Reviews

We all know how important reviews are, but to what length will people go to get reviews? This is a warning to all our friends and family, Google does not play nice if they think you are baiting or faking reviews.  Bright Local’s informative post, https://www.brightlocal.com/2018/11/26/risky-review-schemes-that-could-sink-your-business, gives very succinct details on how you could be putting all your hard-earned reviews in jeopardy by taking part in what might seem to be an innocent enough plan to get more reviews. Here are some chilling excerpts From their blog:

You cannot offer a reviewer any discount on services or products in exchange for reviews. One business I’m aware of offered all of their customers a 10% savings on their next purchase for leaving a review, so Google went and deleted two years’ worth of reviews.

I’ve also seen a thread where a business thanked everyone with a free drink after leaving a review. Google deleted over 400 reviews. Those 400 individuals still kept their free drink after their reviews were deleted by Google.

As a business owner, we are sure that you would not want to risk those types of penalties. Reviews are good, but they must be gotten by  means in accord with the Google Terms of Service, and we will list just a few here, with more coming down the road, including a software to help you get real reviews.

1. Ask- yes just ask, especially right after the sale. We print out half-sheets and ask clients to give us their impression of the service they just got, once they have done that, asking them to post it online is pretty easy. Writing the review is actually the more difficult part of the equation, and good old paper and ink are a good resource for that.
2. Have links to your online reviews right up at the top of your website, for people to find easily . This strategy not only helps with reviews, it helps build traffic to your website, and we know that the big G loves traffic, so its a win-win for you and your rankings.
3. Send an email thanking your clients for their business, if feasible. This will not work for all types of businesses, but it is a great strategy to stay in front of your customers, through their inbox, and your emails acan have the same links that your website has, right to your online reviews.
More to come…