Google Reviews are one of the most powerful digital tools available to your business. Not only can they establish trust and authority with potential customers, they can also enhance your local search engine optimisation (SEO), helping your business to appear more prominently in local search results.

“Businesses are frequently surprised by the impact that a low/average rating can have on their organic search visibility. As part of their brand marketing plan, businesses should include managing their Google Business Profile and responding to feedback from customers”
– Michaela Laubscher, Head of SEO at Empire9

The 101 on Google Reviews

Make sure your business profile is verified. This means you will show up on maps, searches and other Google platform services.

You cannot reply to a review unless you are verified—so this is an important foundational step.
Work toward curating more reviews. We recommend working on a review incentivisation scheme, or utilising automated email reminders to your customers inviting them to leave a Google review. The more reviews the stronger the pull for potential customers.
The reality is the reward is worth it – by curating a lot of reviews and having a high average star rating, your business will be rewarded by Google at the top of organic local search results.

Google Review Management
Respond to everything. Not only is it good for your rankings, but it shows authenticity and good character. Respond to the good, and definitely respond to the bad. Remember that these reviews & replies are public—and (likely) forever!

We understand that there can be several reasons why you may not want to respond to a negative review:

• Access to the platform (by the person best positioned to respond)
• Time factors, and restraints within day-to-day operations
• Or simply not knowing how to respond to something that feels uncomfortable, untruthful or defamatory!

How to approach negative reviews

First off, don’t respond in anger. Use your brand tone of voice, and be respectful. Acknowledge their experiences and thoughts and address the learning opportunity for your organisation. Even if you disagree with a review – say so respectfully and without attacks.

If you feel that a review was done in malice, or appears to be spam – you can flag them to Google. They are not deleted, but typically removed if Google agrees with your flagging. However, it is worth noting that we have often seen these requests not honoured by the platform. In this case, it is best to reply with a simple “We believe this review to be spam”.

If a review seems malicious, reply politely and respectfully even when outlining the reason a review is incorrect.
We appreciate this can be time consuming, but is essential for your local search success, and is shown to be highly valued by customers.

What do Google reviews do for a business’ SEO?

Local SEO is greatly improved by consistent, positive reviews. Google will analyse a person’s location and show them the best businesses that meet their needs. Consistent high reviews means Google perceives a business to be a place customers will want to go. So they will make sure to show your business to searchers who are relevant to you, and located near you.

There are very few downsides to acquiring a solid amount of Google reviews. They bolster your business’ credit to potential customers, SERP status, and give you easy access to what your customers actually think of your products and services for free – something that many companies pay significant money for! Of course, if you are acquiring hefty amounts of negative reviews, this is a problem for your SEO and more likely an indicator of a bigger problem within the business itself. We recommend taking negative reviews seriously and instigating internal processes to grow and learn from negative feedback.

Negative reviews impact how your existing and potential customers feel about your business. They also impact how Google and other search engines treat your business in terms of ranking and general visibility. To improve local visibility and customer engagement, businesses should encourage reviewing and respond to all customer feedback.

Your overall star rating (aka the average across all reviews) impacts the ranking and visibility of your Google My Business profile on Google Maps too. In general, high volumes of reviews and high star average businesses are rewarded by Google. (Which makes sense. As a searcher, you want to see the most reputable businesses first, not the poor performers.)

Resources for optimising google reviews

Many businesses do not prioritise the importance of asking customers for Google reviews. It can be awkward to ask for feedback, and we hope that this blog has taught you many reasons why reviews are valuable to your business.

Check out Bright Local’s resources on online review Do’s and Don’ts  and Search Engine Journal’s Google Review Impact Rankings blog to learn a bit more about the topic. Of course, feel free to get in touch with your Empire9 account manager to book in a workshop with our SEO team to create a strategy and plan best practice guides for managing your business’ Google My Business profile and reviews.