Will obtaining positive business reviews improve my businesses SEO?

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Introduction

There are now so many businesses that are solely reliant on digital marketing in order to generate their sales.

Whether the business in question uses social media, organic seo or PPC to increase the volume of sales, most businesses now acknowledge the power of this marketing process.

This means that many business owners are also convinced that is the way to go is to invest in online marketing.

But enough of the hard sell, what we are really getting at is the point that business owners will now do all they can to have edge over their direct competitors.

A frequent question we regularly get asked at our agency is this, will more business reviews assist our companies seo?

In a nutshell the answer to this question is a rather straightforward one, that is yes, positive reviews can help to improve a company’s seo.

However, before you start obtaining reviews in a rather frantic manner, there’s a few words of wisdom we would like to offer you first.

#1 Don’t fake your businesses reviews

You may well be a start-up business, and as such you want to drum up business as fast as you can.

Naturally you want to standout from the competition, yet they all have tons of positive reviews, and your business has, umm none.

So what’s the answer? Does grabbing a cup of coffee and then writing a bunch of business reviews yourself sound like a good idea?

Well it shouldn’t! And here’s why, fake reviews will be picked up by Google’s algorithm. Also note that the other major search engines have algorithms built in such a way to prevent spam, and to prevent people trying to fool the algorithm.

So those ten reviews you’ve written yourself at the local coffee shop, well they could mean the website receives a penalty. They could also mean that the Google My Business listing never shows up for words that are related to your business.

So if you’ve glazed over, and lost what we were talking about, here’s the much shorter version- don’t fake your businesses reviews!

#2 Encourage your customers to leave reviews on your companies Google My Business account

Now when we use the word “encourage”, we don’t mean pay your customers, or offer them anything for free if they were good enough to leave you a review.

Sure, some other seo agencies may advocate this, but we don’t, we only use the best seo practices, which are commonly referred to as “white hat” seo.

We think the best way to obtain reviews is this method, its rather simple, that’s when you know you have a happy customer, why not just ask them if they would be willing to leave a business review.

Now, its at this point the customer may ask where’s the best place to leave the review, and if you get asked this, well it’s a golden opportunity to say Google My Business.

The reason we recommend business reviews are left on Google My Business is this, if someone was to search for your businesses name, well your Google My Business should pop-up.

That is of course if you have one? If not, get onto your digital marketing agency, and state that you need a Google My Business account set up.

So when someone searches your businesses name the Google My Business account should pop-up.

And because the businesses information is so clear, it will be easy for that person to see how many company reviews you have, as well as the companies star rating.

So, you think the best approach is to ask for a business review?

We think that the most effective strategy to take with business reviews is to contact customers that you know were happy with the service your company offered. Why not ask them if they would be willing to leave a business review?

With that said, you must have the permission to contact the customer, and decipher whether you have the right to e-mail them to ask this. If you do have the right, then why not just ask?

Why wouldn’t it better to obtain business reviews on other websites?

We think the best business reviews are when a customer has left them without you asking. The reason being is that they often appear more genuine, than if someone has been put on the spot to right a business review.

Plus, it’s a good idea to get some business reviews on Google My Business and also other website. For example, your business may appear on various business directory websites, and your business may well be reviewed on these websites as well.

Don’t ask your customers to leave reviews at your business premises

It’s not a good idea to ask your customers to leave a review while at your businesses location.

The reason being is this, with smartphones your customers may have location data switched on.

This means if every customer was to leave a review at the same location, well it could look rather suspicious. The algorithm may suspect spam.

After all, say you run an Italian restaurant, sure your going to have some diners that decide to leave a review there and then, yet most would like to go home, then post a review.

So real reviews are normally left from multiple locations, so obtaining them all at one location may damage your businesses seo.

Does your business require help with it’s local seo?

If you would like to obtain more seo advice, then why not give us a call today?