I talk about the importance of Google Reviews all the time. If you read my newsletter, you know that reviews are a huge deciding factor for prospective clients when it comes to finding the right business. By reading reviews left by other customers, you can get a sense of what a business is like before you even step foot inside. Did you know that you can actually embed Google Reviews directly onto your own website or to your social media? It’s a great way to showcase your positive reviews and encourage others to leave their own.
If you are proud of your reviews, and I hope you are all, there are several different plugins that can be connected to your website and show your reviews like this.
With the variation of these tools, you can easily showcase your positive reviews and build trust with potential customers who visit your website or social media page.
Remember to encourage your customers to leave reviews and respond to any negative ones in a professional and helpful manner. Happy reviewing!
I hear clients especially service providers and trade businesses complain about having difficulty getting clients’ reviews. So there is a trick to get more reviews easily.
Generate a QR code, and keep it on your phone as an image, or print it on a special business card, or add it to your last invoice. Scanning an image, that brings up your review page makes it easy to do it. i am sure your clients are happy with your service and would be happy to leave you a review but they are busy and forget it. So let’s make it as convenient as possible.
This is a short video on how to generate the QR code. Let me know if you have any questions or need help!
Everyone has an Instagram account these days. If you operate a business of any type, your social media platforms are essential for connecting with both potential and present customers. Social media is a powerful tool if it is leveraged right. Each platform has tools that are designed to help you leverage its power to reach and connect with your audience.
That’s what LinkTree is to Instagram. With the help of LinkTree you are able to connect your audience to other accounts; to a landing page, to an article, to a shop or a signup page or your other social accounts.
However, it is not in your best interest to use LinkTree when it comes to your site.
What is LinkTree?
LinkTree is a tool inside Instagram. Since Instagram only allows a single link in your bio area, LinkTree offers you a way to store all your links in one place. Then you put the link to your list of links in LinkTree in your bio. From this one link, you are supposed to be able to grow your followers and increase traffic to multiple links. LinkTree provides room for several links based on the package you purchase. You can include your Amazon affiliate link, your website, and your Facebook pages too. All your links housed in one link sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? There’s just one problem.
LinkTree is not good for your website SEO!
10 Reasons You Do NOT Want to Use LinkTree on Instagram
If you don’t have a website, you are fine using LinkTree, because there is no better alternative. It will work for your purposes, help grow followers, and send them to your other social sites, etc. But if you have a website and you’ve filled it with great content and useful information, you do not want to use LinkTree.
Here are 10 reasons why:
Your social link send traffic to LinkTree website and not to your own domain. When a user clicks on your social link, the first thing they’ll see is LinkTree’s site, not yours. Their site offers users their first impression of you and your brand outside of Instagram. And lets face it, it is not much customization that you can do. 😞
The user will have to click at least two times to even get to your real website.
Users are less likely to click beyond the LinkTree page.
Some users may click on a different link or button once they land on the LinkTree page. That means your site gets zero clicks. You miss out on traffic that could have benefited your SEO.
The LinkTree website isn’t customized to your brand – it’s great for theirs though!
LinkTree’s free plan doesn’t even allow you to customize your landing page on their site to your brand. You miss out on some important branding opportunities! This can lead to users feeling disconnected from your brand on Instagram and it may prevent them from pursuing clicking any further.
Users may not ever see your website URL. That means they won’t be able to return to your site later.
Studies indicate that 98% of the visitors to a website do not engage in a transaction on their first visit to the site. That means that a user’s first visit to your site is not likely to result in a booking, consultation, or appointment with you.
To ensure that potential clients have a cohesive experience with you, your brand, and your practice you need YOUR URL in your bio.
When you have the URL to your website in your Instagram bio, it allows potential clients to build familiarity with your brand. They will be more likely to read your blog, learn more about you, and pursue more information about you and your services.
If You Do Not Use LinkTree, What Should You Use?
Use your own website and create your own version of LinkTree inside of your website. You get the benefit of sending traffic to your site instead of letting LinkTree get the traffic you have created. Traffic to your site is great for its SEO. Why is that important? Ultimately, organic traffic generation increases your conversions and sales. You can use Google Analytics to find out exactly how many visitors you are getting from Instagram.
That just makes sense, right?
You spent your effort, time, and money on creating your brand. When you set up your Instagram landing page, you kept all that consistent, right? You’re creating an image. You probably used your logo to build brand recognition and used professional images to tell your story. It took a lot of work to create a consistent story and connect your products and services to users. It wouldn’t make sense to give that all away. Leverage your IG account for YOUR benefit.
