Use our free Google reviews tool to generate a link directly to your Google review page. Give your customers the link and start watching the reviews roll in.
Then check out all the other tips in this article to find out how you can get lots of free Google reviews the fastest, easiest way possible.
As a local business owner or marketer, you’re well aware of how impactful reviews are to your business. It’s no secret that 93% of consumers check reviews prior to making a buying decision.
Learn how to take full advantage of this free advertising source to increase sales.
Here are the topics we’ll cover in this article:
- Why are Google reviews so powerful?
- How you can turn Google reviews into sales
- How to get free Google reviews
- The fastest way to get as many Google reviews as possible
- The easiest way to get 5 stars and avoid negative reviews
Why are Google reviews so powerful?
Business review sites have changed the word of mouth experience as customers are more likely to trust reviews from strangers as much as they do from personal recommendations.
As a matter of fact, studies show that 84% of consumers say that an online review is equally as reputable as a recommendation from a friend or family member.
But WHY GOOGLE? Why not focus on some other review site?
Google’s size and popularity, coupled with its integration into Android devices, gives Google both the largest audience and the best way for customers to leave reviews after making a purchase at a local business.
Google reviews are growing at a much faster pace than Yelp, Facebook, or other “general” business review sites. So driving Google reviews to your business should be a top priority.
How Google reviews drive down your marketing costs
Reviews are essentially free advertising. They can actually decrease your average digital marketing cost per customer acquisition, since it doesn’t cost anything to have a profile on Google.
Since Google is the top rated search engine, and 91% of your customers are using search engines to research local businesses, the more 5-star Google reviews you have on your profile page, the higher you’ll rank in search results.
A study by BrightLocal found that review star ratings directly impact click-through rates from Google search results. Specifically, local businesses with a 5-star rating got 28% more clicks from the Google Local Pack results than businesses without ratings, and 39% more clicks than businesses with a 1-star rating.
No one debates that Google is a powerful business advertising source. But if you were skeptical, then these stats alone should prove that Google reviews have a major impact on sales for your business, while also driving down your marketing costs.
How you can turn Google reviews into sales
Google reviews are a powerful advertising source for your business, as 93% of searchers don’t go past the first page of Google to find information. So if you can get listed on Google’s Local 3-Pack, customers will find you quickly when they’re ready to buy.
But Google only shows a few Local Pack links to consumers on the first page of search results.
So you have to actively compete with other local businesses for just 1 of those links from Google.
But if you can get a link in the Local Pack, you’ll get far more traffic and sales. That’s because 78% of customers doing local searches head straight to the business with the best reviews.
The way to make sure your business appears in one of these premium free spots is by maximizing your local SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
And the way to maximize local SEO is to have great customer reviews. Customer reviews are the #3 most important factor in local SEO rankings for the Google Local Pack links.
The 3 keys to success with google reviews are… QUALITY + QUANTITY + RECENCY.
Google Review QUALITY
Quality refers to your average star rating on Google. This is the #1 factor that Google looks at before showing your business in the search results.
Google doesn’t just use their own review site when giving your business a star rating. So make sure you get reviews on other customer review platforms in addition to Google.
Google Review QUANTITY
Quantity of reviews is simply the number of reviews your business has on Google. Any reviews that are filtered out will not be listed and not count toward your review “quantity.”
A high quantity of reviews will give your business credibility. The more reviews you have, the more Google will see your average star rating as accurate and therefore credible. Google trusts a star rating only if it’s backed up by a high quantity of reviews.
Google Review RECENCY
The key metric to measure the “recency” of reviews is the number of days/weeks/months since a customer left the most recent review your business has received.
Recency matters because 77% of consumers say that they do not look at a review that’s more than 3 months old. So having a new Google review every week can increase your exposure and sales.
Ideally you should set a goal of a new Google review every 3 to 7 days on average.
That being said there’s a balancing act required for the best “recency.” If you are getting reviews more often than every 3 days, then Google’s algorithms may think your reviews are fake. So pacing yourself is very important to your review strategy.
How to get free Google reviews
Now that we know why Google reviews are so important and they convert into sales, how do you get free Google reviews at a high quantity and star rating on a regular basis?
The key to generating 5-star reviews rapidly is to make the review process as simple as possible for customers to leave a review.
And the best way to make it easy for customers to leave a review is to create a Google review link that you can share with your customers.
How to generate a free Google review link
If you copy and paste the Google link from your browser, some customers will experience technical difficulties.
Prevent customers from having technical difficulties by using the link our free link generator creates, which uses the only URL format officially supported by Google.
Use our free Google review link generator tool to generate a link. Then give this link to your happy customers. Make sure they’re happy customers before you give it to them, though, to avoid negative reviews from unhappy customers.
