The importance of reviews

We frequently see businesses that have very few reviews on Google and other sites like Facebook, Yelp, the Better Business Bureau and Links2theBluegrass. However, the importance of reviews to a small business can’t be overstated. To be as clear as possible, it’s a mistake to ignore them.

That’s because positive reviews can encourage a new customer to pick up the phone and call you. But few or poor reviews will discourage them from calling. Reviews also are becoming increasingly important in determining where businesses rank in search results.

In fact, various studies have confirmed it’s a huge mistake to underestimate the importance of reviews to the success of a local business. Here’s one example from Social Media Today (https://www.socialmediatoday.com):

• More than 50 percent of consumers say they “often” or “always” check online reviews;
• 70 percent of consumers say they read reviews during their research phase; and
• 64 percent of consumers say they trust businesses with overall ratings of 4.0 and higher.

positive reviews can encourage a new customer to pick up the phone and call you

The Google screenshot below shows how reviews can differentiate one business from its competitors. (Note that we’ve blurred out the identifiers for these businesses, but we will admit that the first business in this list is one of our clients).

Based on the reviews you see here, which of these three local service businesses would you trust most to work in your home?

We encourage you to check your Google listing in particular to see how many reviews you have. It’s important to also consider your star rating. To check them, just search for your business by name and see where you come up.

If you want to learn more about how to increase the number and quality of your reviews, or if you have questions about how to improve your ranking on Google’s search results page, give us a call. We love answering questions!