Encouraging reviews

[SEOSponge]

Has anyone tried building a page in their website top encourage reviews?

I found this company and I really like how they are encouraging reviews without soliciting them, clean, simple, instructions are great:

http://fortecommercialcleaning.com/reviews

We are thinking of putting our own spin on it without scraping content, being original etc.

I don't think it breaks any guideline rules.

Thoughts?

[SEOSponge]

Hey Miriam,

Thanks for sharing the article, digging into it later this morning.

Jon

[MiriamEllis]

Hi SEOSponge,

I need to provide a dissenting opinion here. I think the page you've linked to absolutely violates Yelp's guidelines and that they would definitely have a problem with it. To quote David Mihm's recent awesome piece on review filters and, particularly, Yelp (totally recommend you read this: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/review-filters-in-local-search

• Don't ask anyone to review your business on Yelp.
• Don't ask anyone to review your business on Yelp.
• Don't ask anyone to review your business on Yelp.

That pretty much sums it up, and I feel that Yelp would find this commercial cleaning company's page to be a violation of that. Google is getting stricter, too, with each passing year.

I recommend that you read David's piece and, in particular, that you follow the links he provides to the guidelines of each of some of the major review players. Some platforms do not appear to care if your encourage reviews, but others definitely do, so if you're considering creating a page like the one you've pointed to, I would recommend only including those platforms that aren't so dead set against review solicitation.

An alternative that might be worth considering is to not ask at all, but to use your strong review profiles for bragging rights; i.e. 'Check out our 5 star reviews on X'. That way, incoming customers are made aware that you have review profiles, but you're not asking for anything. This might be a safer way to go. But, if you do want to go with a 'Submit A Review' page, definitely don't put Yelp on it, and carefully read the guidelines of other entities to see if you feel safe including them.

Hope this helps!

[Charlene-Wingfield]

I would add call to action buttons for each business directory.  Not text links.

[matbennett]

It works well too  - especially when you tell them how easy it is "if they happen to have a gmail account"

The time I have included it on site is at the end of an online process.  For instance, if someone buys digital goods online.  That's a great time to hit them - on the confirmation.

I have never (that I can think of) had such a page added as a navigable page on a site.  I suppose that it could work well if linked in from pages focused on existing customer - maybe support  type stuff.

[SEOSponge]

The idea of sending a pre-selected message to a gmail user is a great idea, simple but brilliant.

So you are thinking stay away from the idea of building an actual web page on our site?

[matbennett]

Here is an absolute winning strategy: Do that... but do it in an email.  If you time that email right the review rate can go through the roof.

On transactional sites this is really easy: Send a brief mail explaining how important reviews are (and how easy) the day after you know the goods were delivered.  However non transactional stuff often falls in to a cycle as well.

I also quite like to pre-select the message that people get.  For instance those with a gmail address will be pushed more to those all important google+ local pages.

[TomRayner]

You're very welcome

Have a great Friday and weekend!

[SEOSponge]

Tom, again: great feedback and I appreciate your help.

That McDonalds page is terrific. Just gave me more to think about!

[TomRayner]

Hello again!

I think that's a very good idea.  In the past, I have encouraged people to think about offering incentives for reviews, such as a 10% discount for returning customers who review, but this can sometimes get you in hot water with review sites, which I think you're wary about.

I like this site's idea about encouraging reviews and they've done very well to show how quick and simple it can be to leave one.  That's a very good idea.

I'd be keen to promote how feedback can help improve your business - I'm a firm believer, both as a client and as a business owner, that direct feedback and response from your client is the most constructive criticism you can get.

I'd push this sentiment more on a replica page - say how integral customers are and how important it is that we (the company) get things right for you (the consumer).

Not only would you be getting valuable reviews, I also think it helps with indirect brand awareness.  This company, to me, looks like a company that believes in the consumer, values and actions on feedback and is transparent with how they're performing (great example of this is SEOMoz).  It reminds me of this page from the McDonalds Canada website.  It's a public Q&A and very few questions go unanswered - they address the whole "pink sludge" and "your burgers never decompose" issues.  I'm sure we all have our opinions on McDonalds, but you can't help but think on this page, for McDonalds Canada at least, that the openness and transparency paints their brand very positively, all the while creating a nice resource for the user, a place to show that they listen to their customers, and creating a nice strong page with a number of quality links to boot!

If you think this page could provide worth to your site, then I'd definitely go for it, for the reasons above.  There's nothing wrong with taking inspiration from elsewhere - so long as you make it your own and, better yet, improve it.