Octiv Digital
Display & Remarketing Ads Management

Quick Tips to Improve Online Reviews

by | Last updated Oct 6, 2023

Obtaining reviews from customers can be a process especially when you are trying to direct customers to a Facebook page, Google My Business page or a Yelp page. Most customers will not immediately want to leave a review (at the time of purchase or services rendered) and then a lot of customers forget to leave a review. In some cases, you need to incentivize customers to leave an authentic review.

Here are a few quick ideas you can use to help remind customers to leave reviews:

Email Signature

A simple way to remind customers to leave reviews is through your email signature. Within your signature, place links to your Facebook, Yelp or Google My Business page. In your email correspondence with customers, they will see the review links and may be encouraged to leave a review. If they love your product or service, you can bet they will want to share their experience.

Incentivize

Everything has its price including reviews. Consider offering an incentive to your customers to leave their review. You can try offering a percentage off your services the next time they need you, a coupon code for a product or you may even want to send them a gift for their honest review. This strategy tends to work well, but you need to be sure it fits within your marketing budget and you’re receiving a real, honest review from the customer.

Vanity Redirects

Review URLs for Google My Business, Facebook, Yelp or similar customer-centric platforms are long and complicated. If you are not linking customers directly to these URLs from an email signature or another source, you can’t expect your customers to remember the URL. For this reason, it’s a great idea to create a vanity redirect on your site that resolves to the correct review URL on the site of your choosing.

example.com/Facebook-Reviews redirects to https://www.facebook.com/pg/example/reviews/?ref=page_internal

Setting up this type of redirect is easy for your webmaster or SEO to do. Once the vanity URL is properly redirecting, you can tell customers to go to the easy-to-remember URL to collect their review.

This strategy is great for businesses with multiple brick-and-mortar locations and corresponding review pages. Set up a redirect for each location (i.e., example.com/Folsom-Reviews or example.com/Elk-Grove-Reviews) and direct customers accordingly.

Why Are Reviews Important?

Genuine reviews from real customers drive more business. As customers discover your business, they turn to honest reviews to know if you are a good business to work with.

Reviews also play a part in local SEO campaigns too as Google tends to fill the local listing 3-pack with businesses that have a high number of reviews. It’s really important to try to obtain as many reviews as possible as they will go a long way in earning you more business.

What About Negative Reviews?

Reputation Management

Negative reviews happen to every business. Whether it’s a bad experience or a customer having a rough day, a negative review will happen from time to time. The best thing to remember when you receive a negative review is to not react negatively. Instead, respond in a positive light and try your best to change the customer’s mind. If they are unhappy with your product or service, help them to resolve the situation. It’s also imperative for you to respond as quickly as possible to mitigate the effects of a negative review.

Reputation Management

If your business or individual name is the victim of negative reviews and you can’t mend the situation with the customer by any means, it may be time to consider a reputation SEO service. While this type of reverse SEO strategy is more in-tune for companies that need to bury negative information in Google search results, it can also be productive for review management.

Have you tried any of the above methods for collecting reviews? Has it worked well for you? Let us know in the comments!

About the Author

Tyson Bell

Co-Founder of Octiv Digital. I have an extensive background in the technology sector, working for some of the world's biggest companies. I received my MBA with an emphasis in marketing from the WP Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.

Comments

Latest Posts

March Madness: Google Rolling Out Major Search Quality Update

March Madness: Google Rolling Out Major Search Quality Update

Google has begun rolling out its latest algorithm update targeted toward websites with unhelpful content that is either autogenerated or generated from AI like OpenAI's ChatGPT. It's the first major update of 2024 and it's expected to reduce 40% of unhelpful content...

The Essential KPIs for An SEO Campaign

The Essential KPIs for An SEO Campaign

What SEO KPIs Are Important? The effectiveness of SEO key performance indicators (KPIs) lies in their ability to provide tangible insights into a website's performance in search engine results. These insights enable marketers and businesses to make informed decisions...

Our Take On Web Hosting Platforms in 2024

Our Take On Web Hosting Platforms in 2024

Finding the right web hosting solution can be a time-consuming process that depends on a variety of factors, such as the type of hosting required, particular features desired, and budget constraints. The abundance of options and complex pricing structures, with...

GET HELP

Connect with Us

Contact Octiv Digital