How to Get More Local Reviews?

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Local business competition is becoming more aggressive than ever. And Google also places its bet on location authority and local reviews to offer the best-suited results for local searches.
Moreover, 82% of consumers check reviews online before visiting a local business. So, local reviews contribute equally to your brand's social proof and SEO value.
Let’s understand:

10 Tips to Get Local Reviews for Your Business

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1. List Your Business on Several Relevant Listing Sites & Review Sites

While local SEO is inevitably competitive, a substantial part of local SEO is to build listings. On top of the list is claiming Google My Business listing as their search engine crawls and considers this information the most genuine business data.
You must list your business across popular business directories, niche listing platforms, and local listing platforms.

• These sites will allow you to grow your brand’s visibility online.
• They build your location authority, which is a crucial signal for local search rankings
• And these listings allow you to grab more reviews for your local business

So, try building comprehensive business listings on platforms like:

• Google My Business
• Yelp
• TripAdvisor
• Foursquare
• Facebook and LinkedIn
• Bing Places
• Expertise
• Angi

Also, search for your local business directories and niche-specific directories.
Google powers over 97 billion local intent search every month. And by listing on relevant listings, you are increasing your odds to show up to crucial searchers.
Moreover, most of the popular listing platforms have high site authority. And this helps them appear in the top search results. So, it is better to be present on these platforms.

2. Optimize and Update Your Business Listings Regularly

Today, consumers value social proof and make review-driven decisions. Consumers skim at least 10 reviews before they finalize a product or service.
The business listing sites and business review sites become crucial platforms for these reviews.
And so, you must have a dominating presence on the relevant business review and listing sites.
Here are some tips for organizing your listings:

• NAP Consistency: Keep consistency in your business name, address, and phone number. You can keep track of it using the free Brightlocal or Mozlocal tool, as an example shown below.
  
• Detailed Business Categories: Define the primary category and sub-categories of your business. Also, use competitor research to find the right sub-categories.
• Services: List your main service/product offerings. And also compliment them with sub-services.
• Comprehensive Description: Define your business USPs, services, the problem you solve, and the “Why choose us” element. Also, utilize the character length (750 characters in GMB) smartly to build relevancy. And include your service-specific and location-specific keywords in your description.
• Business Hours: Mention and regularly update your business hours or service hours.
• Reviews & Ratings: Win reviews on your listing profiles. And comment on each review to showcase a personal connection with your customers.
• Images: Allows users to check your business venue, menu, staff, or specialty through images.
• Posts/Offers: Build posts to showcase updates (new opening, event, new product launch, etc.). And also build offers to attract direct inquiries/leads.

A dominating listing helps you build authenticity, grow visibility, and attract more reviews.

3. Request Feedback from Delighted Customers

Today, consumers understand the influence of reviews and social sentiment on a business. And a slight inconvenience in your services is enough to provoke them for a negative review.
Meanwhile, they are reluctant to post a positive review even after a delightful experience automatically. So, create surveys, personalized emails, or messages to collect feedback, as shown in the screenshot.
And so, you need to give them a slight push by establishing several review request channels.
Some tips include:

• Capture their email address and phone numbers during the billing process. And use these channels to build customer relationships, send updates & offers, and request reviews.
• Train your staff to request reviews from delighted customers subtly.
  Requests like, “We would be happy to learn about your experience. Please leave feedback!” could go a long way.
• Add the feedback form along with your bill receipt. And you can add a QR code that the customers can scan to rate & review your business online.

The goal is to simplify the review writing process for your customers. And so, you can also give a few default review messages to choose from while they fill your form. However, just make sure this looks subtle and not self-proclaimed.

4. Establish a Subtle Feedback Generation Strategy

Include a prudent feedback generation strategy into your regular business processes.
While consumers do review-driven searches, they understand reviews are crucial. And they are less likely to get offended with a subtle feedback generation strategy.
So, here are some tips for your feedback generation strategy:

• Request feedback while your customers are in your store or during the billing process.
• Link your GMB profile, Yelp listing, or website review page to your review requests through emails
• Use tools like CustomerSure, SurveyMonkey, GetFeedback to automate the review procuring process
• Also, ink personalized emails and messages to delighted customers while adding the review request links.

Below is an example showing a quick rating option for users to click and provide feedback.

5. Track the Customer Sentiment around Your Brand

You must track brand mentions and the missed review-building opportunities. Tools like Google Alerts and Mention allow you to scrutinize your brand/product mentions online. Moreover, you can leverage these tools to set up alerts for the brand mentions.
Here’s the image showing how to create Google alerts.
In this way, you can check for positive reviews and highlight them on your site. Or you can even ask these webmasters for a backlink.
Next, if you see a negative mention, you can manage it through conversation with the webmaster or the reviewer.
Another helpful trick is to check your competitor’s brand mentions. This exercise allows you to get insights into the platforms that your competitors are leveraging. You can list on the same platforms and attract reviews there.
SEMRush, Ubersuggest, and Ahrefs also help you track the domains offering backlinks to your competitors.

