MAPS PhD Expert

Latest Knowledge Is Your Greatest Asset

Give to Get. Give your customers a direct link to

your Google My Business reviews form and ask for

reviews.

Having excellent online reviews is more and more important all the time. Most consumers reach for their phone to look into whatever company or restaurant they are considering doing business with before they walk in the door or do business online. Basically, if you are in business, you’d better be gathering great reviews and fixing anything that causes bad reviews.

If you are a business owner and you are NOT speaking with your customers - WHY AREN’T YOU?

We agree. It's not always possible. But if you can, you really MUST. Create a culture of customers who WANT to leave reviews for you. Make it as easy as possible for your customers to leave reviews for you and your business by giving them direct links to the actual review page or form in order to make it easy to do. For example:

Click To Tweet (Add Your Business Twitter account)

Help your client set this up for their customers, clients and patients. When a transaction is completed with a new customer, your client will send a thank you email to that customer, and also ask for a review on your client's Google My Business listing.

Your client will include a direct link to their GMB form:

http://Domain.com/review (hyperlink the GMB link)

This URL automatically loads the Google My Business

review form so customers can easily leave their review

of your client’s business.

Giving your customers a direct link means that they don't have to search and wade through Google to try to figure out what you need and where - usually resulting in abandonment of the process.

When the link is clicked, the Google My Business review box with star rating and comment box should pop up.

(Whoever is going to leave a review must be logged into their Google account first.)

Since the majority of internet searches are through Google, it's a good bet that your GMB reviews will have a greater impact on your overall ratings. When your potential customers search on Google for your service, you want YOUR great reviews to have prominence on Google.

(As an example, we are using a business named

WebWorks of KC).

Business name, address, phone number, reviews and more information are displayed in the Knowledge Graph in the sidebar when users search for your business name.

Is it really important to have reviews on your Google My Business listing?

It's a very strange phenomenon, but people will trust the word of an absolute stranger. Reading online reviews is how the majority of people make their choices and decisions for who they will do business with.

It is VITAL that your online presence is an excellent one. Five seems to be the magic number for Google My Business reviews. Once that number of reviews has been reached, it is very likely that your business will see a boost.

Reviews on your Google My Business page will improve the organic local search rankings for a business.

Since anyone who leaves a review must have a Google account and be logged in when they leave the review, you can be pretty certain that the review and reviewer are legitimate - from a real human being.

Reviews by "user" or "anonymous" do you no good. They are not trusted. If your customer does not want to create a Google account or log into their account, you could ask them to leave a review on your Facebook page, or send their review in an email.

Create a link directly to your GMB business review box to be used with any device.

Google is always on the move, changing and updating/rearranging things to keep everyone on their toes.

The set up for creating a link to the Google My Business review box is no exception. While it's a bit of a challenge to create the universal - direct link - to the Google My Business review box, it is most definitely worth the time it takes. Here’s how to do it:

(Your GMB listing must already be set up in order to complete the rest of this process.) With your cell phone, open a browser and go to Google.com.

Be certain that you aren't logged into Google, or, if you are using Chrome, use incognito mode. In any case, being logged in and visible will cause problems for setting up your link.

In the screenshots below, I am using the Google Chrome browser on an Android phone, but the process is the same on iPhone using Safari.

Search for your business name exactly as it appears on your Google My Business listing. Your business’s Knowledge Graph should show up with all of your business information.

If you don’t see your business, just modify your search a little – include your city/state, phone number, address, etc. – until your business pops up.

Hit that round blue button with the down arrow.

When you find your business and the box that looks

similar to the one above, click on the Blue Button with

the DOWN arrow. Scroll slowly down the screen until

you locate the "Rate and Review" area.

Scroll down to the section that reads “Rate and Review” and click on the FIFTH star on the right side. This will activate the 5-star rating so that it will be included in the review link that is shared with your client’s customers/ patients. (Frequently, people forget to select the number of stars, or don't really realize the significance of them as it relates to your business.)

Congratulations. You've now reached the "leave a review" screen. Press on the address bar and hold it until an option opens to "copy URL".

You now have a copy of the URL to the review page for your client’s Google My Business listing.

Hooray!!!! Success. You have created your universal link that "SHOULD" work on both desktop and mobile.

