Obviously, providing amazing customer service and exceptional products/services is the secret to raving reviews on Yelp, Foursquare, Google+ Local, and many more websites. However, actually getting your clients to leave these reviews can be a bit tricky. Not everyone has time to leave reviews, and often, those that find the time are just looking to vent about a problem. We have gathered our most effective ways to get the high quality reviews you need to rank well in local search:
Having the ability to contact your customers is crucial if you want to receive high quality reviews from them. Sure, some people may go online and write one on their own, but chances are they will need a little bit of prompting, which is best done via email. However, it’s important you never ask for a positive review. Yes, that’s what you want, but it is greatly frowned upon by Google and most of the review websites. Instead, just ask for their honest opinion.
As mentioned, most negative reviews are just a chance for an upset customer to vent, but they can have a big impact on your business in the long run. To prevent this from happening, offer your customers a survey immediately after your service is complete. This way, they will have an opportunity to air out any issues they had, and you will have a chance to rectify the situation before it is made public.
Better yet, if you get a positive survey response, you can personally say thank you, offer a coupon to show your appreciation, and then politely ask them to leave a review online (along with a link to make it easy on them). But make it clear the future discount is for their already completed survey, not in exchange for a review. Bribing is a big no-no.
There are so many high quality review websites out there that it would take your customers days to leave a review on all of them. It’s your job to direct them to the ones that are the most influential for your industry. To find out, simply perform a Google search (e.g. landscapers in Connecticut) and take some time to explore the top local search listings. Open the pop-up window for each of the local pack results, and see which review websites Google is linking to. Those are the ones you should focus on.
You know you need backlinks, quality content, and geo-targeted keywords to rank in local search, but did you realize that the reviews your customers are leaving online also play a role? It’s true. In fact, SEO Hermit predicts they will soon take over the #1 ranking factor for local search. After all, Google doesn’t want to recommend shoddy businesses to its customers, but they can’t exactly visit every business to see how great it is. Instead, they rely on the high quality reviews left by your customers.
If you want to improve your local search rankings, high quality reviews are crucial. While the above steps will absolutely help, it all comes down to the service you provide to your customers.
For more ideas on how to get high quality reviews, contact Zero Gravity Marketing today.