Google Plus Reviews
-
Hi,
I am working with a brick and motor store and trying to figure out the best ways to obtain Google plus reviews. Personally speaking I think the best way to receive a review is at checkout. Checkout can take about 10-15 min and would be a great time to ask for a review. However, I run into a problem with logistics in obtaining the review and needed help deciding which option to choose or if another option existed?
Option:
1. Ask the customer to give a review on our companies Google account? However, this leads to multiple reviews from a single entity, which I would only assume is not a correct way to obtain reviews.
2. Ask the customer to sign in to their Google account. This can be a little invasive and I do not want to turn the customer away from a sale.
Am I missing another alternative? Any help would be great, thanks!
-
Michael,
Another avenue you could consider is to create and print out a simple business card sized instruction note (cheap from VistaPrint). You keep these at your counter/front desk and when a customer is checking out, you can simply provide that to them and ask after they check out. We have worked with dentists and a party rental shop with 4 locations who had some decent success with this strategy.
_EDIT: You can also create the same card and offer an incentive on there for their next trip into the store or office, sort of what Jed was getting at above. _
You are merely asking them for a review and handing them a card with some simple instructions to follow at their leisure from the phone or computer. You also avoid any potential "red flags" which a large email blast could generate with lots of people simultaneously leaving reviews on a given day or week. Google sees this as "solicitation" in their terms for receiving reviews. Google wants you to EARN reviews, so stick with more natural approaches to this process and you'll see results and steer clear of any Google mishaps
Hope this was helpful!! - Patrick
-
If you have a current database of clients emails we have found that a simple e-mail campaign asking for a review if the customer is satisfied is effective
-
Michael,
A technique we have used with success is to do a follow up call to see how things went for the customer. what is great about this is that you also find out about anyone who is unhappy so you can deal with any issues they may have. If you run into happy customers validate them and ask them if they would mind writing a quick review. Find out what review sites they are comfortable with and send over the link. People are usually happy to do this if they are happy. overall customers feel lie your company cares and this enhances their overall experience.
If you are on word press there are several review and testimonial plug ins to keep this easier. optimally you would put in a review plug in that would link to external review sites as well as a testimonial plug in so that people who are not comfortable with external review sites. The plug in should preferably do automatic schema mark up on testimonials so that these are properly indexed.
Ron
-
Offer an incentive. A percentage off coupon, discount at register etc... Give them a card with your promotion and page info to connect and review. that way your CS doesn't have to make it awkward asking about it and they can read and decide if that percentage off is worth it.
Card Copy Example- "Show us your review on our Google+ page and receive 5% off your next purchase."
-
Hi Miriam,
Thank you for the response and links that helped a ton!
-
Hi Michael!
Glad you asked! You definitely do not want your customers using your company's Google account or using a review kiosk in your store as both will likely result in your listing falling under suspicion and your reviews being removed. Yikes - don't want that!
The customer must always use his or her own account to leave you a review and you must never post reviews on behalf of a customer, or you will be violating Google's own guidelines about this.
The best place to start in formulating your company's review acquisition strategy will be with a quick study of Google's review policies:
https://support.google.com/business/answer/2622994?hl=en&topic=1656880&ctx=topic&rd=1
I then highly recommend Phil Rozek's exhaustive post on review acquisition:
And then go through all of the resources linked to at the end of his post.
Once you've gotten through all of that, you are going to know a TON about this area of marketing and should be creating your store's strategy from an extremely educated basis. Hope this helps!
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
-
Google My Business right had side block disapeared for a brand search
Hi Just redeveloped my site and went live end of April Since then whenever i do a branded search the GMB 'pack' has always shown on the right hand side whenever i do a branded search but it has disapeared as of the last couple of days. Any ideas why this can happen ? and is it anything to worry about or just a google 'glitch' that should right itself soon? If not any ideas how to fix ? (accounts and website all properly linked) etc When i go to GMB dashboard and click 'View on Search' it does show up as it should, but not when i go to do a google search for the brand name !? All Best Dan
Reviews and Ratings | | Dan-Lawrence1 -
Any experiences with Reviews.io?
