Encouraging reviews
-
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?
-
Hey Miriam,
Thanks for sharing the article, digging into it later this morning.
Jon
-
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!
-
I would add call to action buttons for each business directory. Not text links.
-
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.
-
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?
-
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.
-
You're very welcome
Have a great Friday and weekend!
-
Tom, again: great feedback and I appreciate your help.
That McDonalds page is terrific. Just gave me more to think about!
-
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.
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
-
Itunes review in serps
Does anyone know how Google takes the rating from iTunes? I have an app, and the iTunes page, appears in the results with a 1 star rating, even if we have on iTunes 4 stars. I need to know how Google reads the iTunes page, and how it displays the info from it
Image & Video Optimization | | Silviu0 -
Customer Reviews
Is it OK to only get reviews on Google and not on other citation directories? Should I focus on Google+ or Google Places?
Image & Video Optimization | | BobGW0 -
Google maps places - 3rd party review site's link not showing up
An example: https://plus.google.com/103109773317419974914/about?gl=us&hl=en This doctors place shows up with reviews from yahoo.com, citysearch.com and local.com. Our business has reviews from yelp, citysearch.com and couple of other places. What am I missing and how I can make sure those links show up? Thanks RYWwZZk
Image & Video Optimization | | nashk0 -
How to delete Google Places Negative Reviews?
Hi Friend, I have a question and hope you can help me answer. What is the best way to get rid of negative reviews or get the rating higher. Is it possible to get bad reviews removed from Google places? Quality Excellent: 3 Quality Good: 1 Quality Poor to fair: 4 Score Overall 10 out of 30: Poor to fair. Thanks in advance. KLLC
Image & Video Optimization | | KLLC0 -
Reviews not showing up in Google Places
We have had several clients tell us their customers are giving them reviews on Google Places, but the reviews are either not showing up at all, or they show up for one day and then disappear. Has anyone else seen this happening with their clients, or with their own website? What can we do to get Google to post the reviews or find out why the reviews are not appearing on the places listing? Thanks for any help.
Image & Video Optimization | | GregWalt0 -
Competition leaving bad reviews on our places page, what to do?
I have flagged the reviews as not useful from multiple IPs. I have attempted reporting the review as well. Google does nothing. It's very obvious that the review(s) are fake. Often all the other reviews of the person's profile are for different cities and all 5 stars for businesses that they are most likely doing SEO work for. Are (blackhat) SEOs using bad reviews as a technique to keep the competition out in your business/market? What did you do about it?
Image & Video Optimization | | adriandg0 -
Google Places 3rd Party Reviews...
I have a client in the wedding industry who has quite a few awesome reviews on WeddingWire and a few other wedding resources. I've looked at the competition on Google Places, and Google counts their WeddingWire reviews. However, Google is not showing or counting my client's WeddingWire reviews, when in fact my client has better ratings and more reviews. Any ideas on why this might be or how I can get Google to include these reviews for my client? Thanks so much!!
Image & Video Optimization | | Linwright0 -
Multiple Businesses in One Location + In One Google Places Account Under Review
HI, My Problem: Multiple businesses in one location, under one Google Places account, one being reviewed. My Question: see very bottom of this post Background: I am trying to help a client get both of his businesses ranking in Google Places. The problem is the office building has multiple doctors/practices in the same building and gave no business suite numbers to doctors that rent office space. Here is the list of the other businesses in the office: http://www.fullcirclefamilycare.com/health_care.htm. The problem escalates because the doctor I am trying to help has a chiropractic business & a spinal decompression business, both legal entities, both different registered company names, different phone numbers, and websites, but both located in this office building. He rents two offices (they should be suites) in the building. The problem escalates even more because the doctor has registered both locations (see below) in his Google Places account: Westchester Spinal Decompression Center
Image & Video Optimization | | WebBizIdeas
1241 Mamaroneck Avenue, White Plains, NY 10605 (914) 421-1502 Joint Effort Chiropractic
1241 Mamaroneck Ave., White Plains, NY 10605 (914) 368-7668
jointeffortchiro.com The first (spinal decompression) was registered a long time ago and ranks #1 for "spinal decompression white plains NY." The second he just confirmed the Google Post card a few weeks ago and has been under review since. More research so you can help me better: The "The Shop for Holistic Health / The Shop at Full Circle", a businesses location in the same office building has verified their account and ranks #1 for "women's health care white plains NY" and "midwife white plains NY." Another business,in the same office building "Keras-Donaghy Melissa S", has not claimed their listing and ranks #1 for "Women’s Health physical Therapist white plains NY" Another business, "Kuhl Josephine MD," has not claimed their listing ranks in the top 10 for "Adolescent Psychiatrist white plains NY." My Question: What do I do, wait it out and see if Google will remove the "under review" under his current Google Places account or do I add a suite number now and see if Google will send another post card? Or do I create a new account, add the business, add a suite number this time, and see if they will confirm it. I don't want to do this because the doctor already has 12 reviews on this Google Places account. If I do do this, what do I do with the Google Places account under review?0