Customer Reviews Google

[NooseLadder]

Hi, I want to start asking customers to post reviews of our service so that they appear in Google search listings.

I've looked at services like Trustpilot but do not want the monthly spend they require, so I am looking at doing this manually by sending customers an email request.

My question is: Where's the best pace/site to ask them to post the review. I've thought of using our Google places listing but every customer will need a Google account and I'm not sure how many joe publics have Google accounts.

Any ideas please?

My other question is: What do you all think about the importance of online reviews from a new-customer-visiting-your-site point of view. How important are they (reviews) as an anxiety alleviator?

 

[DesignerNick]

I like Google Place reviews! Being in web design i insist all clients have an account for Analytics so that usually isn't an issue!

 

[UKSBD]

If you're going to ask them to write reviews via Google have a look at this,
http://www.uksmallbusinessdirectory.co.uk/review/

It basically pulls in your places listing to display on your own website.

 

[VinceSamios]

There are lots of review sites that display in search results, including qype, tomson local, etc... if you do a search for "restaurants london" for example, you'll see a bunch of reviews with the listings (depending on the day, and what mood google is in)

 

[sigurog]

Reviews are very important and they also help rankings in Google Shopping aka Google Merchant Center. Of course Google Places is a good place to get a review but my personal favorite that Google takes good notice of is Review Centre and also Ciao.

If you look at some of the big brand websites they can have hundreds of reviews in these places and they sometimes show up next to Google Shopping results. I would also suggest that Google may take these reviews into consideration as a potential ranking factor for its organic results as well.

 

[NooseLadder]

Thanks for all of your replies.

I like the Google places on your website idea but as most of our business is to consumers, I'm not sure how many will have a Google account and how many would be willing to sign up just to write a review.

Review Centre: It looks product based. Can you review a company's service on there as this is what I'm looking for? Does your company have to be advertising with them in order to get reviews or can you just ask a customer to go there and place a review?

 

[sigurog]

No its not just for products its the whole service and also service providers that can be reviewed on Review Center which is really good.

One thing that makes it easy is your customers dont need to have an account with them - they can leave the review as a guest which means they just need to put in a valid email address. I would say it was one of the quickest methods of leaving reviews

 

[alanjgrainger]

Completely agree with Jon, ReviewCentre is the Daddy when it comes to this kind of thing and we use it very successfully.

Like he says, customers do not need to have an account so you're far more likely to get people to leave reviews. It will also hook up to any AdWords campaigns you have on the go so will post a lovely 5 star rating next to you in the SERPS (if you've been good, that is )

 

[SEO Lady]

You can direct people to Trustpilot for free, people can now login without having to create an account by using Facebook.

Simply send them the URL to your Trustpilot page when you sign up as a company (which you can do for free)

 

[Rags]

Google is starting to drop the reviews from 3rd-party sites in the listings.

If I was you, I'd get as many reviews as possible on Google - it's possible that before too long they will be the only ones showing on Google places and you can be sure that G will put Places listings above all other review sources in its own SERPS - making the reviews on Places pages then most prominent and findable by quite some way.

You can find all kind of creative ways to incentivise people to leave reviews - one of my clients gives £1 to charity for every review left on G for example.

 

[TheSocialMedia1]

It's difficult to get people to write a review if they don't have a google account. We always recommend to our clients that they ask their customers to write a review there and then on a card - you can then upload it yourself (but make sure to keep the original in case someone questions the authenticity of the review.)

Hope this helps.

The Social Media Fusion
07881 805470

 

[NooseLadder]

It's difficult to get people to write a review if they don't have a google account. We always recommend to our clients that they ask their customers to write a review there and then on a card - you can then upload it yourself (but make sure to keep the original in case someone questions the authenticity of the review.

Would there not be a problem with reviews being uploaded from the same IP address?