How to Get More Google Reviews (2024 Guide)
Because Google reviews are such an important element to any Local SEO campaign, it’s important to generate reviews on a regular basis. Reviews help convert searchers into customers, and help generate more engagement to your Google Business Profile, which can help to maintain or improve rankings.
Table of Contents
Follow these steps to generate more Google reviews:
- Get your Google review link
- Get reviews from your network
- Ask for reviews in-person
- Create an email campaign to get more reviews
- Ask for reviews via text message
- Add Google review opportunities to feedback surveys
- Generate reviews from social media engagement
- Create incentivizes to generate more Google reviews
Note: Before you can generate reviews to you business profile, you’ll need to make that you’ve set up your Google Business Profile and that it’s verified.
1. Get your Google Review link
Follow these steps to get your business’s Google review link…
🔗 See steps
Step 1: Log in to your Google Business Profile
Step 2: Click the Ask for reviews button
Once signed into your profile, click the “Ask for reviews” button.
Step 3: Copy the review link
After you click the “Ask for reviews” button, you’ll find your unique review link – this is unique for every profile, and businesses
Pro Tip: View the full guide on how to get your Google review link if you can’t find it.
Now that you have the link, it will need incorporated into the customer journey. Generally, this is done at the end of the buying cycle at a point where the customer feels most elated about their decision.
For some, this will be later down the road in the post-post purchase stage. And for others (such as iPhone screen repair shops), a good time to ask for a review is generally immediately once the job has be completed.
Note: Ultimately, your customer buying cycle and methods of communication will greatly impact what method you use to generate Google reviews.
Before jumping into generating reviews, it’s important to understand how many reviews you should aim for. Use this Google Business Profile optimization template & checklist to benchmark your business against local competitors, and determine how may reviews you will need.
2. Get reviews from your network
For new businesses, one of the easiest ways to get reviews is to tap into your personal or business network. This can include peers, family, friends, and any vendors or partnerships that exist in your business.
3. Ask for reviews in-person
For businesses that have developed a personal relationship with their customers, one of the best ways to ask for reviews is in-person. This applies to niches like coffee shops, home service businesses (such as plumbers or HVAC contractors), and iPhone repair shops.
With this method, it’s important to gauge customer satisfaction before asking for a review. Once the customer has communicated that they’re satisfied, request that they leave a Google review for your business!
👤 In-person reviews
Here’s a simple 3-step process:
- Incorporate employees gauging customer satisfaction into existing processes
- Have employee ask customer to leave a Google review
- If customer agrees, have a QR code readily available for them to scan
Note: You can add your Google review link to a QR code to make this a seamless experience. Most softwares (like the QR Code Generator by Bitly) make this really easy, and allow you to create one with a free trial to test this strategy out for yourself.
4. Create an email campaign to get more reviews
For businesses that rely heavily on email communications, incorporating a Google review strategy into your email campaign can be a great way to increase reviews on your Google Business Profile.
This can either be done manually or included as a part of an automated email sequence.
⚙️ Manual method
How to ask for Google reviews manually via email:
- Gauge client satisfaction (For example, after an SEO report is sent!)
- Request a review if the customer expresses positive feedback & include instructions for how to leave a review
- Send follow-up reminders if the customer forgets to leave a review
Note: Generally, this is best for businesses that have a lot of organic and ongoing conversation with clients via email (such as marketing agencies).
🤖 Automated method
How to ask for Google reviews with an email sequence:
- Get access to an automated email software like EmailOctopus OR add a feedback loop to an existing sequence.
- Gauge customer experience with conditional logic
- If customer suggests positive experience, request a review (along with instructions on how to leave a review)
Note: Commonly, this is seen with e-commerce brands once the purchase has been finalized and delivered.
Pro Tip: You can also leverage gated content (such as free guides and resources) to generate Google reviews.
5. Ask for reviews via text message
Many businesses rely on text messaging to confirm appointments and follow-up with customers about their experience. It’s also possible (and quite common) to ask for Google reviews via text.