6. Thank Your Positive Reviewers and Smartly Manage Negative Reviews

With a feedback generation strategy, you must implement a review management strategy.
And a crucial aspect of this strategy is to manage customer sentiment.
So, you must respond to your user-generated reviews. By praising a customer for his positive review, you score big on customer loyalty.
Moreover, he is most likely to become a loyal evangelist for your business.
According to stats, 89% of consumers expect and love brands that respond to feedback.
And this engagement acts as an inspiration and social proof for other users. Thus, helping you attract more reviews for your local business.
You must also manage your negative reviews smartly by responding politely.
Take a look at the screenshot, where a user has negative feedback, yet there’s no response for five months. It shows the business doesn’t care about customer experience and sentiments.
Witty yet polite replies show that your brand values customer feedback.
Next, you can transport any negative review conversations to emails or offline. This gives you the chance to have open conversations with the reviewers and make them feel valued.
Next, you can request them to take down the negative reviews.

7. Incentivize the Positive Reviewers

While consumers are a little reluctant in offering reviews, you can incentivize the approach. Here’s a great example of the same.
For example:
You might be offering loyalty points for increasing repeat sales. And this trick is highly likely to work for you. Now, you can modify the deal by offering a discount coupon to every customer who fills out your feedback form.
In this case, you win feedback, and you give away a discount code to win repeat sales.
You can even directly offer the links of your GMB page or Yelp listing in the feedback form.
You can also offer exclusive giveaways to the Top 5 randomly selected reviews. This gives the consumers some much-needed inspiration to spare some time and post a review. Here’s an example of the same done by Bissell to get the reviews.
Another integral approach is to offer incentives to your employees for the positive reviews earned.
While your employees connect with the end-consumers directly, they generally have a better rapport with each other. So, they can leverage the communication channel more efficiently and win positive reviews.
This approach optimizes the entire customer relationship channel and wins you more reviews.

8. Add Review Reminders on Your Site

You are highly likely to attract repeat visitors and customers to your site. So, it can be a good place to showcase review reminders to your customers.
You can add direct CTAs to review on your GMB page or your relevant business listing site.
Moreover, adding incentives (e.g., 10% discounts on the next order) on the review reminders can work well.
Another example: “Help us understand about your experience at our restaurant and get a complimentary drink on your next visit.”
You can place these popups prudently on your product/service pages. Here the customer is in the middle of his buying journey, and an extra discount acts as a deal-maker.
Take a look at this popup reminder that reminds viewers to add a review:
Thus, you win a review and grow your page’s conversion probability.
However, you need to make sure that these reminders are not intrusive. And these must be placed at the right place in the customer’s buying journey.
You might want to use the “Find us on Yelp” banners offered by the Yelp platform on your site.
Read: Reviews & Its Role in Local SEO

9. Leverage Social Media Channels for Reviews and Engagement

Social media channels like Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, etc., help you build another engagement channel.
You must create your business profiles on these platforms and engage with your customers.
Take a look at the screenshot. Regardless of how big a brand is, engaging with your customers creates positive awareness among the audience.
Moreover, customers love to engage with active brands on social media. These platforms allow you to improve your customer relationships.
Users can comment on their feedback on your product-related posts, and you can reply to these comments.
You can even showcase these comments on your stories to make them feel appreciated. And this also acts as solid social proof.
Moreover, you can share your feedback-related offers on social media platforms. This approach will grow your reviews and repeat sales.
Today, users love to showcase their positive/negative experiences with a brand on social media. And you can leverage it as social proof.
For example,
A customer shares images of their stay at your hotel or food-related pictures at your restaurant.
You must not shy from requesting them to tag your business to attract more engagement and social proof. And you can showcase this feedback on your social channels and even on your site.

10. Collaborate with Local Influencers

We have witnessed an exponential growth in social media usage within the past five years. And this has also accelerated the rise of social media influencers.
Today, businesses drive $6.50 in return for every $1 they spend on influencer marketing.
If a popular influencer with millions of followers tweets a positive review for your business, you can expect stellar success. There are several free and paid tools to find local influencers in your niche along with vital metrics, as shown in the below image.
40% of consumers would just buy a product after seeing their favorite influencer using it.
Moreover, we cannot forget that these influencers are prominent trendsetters.
So, if they review your product or service, many of their followers are highly likely to buy your product/service and drop their reviews about it.
What’s better is that you can collaborate with a relevant influencer for your business. And you can request them to review your offerings.
They can even ask their followers to give your product a try and share their experience. Club such a campaign with a common hashtag and exciting offers.
Similar influencer-generated content can help you drive substantial reviews for your local business.

