Around 5.6 billion searches are made on Google every day — that's around 65,000 per second. This shows that Google has become an integral part of our everyday lives. We Google how best to get from A to B, where the cheapest vacuum cleaners are available, or why the banana is crooked. We are also very often looking for service providers and restaurants, hotels or gyms. For this reason, a presence on Google plays an important role for companies. If you want to be found by potential customers, you should be high up in the Google ranking. Good Google reviews are decisive for this. Find out how to get them and improve your ranking here.
Reviews on Google are reviews in Google My Business Entries — for example from restaurants, service providers and shops. The reviews appear in the Google Maps search for the respective places, but also in the normal Google search.
In other words, when potential customers search for restaurants in their area, various locations are suggested to them, each with pictures, opening hours and reviews. If the decision has to be made quickly, the restaurant with the best average rating is usually chosen — it must be good after all.
Reviews increase your reputation online and create trust among new customers. According to one study Around 72 percent rely on online reviews — 32 percent even rely just as strongly as on the opinion of family and friends.
Good Google reviews increase your visibility on Google, which means you can be found faster and better. This increases your click-through rate, which in turn leads to a better position in the Google ranking. At the same time, the positive reviews give potential new customers a good impression, which means that they are more likely to become customers. This cycle is completed by further positive reviews from satisfied new customers.
As you can see, there is no way around Google reviews. There are various ways to obtain them. On the one hand, you can contact satisfied customers locally and ask for an online review. On the other hand, you can encourage your followers on social media to write a review for you. This action could be, for example, a drink at home upon presentation of the review.
But there are also other ways to get positive reviews that don't require you to lift a finger. One example of this is the marketing hotspot of Socialwave. With guest WiFi, you can easily collect Google reviews and offer your customers free WiFi as a service. After the first visit, your customers will receive an automated email asking them to rate you. You can find positive reviews directly on Google, negative reviews are given as feedback so that you can learn from them. You can find more information about the functions of the Socialwave WLAN here.
If you ask your customers to rate your company, you may also receive criticism. If you receive bad reviews, please respond politely and apologize, or make sure you take the criticism seriously and will work on it.
But what to do if the criticism is not justified or wrong and your company is falsely portrayed poorly? You can't delete reviews yourself on Google. In this case, however, you can make the contribution report. Google will then check the post and remove it if necessary.
To be in the top 3 Google suggestions for a search query, you should make good use of Google My Business. This tool allows you to provide various information about your location. You can also view and manage your Google reviews using the tool.
Make every effort to provide complete information. Try to fill out all open fields so that Google can better identify your company. Be sure to provide consistent information. For example, the opening hours listed should match the opening hours on your website. Also, don't forget to add the link to your homepage. This also helps improve Google rankings.
In addition, appealing photos add value to customers. Loud Seybold 50% of searches are image searches. Post lots of high-quality images. This makes it easier for potential customers to find you and be convinced to visit you with beautiful pictures.
In the age of digitalization, online presence and good Google reviews play a central role in a company's success. This is because customer reviews not only attract the interest of other customers, but also contribute positively to the Google ranking as user-generated content.