If it’s too good to be true, it’s probably not!
Anybody who’s followed GOOP Digital over the past nine or so years knows we build SEO websites in Geelong, ensuring small to medium businesses across Australia have prominence in Google searches for what the businesses do, where they do it! SEO, in case you’re new to this online marketing game, is the acronym for Search Engine Optimisation, the blend of art/science/magic that helps get websites onto the first page of the Google search engine results.
We’re very good at what we do here at GOOP Digital but we’re also the first to admit certain elements that boost a website’s prominence in Google searches are out of our control, and one of those elements is reviews.
Reviews are particularly beneficial from an SEO perspective because they tell Google – and customers – what people think of your business and service. Reviews speak volumes for your credibility, and if Google wants to do anything it wants to offer searchers credible websites that fulfil their expectations.
Obviously, a glowing review and five-star rating provide a shot in the arm for your credibility in the business – and Google – stakes. If you’ve got positive online reviews, particularly Google My Business reviews, Google’s going to look at you on in that benevolent god-like manner that only Google can and steer people towards your website, particularly if it’s a well-built website of the type GOOP Digital creates.
And here’s where the problem starts. People’s whose scruples are on wrong side of right are organising small mountains of fake positive reviews for their businesses, aiming to mislead Google’s mystical algorithms into believing their business and its website must be the best things since the iPhone. We’ve also heard of cases where, as well as generating fake positive reviews for themselves, dodgy operators are leaving fake reviews criticising business rivals in the hope of dragging them down.
The fake review scourge has reached such epidemic proportions SEO gurus in the US are proposing that this year – 2017 – be the year of honest reviews. It doesn’t say much for people’s honesty or integrity, does it?
So, in the interests of review honesty, GOOP Digital and its Geelong website SEO gurus are jumping on the review truth bandwagon and sharing a few simple review guidelines. Here they are:
- First and foremost, encourage clients to leave honest reviews of your products and services on your Google My Business listing. People need only a Gmail account to leave a Google review and Google will smile benevolently on those reviews in particular. If you haven’t claimed your Google My Business listing, call GOOP Digital and we can help.
- Don’t panic about negative reviews. Remember, negative reviews aren’t necessarily a bad thing. Yes, they can dent your pride and sting a little but sometimes a negative review is a handy wake-up call that you’ve dropped the ball and have let your customer service slip. Remember to reply to the reviewer and express sincere concern for his or her feelings and invite them to contact you privately to discuss the problem and possible solutions. Importantly, don’t get into a slanging match. You’ll only lose!
- Remember to reply to positive reviews as well as negative. We all love to be thanked.
- A dozen – maybe two dozen – golden reviews is feasible, particularly if you really are a good business and have been delivering premium service for quite a few years. But you can’t have umpteen five-star glowing reviews and not one mildly negative comment. Seriously, you can’t – it’s just not possible. Even your best friend will criticise you occasionally. If your reviewers leave nothing but five-star, gushing reviews again and again and again then alarm bells will start sounding – both among online searchers and in the Google mainframe. Yes, we’re a suspicious lot but the occasional three or four-star review and a reminder to pull up our socks is good for credibility. It’s believable.
- Less can be more. Again, it’s not believable that an MCG-size crowd will have gone to the effort of reviewing your business, particularly if your business hasn’t been around that long. Rightly or wrongly it’s human nature to be suspicious, and a gazillion reviews only makes people wary and distrustful of your business.
- Don’t review yourself. Just don’t! It looks really bad and nobody’s going to believe you. How desperate are you, anyway?
- Don’t get staff to review your business. See previous point.
The wash-up is that honesty is always the best policy, from both the perspective of a business being reviewed and a business reviewer. Don’t ruin the system for everybody else by seeking or creating fake reviews, and don’t leave malicious and misleading reviews just because a rival business appears to be doing better than you or you’re simply in a bad mood and lashing out.
And while we’re mentioning lashing out, we’re bits of fans of quotes and old sayings at GOOP Digital and here’s one to consider when you’re about to launch into a scathing online review. It’s from author George Orwell and particularly pertinent as the USA appears to be setting forth on a crusade to create the oppressive society Orwell portrayed in his acclaimed novel 1984: “In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” Just tell the truth in your reviews. Don’t be wicked and cruel, don’t be an over-zealous sycophant and don’t lie. Just leave an honest review that benefits everybody.
Enough of the sermonising! If you’d like more information about reviews, Google has a Google’s-worth of information about the subject, some of which you’ll find in the Google My Business Help pages.
You can also drop in and visit GOOP Digital’s SEO website team in Geelong or give us a call. And if you’re happy with the service, please remember to leave a review.