This link will take your customers directly to the “Write a Review” box, which will maximize your chances that they’ll actually write a review.
Pre-screen before you give your Google review link to customers
After you’ve created this Google review link from our free tool, begin the pre-screening process.
You don’t want to just give the link out to customers without knowing what they may say about you on a review site.
To pre-screen, just email or text your customers to get feedback.
If that feedback comes to you with 4 or 5 stars, then reply back with the link so they can leave a review on Google.
But if the feedback comes back with a low star rating, then reply back and ask for constructive feedback instead of sharing the Google review link.
You can pre-screen customers for free Google reviews. But you may pay in time and effort, even though you don’t pay in money. If you’d prefer to save yourself time and effort, check out the free trial of our web app, which does the pre-screening for you, saving you a lot of time and effort.
Keep reading this article for tips on how to get as many reviews as possible with high star review ratings.
The fastest way to get as many Google reviews as possible
The processes of gathering reviews is a numbers games. The more requests you send out, the more opportunities you have to get customer reviews. It’s that simple.
Jumpstart your reviews by reaching out to past customers in bulk
To begin with, reach out to past customers you haven’t asked yet to leave a review. This is a fast way to reach out to a lot of customers all at once when you first start to try to boost your number of free Google reviews.
This doesn’t mean you skip the pre-screening process on past customers. Still send out your pre-screening email or text in bulk to previous customers. And again, if they reply with 4 or 5 stars, then send them the link. See our guide on how to get google reviews if you’d like a more in-depth, comprehensive guide.
Follow up to maximize your Google review conversions
After pre-screening customers, remember to follow up on customers who don’t respond at all.
This is also done through email or text. Just send a different message than your initial pre-screen.
Your message is important, so make sure you thank them for doing business with you in the past. Tell them how important their feedback is to your business.
You can often double your conversion rate (and your number of reviews) if you send out at least two follow-ups after your initial message.
Either automate or spend time and effort
All of these MUST DO processes (like pre-screening and following up) may seem time consuming, but they can be automated. If you choose to automate your process you can play the numbers game without taking too much of your time on manual effort.
Our Google review management tool can help with engaging and pre-screening customers, send out your review links to those who are likely to leave a high star rating review and follow-up on those who don’t respond or leave a review.
The Rising Star Reviews web app isn’t free, but it’s very inexpensively priced specifically for budget-sensitive small businesses. And it can help you save a lot of time and effort, making it well worth the price.
Having said that, pre-screening and following up can still be done for free if you’re willing to put in the time and effort.
Whether you use our web app or you pre-screen and follow up manually, make sure you don’t get too many reviews too quickly. Google may see these as fake reviews and their fraud detection algorithm will remove reviews. So it’s important to ramp up gradually, not all at once.
NEVER buy Google reviews
Also DO NOT buy Google reviews. Many companies may approach you and tell you that you can buy reviews on Google. This is not only a bad business practice, but it’s also illegal. If caught, you could be fined by the FCC.
The easiest way to get 5 stars and avoid negative reviews
If you play the numbers game by simply getting LOTS of reviews without pre-screening, it’s like playing Russian Roulette. DO NOT DO IT.
It’s best to know in advance, as much as possible, what type of review will be written about your business before asking for a review. So pre-screening is an essential process.
Pre-screen all current and prior consumers to avoid the risk of negative reviews and thus undoing all your hard work to get positive reviews.
Let’s be honest, you’re never going to make everyone happy. So it is best to know about problems prior to a customer writing a negative review. Once a negative review has been written, you won’t be able to delete that review.
If you just send out an email template to your customers where they simply click on a 1 to 5 star ranking, you can either send them the google review link or get feedback on what disappointed them in regards to their experience with your company.
Both 5-star reviews and constructive feedback are important for the future growth of your business.
Our review app can help you with this process as it is completely automated. This is not free but is affordable and the conversion rates high.
The web app’s conversion rate is much higher than a manual process, because the customer doesn’t have to wait for you to reply to leave a review. When you use the web app, as soon as the customer clicks on the pre-screening email to give you a 4 or 5 star rating, the app automatically sends them to the Google “Write a Review” page.
When a customer clicks to rate your business lower than 4 stars, the web app asks your customer to leave feedback… which comes directly to you privately, not on a public website like Google.
If you choose to pre-screen manually, you’ll be able to get free Google reviews, since the manual approach doesn’t cost any money. But you’ll pay with your time and effort, and have lower conversions, leading to fewer reviews.
Our Google review management software helps businesses to track, monitor, and respond to customer reviews on Google. It provides businesses with an easy way to track their online reputation and make sure they are always putting their best foot forward.
