Next Step in Google Business Reviews – Trusting Them

google business reviews

Google recently announced in their Google Business Profile update an exciting piece of information for small businesses. They have finally confirmed that they prefer and trust businesses with a good variety of Google business reviews. As they’re putting it, they value all reviews.

For years business owners have lived in fear of getting negative Google business reviews, or even one that’s less than perfect. The thought was that one outlying review or a few out of hundreds could completely derail customer trust. However, research studies and now Google has confirmed that this is not true! This is exciting news for businesses that don’t have a spotless 5.0. It’s also fantastic news for business owners who are collecting reviews and are nervous about getting a negative one.

We aren’t talking about 50% negative reviews and 50% positive. Of course, that’s not ideal. Rather businesses with a 4.6 rating to a 4.9 tend to be more trustworthy in Google’s eyes than businesses with overwhelmingly positive 5.0. Here’s what Google had to say:

“Reviews are useful for potential customers when they’re honest and objective. Customers find a mix of positive and negative reviews more trustworthy. You can always respond to a review to show the customers you care and provide additional context. If the review doesn’t follow our posting guidelines, you can request to remove it.”

The more reviews a business has, the more critical this mixture becomes. If your company has less than ten reviews, you still probably want a solid 5.0. If you’re not there, though, the good news is you can keep collecting reviews and have a chance to redeem yourself in the eyes of Google. One bad or crazy review will not ruin you on Google as some people have thought in the past.

How to Collect Reviews

One important thing to remember is that collecting reviews needs to be done correctly. For example, we do not recommend collecting an excessive amount of them in one day or a review from every member of a family where it’s obvious they’re related. When Google sees strange review patterns like these, it can make them trust a business less and impact their ranking.

So, what’s the best way to collect reviews? Slow and steady wins the race. We recommend setting up a system that works for you. For some businesses, this looks like collecting reviews over automated text messages that include a link to their review page. This looks like reaching out with an email catered towards each client for other businesses. You can even make a general social media post asking for reviews.

Review collection isn’t an exact science. But, it’s more flexible than you’d think. Take your time to find out what works best for your company and clientele. Then, if you need help, we offer a great review system that takes the stress out of collecting reviews and automates it so you can rest easy knowing that you’re still collecting the reviews you need.

We specialize in offering services to help small businesses grow online through reviews. Our team can help set up a system or help with reputation management if you have more negative reviews than positive ones. All you have to do is reach out to our team of experts. We’d be happy to answer any questions you have and walk you through what our process looks like.

We hope that all of this information helps you move forward less afraid of a negative review. It is vital to collect reviews even if you’re nervous to ask. The benefits will always outweigh the negatives when getting customer testimonials.