Hello, We have used Trustpilot.com for a few years in the past. Service was reasonable and they did what they were supposed to do. However, due to their price and requirement for a full-year payment upfront we stopped using their review collection service. Is someone using Reviews.io? They are included in Google Review Partners, which seems to be very encouraging:
Reviews and Ratings | | the-global-communicator
https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2375474?hl=en Also, they have a decent price for their intermediary package (about $ 89/month) and don't require a yearly contract like Trustpilot and some others. Any experiences you could share about Reviews.io will be appreciated. Luciano, The Translation Company Group0 -
Client wants to delete Google My Business Due to Bad Review
My client has received a bad review on Google and although has other good ones, wants to delete the current Google My Business page and open a new one. I disagree with this strategy but need some evidence to back it up. They are ranking well and so I don't want to upset the cart. I need reasons not to in terms of potentially harming rankings. Am I right that this could impact?
Reviews and Ratings | | AL123al3 -
How many reviews should i have previewed for marking up a page?
I have a separate /reviews URL, but want to markup the main page with aggregate reviews and also add preview reviews on there. Roughly, how many reviews do I need on the page in order to markup with aggregate review?
Reviews and Ratings | | imjonny1230 -
If I use schema markup for my google reviews, would it be smart to have Google review's on my home page?
Hello, Moz's I'm thinking about added scheme markup to show my google reviews. I have a 4.8 rating and 25 reviews. I'm thinking about added scheme markup to show my google reviews. I have a 4.8 rating and 25 reviews. My first question is: when people see that and then visit my site, would it be good to have the Google reviews on the home page? My second questions is: Is there any reason why I wouldn't want to add this to my site? None of my competition has done this, so I'm a little apprehensive? Thanks in advance 🙂
Reviews and Ratings | | MissThumann0 -
Will adding schema markup to copied Google reviews show up in organic search?
Google no longer favors my client's industry with Google reviews in local Snack Pack results, but a national competitor has markup for site-based reviews that are showing up in organic results, which is a big, shiny, advantage. Rather than have to solicit reviews in two places (Google and the site), I'm wondering if it would be possible/advisable to copy and paste the Google reviews into the site and mark them up there, in an attempt to get Google to feature the rating in the organic SERP result? I don't know if this would work though, since I'm guessing part of the reason that Google accepts the competitor reviews is because they are verified purchases, which wouldn't be possible just cutting and pasting. But is it worth a try? It's too bad though, Google is effectively only showing handpicked, "national" reviews, which does local customers a disservice. Thank you!
Reviews and Ratings | | PerfectPitchConcepts1 -
Does advertising on Yelp help a business get more Yelp reviews?
I've gotten this question from a few clients. There seems to be a correlation in some cases between paying to advertise on Yelp, and the volume of reviews received. Of course, correlation does not necessarily equal causation. And I can attest to the fact that other clients who have at times advertised on Yelp did not even see a correlation. Has anyone else seen this correlation? And if so, can you speak to the possible causation or lack thereof?
Reviews and Ratings | | irapasternack0 -
Google maps, G+ and Google reviews on right hand side of results page:
Hi Guys Happy Monday! I have been having a real headache trying to the get that panel on the right hand side of the Google results showing up when my company brand is entered as a search query. From all the research that I have done, it looks as though you can't have this panel showing unless you serve customers face to face in your place of work. Is this necessarily true? Our biggest competitor has a very stripped down version of this box which just contains the image from their Google+ page and also a link to their wikipedia page but the point is it shows up when you search for their brand... ours doesn't? Has anyone else recently configured this to work for their website? Any advice? Cheers in advance! Jamie
Reviews and Ratings | | SanjidaKazi0