People love reviews.
Reviews are powerful. Reviews can be the difference between purchasing from one store over another or eating at a new restaurant instead of going to Chipotle for the thousandth time (though it is delicious).
How many of you have not gone to a store, movie or restaurant because of poor or nonexistent reviews you saw (or didn’t see) on Google?
When it comes to Google+ Local…
between businesses that rank and businesses that don’t.
They also provide a better user experience.
At a bare minimum, aim to get 10 reviews as quickly as possible.
After 10 reviews, your ZAGAT rating will show in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) and Google’s new “Carousel” widget:
“But,” you ask,
“How do I get Google+ Local Reviews?”
There are many ways to go about this. Here are several:
Personalized E-mail Follow-up
Follow up with customers and ask them to leave a review. This should not be automated. Keep e-mails personal and relevant to each customer.
Handouts
Make it as easy as possible for your customers to leave you a review. By giving them a single-page handout with simple instructions on how to set up a Google+ account, find your page and leave a review, it makes it awfully hard not to do so. Alternatively, this handout can be sent via e-mail in addition to or instead of your personalized e-mail follow-up.
Business Real Estate
Consider also including instructions on how to review your business on your…
- Website
- Business Cards
- E-mail Signatures
Bonus Tip
Ask reviewers to mention your services in their reviews. This will get keywords included in your business’ reviews, which will help contribute to better rankings.
Warning
Avoid reviews from one-and-done users, reviews from the same IP address, and reviews in unnatural volumes (e.g. mass mailings).
Want to take your Google+ Local listing to the next level?
Questions? Comments? Suggestions of your own? Leave them below!
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