How to Get More Local Reviews?
Local business competition is becoming more aggressive than ever. Google is betting that location authority and local reviews will offer the best results for local searches.
In addition, 82% of consumers consult online reviews before visiting a local business. Local reviews are important for both your brand’s social proof and SEO value.
Let’s understand:
6 Tips to Get Local Reviews for Your Business
List Your Business on Several Relevant Listing Sites & Review Sites
Local SEO can be very competitive, but a lot of it is just creating listings. Google My Business listings are at the top of the list because the search engine crawls through this information and considers it to be the most genuine business data.
To increase your business’s visibility, you should list it on popular business directories, niche listing platforms, and local listing platforms.
There are a number of ways to increase your brand’s visibility online. These sites will help you do that.
Building your location authority is important for ranking well in local searches.
Listings that allow you to grab more reviews for your local business are great.
So, try building comprehensive business listings on platforms like:
- Google My Business
- Yelp
- TripAdvisor
- Foursquare
- Facebook and LinkedIn
- Bing Places
- Expertise
- Angi
To find local directories, search for “your city + business directory” or “your city + chamber of commerce.” For niche-specific directories, search for terms like “trade associations” or “industry associations” along with your keywords. You can also find local directories by searching for “your city + business directory” or “your city + chamber of commerce.” For niche-specific directories, try searching for terms like “trade associations” or “industry associations” along with your keywords. Google meets the needs of over 97 billion local intent searches every month. You are more likely to be seen by people who are looking for what you have to offer if you list your business on relevant listings. Most of the popular listing platforms have high site authority, which means they are more likely to appear at the top of search engine results. This allows them to appear in the top search results. It’s beneficial to be active on social media platforms.
Optimize and Update Your Business Listings Regularly
Today, consumers value social proof and make review-driven decisions. Before committing to a product or service, consumers will read at least 10 reviews.
Business review sites and business listing sites are both platforms where customers can leave reviews about businesses. These platforms are important for businesses because they provide a place for customers to share their opinions. You need to be present and have a good reputation on the sites that matter for your business. Here are some tips for organizing your listings:
- NAP Consistency:Keep consistency in your business name, address, and phone number.
- Detailed Business Categories:Define the primary category and sub-categories of your business. Also, use competitor research to find the right sub-categories.
- Services:List your main service/product offerings. And also compliment them with sub-services.
- Comprehensive Description:Define your business USPs, services, the problem you solve, and the “Why choose us” element. Also, utilize the character length (750 characters in GMB) smartly to build relevancy. And include your service-specific and location-specific keywords in your description.
- Business Hours:Mention and regularly update your business hours or service hours.
- Reviews & Ratings:Win reviews on your listing profiles. And comment on each review to showcase a personal connection with your customers.
- Images:Allows users to check your business venue, menu, staff, or specialty through images.
- Posts/Offers:Build posts to showcase updates (new opening, event, new product launch, etc.). And also build offers to attract direct inquiries/leads.
A good listing helps you build authenticity, grow visibility, and attract more reviews.
Request Feedback from Delighted Customers
Social sentiment and reviews greatly affect businesses. A small problem with your service is enough to make them leave a bad review.
Even though they had a great experience, they were reluctant to post a positive review. The screenshot shows how to collect feedback through surveys, personalized emails, and messages.
You need to set up several review request channels to encourage them to review your work. Some tips include:
Make sure to get their email address and phone number when they are paying. You should use these channels to improve customer relationships, send updates and offers, and request reviews.
Make sure your staff is trained to subtly request reviews from delighted customers. ” We are interested in hearing about your experience. Please leave feedback!” could go a long way.
Add the feedback form along with your bill receipt. Your customers can use a QR code to rate and review your business online.
The goal of this is to make it easier for your customers to write reviews. You can give your users a few default review messages to choose from while they are filling out your form. Make sure this looks subtle and not self-proclaimed.
Establish a Subtle Feedback Generation Strategy
Make sure to collect feedback regularly as part of your business processes. This will help you make more informed decisions and avoid potential problems down the road. Although consumers carry out search engines based on reviews, they realize that reviews are essential. A more subtle feedback generation strategy is less likely to offend someone.
So, here are some tips for your feedback generation strategy:
You could try asking your customers for feedback while they’re in your store, or during the billing process.
and text messages. Include a link to your GMB profile, Yelp listing, or website review page in your review requests sent via email or text message.
Customer feedback is important in order to improve customer satisfaction. Tools like CustomerSure, SurveyMonkey, and GetFeedback can help automate the process of obtaining customer feedback.
Personalize your emails and messages to customers who are pleased with your product or service, and include review request links.
Track the Customer Sentiment around Your Brand
You will need to keep track of when people mention your brand and when they do not mention your brand but could have given a review. There are tools you can use to see if anyone is talking about your brand or product online. Google Alerts and Mention are two examples. These tools can be used to set up alerts for when the brand is mentioned.
You can increase the chances of getting positive reviews by checking for them and highlighting them on your site. You can also request a backlink from these webmasters. If you see a negative review or mention, you can manage it by talking to the reviewer or webmaster. A good way to see how well your business is doing is to compare it to your competitor’s publicity. This exercise allows you to see what platforms your competitors are using. You can post your listings on the same platforms and attract reviews from there.
Thank Your Positive Reviewers and Smartly Manage Negative Reviews
When developing a feedback generation strategy, it is important to also create a review management strategy.
A crucial aspect of this strategy is to manage how customers feel.
So, you must respond to your user-generated reviews. Praising a customer for their positive review is a great way to show your appreciation and improve customer loyalty.
