Google reviews are an extremely powerful tool to attract clients and boost your revenue quickly.

Did you know that they can help you to rank more highly in Google search results than businesses who use paid advertising or advanced (SEO) Search Engine Optimisation?

It’s true!

Google reviews are an underestimated tool that can drastically increase your visibility and credibility, bringing you a consistent flow of leads and clients. In this article I’m going to explain how and why Google reviews are so powerful and how you can use them to your advantage.

In order to get Google reviews, you’ll first need to register your business with Google Business. If you haven’t already registered your business with Google, I highly recommend you do so as quickly as possible.

There are many advantages of registering your business with Google.

A Google Business profile…

1. Shows that you’re a ‘real’ business.
2. Gives you instant credibility.
3. Allows Google to easily match searches to your business.
4. Boosts your SEO organically (this is worth its weight in gold!)

Google Reviews form part of your Inbound Marketing strategy.

Before we get into how it all works, let’s first recap the difference between inbound and outbound marketing, and how Google Reviews fit into your overall marketing strategy, so that we’re on the same page.

The Difference between Inbound and Outbound Marketing – and Why You Need Both

Outbound Marketing

Outbound marketing is anything you ‘push’ out to a wide audience to promote and sell your products or services. e.g. via social media marketing, blogging, or advertising. 

Your audience is not always actively looking for solutions when you’re engaged in outbound marketing (often they’re scrolling on social media late at night and they might not be interested in your promotions).

Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing is how you magnetise people to your website through search engines. It’s how people find you when they’re actively searching for a particular product or service. Inbound marketing includes Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Google Reviews (which help boost your ranking in search engine results, as you’ll see below).

Inbound marketing allows those who are actively looking for online solutions to find you. Those prospects are very ‘warm leads’ because they’re actively looking for a product or service that you provide.

Inbound marketing allows those who are actively looking for online solutions to find you.

Both inbound and outbound marketing strategies drive people towards your website (see below). And once they get to your website, you’ll need to have a very compelling offer that entices your visitors to engage with you and your brand.

We call these ‘irresistible offers’.

So how do Google Reviews enhance your Inbound Marketing?

You might have noticed in Google search results that the first results that show up are paid ads. Google Ads are a form of paid advertising in which you can pay Google to have your business shown first when people are searching for a product or service that you provide. You can recognise Google Ads by the words ‘Ad’ that’s in front of the search result (see the screenshot below).

After paid ads, the next thing that shows up on Google search results is the ‘maps’ section. These are businesses that have a physical Google-registered address in the area close to you. And the businesses that get shown first in the maps section are those who have the most reviews. This is why you need to start building your Google reviews. The latest research shows that the maps section of Google results gets at least 20% more clicks than paid Ads or SEO generated search results!

Latest research shows that the maps section of Google results gets at least 20% more clicks than paid Ads or #SEO generated search results! #businesstips Click To Tweet

To see some of the latest research on Google, check out Hursh’s videos.

Here’s what the maps section results looks like for a search on local carpet cleaning businesses.

The important take-away message here is that Google reviews help you to get listed first, above paid advertising results and organic SEO results.

So start building your Google reviews fast!

The important take-away message here is that Google reviews help you to get listed first, above paid advertising results and organic SEO results. So start building your Google reviews fast! #googlereviews #SEO #googleads… Click To Tweet

How to Request Google Reviews from Happy Clients, Past or Present

The easiest way to start building your Google reviews is to reach out to your happy clients, past or present, and ask them to leave a 5-star review for you. They’ll need to have a Google account (e.g. a Gmail account) to be able to register a review for you. Or they can create a Google account for free if they don’t already have one.

To make it as easy as possible for your clients, send them the direct link to leave a review. The direct link can be found in the back end of your Google Business account, and looks like this (below).

When you click on that link, you’ll be shown a link that you can copy and paste into a message to your clients to ask them to leave a review for you. The link will look like this (see below).

Set yourself a challenge to get 20 Google reviews in 20 days and when you reach out to your clients you can say “I’m on a mission to get 20 Google reviews in 20 days and I’d love your support.” You might be surprised at how happy your clients will be to help you out!

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We hope this article has helped you to understand how important Google reviews are, and how instrumental they can be in helping you to build your business!

Did you have any questions or comments about Google Reviews? Let’s talk about it in the comments section! xox

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