If you have ever asked yourself why are Google Local reviews important, the answer is reputation.
Reviews are important for every business because they can both raise and lower the level of confidence that consumers have in a certain business. In addition, it’s even better if you can make sure that those reviews can be easily found when conducting a usual search with the help of a popular search engine like Google.So why are Google Local reviews important?
In the specific case of Google, this has become a goal harder to achieve because the popular search engine no longer associates businesses with the reviews they have received on websites like Yelp. Therefore, nowadays, if you want to benefit from the popularity that Google can bring to your business you will have to rely on Google Local reviews. These reviews are so important because they have a direct influence over the ranking that your business gets in search engine results pages.
Therefore, because a Google Local review can make all the difference, you should always do your best in order to get your hands on as many such reviews as possible. The only problem is that most consumers think about leaving such a review behind only when they feel disappointed about a certain product or service, so most of the business reviews that they are willing to provide tend to be negative. If you want to put a stop to these practices, you will have to do your best in order to boost interest in writing positive reviews.
You should start by sending a special message to all the consumers in your email list and to all those following you on social networks such as Facebook.
In that message, you should ask them to consider visiting Google Places and leaving behind a review of your business. In addition, if you run the type of business that involves follow-up cards, you should also remember to use those cards in order to ask your customers to consider writing a Google Local review. For popularizing this message among your customers, you should even use the signs that you display around the cash register or a flyer that you can easily deliver along with the receipt that every customer needs to leave with. You can use only one of these ideas or incorporate all of them in a long-term plan to increase the number of Google reviews related to your business.
What you should avoid doing is interesting customers in writing such reviews by tempting them with all sorts of incentives. Google frowns upon such practices because it sees them as conflict of interest. In the beginning you may think it’s ok because it’s virtually impossible for Google to learn of your practices but never be too sure.
The competition will always be on the lookout, trying to take advantage of your mistakes, so they are likely to find out about your dishonesty. The negative consequences will start appearing when the news of your practices gets to Google because you are likely to find your search rankings worse than ever.
The only thing you can do for the consumers willing to post reviews is offer guidance on the how part.
Feel free to share your thoughts on the matter by posting a comment below.
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