Do you want to boost your company’s Google star rating? Having a 4- or 5-star rating on Google can improve your local ranking on Google, drive more traffic, increase footfall, and boost revenue. The good news is that it’s easy to improve your star rating on Google.
Thanks to review sites like Google, businesses no longer have to spend a fortune on advertising. Instead, using reviews from customers to boost your online reputation is the smartest way to increase sales. But what happens when your Google reviews aren’t as good as they need to be? How can you improve your Google Star Ratings?
Why Google Reviews Ratings Are Crucial for Your Online Reputation
Google Reviews is the number one review site in the world. Fifty-eight percent of all reviews posted are on Google. When consumers need honest opinions about products and services, 63 percent will turn to Google. A positive review helps customers make a buying choice. However, negative reviews also impact sales. Ninety-four percent of buyers will avoid a business because of a bad review they read. People trust Google reviews because they are the honest opinions of genuine customers rather than an advert created by a company.
Low star ratings are not only going to put customers off. A poor review profile impacts your local SEO search ranking. Reviews contain keywords related to your business. And Google uses the frequency of these keywords and the positive or negative sentiment to rank a business accordingly.
Poor Google ratings are costly. For restaurants, a drop from 3.5 stars to 3 stars means the chances of having a packed house at peak time go from 34 percent to 13 percent. One negative review can cost up to 30 potential customers. Multiply that by the average price of your product, and you quickly see why Google reviews are crucial for your online reputation.
3 Ways to Get Hundreds of Positive Reviews
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What Are 5-star Reviews?
5-star reviews are reviews left by happy customers satisfied with your product or service. 5-star reviews show that the client enjoyed the value, service, excellent customer experience, and possibly speedy delivery. Customers who leave a 5-star review are highly likely to recommend your business.
Related: Are 5-star reviews always necessary?
What Are 4-star Reviews?
A 4-star review is the perfect business review. Research from the Spiegel Center shows that a 4.2-to-4.5-star rating is ideal because it addresses the issue of “too good to be true.” Customers who write 4-star reviews are overall delighted, but there might be small suggestions for improvements.
Related: How to respond to a 4-star review.
What Are 3-star Reviews?
A 3-star online customer review can be either mixed or neutral. For example, a mixed 3-star review on Google will contain both good points and bad ones, which you can use to fix any mistakes. On the other hand, neutral customers will also have positive and negative points. Still, there might not be helpful customer feedback to act on.
Related: How to deal with 3-star reviews.
Should I Be Worried About 1- and 2-star Reviews?
1- and 2-star reviews are going to impact your revenue negatively. Or course, you shouldn’t worry about an occasional bad review. But these reviews show some serious errors with your business that you may not be aware of. The good news is that the solutions are in the poor reviews.
Related: How to turn around a negative review.
How to Get More Reviews to Boost Your Online Reputation
A few negative reviews are not a bad thing. But how you respond to customer feedback can show potential customers how you handle setbacks and that customer opinions matter. However, to reduce the impact of the negative reviews, you need to get more reviews to increase the star rating.
Before working hard to get more reviews, make sure you have implemented all the necessary improvements and that your product and service are outstanding. If not, you are likely to get more of the same negative reviews.
1. Ask for reviews
A review request is an excellent way to get genuine reviews from happy customers. Never assume that your amazing business is enough to encourage customers to leave a review. Many consumers don’t understand how vital Google business reviews are.
Ask for reviews in person, by SMS or email invitation, business card, or thank you cards. Include a link or QR code to your review site. Also, have a review link on your website or, even better, a landing page. Explain that the review process only takes a couple of minutes and provide a direct link.
2. Remind customers to leave their review
Follow-up emails, messages, and phone calls serve a double purpose. First, you have a chance to reinforce your excellent customer service and check if everything is OK. Second, you can use the opportunity to remind customers to leave a review. The general rule is that sending up to three reminders is acceptable. Don’t push the matter further or you risk getting negative feedback.
3. Make it easy for customers to find you
Even if you have a direct link to the review page, you still need to have an up-to-date Google My Business account with accurate details. If the information is missing, it will be harder to find your business, and reviews may not get published. Also, ensure that your information on Google Maps is accurate. Contact information is essential but so are things like opening times, parking, and photos.
4. Respond to your reviews—as soon as possible
More than half of consumers expect a response to their review. However, it’s not enough to only reply to 4- and 5-star reviews. Responding to unhappy customers is a way to resolve their negative experiences.
You can use your response to offer solutions and apologize for their unhappy experience. You can also use the information to improve your business operations. This strategy will help to fix a bad review and improve your star rating. When readers see that you respond to every review and value your customers, they will be more inclined to leave their own positive reviews.
5. Use Google’s free resources
Google has a great Google Marketing Kit. The kit contains social media posts, stickers, posters, signs that will help your business get more reviews and boost your online reputation.
How Starloop Can Help You Get More Reviews
Review management is time-consuming, on top of what you already must do to run your business. However, getting more reviews is not something you can afford to leave to chance. By choosing review management software like Starloop, you can become more efficient without missing a single review opportunity.
Getting started with Starloop takes just a few minutes, and the process is super simple. You can access your dashboard for review insights and all your reviews from Google and Facebook in one unified inbox. In addition, you receive new review notifications and can quickly respond to every type of review—positive, negative, and neutral.
Automated review requests send friendly SMS messages and emails with a link to your Google review page. For the perfect ethical incentive, customers see that for every review, Starloop plants a tree. An ideal way to motivate customers to leave a review.
Starloop has a highly competitive pricing plan. All the above comes at affordable prices, starting from just $47 per month. Starloop’s simple pricing plans are per business, not per location. The expert team offers free technical support, and they are constantly adding new services to their software. As well as a free trial, you have a 30-day money-back guarantee and no lengthy contracts. This is a risk-free way to start improving your Google star rating.
