I’m sure most of you have searched for a company on Google and noticed the star rating or the reviews from existing customers. I’m sure for many people, these reviews have played an important role in swaying your decision. This is the potential power of Google My Business reviews and I want to enlighten you on their usefulness below.
What is Google My Business?
Google Business Profile (formerly known as Google My Business) is a service created by Google that companies can use to provide more information and context about their business for search results and Google Maps. Things you can add in your profile include:
- Address.
- Opening times.
- Website address.
- Contact information.
- Photos.
- Service/product info.
- Reviews.
Essentially, a fully completed Google Business profile serves as an information portal for what your company offers and how customers can get in touch. It also offers a form of social proof with Google My Business reviews, and this is the aspect we are dissecting today.
What are the Benefits of Google My Business?
I believe that every company should complete a Google Business profile. It’s one of the first things you should do as part of your marketing and development strategy. It’s free to complete, takes little to no time to set up, and the benefits are far-reaching:
- Brilliant for local SEO.
- Increased visibility on search engines.
- Improved business information for customers.
- Improved social proof.
A business profile helps improve your local SEO as having a Google Business Profile makes your listing eligible to appear in the maps results section which tend to appear in local based searches. A fully completed profile also makes you far more visible on search engines compared to a company that just has the basic SERP result with their website link, meta tags, and description.
Google Business Profile is also essential as a means of contact and a form of social proof. A potential customer can essentially look at a profile summary and find out virtually all the important information they need such as opening times and contact details without needing to do extensive research.
Dissecting Google My Business Reviews
It’s important to look at the different aspects of Google My Business reviews so you can understand their context, where they fit in the grand scheme of SEO, and what they include. There are three important review sections:
- SERP review summary.
- Review summary on Google Maps.
- Individual reviews.
The SERP review summary displays on your Google Business Profile summary when someone finds your business from a search result. Beneath any photos you have and key information, you can see an overall review score and star rating.
If you find the business on Google Maps, you can also see a review summary. This also shows the score an star rating but includes snippets of the reviews below so you can gain a quick overview of what people are saying.
Lastly, there are individual reviews which include a rating from the customer together with their comments. You can reply to these reviews too, and the customer can include photos and multimedia if they have bought a product from you, for example. These reviews can be filtered by relevance or score, or commonly mentioned words.
Why Are Google My Business Reviews Important
Google My Business reviews offer credibility and this is their main benefit. They make your company standout and show that you have an excellent track record with real customers. However, let’s take a deeper look and explore the other benefits they provide.
Improved Local SEO
While Google My Business doesn’t have a huge impact on SEO, it certainly helps. It can boost your local SEO efforts as Google usually ranks businesses with a completed business profile and reviews higher than those without.
Google may also give your business higher relevancy scores for localised search results if you have a completed profile and wealth of reviews. Creating a Google Business profile should be one of the first steps you take as part of your local SEO/local marketing campaign.
Social proof
Google My Business reviews are a form of social proof, which in today’s world is vital. Customers want social proof more than ever and are becoming more educated, conscious, and intelligent about their spending habits and the businesses they work with.
They have improved researching capabilities and thus something like a Google my Business review can work wonders. It provides real-life proof that you are a real company and that you can be trusted. Simply put, customers are far more likely to use the services or products of a business that has a heap of glowing Google reviews.
Improved customer information
Google Business Profile and its reviews offer a wealth of information for customers that could help sway their choice or purchasing decision.
In the case of reviews, depending on how detailed they are, potential new customers gain insight into how you work, your service offerings, and ability to deliver the services. They can see if what you offer aligns with their needs and may also gain particular information that could sway their decision.
Improved ability to beat competition
If you have two businesses presented on your search results – one of which has a heap of positive reviews and an overall rating of 4.6, while the other also has a heap of reviews with an overall rating of 3.4, which do you choose? 99% of the time you go with the 4.6-rated company – it’s the logical choice.
In short, Google My Business reviews gives you a direct ability to gain a competitive advantage and make your company the logical choice.
Of course, you have to earn those reviews and work hard to make sure your rating is high which should hopefully come naturally.
Great for quick purchase decisions
If a customer is in a rush and doesn’t have time to do extensive research, Google My Business reviews offer reassurance at a glance. The customer can do a quick Google search, and look at your business overview including rating, average stars, and review summaries.
In a few seconds they have a wealth of information that allows them to select you over other companies that have lower ratings or who don’t even have a Google Business Profile. This isn’t true for all businesses though, especially when larger sums of money are involved, and the purchase decisions have greater ramifications.
How to Obtain Reviews for Your Google Business Profile
Now, all this information is fantastic, but how do you get those all-important Google My Business reviews to boost your social proof? This is easier than you think and you can try the following methods:
- Automatic email reminders.
- Friendly requests in conversation.
- CTAs on your website.
- CTAs on your social media content.
If you have an ecommerce store a simple thing to do is create an automatic email reminder that follows after the customer has made a purchase, requesting a review.
Make sure that the reminder isn’t sent immediately after the purchase as this can be incredibly annoying and they most likely haven’t had chance to use it yet. Instead, use pre-determined rules to automatically send the reminder 48-72 hours after the purchase. Hopefully by then, they have used the product and can give a fair review. Something like this would have to be done using email marketing software, or built-in tools in your web development software.
Next… just ask! If you aren’t an ecommerce store and instead provide services to your clients, drop them a gentle request for a review! 99% of the time the client will be more than willing to help you out and leave a glowing Google My Business review. Just don’t be pushy about it!
Adding CTAs on your website and social media content and sharing existing Google Business reviews is a great way to boost your social proof and obtain more reviews too.
Throughout all of this, please make sure the reviews are authentic with no coercion. The worst thing you can do is offer a customer a benefit or discount if they complete a review – this is unethical and if your reviews are found to be unauthentic, this can damage your reputation.
Google Business Profile is an Essential Tool for Localised SEO and Marketing
I hope you can now see the power behind not only Google Business Profile, but the content it provides and the customer reviews. Today, customers want more – they want assurance of the companies they choose to buy from or work with and social proof is the primary way to achieve this.
Google My Business reviews are a fantastic tool for social proof and as it’s completely free to create a Google Business Profile, this is a no brainer for your digital marketing. If you haven’t already, create your Google Business Profile today and start building a catalogue of high-quality reviews to show potential new customers that you are a worthwhile business.
