Below are a few suggestions for encouraging more reviews of one’s business. Some originate from my own personal experiences as a review site “super user” and some are simply good old-fashioned common sense. Your comments are welcome. Just no 1-star ratings please!

Participate in the very best review sites.

Not all review sites are made equal. Look for those that have features to reduce fake reviews and give business owners tools for giving an answer to reviews buy google reviews. Activate your company account and optimize your company listing (it’s free). By claiming your listing you will receive notices when new reviews are posted and traffic reports how many users viewed your company page each week.

Be proactive with all your reviews.

Thank your reviewers due to their feedback, both positive and negative, in an appropriate manner. Yelp.com, the greatest review site, allows business owners to respond publicly or privately to your reviews. An individual message is a great method to acknowledge a reviewer and it shows you’re focusing as the company owner. Caution: don’t be rude or defensive in any way. I’ve seen this backfire big time whenever a reviewer publicly posted the company owner’s rude response making use of their updated (and a lot more negative) review! Be sure to see my upcoming post on the best way to respond effectively to negative reviews.

Make the most of offers on your own listing page.

Some review sites such as for example Yelp allows businesses to publish offers on their listing page. Since users of these sites tend to be more likely to be active reviewers themselves, you’re directing your offer to the utmost effective online “influencers” ;.

Link to review sites on your own website.

Include your website logo with your other social media links, “Follow us on…” Again, I would only link to the most responsible online review sites like Yelp.

Promote your presence on review sites.

Put in a link in your e-newsletter, include it in your advertising and social media pages. You can also blog about your reviews and link back once again to the specific review page. Don’t let a few negative posts make you intend to run and hide. Your existing customer base obviously thinks well of you or they wouldn’t be doing business with you, so preach it to your choir!

Point-of-Sale signage.

Many review sites offer point of sale materials, such as for example static clings and stickers that retailers can attach for their door or check out to advertise their site.

Be active in the Online Community.

Be a dynamic reviewer yourself. It’s an effective way to gain comprehension of the city and fun to accomplish! Just don’t review your own business or your competitors. You’ll likely get caught at it and the penalty isn’t with the risk.

Lastly, it is recognized as bad etiquette to directly solicit friends and customers for reviews. And quite frankly, this tactic might not do any good. Some review sites are suffering from algorithms to filter reviews from one-time reviewers or people that have incomplete profiles simply because they tend to be less credible or even fake. However, promoting your business’s presence on a particular review sites is an excellent practice and will naturally result in more and higher quality reviews. Online reviews not merely benefit your website’s internet search engine optimization, however your person to person advertising!