⚙️ Manual method
How to ask for Google reviews manually via text:
- Gauge client satisfaction
- Request a review if the customer expresses positive feedback & include instructions for how to leave a review
- Send follow-up reminders if the customer forgets to leave a review
Note: I would only suggest doing this for those clients who prefer communication over text (as opposed to email).
🤖 Automated method
How to ask for Google reviews with an text campaign:
6. Add Google review opportunities to feedback surveys
Customer feedback surveys can be a great way to collect and segment useful feedback.
⭐ Positive feedback
By using a customer feedback form with conditional logic, you can easily segment happy customers into a mass list for later follow-up and outreach. Once the list has been compiled, create an outreach campaign to generate more Google reviews.
Note: Most form builders support conditional logic with their basic plans. Once the data has been collected, and the contact list has been created, you can use any means of communication (text, email, or FB Messenger) to start your review campaign.
❗ Negative feedback
It’s important to have a way to deal with negative feedback before it becomes public (e.g. a negative Google review). Conditional logic makes this possible and easier to manager.
Pro Tip: Have a staff member dedicated to managing and responding to negative feedback. This can turn negative experience into positive experiences. Negative feedback also creates opportunities to improve business processes, so be sure to listen with an open mind!
7. Generate reviews from social media engagement
Often, prominent businesses generate a lot of engagement on social media platforms like Facebook and / or Instagram. Transforming engagement into Google reviews can increase the value of customer engagement on social media platforms.
⚙️ Manual method
Just like requesting reviews via email, you can take the same approach with a platform like Facebook Messenger.
How to ask for Google reviews manually via social media:
- Gauge client satisfaction
- Request a review if the customer expresses positive feedback & include your review link
- Send follow-up reminders if the customer forgets to leave a review
Note:This can be an ideal approach for smaller businesses that don’t receive an overwhelming amount of customer interactions on social media platforms.
🤖 Automated method
How to ask for Google reviews with an automated messenger:
- Get access to an automated software like EmailOctopus
- Gauge customer experience with conditional logic
- If customer suggests positive experience, request a review (along with the Google review link)
Note: ManyChat offers tons of flexibility and options to customize the user flow. In fact, I’ve personally used it to grow a Facebook Group from 0 to 1000+ members in just a few months with minimal effort.
8. Create incentivizes to generate more Google reviews
Give staff members and employees incentives to generate reviews.
💰 Employee incentives
Incentivize employees to generate more Google reviews:
- Cash prize
- Visa Gift Cards
- Amazon Gift Cards
- Starbucks Gift Cards
- Popular local restaurant gift cards
- PTO / time off
Note: This can be performance-based with a single prize winner (person with most reviews generated wins) or scale with the amount of reviews generated by each employee (so that everyone who participates is awarded for their efforts).
Note: Directly incentivizing customers to leave a review is against Google’s Content Policy which states, “Don’t offer or accept money in exchange for reviews.”
Additional considerations
Google reviews as a ranking factor
Google reviews are a ranking ranking factor when it comes to ranking in Google Maps and Google’s Local 3-Pack results. For more information, see Whitespark’s Local Search Ranking Factors
Responding to Google reviews
Be sure to respond to both negative and positive reviews. This will reinforce that you value your customers, their feedback, and show that you are willing (and hopefully capable) when it comes to dealing with negative feedback.
Showcase Google reviews on your website
You can showcase reviews on your website for added social proofing.
Pro Tip: Add reviews that mention specific services (or products) to your local landing pages for an additional layer of relevance and on-page SEO.
Generate consistent reviews on your business profile
Large bursts of reviews can be good, but it’s important to generate new and positive reviews on a monthly basis. Have a set strategy in place to generate reviews.
Buying Google reviews
It’s against Google’s guidelines to purchase reviews from 3rd party website and vendors (see Prohibited and restricted content).
Removed or missing Google reviews
Most Google reviews show almost immediately after being posted. However, how long a Google review takes to post can vary depending on the contents of the review. In some cases, delays may occur or reviews may not display for a number of possible reasons.
Happy SEO-ing 🙂