ashing Google Reviews for Local SEO //

Google reviews can have a big impact on your local search ranking. These reviews are also more important than you may think.

You might be missing out on a vital part of your effort: a solid review strategy.

Invest your time and effort in acquiring and maintaining new reviews to improve your local SEO. In your local market, maintaining a high number of reviews that are competitive is important.

What kind of Google reviews do you want?

All reviews are beneficial to a business, but certain reviews are more important than others in terms of SEO.

Always make sure that customers are leaving reviews with lots of text, where they discuss the services and experiences they have received.

You should include specific details about your service, such as:

• They were having a problem.
• Communication was a key aspect of their experience with your team.
• Results of service. Was their problem resolved?
• Name(s) of the employees they worked with
• Images of the work.

The keywords in the reviews are not ranking factors.

However, reviews can be displayed in search results. This is a great way to build trust when someone searches for specific services.

Reviews with images tend to stay at the top of the list longer

Google reviews that include visuals such as photos or videos can have a significant impact.

Visual content lends credibility and authenticity to reviews. These reviews also tend to remain at the top for a much longer period of time than reviews without pictures.

If you want to make sure that your positive reviews are at the top of the list, get more reviews with pictures.

What does it mean to “stay at top”?

The default view that a user sees when they navigate to the Google Business Profile of a business and click on their reviews is “Most Relevant.”

Google views reviews with images more as relevant, and they stay at the top longer than other reviews.

Encourage your customers to take a picture of the HVAC unit you just repaired, the roof that you just installed or the garage door spring you just replaced, and then add it to their review.

Monitor GBP reviews to gain strategic insight

Did you know only businesses with 4.0 star ratings and above will appear in searches that include “best” or a “top”?

Do you have a business that is currently rated above 4.0? This section is for you if the answer to this question is “I don’t Know!”

You can gain valuable insights by monitoring reviews every quarter.

Monitor fluctuations in the review volume to identify problems or trends such as:

• Losing reviews.
• Review count lagging behind the competition.
• A rating below 4.0 stars.

It is also important to ensure that you receive a constant stream of reviews.

Maintain a consistent trend of new reviews in order to maintain the three-pack ranking, since recent review appears to be an important local ranking factor.

Negative reviews can be found in the top three GBP rankings.

Google may highlight negative reviews prominently in GBP listings for desktops and mobiles.

They can damage your reputation and deter customers from calling.

Want to remove a bad review from your listing?

The one method I’ve seen to do this is to flood the listing with long, detailed, and positive reviews that include pictures from your customers. One of these reviews will hopefully push out the negative review.

It isn’t ideal, as we can’t control what appears in this area.

It’s an excellent opportunity to acknowledge and respond to customer concerns.

Encourage satisfied customers to write positive reviews in order to counterbalance the negative feedback. This will hopefully remove the listing.

How to maintain a constant stream of Google Reviews with minimal effort

It is important to get new reviews that are consistent if you want your Google Maps visibility to grow.

Many business owners rely on employees to deliver top-notch customer service, which naturally leads to positive reviews. People need to be nudged a bit in order to leave positive reviews.

Google does not or permit businesses to reward customers for positive feedback.

This is against the Google Review Guidelines, as it can be considered “deceptive content” if the customer has been paid or incentivized to leave a review.

Google allows business owners to use other incentives for reviews.

Incentivizing employees

Businesses can and should encourage their employees to solicit feedback from customers when they interact with them.

You should also ask for photos to accompany the review.

You can reward an employee if they are mentioned by name in a review or if a customer posts a photo of them. This could be a cash prize or a gift certificate to Amazon or a local restaurant.

Consider a “drawing” monthly instead if your business receives lots of reviews. Reward the winner. It’s important to keep it enjoyable and rewarding. Everyone wins.

Automated email templates

It is important to give customers an easy way to rate your business.

It’s easy to find the link. You can find it on the GBP dashboard, under “Ask For Reviews.”

Create an automated email template that uses this link to ask for reviews from recent clients.

Personalize the emails but do not lose sight of the main purpose: to get the review.

It’s important to make it clear that they can review you easily on Google and why this is important. Make the link easily accessible.

My Google reviews are missing?

A few months back, many business owners were having issues with not receiving Google reviews.

In some cases, hundreds of profiles were missing reviews, even though they had been active for many years.

Google released support documents to explain why some reviews might suddenly disappear from a listing in GBP.

Google has fixed the bug that caused reviews to disappear, but their algorithm for filtering suspicious or unauthentic reviews remains in place.

This system, while intended to maintain review integrity and ensure fairness in reviews, can also result in some legitimate reviews being removed.

You have options if you think this might be happening to you, because you’re monitoring your reviews.

Contact support to learn how to restore them.

• Type “Reviews”.
• Follow the prompts by selecting “Review Missing” and clicking on it.

It is a good idea to have screenshots of any missing reviews on hand.

Fake reviews: the never-ending story

Fake spam can be annoying. Are you being inundated with fake negative reviews on your listing?

Google will usually catch these and remove them using their filter.

Fake reviews are sometimes published. If they are fake, Google Support should be able remove them.

Businesses sometimes get fake positive reviews in order to manipulate Google’s algorithm. It’s frustrating that this works so often.

If a listing receives many fake positive comments, it will usually see an improvement in ranking.

It’s not worth the time and effort to report bad reviews to Google.

The squeeze isn’t worth it! If you are lucky enough to get the reviews taken down, which is not always possible.

According to the recent lawsuits, Google is still far from being able to solve its fake review problem.

I encourage all business owners to concentrate on getting more reviews for their listing, and not worry what their competitors are doing.

Negative reviews are an opportunity to embrace your imperfections

Negative reviews can be a positive thing. I agree that consumers are not always looking for perfection.

Even if you strive to provide outstanding service, a few less-than perfect reviews online can help boost your credibility.

Customers appreciate authenticity and businesses that have a human face. To be human, however, is to make mistakes.

Some studies have shown that users tend to be more trusting of Google when it has a rating below 4.8 or even 4.7 stars.

Fear not negative reviews. You can use them to show off your human side. You will be able to make people laugh, especially if is involved.

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