Your link will look something like this:

https://www.google.co.in/search?site=&source=hp&ei=OMAqV6vDOcGNmQGbnoco&q=webworks+

of+kc&oq=webworks+of+kc&gs_l=mobile-gws-

p.3..0.774.7340.0.8211.14.14.0.4.4.0.433.4152.0j1j5j7j1.14.0%E2%80%A6.0%E2%80%A61c.1j4.64.m

obile-gws-

hp..1.13.2797%E2%80%A65j0i131j0i22i30.7xmryFdfQrE&gws_rd=cr#gws_rd=cr&istate=kp:xpd

Please NOTE – Google is constantly changing. They change the names of services and the function of local listings, etc. The services may also be different depending on factors such as where in the world you are located, when your GMB listing was created, or even when you might be reading this document. If the directions written here do NOT work, you might want to create a link for your desktop and another one for mobile, and send both links to your customers - let them decide which to use.

Now, you really don't want to send that mile long, ugly

link to your customers. So, you can copy the link and

head on over to goo.gl and shorten it to make it look

more appealing – something like this:

https://goo.gl/s8zR36

It makes sense to use the goo.gl shortener since you

are using Google's business listing.

Most people recognize the name, and you are inviting

your customers to leave their review on Google.

The most attractive and professional looking option is to create an html URL that looks like this: http://domain.com/review - which will take the visitor to the very long URL that you collected.

In your WordPress website, you may add a plugin. (If using Local Theme Jack – Drag and Drop, add the button module and add the link to the module.)

Asking your customer for a review in an elegantly crafted email.

OK… you've done everything right. You got the customer. Gave fabulous service and made them very happy. Created the perfect, simple process to make the "job" of leaving a GREAT review for you. Now, the only piece missing is: You have to ASK them for the review. Keep your message short and to the point. Don't annoy them by waxing poetic. Use a very simple, direct email:

Hi Happy Customer,

It was a pleasure to serve you!

We will appreciate if you'd take a moment to leave a short, honest review for us on our Google My Business listing?

Just click here and leave your review: http://domain.com/review

Thank you,

Business Owner domainname.com

If you have a texting sort of relationship with your clients, you could simply text the review link to them. It's certainly faster. It’s VERY important that you already have this sort of relationship with your clients. Make sure that the message is short and sweet:

We really enjoyed serving you. We will appreciate if you will take a moment to leave a review on Google for us. http://domain.com/ .

Please NOTE – If you reside outside of the United States, you might want to send both a desktop and a mobile URL in your Thank You email message. If you're sending a text, it's likely that sending only the mobile URL will work just fine.

What should your client do if their customer does not have a Google account?

So, as we've mentioned, your customer must have a Google account in order to leave a review for your (or your client’s) business. This is actually a good thing because the reviews can be verified as real - from a real human being. Anonymous reviews provide no value and have been misused.

Don't spend any time trying to convince your happy customer to set up a Google account.

Instead, find out if they have a Facebook account and invite them to leave a review for you on your business Facebook page instead.

If they don't have a Facebook account either, maybe they'd be willing to send a review to you in an email that you could then post on your website.

What if your client doesn’t have a Google account?

With each new client that you work with, you could be asking if they have a Google account, any type of Google account. Mention the possible types.

There are a great many options, including: Android, YouTube, Gmail, Blogger, AdWords, Google+, AdSense, Drive, Calendar, Voice, etc.

Lots of people have at least one of these accounts, but are completely unaware that they are Google. Any of these Google accounts will work.

If your new client doesn't have a Google account of any kind, find out what would be of use to them and walk them through the process of signing up for one - or you could even create it for them.

If you are building or managing a website for your client, it's useful to add Google Analytics and Google Search Console to their new site. These are both Google tools and both require a Google account.

It's easier for web designers or managers to use these methods. If you do not fit into those categories, you could simply add a little note in your thankyou email - something to the effect of: “Were you aware that Android, YouTube and Gmail are all Google accounts?”

The most commonly used free email service is Gmail. Android cell phones make up more than 50% of all mobile phones in the US.

The third most popular site on the web is YouTube. It is very possible that most of your clients/customers DO have a Google account and are not aware of it. They just need you to let them know.

You are now armed with all the information you need to begin getting reviews for your/your client’s business.

People are not mind readers, and most customers are oblivious to how much value great reviews will bring to your business.

Also, most people love to be asked. Just ask for their help. If they love you, they will be happy to help you out, especially now that you've made it so very easy to do.

Disclaimer

Google's algorithm (the rules and guidelines that determine which business listings they display at any given time to any given individual) may have changed since this document was published.

While the steps outlined above were working for us at the time we published this document, Google may have changed its procedures since then.

With MAPS PhD we constantly keep up to date with Google's latest changes.

Copyright 2016 - All rights reserved.

Jack Hopman, http://www.jackhopman.com

You may not copy, sell or distribute this document

without advance written permission from the author.