Local SEO Tips and Tricks
How to Get More Google Reviews: A Simple Process for Small Businesses
For local SEO, reviews are a top strategy for winning the map pack. In this Local SEO Tips and Tricks video, Carmen Kim, co-founder of Workbench SEO, walks through the simple review process we use with our clients: give every customer the same great service, ask for the review before you leave, and keep new reviews coming at a steady pace.
By Carmen Kim · Co-founder, Workbench SEOWhy a steady pace of reviews matters
Google reviews are one of Workbench SEO’s top three factors for local SEO, and they’re one of the things we work on most closely with our clients.
Every week, we monitor our clients’ reviews. We want to make sure you’re staying accountable to asking for them and that you’re getting reviews consistently and reliably, because a steady cadence is very important.
Great reviews start with consistent service
Let’s say I’m working with a plumbing company with a team of four. The owner won’t always be the one who comes to my home to provide the service. But I’ve started to build trust with the owner, so I expect the same experience from everyone else on the team.
This is where you truly build trust and repeat business, so we always work with our clients on providing the same level of service every time. Here’s what that looks like:
- The company texts me that Johnny will be here between 11 and 1.
- Johnny shows up, puts on booties as he enters the house, and introduces himself.
- He hands me a clipboard or an iPad with the paperwork and walks me through the work he’s doing at my house today.
- He gets to work.
Ask for the review before you leave
When Johnny is almost done, he says: “Hey Carmen, I’m almost done with the work, but I’d like to ask you for a favor.”
He turns his badge around to show a QR code: “Carmen, if you feel like I’ve given you five-star service today, I’d like to ask you to please leave a review. This is the best way for our company to keep getting found and the best way for people to learn about our great service.”
In that moment, the customer is a lot more likely to leave the review right there. We all get really busy. If the request comes later in an email, people might forget and never do it. Asking in person increases the chances they’ll do it while they still remember how warm and great the service was.
Johnny picks up his things and cleans up his work area, and by the time he comes back, the review is done. I have a clean space and work I can trust. Every time I call this plumbing company, I know that whether it’s Johnny, Jack or anyone else on the team, they’ll treat me the same way.
The review badge
One of the things we do for our clients is design and send lanyards with a personalized ID badge for every team member. The front has the company logo, which shows customers that the person at their door is part of the team. The back has a QR code that takes customers to a leave-a-review page we create for the business.
It’s important not to use the review link Google provides. As silly as it sounds, we link to a Google search with the company’s name already filled in, so the customer interacts only with the Google Business Profile. This gives the review a higher likelihood of sticking.
Keep reviews coming at a steady pace
The other part is scaling. We want a steady cadence of reviews, which is why we build on them every week. If Google sees an influx of 50 reviews all at once, it’s going to think something is going on, and it might not accept all of them or might start deleting them.
Reviews also shouldn’t all come from the same location. If every Google review comes from inside your own business, it’s going to get flagged.
Consistency builds trust
Those are some of the processes we follow for reviews. Consistency and building trust are so important when you’re providing a service to people, especially a service that means coming into their home.