This person is most likely to become a loyal evangelist for your business.
Almost 9 out of 10 consumers expect and appreciate brands that respond to feedback.
This engagement inspires other users and provides social proof that the engagement is valuable. This will help you attract more reviews for your local business. You need to be smart about how you respond to negative reviews by being polite. Below is a screenshot of a user who has received negative feedback, yet there has been no response for five months. This indicates that the company is not concerned with providing a positive experience for its customers.
WHAT THE RESEARCH SAYS
Do reviews actually make a difference? Are they worth the time and effort?
The Short Answer: Tons of it!
BrightLocal is the leader in research on consumer reviews. -Unsigned contracts -Non-disclosure of material information -High-pressure or misleading sales tactics The 2016 Consumer Review Survey had some interesting results. Things to look out for include unsigned contracts, non-disclosure of material information, and high-pressure or misleading sales tactics.
KEEP REVIEWS PLENTIFUL: BUT HOW MANY IS ENOUGH?
When it comes to online local business reviews, safety is in numbers.
Consumers use reviews to make judgments about businesses almost instantly. More than half of consumers make a buying decision after reading between one and six reviews. Some people may read seven or eight reviews, but very few people (nine out of ten) will read more than ten reviews before making a decision.
If your most recent reviews are negative, customers will likely lose interest and not read any further. It is important to keep reviews regular, current, and positive.
KEEP REVIEWS POSITIVE: THE STAR SYSTEM
The star rating system is a way for people to trust online reviews. If you get more than three stars on a review, you’re probably doing okay. If you get less than three stars, you’re in trouble.
A quick rating system lets consumers know if they can trust a company, if other customers are satisfied, and what the company’s history is.
A rating of three stars is good, not great. But a perfect rating is not always necessary.
The majority of respondents understand that it’s unrealistic to have a perfect five-star rating, because people who have had a bad experience are more likely to leave a review.
The research indicates that only a small minority of consumers (8%) expect or demand outstanding performance (5 stars). Most consumers (the ‘vast majority’) are content with a business that delivers a more average level of performance (between 3 and 4 stars).
KEEP REVIEWS RECENT: OLD NEWS IS OLD NEWS
To have a successful business on Yelp, you need to have at least 7-8 positive reviews at the top of your list. These reviews should be written recently in order to be most effective.
BrightLocal reports that 73 percent of customers are not interested in reading reviews of local businesses that are older than 3 months, while 22 percent will only read reviews written in the last 2 weeks. This means that the majority of consumers are not interested in the reviews that are over 90 days old.
Many consumers understand that businesses, especially high turnover businesses like restaurants, can change quickly. They won’t rely on the recommendation of anyone who had a bad experience with the staff last year.
What do people think today, yesterday, and last weekend? But at the very least within the last month.
Companies that are family-run or have less turnover may be okay with older reviews, as long as the reviews are consistently positive. However, people tend to trust the present more than they trust the past.
But there is good news:
If you had a scathing review last summer, or a tirade of dissatisfied customers six months ago, it is less likely that anyone will give them credence as time passes. You can use this to your advantage to change the way people perceive you online.
If you don’t have positive reviews to replace old news, people will be forced to read negative reviews that are both outdated and negative. You will need to work harder to keep a consistent stream of positive reviews online.
KEEP REVIEWS TRUSTWORTHY: AVOID SPAMMING
Word of mouth advertising is more trustworthy than other forms of advertising. You are likely to trust the opinions of friends, colleagues, or family members when they tell you about great new skin care products or amazing mechanics.
Online reviews can be posted by anyone, but they have been shown to be as trustworthy and reliable as reviews from other sources.
You can make friends with almost anyone in the world by posting online. This means that 84% of people trust online reviews to be as credible as a personal recommendation from somebody else.
It is important for consumers to have access to accurate reviews in order to make informed decisions. This is because both the reviewer and the company being discussed need to maintain a sense of integrity.
A positive online review can be more influential than positive word-of-mouth recommendations, but if reviews seem phony, overly positive, or otherwise untrustworthy, they can dissuade customers from doing business with a company.
How Many Reviews Do I Need?
Real World Question: “OK, but how many reviews do I need? I don’t have that much time”
The Short Answer: As many as it takes.
This means that businesses need to be constantly monitoring what is being said about them online and working to improve their customer satisfaction. If you suddenly get a lot of new reviews and then nothing for months, it looks fake and spammy.
If you post too many reviews, the review site may filter them out or delete them. If you don’t have enough social media followers, it looks like you’re not legitimate and new customers may be hesitant to trust you.
Staying consistent is the key to having a positive online reputation. Starting with one review per week is a good goal. This gives you four reviews a month, which helps keep your customers’ feedback current and up-to-date.
It also gives you a regular reading of how the customers are responding to company changes. If you have a lot of good reviews from customers and then they suddenly start getting negative after you make changes to your employees, products, or processes, you can see how much it’s affecting your customers.
The National Association of Retail Marketing Services reports that if a company efficiently resolves customer complaints, 95% of those customers will continue to do business with that company.
A negative review provides an opportunity to improve customer satisfaction and attract more business. Here are a few tips to handling negative reviews.
- Don’t feel the need to respond right away, develop an action plan and then respond professionally but don’t wait more than 24 hours.
- Own the mistake, don’t place blame on another employee, vendor, or department.
- Come up with a solution before you approach the customer so you are ready to fix what went wrong and leave the customer whole. Offer an alternative solution they can’t refuse.
- Make the experience memorable and easy. Don’t ask them to jump through several more hoops to resolve their issue, like email us to help us solve your issue. Roll out the red carpet and handle it.