Final Thoughts
LinkTree is fine if you are just starting out and you need a place to put your links. However, if you are serious about leveraging social media and using it to create brand recognition, increase your followers, and make more sales, you will benefit more from using the link to your website in your IG bio. If you want to, you can create a landing page that houses all your links. It would serve you as well as LinkTree, but provide you with a lot more!
Amazon, eBay, Angie’s List, Google, Facebook …. So many opportunities where customers can talk about your businesses and their positive or negative experiences with your services, products or customer care. We live in a world where online reviews are a significant influence as to where we spend our money and whom we trust with our wallet. Ninety percent of customers say they check online reviews and their decisions are influenced by what they read.
Have a place where you can be reviewed
First things first. If you want to generate online reviews you must provide at least one platform to send customers where they can post their opinions. If you want to generate Google reviews, you have to have a Google Business Panel for your business.
Check to see if you already have one or create one, if needed. If you have one that Google automatically generated, “claim it” and that will give your access to many different business tools, including one to ask for and receive (and answer) reviews.
Many 3tr party review websites generate their own records automatically. You must claim the account to make ensure you have the ability to edit the address, phone number, service descriptions, and answer the reviews, etc.
Among the best review sites are: Google, Yelp, Merchant Circle, YellowPages, LinkedIn, TripAdvisor, BBB, Manta.
Where do you want to collect your reviews?
This is the key question for your business. You have to determine where your prospective clients are looking for your service. For a local gift shop probably the best option is Google, but for an adventure park TripAdvisor would be the best.
Once you have identified where you want your reviews to be left, copy the link to your account. This way, you will be able to provide this link when asking for a new review, reducing the time and effort of your clients to find the correct account in order to provide you with great feedback.
How to get more reviews?
If somebody had a bad experience, it is highly likely they will complain about that service. Unfortunately, if they receive great service, they are less inclined to have a shout out for that business. Sadly – this is our society.
It is key to ask for reviews, not just wait for good reviews to happen.
Some businesses have an automated way to collect online reviews but most do not.
If you are in a business where you are able to collect your client’s email addresses, you should send an email with the link to seek their feedback. Like this: Turek Design Review Link
The easier you make it for people to leave customer reviews, the more likely they are to leave one.
The best time to ask for a review is when the value of what you’ve delivered to the customer is at the top of their mind, making it easy for them to write a timely and honest review.
That could mean:
When the project hit a milestone
When you send your invoice and reinforce the value of doing business with you
When they’ve contacted you with positive feedback
What is a really good review?
The best reviews are not generic, like ”Great service, I will be back next month”.
The best ones are detailed and specific. ”Monika came to our home to help my husband and I improve website optimization for our individual companies. I wanted to get her opinion about what I could do better on my website to get more visibility online. We met and she taught me what to change, and how to make my site more google friendly. In a 90-minute session, there was a lot of great information and clarification on how I could manage my website better. It was convenient, very specific to our needs and was just want we needed. I would recommend her highly! „
Dealing with negative reviews
The flip side of asking people to provide an online review? The possibility of receiving negative feedback. In most cases, you shouldn’t be surprised at occasional negative reviews, as you simply can’t please everyone. Don’t be afraid. Consider them an opportunity to show more of your business. When a negative review come in, you should handle it as you would handle the person face to face.
As soon as you read the negative review answer it. Be prompt.
Be polite and professional.
Let the customer tell their story.
Figure out who this person is and what the complaint is about. You or your coworker might remember the situation.
You should acknowledge that you read the comment and you are ready to do something about it.
Try to resolve the issue quickly, if possible.
Get to the bottom of why the mistake occurred; focus on fixing the process so that it does not happen again.
Your interaction below a negative comment can show your customer service and can be a great opportunity to gain more clients.
Don’t forget to also acknowledge the positive feedback and thank the reviewer.
Google Business Listing is very important for reviews and also for showing up in the searches. GMB is getting more and more complicated and offer more features than ever before. We help business owners to optimize and verify they business listings.
Summary
Getting people to provide an online review of your business may be challenging but it is a rewarding process.
Blogging is one of the most valuable tools that businesses have to engage with customers and ultimately make their lives easier. It is also very valuable to add new content to your website regularly and a “force” Google to find you and rank you higher for that.
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Have a place where you can be reviewed
