Optimizing Google My Business: Reviews

Hey everyone, Nate here with Stellar Blue Technologies one last time. I wanted to ramp up our, our in-depth review of Google My Business with a look at the reviews section of the profile. This section is actually really good for your business as a whole. You can get a lot of insights by what your customers are saying or maybe you need to adjust a specific process or do something a little bit differently to provide them with a better experience. The review section has also gotten a lot of emphasis recently with the inclusion of the map pack on the search engine results page. I’m sure that you’ve probably run into some marketing efforts or some individuals saying, “Hey, I can get you into that map pack and X number of hours by just getting you more reviews.”

Well, unfortunately that’s not really the case. Google like the organic search rankings for your website, are taking in a lot of different factors into account in terms of the, the rankings for that map pack. It’s looking at the relevance of the search. So how well does it correlate to the categories that you’ve selected for your Google My Business profile? How far away is that searcher. Is that search coming from five miles away, 10 miles away. They’re looking at that as well. They’re also looking at other SEO best practices of your website. So, if your website is not optimized well or not ranking, well, it’s going to be very difficult for you to actually get into that map pack in very quick fashion.

So, looking at this section as a whole, this is going to be the area where all of the reviews that are left or where all the reviews are aggregated appear. If anybody comes and leaves a review for your Google My Business page, this is where you’re going to find it. The key takeaway here is that you need to be responding to all of your reviews. Whether they’re negative, whether they’re positive, don’t be afraid to have a negative review because that can actually give you a lot of good feedback about your business as a whole and Google was really looking to see how you respond to that review a little bit more heavily than how you respond to a positive review. Ultimately, what they want to see is they want to see interaction. They want to see that you’re doing the right thing and that you’re working to make it a better experience for your customers and your clients.

There are several different ways that we can use to boost the overall number of reviews that you’re getting. One of the best ways of doing that is what’s called reputation management. So actively going out and requesting that customers for reviews from the individuals who have made a purchase with you or have been clients with you for a very long time. We can do that through email. There are several different ways to request reviews. I’m sure there’s third party applications that that would do that as well, too. Overall, being proactive and just going out and asking for it whether that’s on Facebook, whether it’s on Google whether it’s on your website, you just need to be trying to get as much customer feedback and as much information from your customers as possible. With that I think I I’d like to thank you guys for taking the time to sit through all of these. If you have any further questions about Google My Business or another platform feel free to reach out to us directly at StellarBlueTechnologies.com. You can send us an email or fill out a form and let us know what you think. We’ll see you later, guys. Thanks.

Kayla

Lead Creative Designer at Stellar Blue

1. When I'm not working, I am ...

Playing with my son outside or trying out a new recipe.

2. What attracted you to want to work at Stellar Blue?

The flexibility with my schedule and the ability to work from home in my PJs!

3. How is Stellar Blue’s culture achieved working remotely?

The ability to chat a co-worker and set up meetings throughout the day allows for you to connect with other team members easily and efficiently. 

4. When have you witnessed Stellar Blue’s mission/values in action?

In meetings with clients we provide complete transparency and honesty with them in what we know is the best solution is for their business.