There are many moving parts to owning a business and a lot of times marketing is one of those things that doesn’t seem very important to us, until it is becomes urgent. So reviews are but a piece of that and although they may not seem very important, a lot of people make purchasing decisions based on solely on reviews. And since Google knows this, they consider your online reviews a part of how you get ranked on their search engine.

Reviews are very important to businesses who rely on local traffic, and anything that Google puts out warrants our attention as a business owner, including utilizing Google+’s reviews.. (Google owns about 75% of the market share).

Here are a few reasons why reviews matter:

  1. Reviews help establish trust online with prospects. 72% of respondents say they trust a business more if they have good online reviews.
  2. Up to 90% of consumers say their buying decisions are influenced by online reviews. (On average, they will read 6 reviews)
  3. 88% say they trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation.
  4. Up to 86% say they read online reviews prior to making a purchase
  5. Reviews can affect your rankings on search engines.
  6. It’s a great way to monitor and improve your customer’s experience. If you are receiving negative reviews it’s time to look at why and change what you need to.

We’ve found this great tool and wanted to share it with you. Although you don’t need it to create your own Google+ reviews pop-up box (ask us how to do this manually), this tool sure is handy. http://buff.ly/2sxZyeN

If you need help implementing a reputation management strategy in your business, schedule a call with me.

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