If your business has a Google Places page, (which is likely even if you’re not aware of it) you may have heard the news that the pages were redesigned recently and affect any Google Places optimization you may be doing.
Most of the news has revolved around the reasons why it was updated but that’s not the point of this post as that information won’t help you one bit to get customers.
How to Get More Customers From Google Places Optimization
What will get you more business is to take advantage of the changes and as a result improve your overall Google Places optimization level by getting more customer reviews.
At the heart of the redesign was the removal of the review ‘snippets’ from other review sites and a new emphasis on the Google review engine. As you can see in the picture above, there is a bright red ‘write a review button’ at the top.
That is what I would call a clue as to what Google is encouraging you to do. Simply put, they want you to encourage more of your customers to review your business. On Google instead of on another review site.
Reviews Are Essential To Your Google Places Optimization
Make no mistake, reviews are a very important part of your Google Places optimization efforts. In fact, your star rating doesn’t even kick in until you have received 5 reviews.
So how do you get more reviews? You ask, that’s how. when someone comes into your business and expresses delight with your products or services, it’s at that time you ask them for the review.
We provide our clients with a form they can use to quickly and easily gather them. Ideally you’d provide customers with instant access to your Places page and show them how to review you, but if that’s not easy for your client or for your staff, get the review in writing. Then contact us and we’ll add the review to your Place page for you.
I’d love to know what you’re doing to gain more reviews as part of your Google Places optimization, so leave me a comment below to tell me about it.
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