Google Reviews for your business are not just a way to showcase your happy clients and garner feedback about your products and services. They can also add to your SEO and improve search rank and CTR (Click Through Rate). Read on to find out how you can get free Google reviews.
Google Reviews Mean Trust
Google reviews in particular will help to show people that you are a business operating in their local area, that can be trusted. They can also act as a way to increase your presence online; by expanding your Google My Business entry on search results and Google Maps. They are also used as a ranking factor within Google’s local search pack.
Increasing exposure and the chance that your listing will be clicked, over your competitors. The more Google Search ‘Real Estate’ you can occupy with your Google Maps – My Business listing the better.
How To Get More Google Reviews
It can be easy to get reviews from customers, if you go about it the right way. Make it easy for them, it should not take more than a couple of minutes to do. Catch them at a good point in your relationship and send them a direct link to leave a review for you on Google. Read on to find out how to create your own link for people to leave you a review on Google.
Free Review Platforms showing on Google Side Panel
There are a handful of other free review platforms that will further expand your Google side panel, showing in the “Reviews from the Web” section and increasing the amount of space your business takes up on the SERP. For general purposes you can use Facebook, Yell.com (good for localised searches), TrustPilot and others. You can also find some industry specific free review platforms that relate to your business.
For example we use Bark.com which gathers reviews from the web and shows them on your profile page, this in turn is reflected in the Google My Business listing side panel.
The best way to find out which industry specific review platforms you can use for your business is to research your competitors and see which ones are showing reviews on their Google listing.
Get Your Google Review Link
One easy way to create the link is using the Google Review Link Generator, on the White Spark website below. Just enter your company name and find the corresponding Google Maps listing. The website will then generate your specific link, that you can use to direct clients where to leave you a review.
https://whitespark.ca/google-review-link-generator/
Google Review Link Update
Google have recently released a new feature within your My Business features. Yes you can get a unique shortened link to request more Google reviews directly from your My Business dashboard. It will generate a direct link to your Google Maps listing reviews, like this one…
https://g.page/seoGB/review?gm
Just login to your Google My Business dashboard and look for the button in the image below. If you found this post and information useful, don’t be shy, leave us a review on the link above 👍
How do I politely ask for a Google review?
You then need to send the Google review link you’ve created to your customers by email, social media or even a text message; if that works for them. Include a polite request for an honest review, encouraging 5 stars and even a gesture of thanks if you see fit (don’t offer to pay for the review or anything as a direct result). Sit back and watch those glowing reviews flood in.
How do I increase my Google reviews?
For the less tech savvy clients out there, that may be concerned about clicking an unfamiliar link; you could always create a customised Google Review Handout PDF. Which takes them through the process of manually creating a review and even a Google account if they need one. Include your company logo and contact details, just in case they get completely lost and need your help. See the link here for the Google Review Handout Generator.
Google Reviews Schema Markup
Alongside the benefit of increasing your company trust and profile in local search results; teamed with some SEO coding and schema on your website, these reviews can be used to make your listings in search results stand out more prominently compared those of your competitors. This has been shown to increase the CTR on organic search results.
Product, service and company reviews can all be used in this way and really highlight your Google search result listing. Read this other post to find out how you can add the reviews schema into your website and get stars in Google search results.
Founder and strategic mind behind White Rabbit. Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, focused on serving clients with a creative and ethical business model. Digital philanthropist giving time to support charitable groups, projects and organisations; that revolve around the arts, wildlife conservation, local community and heritage crafts.
