Updated: 14th November, 2023 Let’s just say that you are a passionate new business owner. You have covered all the bases that a newbie business person needs to cover – supply of products, website, social media channels, advertisement channels, all in place. Everything is going alright but you have not received the welcome you were […]
Updated: 14th November, 2023
Let’s just say that you are a passionate new business owner. You have covered all the bases that a newbie business person needs to cover – supply of products, website, social media channels, advertisement channels, all in place. Everything is going alright but you have not received the welcome you were expecting, even though your products and brand website pop up among the top search results.
Since it is only a couple of weeks from your launch, your site has not accumulated many reviews to show for it. This is a crucial piece missing from the puzzle. This is the piece that we will discuss in this blog, along with other related things.
Google Reviews are just plain and simple reviews, except they are managed by the largest search engine in the world. Google Reviews are a part of the Google My Business project. It is a multi-layered program where businesses can create profiles and get verified. This changes their online search rankings, internet standing, virtual worth, and so on.
Being all things in a single place, brands can easily manage all the aspects of the business and gauge the marginal differences brought around by tweaking and fine-tuning certain things. Google Reviews, since their inception, are considered to be the most influential and reliable by consumers. This shows why businesses spend resources to get them right and why you should too.
Since Google is the omnipresent search engine of the world and Google Reviews are a part of the tech giant’s internet programs, brands hardly need any other explanation or example. Companies need to follow not only the guidelines but the best practices of search engines to ensure that they are being rewarded in the online world.
So, let us take a look at some of the benefits that Google Reviews lend to businesses.
Make Brands Trustworthy
According to recent surveys, more than 90% of modern consumers consider online reviews as reliable as personal suggestions. This is a staggering number considering the real difference between the two. That’s why brands need to hustle and come up with ingenuous ways to collect and showcase Google Reviews from users. This has become a whole new field of research that can benefit many companies.
Improve Sales
The online world can be defined by the lack of trust in words and names. Since there are too many sketchy characters and people with malicious intents, it is normal for the average Joe to distrust everything. Yet Google Reviews make all the difference by not merely making a brand trustworthy but improving sales through two-pronged messages.
Consumer Retention
These days, customers are wary of new brands. They want to not only stick with their original businesses of choice but even become unofficial ambassadors. Still, they want assurances that their brand is doing well on all fronts. This is what Google Reviews bring to the table as people can see that they are not the only ones who placed their trust in the brand.
Now that we have established the fact that Google Reviews are important, it is necessary to understand whether there is a minimum ceiling or not. Experts are of the view that indeed there is a minimum range of Google Reviews that every online brand should possess. But things are not that simple!
Good Reviews Vs. Poor Reviews
There is nothing similar about two reviews, from the person who posted one and how they affect the face of the businesses in the virtual world. There are two types of reviews that businesses receive – good and bad. These are self-explanatory and we will not further dig into what they represent. However, we will see whether they are equal in their potency in this section.
Earlier, a marketing agency ran an experiment and came up with a number. According to them, it takes around 29 good reviews to minimize or neutralize the effects of a negative review. This is staggering since businesses need to work hard for positive ones, whereas negative reviews, even blatantly fake and false ones, pop up on profiles without any concrete reason.
Google star ratings are another initiative to help users decide on a brand. This comes in the form of an aggregate score and stars, out of a total of 5. Brands do not need to do the manual computation to come up with these as Google does it all backstage. What the company does is sum up the individual Google Reviews scores and stars and then display the results in the search rankings.
Brands revere this sort of traction because it allows prospects to see without looking at whether a brand is trustworthy or not. It spares them from probing further and going with another brand.
This is a perennial question that all young business owners and digital marketing professionals ask veterans. The reality – there is no single best way to get more Google Reviews. However, for brands that are still starting in the market, it is best for them to go slow and steady while building a strong social and technical foundation.
In this section, we will cover both basic and advanced-level resources that will help businesses with collecting more positive reviews.
Know Google’s Policy
Google is very adamant about its policies regarding Google Reviews and other forms of social proof for businesses. Before planning strategies and implementing them on a full scale, it is necessary to understand what guidelines as well as terms and conditions the company had put forward. Many brands go all in without considering the policies of the search engine, resulting in gruesome penalties along the way.
Register Google Maps’ Profile
Google Maps is a well-renowned application by Google that allows people to search for business locations. Even though Google Search is the default search engine for many users, some go through Google Maps to interact with businesses online. So, registering your business on Google Maps is a real deal.
Get a Verified Google My Business Profile
Google My Business is a flagship project by Google that offers businesses all the online solutions and tools for marketing and advertisement under one umbrella. Since its inception, it is a common practice that businesses create these profiles on GMB. However, it is not enough as they have to verify the profile to reap all the rewards.
Facilitate Customers To Leave Reviews
Getting positive reviews from customers used to be a simple task. Now, it is an uphill struggle because users have become shrewd from sketchy dealings and entities from the past. So, the last thing that businesses can do for customers is to make it easier for them to leave reviews. Even many satisfied clients avoid leaving reviews because of the cumbersome experience.
Create A Dedicated Google Reviews Page
A business website is made up of many individual pages, serving specific purposes. A homepage provides an overview of everything. The same goes for other pages, including a reviews page, if you decide to have one. This is especially easier for marketers because they can link out that page to emails and other calls to the customers.
Ask For Google Reviews In Person
This may feel something old-fashioned but it is still an effective thing. Those brands that actively seek reviews in person yield more positive reviews. There are many ways and times to do that. The most obvious one includes asking for a review after providing the service or delivering a product.
Google Reviews continue to be the force to reckon with in the online world. Since people are always on the lookout to get more value for their money, they want to get in touch with trustworthy, active, and reliable brands. On the other side, brands are always seeking new ways to collect and consolidate more positive reviews to show prospects that they are indeed what they say they are.
This resource has highlighted different factors in the game, including the effects of both positive and negative Google reviews. If you are having a hard time handling the reviews business, TrustAnalytica can help you with that through secure and custom solutions.
There is no ceiling as to how many Google Reviews a business possesses before getting 5 stars. Before, Google had a limit of at least 5 reviews, but since 2017, this limit has been removed. Now, businesses can have star ratings shown with search results by adding markup schema to their website.
There is no threshold from Google for getting stars in the search results. However, when it comes to text advertisements and shopping ads, Google requires businesses to have at least 100 reviews and ratings in the last 12 months. This setup is different for different regions and countries, brands should check with the company before moving forward.
There is no set limit that you need to thrive in the online world. Research has suggested that more than half of global shoppers read at least four reviews and comments before making a purchase. In the same way, around 45% of online shoppers go through three comments and reviews before handing in their money for goods and services.
Of course! According to Google, positive reviews and higher ratings help drastically in improving your brand’s local search results position. In this regard, it is safe to assume that all the best practices of SEO apply in this category.
It is hard to determine whether a 3-star review is good or bad, solely based on its face. Many experts believe that a customer who leaves a 3-star review is satisfied with the product but may have a poorer experience with its delivery and approach.
