Important 5 Reasons Why Google Reviews are so important ?

Here Discuss Important 5 Reasons why Google reviews are so important for a local business

If you open a restaurant in an inconvenient location, you are at a huge disadvantage from day one. A small local business with a poor online reputation is also at a huge disadvantage. We have seen firsthand how a business can be crushed under the weight of bad reviews.

This is why online reviews (especially in Google's local listings) are very important to the success of a local business. (Especially for local, small businesses that may be operating on a smaller budget) Reviews are becoming more influential on the consumer buying decision process. When it comes to how many people read reviews before visiting your website, the numbers have skyrocketed in the last 3 or 4 years. The same goes for the number of customers who trust online reviews as much as a recommendation from a good friend or family member.

Many people trust online reviews as much as they trust the recommendation of a friend.

We have seen this time and time again in our work with clients over the past few years. And another new trend is taking place in the world of Google local reviews.

A growing percentage of local customers are no longer visiting websites before making contact. Instead, more and more customers are getting the information they need directly from Google Local listings and calling directly based on the information they found in those local listings.

If you run a local business, it's important to understand this and use it as part of your marketing strategy.

If your Google Local Listing is not optimized and regularly managed (i.e. you regularly add new photos, create new posts, and add and respond to reviews), then you are not taking advantage of one of the most powerful and free marketing tools available to local businesses.

Another reason why you should actively manage your local Google listings: The days of ranking your small business at the top of Google are over, even if you have done a good job with your search engine optimization and achieved a top ranking for your local area. This is because Google has positioned Google local listings above organic results and directly below Google ads.

How does this affect your local rankings? the first 3 to 4 positions are now reserved for Google ads and the next 3 positions go to local listings. So now you see why these listings and the reviews they contain are so important for local businesses.

To keep things short, I will not go into detail about how to set up your Google Maps page. A simple Google search will take you to other authors who have already done an excellent job of describing these steps. Having said that, let me give you 5 Important reasons why Google reviews are so important for a local business:

1. Good reviews give people the feeling that they will receive better service

There's another way to put it: Your online reviews give customers the feeling that they will receive the same service as the people who wrote the reviews.

That's the real power of a review.

People are not just looking for a product or service, they are looking for a good experience with your business. That's why people read and trust reviews - because they speak not only to the quality of products and services, but also to the experience.

Positive reviews are like a 24-hour brightly lit billboard for your business that sends the message, "If you do business with us, you'll love it!"

2. More and more people are calling businesses directly through Google Local Listings

I have to admit that this point surprised me a bit. About 8 to 10 months ago, we noticed a new trend in our clients' analytics. We discovered that our clients were getting more and more calls directly from their Google Local Listing than from their own website.

This change in how people do business with local businesses shows how important these local listings and reviews are. Some of our clients, especially our medical clients, are getting more visits and calls from their Google Local listings than from their actual websites - and often these customers have not even visited their websites before deciding to call or visit.

We see this change as a great opportunity for our local clients to outshine their competitors with solid reviews and an optimized listing. We recently added this service to our SEO services to ensure that our clients' Google Local listings are optimized, regularly updated, and have good reviews.

3. People are searching for "business name + reviews."

Local business reviews have become such an important part of online searches that people are now searching with specific keywords like "business name + reviews" and/or "local service + near me."

For example, if someone wants to visit a local Italian restaurant called Tony's that they have heard of, there's a good chance they'll search for something like "Tony's Italian Restaurant Reviews." If you do not know the name of the restaurant but have a hankering for Italian, you might search for "Italian restaurants near me" or "Italian restaurants in [name of city]".

Any of these search terms on Google will, in almost all cases, lead to a Google Maps list of local businesses. And right up front, for all to see, Google displays your average rating score (stars), which is the result of all your reviews.

That means your ratings better be good if you want to grow your business via online search. A search like the one I just described above means that reviews are very important customers. And if they do not see good reviews, they probably will not go to that business at all.

Ironically, I recently used this exact type of search term when I needed a haircut and did not know where to go. What did I start with? With local hairdresser reviews, of course.

It only took me a few minutes to decide not only which hairdresser I would go to, but who I would book an appointment with. Needless to say, this hairdresser would never have come to my attention if he did not have a lot of positive reviews on Google. (And yes, I did get a great cut)

4. 78% of customers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations

How trustworthy are local reviews? Obviously, they are very trustworthy. The latest statistics show that up to 78% of shoppers trust online reviews as much as a friend's recommendation. In the 18-34 age group, the figure is as high as 91%.* That's a huge increase from just a few years ago - further proof that online reviews are on the rise and growing in importance.

5. When your competitors have better reviews, you lose business

As I mentioned earlier, if you do not have good online reviews, you'll lose business every day. Also, a large percentage of potential customers will not even contact you if you do not have at least 4 out of 5 stars. (Some want to see 4.5 out of 5)

I know I have said this before, but it's worth repeating: there are two ways to lose out on online reviews. One, if your reviews are bad, you will not be contacted nearly as often as if your reviews are good. Second, if you do not have enough reviews, especially if your competitor has many more reviews, there's a good chance your competitor will get the call instead.

Conclusion

There has never been a better time to use this free tool that Google offers in the form of its local listings. Sometimes they are called Google Maps Listings or Local Business Listings or even Google My Business Listings. Either way, if you make sure your business is listed there, and with great reviews - I can guarantee it will lead to more sales.