all of your current and new clients.
Reviews are more powerful than you realize. People are influenced by online reviews and depend on them to make informed buying decisions. Don’t be afraid to ask for reviews. Encourage your customers to leave reviews by providing a link to your GMB page review form. Your business and your brand identity will grow.
