How useful is Google Plus to a business?
-
Is Google Plus really very beneficial to a business, as our experience is that this is where difficult customers or even competitors can write bad reviews?
-
Although Google is not so famous, I found it to be helpful in 2 ways personally.
Some groups also regularly publish content unique to a company niche, of course. If you'd like to join these groups, then you're still under the same group.
A Google+ page is much more powerful to have for my company (business Coaching in Pakistan) than it has a personal profile. In particular it will only work for you if you're a local company and have a checked position on Google Post Card.
-
Hi Li,
Google+ Local is pretty much essential for any local business. These days, direct links to the Google+ Local page are very hard to find due to cosmetic changes Google has been making to the way they present data, but, the information you provide in the Google My Business dashboard is what will then be displayed in the local packs of results, the local finder view, Google Maps and any Knowledge Panel results you have. So, yes, it's really important.
While it's true that customers now have the freedom to leave reviews whenever and wherever they wish to, there are 3 very important things to consider regarding this.
1. All of your competitors are in the same boat. They face the reality of both positive and negative reviews, and to fail to join in is likely going to cost you business.
2. The best insurance against earning too many negative reviews is awesome customer service. Do your best job in training your staff to treat customers excellently and you should mainly earn positive reviews.
3. And here's something quite fascinating. Surveys like this one from GetFiveStars indicate that a core motivation for consumers is to reward excellent service. While it's true that some consumers are also motivated to leave reviews when service was really negative, it can lessen concern to realize that the business owner is actually in a position of great control if the excellent service he provides can generate the positive reviews he wants to earn.
Hope this helps!
-
Hey,
I assume this is why you don't want to show the reviews feature? Google+ is a great tool if you are a local business. Being in the UK, we tend to find that not a lot of people use it as a social platform and is solely used to help businesses get found in the local pack in search results.
There are several things you can do to sort review issues such as the ones you mentioned. With difficult customers, I would recommend implementing a feedback process that allows customers to express their thoughts but 'behind closed doors'. Try and resolve the issue via a phone call or email before they decide to leave a bad review.
My other recommendation would be to implement a review strategy, so if someone does leave a bad review on your Google+ page, you will have plenty of other good reviews to balance it out.
To deal with competitors leaving fake reviews, I would suggest you read this post: https://www.bowlerhat.co.uk/how-to-remove-fake-reviews-on-google/
I hope this helps
https://www.bowlerhat.co.uk/how-to-remove-fake-reviews-on-google/
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How to make Google show reviews from Facebook and Google My Business?
I wonder if there is anything I can do to increase the chance that Google shows stars that indicate the average score of our reviews from Facebook or Google MyBusiness for the keywords where we rank nr. 1, for instance our brand name?
Reviews and Ratings | | AudunBK0 -
Do Product Ratings or Reviews Improve Google Rankings?
The is a lot of info on the web about how business reviews/ratings improve local search result rankings. However do product ratings or reviews improve PDP/PLP/Homepage (not local) rankings?
Reviews and Ratings | | rigelcable0 -
I just found original business name for client - its not the same as GMB or any aggregate site. What to do?
the business filing with the Secretary of State is a name of an individual (e.g. Matthew Smith, M.D.). This is on reflected on Localeze and such. However, the business is operating under a name "Healthy Body and Minds Clinic", which is the Facebook, Google My Business, and website name and info. So, how is it best to get consistency in NAP with the two different business names being used? (Ideally, no change in State registration or filing for a DBA). Thanks much! One idea I have seen is to include both and separate them by a colon. As in "Healthy Body and Minds Clinic : Matthew Smith, M.D." I appreciate any suggestions or tips to help. Thanks.
Reviews and Ratings | | Marky_Mark0 -
Bug In Google System. Google Says Is Not Bug.
Hello Moz fellowship. Ive been learning and following SEO and local optimization for many years. MOZ has been a SEO playbook and bible for me. Im running into a transparency issue with Google and need some help please. I sent Google GMB this email:Hello GMB "Hello GMB There is a bug in your system that revises a previously posted review date to a become a new current post date. The bug occurs when someone updates a previously posted review with new pictures or deletes and updates new pictures. When the deletion occurs and new pictures are uploaded, the old review becomes the new date of the picture updates. This bug allows an old review to become a new review. I can send screen shots and can explain how I found this out if Google would like. Basically it doesn't show a true representation of the time line of posted reviews. Thank you"Google GMB support on the phone says it is not a bug. The problem is that its show non-factual and untruthful timeline information to potential consumers because of the original review date changes. The rep says that example: a reviewer from 3 years ago original review could show up as the most recent review with the most recent date. The main problem is, any consumer shopping and doing research would misinterpret this as being the newest review when it was not. On GMB dashboard the date gets revised to show the latest date. There is no notation that the review is old or that there has been a modification to the original review. So where is the transparency on Google's side to show the customer the actual real date of the review? This problem opens up a can of worms for millennials trying to make it happen and for business owners that are trying their best to become better at their service, etc. Especially when you want the newest review and not something from years ago or months ago or dealing with a potential harassing customer who knows the bug exist and will take advantage of the flaw and constantly update his review so it shows as being the 1st all the time. How does the online customer know this is happening?thank you.
Reviews and Ratings | | Carwrapsolutions0 -
Do people receive notifications when you respond to their Google reviews?
If someone leaves a review of your business on your Google My Business listing, and you respond to that review, will they receive an email notification of your response to their review? We are working with a client who has unanswered reviews from several years ago, and though it's best practice to respond to all reviews, we didn't want to respond to reviews from 2013 if the person (who has likely forgot about their experience with the business in question) is going to get an email notifying them of our late response to their review. Thank you!
Reviews and Ratings | | BlueCorona1 -
What types of businesses does Google display reviews in SERP for?
In just the last week, it seems like Google has removed reviews for businesses in our industry (staffing), which is unfortunate since we've been working hard for those reviews. The effect has been to be completely left off the local google business results. One week, we're at the top of the business reviews with our location prominently featured on the map and the next, we aren't even listed. It seems like there must be list of industries in which Google takes reviews into account (or if they do, then at least displays the reviews in the results). For us, up until last week, if you searched "temp agencies", these reviews were included in SERP. Now, nothing. Is this fairly normal behavior for Google?
Reviews and Ratings | | Parker8180 -
Google Knowledge graph card
Hi everyone, I've got quite a lot of good reviews on Google My Business, but I don't know how to get these to appear on my Knowledge Card. Any ideas for importing these across? I'd also like to include my social media tags in this card, but the HTML that I've tried to use has added the text to my homepage, whereas I wanted it invisible on the homepage but the social tags to show up in search. Cheers!
Reviews and Ratings | | SwanseaMedicine0 -
Thoughts on google plus page
Looking for feedback on a client's g+ page https://plus.google.com/116480272521087321856/about
Reviews and Ratings | | Atomicx0