Google Plus Reviews
-
Hi,
I am working with a brick and motor store and trying to figure out the best ways to obtain Google plus reviews. Personally speaking I think the best way to receive a review is at checkout. Checkout can take about 10-15 min and would be a great time to ask for a review. However, I run into a problem with logistics in obtaining the review and needed help deciding which option to choose or if another option existed?
Option:
1. Ask the customer to give a review on our companies Google account? However, this leads to multiple reviews from a single entity, which I would only assume is not a correct way to obtain reviews.
2. Ask the customer to sign in to their Google account. This can be a little invasive and I do not want to turn the customer away from a sale.
Am I missing another alternative? Any help would be great, thanks!
-
Michael,
Another avenue you could consider is to create and print out a simple business card sized instruction note (cheap from VistaPrint). You keep these at your counter/front desk and when a customer is checking out, you can simply provide that to them and ask after they check out. We have worked with dentists and a party rental shop with 4 locations who had some decent success with this strategy.
_EDIT: You can also create the same card and offer an incentive on there for their next trip into the store or office, sort of what Jed was getting at above. _
You are merely asking them for a review and handing them a card with some simple instructions to follow at their leisure from the phone or computer. You also avoid any potential "red flags" which a large email blast could generate with lots of people simultaneously leaving reviews on a given day or week. Google sees this as "solicitation" in their terms for receiving reviews. Google wants you to EARN reviews, so stick with more natural approaches to this process and you'll see results and steer clear of any Google mishaps
Hope this was helpful!! - Patrick
-
If you have a current database of clients emails we have found that a simple e-mail campaign asking for a review if the customer is satisfied is effective
-
Michael,
A technique we have used with success is to do a follow up call to see how things went for the customer. what is great about this is that you also find out about anyone who is unhappy so you can deal with any issues they may have. If you run into happy customers validate them and ask them if they would mind writing a quick review. Find out what review sites they are comfortable with and send over the link. People are usually happy to do this if they are happy. overall customers feel lie your company cares and this enhances their overall experience.
If you are on word press there are several review and testimonial plug ins to keep this easier. optimally you would put in a review plug in that would link to external review sites as well as a testimonial plug in so that people who are not comfortable with external review sites. The plug in should preferably do automatic schema mark up on testimonials so that these are properly indexed.
Ron
-
Offer an incentive. A percentage off coupon, discount at register etc... Give them a card with your promotion and page info to connect and review. that way your CS doesn't have to make it awkward asking about it and they can read and decide if that percentage off is worth it.
Card Copy Example- "Show us your review on our Google+ page and receive 5% off your next purchase."
-
Hi Miriam,
Thank you for the response and links that helped a ton!
-
Hi Michael!
Glad you asked! You definitely do not want your customers using your company's Google account or using a review kiosk in your store as both will likely result in your listing falling under suspicion and your reviews being removed. Yikes - don't want that!
The customer must always use his or her own account to leave you a review and you must never post reviews on behalf of a customer, or you will be violating Google's own guidelines about this.
The best place to start in formulating your company's review acquisition strategy will be with a quick study of Google's review policies:
https://support.google.com/business/answer/2622994?hl=en&topic=1656880&ctx=topic&rd=1
I then highly recommend Phil Rozek's exhaustive post on review acquisition:
And then go through all of the resources linked to at the end of his post.
Once you've gotten through all of that, you are going to know a TON about this area of marketing and should be creating your store's strategy from an extremely educated basis. Hope this helps!
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Google my business phone reporting? Doesnt cross state lines.
We have a branch in Toledo Ohio, which is close to the Michigan border. Cleary we get calls for direction from Michigan customers. However, our phone reporting does not cross the state line. Any ideas? This happens at other branches that cross state lines as well.
Reviews and Ratings | | bakergraphix_yahoo.com0 -
Query on Product Reviews
Hello Experts, For my Ecommerce site I am using third party review service. Now my query is :- The reviews which is showing on my third party site if same review I can show on my product so will google consider this as duplicate content? Now that product listed on one of the category and that category page before footer section I have section of "Recently Reviewed" section in that section also it is showing same review of that product so is it fine? Will google consider it as duplicate content? Lastly I do have few subcategory pages before footer section I have section of "Recently Reviewed" section in that section also it is showing same review of that product so is it fine? Will google consider it as duplicate content?Note - Image attached of Review section - Which is visible on category and subcategory pages.FYI - This I am doing for two purpose 1) For Visitors purpose so he or she will know reviews about my products 2) As it is customer own written reviews so my pages will get fresh content.Please share your viewsBiKmp
Reviews and Ratings | | wright3350 -
Enabling Rich Snippets for Reviews and Ratings
Hi everybody, Going to install schema AggregateRating code so our website will appear with 5 stars snippet in SERP. Researching other websites and see two main approaches: Site displays all its reviews on the page where the snippet is
Reviews and Ratings | | Ryan_V
http://www.meatheadmovers.com/movers/los-angeles.aspx Site displays only a few reviews on the targeted page, and the rest can be found on the other page, where they marked up with schema as well.
http://www.danielsmoving.com/areas-served/moving-from-arizona-to-los-angeles/
http://www.alexmoving.net/areas-served/los-angeles-movers/ Google shows rich snippet for both in SERP
http://prntscr.com/ak1vcs
http://prntscr.com/ak1vup Though it says here:
"Make sure the reviews and ratings you mark up are readily available to users from the marked-up page. It should be immediately obvious to users that the page has review or ratings content." Our site has over 300 reviews and I don't want all of them to be in targeted page (home page), of course I prefer to go with option #2 if it's within Google guidelines. is it? What do you guys think?1 -
Thoughts on google plus page
Looking for feedback on a client's g+ page https://plus.google.com/116480272521087321856/about
Reviews and Ratings | | Atomicx0 -
Why ratings (no. of reviews & stars) still not showing in search results?
We implemented Schema and submitted the pages (with actual ratings and reviews) to Google Webmaster's Structured Data Markup tool a few weeks ago, but the ratings (stars and no. of reviews) are not showing yet. How long do I need to wait? TIA!
Reviews and Ratings | | zpm20140 -
How can I avoid duplicate content when building a review widget?
My website has a profile page for each of the home improvement contractors who signs up. They accumulate reviews on those pages. I want to build a review widget to display our reviews on our contractors' websites. How can I avoid duplicate content issues for the reviews? Example of a profile page with a few reviews: http://www.thehomefixers.com/members/425/waterheaters-plus-llc.php
Reviews and Ratings | | menachemp0 -
Difference between Google Plus Page and Google Business Page
Hi, Just wondering the differences between a Google Plus Page, and a Google Business page please? Should I have both? Also, will reviews for the business automatically show on both pages.. as Im starting to guess this is not the case? Thank you for the time to respond.
Reviews and Ratings | | Ampweb0 -
Having Yelp Reviews Removed
Since we all work with Yelp on a local basis, I believe many are aware that if a review is placed by a non customer about a company, Yelp will typically remove them if you show that it isn't valid, etc. We all know they made a show of outing those who posted fake reviews as well. Here is a question I have though: Have any of you been aware of Yelp taking down valid negative reviews for companies? I have just run into this and find it somewhat perplexing. If you know of this, I would love to hear how it happens? Thanks,
Reviews and Ratings | | RobertFisher2