The Complete Guide to Getting More
Google Reviews in 2020

How to leave a Google review (Step-by-step process)

Before we start giving you tips on leaving Google
reviews, let’s talk about how your customers can leave
reviews for your business on desktop and mobile.

How many Google reviews does your business need?

The more reviews you have, the merrier. As we said earlier, review quantity is a factor in determining your local search ranking. Businesses with 1000 reviews have a much better chance of ranking high in Google search results than a competitor with 3 reviews.

While the average number of Google reviews businesses vary based on the size of the business and industry, you should aim to have more reviews than your competitors. Studies show that when star rating is even, customers tend to go with the business that has more reviews.

Can you write a review without a Google account?

It is no longer possible to write a Google review without a Google account. Before 2018, it was possible to leave an anonymous review through Google+. However, the policy led to understandable frustration among business owners. There was no way they could tell if an anonymous review came from an actual customer or a competitor who was playing dirty.

There is a reason why leaving a review without a Google account is no longer possible. Just a few years ago, it was possible for virtually anybody to leave a review for a business with a fake name. While that meant it was really easy to post a review, it also meant that those reviews weren’t trusted.

Google has taken strides in the past few years to ensure that the reviews posted on its platform are representative of actual customer experiences. Judging by how much Google reviews are valued by customers, the efforts have paid off.

‘Google My Business’ explained

In order to get Google reviews, you’ll need to claim your Google My Business (GMB) profile. Your GMB profile is a Google profile that shows up when someone searches for your business’s name on search engines. It looks something like this:

Google My Business (GMB) is a free tool that helps you manage how your business appears in Google Search and Google Maps. Once you’ve claimed your profile, you’ll be able to send review requests, respond to reviews, and update your business information like address and hours of operation.

But there’s one big reason why Google My Business matters: SEO. Google My Business is crucial for getting your business discovered by new customers. According to Moz, Google is the single largest factor determining your business’s local search ranking.

Optimizing your Google My Business profile for more reviews

The more you optimize your Google My Business profile, the better your chances of ranking high in search results. This in turn, helps you get more reviews from customers. So let’s talk about how you can optimize your Google My Business.

Step 1: Claiming Your Business Profile
If your business has been around long enough, you can find your listing with a simple company name search. Once you find it, all you need to do is claim the profile. Check out our guide on setting up/claiming your Google My Business profile for more details.

Step 2: Updating Your Business Information
Now that your Google My Business account has been claimed, you can start adding information to your profile that will help more customers discover your business. Now, it’s time to optimize your profile to make it more appealing to prospects and customers and get more reviews. For more information on this, check out our complete guide to Google My Business.

How can I get Google reviews for my business?

Once you claim your business profile, you are ready for more customers to discover your business through Google. However, before we jump into the process of getting more Google reviews, here are a few things that you should keep in mind:

Timing is everything.

Like most things in life, asking for reviews is all about timing. Make sure that you send review requests to your customers on the same day as their purchase. The longer you wait, the more the customer’s memory fades and the less likely they are to leave a review.

Ask all your customers for reviews.

Make sure you ask all your customers for reviews - every one of them. Selectively sending review requests is considered review gating and is banned by Google. If you’re discovered doing this, you’ll face a penalty in search rankings.

Keep it simple.

Asking customers to leave a review in-person often doesn’t get great results. Your customers are busy people and it’s more likely than not they’ll agree and then forget about it when they walk out the door. Luckily, there’s an easier way: sending review requests through email and SMS. All your customers have to do is click a link and leave a review.

Sample review request templates

Here’s an email template that you can use to request reviews from your customers.

Here’s a template that you can use for sending review requests via text. We’ve found that keeping it short and sweet usually gets the best results.

Of course, you want to make sure that both of these review requests include a short link to your Google My Business profile. Remember, the easier the process is for customers, the more reviews you’ll end up getting. Let’s talk about how you can get a Google My Business short link quickly and easily.

How to shorten your Google My Business URL

Google introduced a new feature that allows businesses to create their own custom short URLs to their Google My Business profile. Having a custom short URL makes it easier to share your business profile on review requests, in-person, and on marketing materials. Here's a step-by-step guide of how you can get a custom short link to your Google My Business page.

Step 1 – Sign in to Google My Business.

Step 2 – If you have a multi-location business, open the location you wish to create a short name for.

Step 3 – From the menu on the left, click Info > Add profile short name. If this feature is available, you should see this in the box under “phone number”.

Step 4 – Enter your short name. Your short name can be anywhere between 5-32 characters.

Step 5 – Click Apply. Your short name will show as pending. It will show on your business profile when it’s approved.

How to get new Google reviews manually

If you’re someone who prefers to do everything yourself, that’s great. All you need to do is find a custom short link to your business’s review page on Google and send that to your customers via email or SMS. This makes it convenient for your customers to write a review by simply clicking on the link.

How to automate getting Google reviews

At the end of the day, you have a business to run. Sending review requests to all your customers manually every day can be a time-consuming process. With all the work you have to do, there’s just not enough time to send a text and email to each one of your customers on a daily basis.

This is why we recommend that you automate the process of getting reviews. Let review generation be part of your business just like sending invoices.

Review management software can take care of the whole process for you. BirdEye, for example, uses deep-linking to route customers directly to the Google review form in one click. This makes the process of writing a review even easier than not writing one - especially when the customer is happy with their experience and likes your business. BirdEye takes care of this process for Google and over 150 other review sites.

BirdEye is fully integrated with Google, so every step of the review collection process is automatic. In fact, BirdEye is one of the few companies integrated directly with Google's private API, which makes the collection process easier and review load times faster.