Benefits of Getting Local Reviews

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1. Local Reviews Offers Significant SEO Value

Google considers location authority crucial when deciding search results for local-intent searches.
And the quality of your profile, along with the number of positive reviews, add to your location authority.
Here’s an example of Google maps ranking a place with more reviews on top of results.
So, your local reviews have a say in the search rankings of your SEO business.
Moreover, reviews on your GMB page define your probability to rank in the local 3-pack results.
Moreover, when you attract user-generated reviews on your site, it includes your brand or product-related keywords.
So, these reviews act as regular fresh content on your page. And the long-tail keywords in these reviews further improve your site’s relevancy for searches.
So, you can expect considerable growth in your SEO value.

2. Positive Local Reviews Boost Your Conversions

Positive reviews on your GMB page, site, and other listings form a solid location authority.
And this helps you earn top ranks for local-intent searches on Google. Moreover, you can steal a rank in the Local 3-pack results.
And these Local 3-pack results dominate the top positions for over 93% of local-intent searches.
What’s more interesting is that these results capture 100% higher clicks than other organic results.
Here are the local 3-pack results for “men’s salon San Diego” appears:
These results display your ratings, website, location, timings, contact number, etc. So, you can expect direct inquiries and visits as well.

3. Reviews Add a Crucial Social Proof

Today, consumers require validations for their purchase decisions. And these validations come from their friends, previous customers, or influencers.
User-generated reviews are considered as trusted social proof. And they influence the buying journey of users. Hence, listing on multiple directories to get local reviews will boost your business.
Take a look at the reviews posted by customers on business listing sites.
82% of consumers study user reviews before considering a product or business.
So, more positive reviews can help you attract more qualified leads and conversions.
Moreover, businesses with more positive reviews have a higher location authority. And this gives them wider visibility on the web. Thus, attracting more inquiries and customers.
It also becomes easier to make PR collaborations and attract backlinks with wider visibility. These exercises further add to your social proof and SEO value.
Also, don’t forget to showcase your Yelp or GMB reviews on your site. You can display them on your home page and product/service pages to enhance the conversions.

4. You Witness Higher CTR and Leads for Your Business

Your SEO efforts help you rank for the local-intent searches. But, you also need to improve the CTR of your results in the search engine.
One common practice is to add rich snippets. So, if your ratings show up alongside your listings in SERPs, this increases your CTR.
Here’s how the rich snippets show up in SERPs.
Moreover, positive reviews also grow your visibility on the business listing platforms. Thus, there is an evident growth in inquiries from these listings.
You must also showcase good ratings on your site, social media, and even paid ads. These act as strong trust signals for consumers and attract clicks and leads.
Related: Benefits of a Google My Business Listing

Local Reviews & Local SEO – FAQs

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Q1. Why is there a Constant Buzz about Local Reviews for Local Businesses?

Ans. Local reviews contribute evidently to the location authority of a local business. And these authority signals influence Google’s ranking algorithm for local businesses.
That said, more positive local reviews enhance your ranking probability.

Q2. What would be Some Sure Shot Methods to Gain Positive Reviews?

Ans.

• Enhance business exposure with more niche-specific and location-specific business listings.
• Personalize your feedback requests for delighted customers
• Use tools like SurveyMonkey, CustomerSure, etc. to automate feedback requests
• Respond to your reviews and even praise your reviewers
• Offer incentives for good reviews from customers

Q3. What could be a Simple Way to Track Local Reviews for My Business?

Ans.
You can simply track your brand mentions or product mentions online to check your reviews. Google Alerts and Mention are two tools to set online mention alerts for businesses.

Q4. How do Local Reviews Contribute to Conversions and Sales?

Ans.
Let’s not forget that user-generated reviews are sought-after and reliable social proof. They win businesses with high CTR and better conversion potential.
Moreover, positive local reviews add strong ranking signals for local businesses. Here, better rankings drive you stellar conversions.

Q5. Which type of Local Reviews Push the Needle the Furthest in SEO?

Ans. You must invest goof effort in earning positive reviews on your GMB page. Moreover, reviews on your site and popular platforms like Yelp and Tripadvisor follow the trail.
Your GMB reviews influence your probability of grabbing a position in the Local 3-Pack results.
Related: FAQs on Google My Business Issues

Key Takeaways

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Some definite tips that you must start implementing to attract more local reviews:

• Create numerous listings and allow users to find and review your business on GMB, Yelp, Bing Places, Tripadvisor, Angi's List, Foursquare, etc.
• Make listing comprehensive, updated, and valuable (with offers & faqs). This
• Train staff for personalized review requests during their visits and even by email.
• Use SurveyMonkey and CustomerSure tools to propel your feedback generation strategy.
• Use Google Alert and Mention to track online mentions and review opportunities. Also, track competitor's mentions.
• Associate feedback incentives with your loyalty points/discounts.
• Harness your social media potential along with collaborating with local influencers. This grows sales and consumer trust and attracts imitated reviews from an influencer's followers.