How To Get Google Places Page or Yelp Reviews

How to get more Google Places Page reviews“Why didn’t you just ask?”

How many times have your heard this? Too often I’m sure.

This is how you can get more reviews on your Google Places page.

Simply ask them too.

Yelp says you shouldn’t ask and that reviews should be up to the reviewer. So be wary of following my advice below when it comes to Yelp.

First Impression

Last week I explained how to setup and properly optimize your Google Places page. But I didn’t mention anywhere in the post how to get reviews and why they’re important.

Back in days of telephone books, we had no way to tell if the business was trustworthy. We just went through a page at a time and made our decision based on very few things.

So there was no first impression outside of a logo and advertisement.

However the internet has given everyone a voice. And with that voice people can say what they want about anyone. Including businesses.

When people find any Google Places business listing, they want to see what others have to say. Especially if they’re a first timer. It’s why Urbanspoon and Trip Advisor are so big.

Reviews are like a comment card. But everyone can see them. It’s not like the old days of comment cards when management were able to discard the bad reviews.

To sum it up, your reviews are your business’s first impression.

More the Merrier

Having just a few reviews is fine. But just about every Places page I see has 0-5 reviews. I believe the more reviews you have, the higher your social proof.

It also means that your business must be pretty remarkable. Especially if your competitors have very little reviews. If people love your business and take the time to write a review, you’re doing something right!

The more reviews you have the easier it is to stand out from the competition.

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Getting More Reviews

I started this post off by saying all you have to do is ask. And that’s what I want you to do.

If you’ve been in business for over six months, chances are good you have repeat clients. Those are the ones who would be willing to write a review.

All you have to do is ask them.

There are only two ways we communicate (outside of body language) so here are the two methods you can ask for reviews:

1) After checkout (verbally)

If you have a physical storefront, you probably have a computer with a POS system. When they’re finished their checkout ask them how their visit was and if they have a Google or GMail account. If they enjoyed it (I’m sure they did) kindly ask them to write a review on the spot.

This might be hard for some of you to do. I suggest asking those repeat clients whom you’ve built a good rapport with.

When you do this, make it really easy for them. Have your browser on your Google Places page and be sure you’re logged out. Then all they have to do is click on the “Write a Review” button and they’ll be asked to sign into their Google/Gmail account.

Easy!

Some people might not know their password. But you can ask them to follow step two.

2) Send out an email (text)

If you’ve followed my advice on lead generation and retention, you’ve built an email list. Through that list you can send out an email asking for reviews.

I have embedded a line in my signature that states:

“Reviews are important for local search engine rankings. I was hoping you could write a quick review on my Google Places page.”

When it’s embedded in your signature, you won’t forget to put it in every email.

When doing so, make it really easy. So either screen record how to do that with a voiceover or use my method of taking screenshots for step by step instructions like I did in this post.

As I said be weary of doing this for Yelp. If you have an influx of reviews on Yelp, they filter them.

But Google Places pages don’t have filters. So get out there and ask for them reviews!

Update *** September 1st 2015

Here is another easy way for you to get more Google reviews.