Here are some ideas for encouraging more reviews of your business. Some come from my own personal experiences as a review site “super user” and some are simply good old-fashioned common sense. Your comments are welcome. Just no 1-star ratings please!
Take part in the very best review sites.
Not all review sites are produced equal. Search for those that have features to cut back fake reviews and give business owners tools for responding to reviews buy google reviews. Activate your business account and optimize your business listing (it’s free). By claiming your listing you will receive notices when new reviews are posted and traffic reports on what many users viewed your business page each week.
Be proactive with all your reviews.
Thank your reviewers due to their feedback, both positive and negative, in a regular manner. Yelp.com, the largest review site, allows business owners to respond publicly or privately to your reviews. A personal message is a superb method to acknowledge a writer and it shows you’re paying attention as the business owner. Caution: don’t be rude or defensive in just about any way. I’ve seen this backfire big time whenever a reviewer publicly posted the business owner’s rude response making use of their updated (and much more negative) review! Be sure to see my upcoming post on how best to respond effectively to negative reviews.
Take advantage of offers in your listing page.
Some review sites such as for example Yelp allows businesses to create offers on their listing page. Since users of the sites are more probably be active reviewers themselves, you are directing your offer to the most effective online “influencers” ;.
Link to examine sites in your website.
Include the site logo along with your other social media marketing links, “Follow us on…” Again, I’d only connect to the absolute most responsible online review sites like Yelp.
Promote your presence on review sites.
Add a link in your e-newsletter, include it in your advertising and social media marketing pages. You may even blog about your reviews and link back once again to the particular review page. Don’t let several negative posts make you wish to run and hide. Your existing customer base obviously thinks well of you or they wouldn’t be doing business with you, so preach it to your choir!
Point-of-Sale signage.
Many review sites offer point of sale materials, such as for example static clings and stickers that retailers can attach for their door or check out to market their site.
Be active in the Online Community.
Be a dynamic reviewer yourself. It’s an effective way to achieve comprehension of the community and fun to accomplish! Just don’t review your own business or your competitors. You’ll likely get caught at it and the penalty isn’t with the risk.
Lastly, it is recognized as bad etiquette to directly solicit friends and customers for reviews. And truth be told, this tactic may not do any good. Some review sites are suffering from algorithms to filter out reviews from one-time reviewers or those with incomplete profiles because they tend to be less credible or even fake. However, promoting your business’s presence on a particular review sites is an excellent practice and will naturally result in more and higher quality reviews. Online reviews not only benefit your website’s internet search engine optimization, your recommendations advertising!