Google reviews are an excellent way for business owners to get customer feedback. They can also help potential customers learn more about a business before they visit or purchase.

To find google reviews, business owners can search for their business name on google.com or google maps. If there are any google reviews for the business, they will be displayed.

As the reviews show up straight in search, they are a compelling way to showcase your business.

How to read reviews

As we’ve mentioned, reviews are shown in two places, google search and google maps. Depending where you’re searching from will depends on how you see the results.

Desktop computer or laptop

To view reviews on your desktop computer, head to google and search for your business name. When the search returns, your business appears on the right-hand side of the search bar with a review rating section. To view the reviews, you need to click reviews to open the reviews section.

Google Search results

They’ll then pop up in a window so read them.

Google Reviews

Google Maps App

The main reason google reviews are so powerful is that they appear in the google maps app on people’s phones. The reviews pop up alongside the company’s location. For example, when someone searches for ‘plumbers near me, ‘ you’re searching for local plumbing businesses. When the search returns, you’ll see the reviews highlighted on google maps.

Google Maps

To view reviews in the google maps app, open the google maps app and search for your business name.

Google Maps Reviews

Managing google reviews

To respond to reviews, you’ll need to create your google business profile. A Google business profile lets you post pictures, events, offers and opening times, so it’s easily accessible from google search. Google Business profiles are entirely free. I wrote a whole post explaining in more detail why you should create a profile and a handy eGuide and checklist to optimise your profile.

Once your profile is set up, you’ll be able to see past reviews and also invite customers to leave new reviews.

I’d always recommend interacting with people leaving reviews, even if it’s just a thank you, as google sees that you have an active profile and is more likely to show your business on search results.

It’s important to note that google reviews are not verified, and anyone can leave them. However, you can ask google to remove fake reviews, but Google won’t just remove a negative review without evidence that it’s malicious.

Dealing with negative reviews

Whilst negative reviews are never good for any business, google reviews give you a chance to show off how you deal with customer complaints

  • The best way to deal with a negative google review is:
  • Acknowledge the complaint – thank them for their feedback.
  • Apologise – even if it wasn’t your fault, an apology goes a long way.
  • Offer a solution – if there’s anything you can do to resolve the issue, let them know.

By following these steps, you’re showing other potential customers that you’re taking the complaint seriously and are trying to resolve it. This can help to win back their trust and, hopefully, their business.

Google reviews are an excellent way for business owners to get customer feedback. They can also help potential customers learn more about a business before they visit or purchase.

Conclusion

Google reviews are a great way to attract new customers. Unlike other online reviews, Google reviews are built directly into google search and google maps.

You’ll need a free google business profile to be able to answer reviews, and I’d recommend that you comment on both positive reviews and negative ones, helping build trust with customers.

You should try and collect as many google reviews as possible so that when people are searching the internet or in the google maps reviews section, people will see your previous reviews.

We wrote a full article on Google Business Profile and an ebook and checklist to help you get the most out of the full business account suite.

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