What Is Google Reviews?
Google Reviews is a Google feature that allows users to share information, opinions, and comments about businesses. When 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as recommendations made in person, learning what Google Reviews are can boost your conversions. By searching for a business name on Google, people can access data such as an address, phone, website, email, etc. From the point of view of entrepreneurs, Google My Business allows:
- Offer more ways to contact current and potential customers;
- Keep your information updated with ease;
- Find out how many people interact with your profile on Google.
For example, you own a restaurant and a person nearby Google’s “restaurants near me.” With Google My Business, you can easily be found and considered an option for that person.
Currently, Google Places a High Value on Local SEO — optimizing search engines, which takes geolocation into account, like Google Maps.
You May Wonder About Google My Business And Google Reviews: what elements do the search engine and users consider? Here is a checklist to organize your comment strategy.
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Ask Your Customers
Perhaps this is the most practical way to achieve Google Reviews. If you have a physical store, for example, you can ask customers who visit you and make a purchase not to forget to leave their positive reviews on your Google My Business tab. However, you have to ask them without being intrusive.
Getting reviews on Google My Business is even easier if you have an online store. Send an email requesting customer feedback after purchase or confirming the order’s delivery.
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Encourage Your Employees To Do It
Do not forget that employees are also one of the types of customers of a company. That way, why not ask them to help you improve your Google reviews? They can talk about the routine of work, the treatment they receive, and how satisfied they are to help the organization fulfill its purpose, whatever that may be. Be careful that employees don’t feel obligated to write something just because they work for you because it can backfire.
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Use Social Networks
In your social media strategies, you can implement a post, for example, that encourages your audience to leave a positive review on your listing. It is essential to facilitate the journey for users and include a direct link to the place where they should share their experience with the brand.
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Offer Benefits
Nothing beats rewards for encouraging desired behavior. Otherwise, parents would not offer dessert to children who eat the vegetables. When it comes to Google Reviews, you can adopt similar logic to encourage positive feedback. In exchange for your customers’ reviews, you can offer benefits, such as discounts on the next purchase, a product sample, or whatever is most convenient. In this way, in addition to achieving positive feedback, you guarantee a second purchase.
What To Do When Receiving A Negative Comment In Google My Business?
While it’s not possible to please everyone, responding to negative comments can be a way to improve your online reputation. When you publicly engage with those dissatisfied with your products and services, you show that you are proactive and want to improve. Although there is a tolerance of one week, it is ideal for responding to negative comments as soon as possible.
In addition to talking to the dissatisfied person and looking for ways to minimize the negative experience, responding helps prevent potential customers from being swayed by those words.
Who Can And Cannot Comment On Google My Business Reviews?
You want to achieve that the online stores and e-commerce themselves guarantee that the users giving their opinion about a product or service are people who have bought or consumed said product or service. In addition, the law also intends to put limits on search engines to show what parameters they follow when positioning comments, asking them to guarantee certain neutrality when applying these controls.
This law also preserves the power to sanction those companies that commit infractions related to false reviews. Now that you know all this, we will tell you if you can delete a negative review on Google.
Can A Negative Review On Google My Business Be Deleted?
Many people who receive negative reviews on Google My Business seek to delete them as their first option. The real problem is that Google is not very flexible when removing a review, and it isn’t easy to do so.
Surely you want to know what the alternatives are and what is the reason why we have created this article to know what steps to follow when receiving a negative review towards your company and prevent it from damaging the image.
Since many customers decide to learn about the experience of other customers first before taking service, it is common for them to be guided by reviews. And upon finding one or more negative reviews on a company or business, they are likely to choose to go with a more trustworthy competitor.
Considering that it is not easy for Google to eliminate negative reviews, it is essential to build trust among users; it is a long process. And you must start by knowing the integrity of the evaluation and identifying if it is a fake review. Remember that for different reasons, many people may try to harm a business.
- To do so, you can visit the user’s profile and find out what reviews they have left. If an account has constant negative messages, it may be a dedicated user. If instead, the user has only left a review on your business, it may be something more personal or an error. Negative reviews with little detail are also often indicative of someone who has not been a customer.
- Mark the review as “inappropriate.” The intention is to inform Google of the error or the false review. Select the three dots next to the review and mark it inappropriate for Google to handle a review. However, it might not remove it.
- Contact Google My Business customer support. Choose to contact tool support to manage a negative review. And the best thing is to get all the information required to prove that it is a fake review.
- Check all the reviews you receive the first thing is to verify each of the reviews you receive, whether negative or positive. You can access the user profile that leaves them to find out if it is a person who has focused solely on harming your business or not. Considering that there are many competitors in the different sectors your business can be dedicated to, it can be a review written by the competition. However, your duty will be to identify whether or not it is a fake review and look for evidence that verifies it for Google.
Reviews are primarily fake if the user lacks a photo, hasn’t left other reviews on other businesses, or all of their reviews are bad. Always check the information they provide through such a review and, if possible, contact the user to find out more.
- Although the review may or may not be false, it will allow you to approach the user for evidence or help improve the review with solutions. This may be beneficial, as other potential customers will see that you are trustworthy. You show interest in guaranteeing solutions and preserving the excellent image you already have.
JDM Web Technologies helps have genuine reviews for their customer to improve Google listing and have more business leads from local search engines.