Local SEO - Review's Strategy

[reidsteven75]

I'm trying to brainstorm some ideas for obtaining positive reviews for a my client who's a local business on Yelp and Google+.

I think it's best to capture a customer in the "happy moment" after a successful transaction with that business.   I'm thinking integrating the option for customers to leave a review on Yelp or Google+ during the transaction process would be best.

Do you have any suggestions or experiences on the best way to integrate this into a transaction process where a customer physically walks into their business to make the transaction?  (it's an Auto Body Shop BTW)

Also any other strategies for getting customers to give reviews?

Much appreciated!

[SEO5Team]

Hi Steve,

You should check out Customer Lobby. They solicit phone reviews from the clients and have different packages. One one of our team member's recent visits to a local medical clinic, the doctor's secretary actually handed out business cards with links to Yelp and Google+ review pages for the doctor and was encouraging everyone to leave their feedback on the sites... Something to think about.

Cheers,

SEO5..

[MoosaHemani]

If you have a great product then do not bring this up while they are buying from you because this way it looks like you are hungry about it. For one of my client what i did was I setup an automated email that will go after a week of their purchase and ask them to share their experience with others in the community.

Remember you have to have a great product or else this idea can kill your local business.

[Marcus_Miller]

Hey Steve

It really can be fairly simple to generate positive reviews for the business and I find that all you really have to do is

A) Ask 
B) Make it really, really easy for people to do so

Asking at the point of sale in a bricks and mortar shop is not going to work AND it's important to note that asking people to conduct a review is okay but soliciting a review whilst that user is on your property is not okay and could cause problems down the road (all reviews from same IP address etc). It's also a bit mean to pressure people like that so not a good policy even if we ignore online.

A simple approach we have followed works like this:

• Obtain an email for your customer at point of sale
• Email the customer to ask them if they were happy with the service
• If the customer responds in a positive way then ask them for a review

Now, this tackles two important areas

1. We ensure the user is happy who we are asking to place the review
2. We make it easy for them by linking directly to where we wish the review to be placed and including instructions

You can also steer the ship a bit here (not in a manipulative way) and ask them to mention the location, service etc. This makes the content of the reviews solid for search purposes and useful for other users considering using your service. Win Win.

We go into more detail here with some simple email templates etc: http://www.bowlerhat.co.uk/blog/a-review-strategy-for-local-seo/

Hope that helps! Getting good reviews requires that folks are actually good at what they do (which I am sure your client are) and then asking people to place the review whilst making it as easy as possible to do so.

Refs:

• http://www.bowlerhat.co.uk/blog/a-review-strategy-for-local-seo/
• http://blumenthals.com/blog/2012/08/20/google-on-reviews-asking-for-them-is-ok-soliciting-them-is-bad/

[reidsteven75]

This makes 100% sense to me, and I think I'll be taking this approach to integrating review gathering workflow for my clients.   Thanks a lot for the idea Marcus!

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Steve,

You've received some very thoughtful replies here. I am just popping in to say that while the above suggestions sound good to me if applied to Google+ reviews, Yelp does not permit review solicitation in any form. In other words, your client should not be asking customers to review them on Yelp in any way. Not verbally, via email, via CTAs on the website, etc. Their policy is the most stringent in the industry - they want all reviews to be the results of spontaneous activity on the part of consumers. So, while I think you've received some excellent advice here, I would not recommend applying it to Yelp. Hope this saves you some headaches!

[Marcus_Miller]

No worries! Glad it helped. Reviews are one of those things it is easy to overlook (or over think!). Get a solid process in place, be consistent and it will take care of itself over time.

[Marcus_Miller]

Sure, good response. It is a waste of time as well with Yelp as if the reviewers are not trusted Yelp reviewers then the review will be at best ignored and at worst suspicious.