Google Places Reviews

Why you should be getting Google Places Reviews

Google is the search engine of choice for around 60 to 70% of all Internet users. It makes sense then to undertake online activities that will be make your website “Google friendly”

Two powerful techniques that will assist you to achieve a greater online presence are:

1/. Getting happy customers to provide you with Google Places Reviews and

2/. Having happy customers click on the Google Plus One (+1) icon on every page of your website.

Strategy 1 – Google Places Reviews

One of the factors that Google looks at when determining where to rank your Google Places listing is the number of reviews it has received.

It makes sense then to encourage customers to write reviews for you. However, this is not necessarily an easy process. In order to write a review, you have to have a Google Account. This is not hard to get but you have to rely on your customers to do this. When your customers are busy people they have more important things to do.

Here are some ways you can obtain Google Places Reviews from your customers;

1. If your customers come to see you, or you visit them at their workplace, ask them if they are prepared to write you a review there and then. You may have to guide them through the process of getting an account and then navigating to your Google Places listing (instructions for this process are below)
2. Send an email blast to your database offering to write a positive review for your customer in exchange for their positive review of your business. Include the instructions below in the email. If you have a large database it might be prudent to stagger the emails.
3. Some businesses have a waiting area for clients. How about providing a computer for them to use? Have a list of instructions for them printed and laminated so the process is made simple.

Instructions for getting Google Places Reviews;

First you need a Google account;

1. Go to www.google.com
2. Click on “Gmail” on the top menu
3. Click on the “create an account” link in the middle of the page
4. Fill in the form
5. To finish, click “I accept, create my account”

That’s it, now you have a Google account and a Gmail address. Next, you need to navigate to the Google Places listing;

1. Go to www.google.com.au (make sure you have entered google.com.au and not google.com – google.com.au will give you the local google places listing)
2. Make sure you are logged in to your Google account
3. In the Google search box , type; “company name suburb” – for instance our company is SEO Gold Coast and we are located in Robina – to find our Google places listing I typed “seo gold coast robina” into the search box. Underneath the distinctive red place marker, look for “Write a review”
4. Type in your review.
5. Then select the number of stars to allocate. We are looking for nothing less than a 4 or 5 star rating.
6. Then click Submit.

Note: If you haven’t set up a Google Plus One profile, you may be prompted at the “write a review” stage to set up a profile and load an image. This can be skipped if you prefer.

I hope you enjoyed my Google Places Reviews instructions. If you require any further assistance in gaining Google Places Reviews, please give Andrew a call on 0414 320 016.

For the second strategy you can employ to keep Google happy, visit this page: Google Plus One