Want More 5-Star Google Reviews? Check This Out

With consumers being overwhelmed with more options than ever thanks to the saturation of digitalization and globalization, how do they know that you’re the business for them? Positive reviews can be the difference between potential customers choosing your small business or going with a competitor. Essentially, you’re trying to impress the review generation who want to see that you’ve got plenty of online reviews detailing how you have exceptional customer service and happy customers.

Why do positive reviews matter so much?

A lack of online reviews or negative reviews can have a major impact on the success of your business. Bad reviews suggest that you’re a local business not worth spending money on and not having much of an online reputation creates uncertainty. If other small businesses do have online reviews, potential customers will be more inclined to go with them.

As well as building social proof and credibility, Google reviews are great for improving your SEO. To get any business from search engines, you need to be high up on the first search results page. Most people don’t scroll beyond the first 10 businesses shown on search engine results, never mind go beyond the first search engine results page.

Building up a bank of Google reviews will positively impact your ranking, particularly if you’re a local business that needs to show up in local search results.

Positive Review Pitfalls to Avoid

Going about getting more reviews the wrong way can do more damage than good. So here are a few warnings of what not to do while building your online reputation.

Yes, a 5-star Google review is golden. But that’s not the only success factor. The review generation wants more. While getting more Google reviews to rank highly among local businesses, gather feedback on different review sites. This creates a wide and varied online presence that’s proof of how amazing your business is.

It’s not just about the number of online reviews but the quality, variety, and consistency of how often they come in. That means it’s definitely not worth paying for fake reviews. The review generation can see through it. They’re looking for authentic reviews. Fake reviews can do more damage than bad reviews because it destroys trust.

With those warnings out of the way, how do you create a review generation strategy and get plenty of 5-star google reviews on a regular basis?

Tips for Generating More 5-Star Reviews

The best way to get more reviews is to ask for them. Remind your customers to leave reviews to support you as a local business and include a review link in your request to make it super easy for them to know how and where to share their feedback. Here are some best practices for getting top reviews from more customers.

Ask Through the Proper Channels

The easiest way to get more reviews is to ask through your customers’ preferred channel of communication. They’re more likely to see your review request and click on the review link. Text messaging has a really good response rate. Plus it’s easy for you to set up the review request campaign and for your customers to leave a review.

Leverage Physical Traffic

If you have a site where your customer base sees you in person like a shop or office, use this opportunity to ask for reviews. All it takes is putting up a “Leave us a review” sign with a QR code that’s linked to your Google business profile. Why not drive physical traffic to leave 5 star google reviews?

Make it Routine

You’re always getting new customers and customers are always having new interactions with your business which is the perfect opportunity for more review requests. In your business day-to-day routine, there should be at least one team member who is asking for reviews. If you regularly ask for reviews, your customers will regularly give reviews.

Personalize Review Requests

You can also increase your response rate by personalizing the ask for Google reviews. Adding details like their name, the product they bought, and the length of time they’ve been using it personalizes the message so customers will be more motivated to follow your ask.

Give Context

Generally, as consumers, we don’t want to do something that’s a bit time-consuming without good reason. So remind your customers why leaving a review is so important for your business. This extra context encourages them to take time out of their day to support you.

Make it Easy

Your customers are much more likely to give you a review if it’s easy. Reduce the number of steps involved by including a clear link that will send them directly to where they’ll write their review. Give some prompts as to what they could write about like the ease of use, value for money, and customer experience to help them figure out what to write. Make it simple.

Google Reviews FAQs

As Google Reviews is your top site to build a presence on, there are some details about collecting Google reviews that you might find helpful. If you have any other questions about reviews in general, we shared more information here.

Can I ask for 5-star reviews?

You can ask for reviews. In fact, we’d recommend you make review requests for Google reviews and other review sites part of your routine. However, you can’t incentivize people to leave positive reviews by, for example, offering a discount to those that leave 5-star Google reviews. It’s seen as unfair and unethical, only fully authentic reviews are allowed.

What’s a good star rating to aim for?

Now we can’t expect every piece of feedback to be a 5-star Google review. And you don’t need it to be. Although, the review generation does expect a majority of positive reviews as 33% of consumers require at least a 4-star average rating to consider engaging with a business. While a 5-star Google average rating isn’t required, a 1 or 2-star average could be detrimental because only 9% of consumers would consider engaging with a business that had a 1 or 2-star average rating. 

Can I remove negative reviews?

No, Google Reviews doesn’t work like that because removing negative reviews interferes with the honesty and authenticity of the platform. However, if you think a negative review is unfair you can report it and try to get it removed from Google as we explain in this dedicated Google Review article.

Start Collecting Reviews with Podium

Generating more business partly comes from meeting the needs of the review generation by building up a strong bank of Google reviews as well as a notable presence on other review sites. The best way to drive regular, varied, and quality reviews is by sending out review requests that your customers can easily respond to as part of your routine. A piece of tech that will support you in this process is our text messaging tool. Leverage the high response rate of text messages without the hassle.

Ready to start getting more Google reviews? Sign up for a free, no-strings-attached 14-day trial of Podium.