• 74% say positive reviews increase their trust in a local business. 
• 82% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses, with 52% of 18-54-year-olds saying 
•  they ‘always’ read reviews 
• The average consumer reads 10 reviews before feeling able to trust a business 
• Among consumers that read reviews, 97% read businesses’ responses to reviews 
• 70% of consumers say they will leave a business review – if you ask! 

–2016 study by BrightLocal 

90% of people say online reviews influence their purchase decisions, according to a Dimensional Research study. 

 Forbes, 90% of respondents said positive online comments influence whether or not they decide to engage with the brand or service.  

• Google uses online reviews to influence local search rankings including: 
  • Number of recent reviews 
  • Total volume of reviews 
  • Average star rating 
• In fact, if someone searches “best *insert your industry here* in *insert your current location,*” only businesses with a 4-star rating or higher will show up in the search results if there are enough businesses that fit that criteria. 
• According to the same BrightLocal study, only 40% of consumers said that they were influenced by negative reviews. 

Need more? https://www.peopleclaim.com/#the-review-of-reviews 

Google in the #1 search engine in the world so most people that find you organically will find your thorugh google. Google isn’t thought of as a review website, but reviews of businesses are one of the focuses google now has for businesses. Not only will your reviews be front and center when someone finds you on google, but the more good reviews you have the more likely you are to show up at the top of search results.

Make sure to claim your business using Google My Business https://business.google.com/

See my Google My Business class for details on how to fill out your profile. Once you have claimed your profile you can track your reviews, respond to reviews, set up alerts and send out a review request link. If you are logged in go to your home page. There is a box that says “Get more reviews” Just hit the share review form.

Facebook

Facebook #1 social network in the world. According to facebook 1 in 3 people on facebook use it to look at reviews. 2 in 3 visit a local business page every week. One unique thing that facebook does is shows visitor reviews from their friends before people they don’t know. So if a friend has reviewed the local taco place you will see it when visiting their business page.

Facebook works slightly different when it comes to your rating. People can either recommend or not recommend a page. They then create a rating based off of how many people recommend vs don’t, any past reviews and how you compare to similar pages. “This rating is based on how many people recommend or don’t recommend the Page, as well as any past ratings and reviews it may have.

You can influence Mac & Clay’s rating by leaving a recommendation on its Page or recommending it to your friends on Facebook.”

To share a review link navagate to the review section of your facebook business profile and copy the URL in your browser up to the /reviews/ part. Cut off anything like “?ref=page_internal” from the end of the URL

Yelp

Yelp is known as a place for reviews, but be careful because they don’t allow you to ask for reviews or offer incentives for reviews. Your account can be flagged and reviews can be taken down if they think you are breaking their rules.

Yelp’s current review guidelines.

You represent and warrant that you will not, and will not authorize or induce any other party, to:

offer incentives of any kind, such as discounts, freebies, refunds, gift cards, contest entries, offers, or deals in exchange for the posting of reviews of your Business, or to prevent or remove reviews, and you understand and acknowledge that Yelp, through its Consumer Alerts, may publicly notify consumers about such incentives and other attempts to obtain, prevent, or remove reviews;

solicit or ask for reviews from your customers;

write reviews or vote on Content (e.g., voting user reviews as useful, funny, or cool) for your Business or your Business’s competitors;

pay or induce anyone to post, refrain from posting, or remove reviews, or otherwise attempt to circumvent Yelp’s Recommendation Software (defined below) or fraud detection systems;

Trip Advisor

Trip advisor is not for every business, but since it is the biggest travel app in the world it is a must use for business’s in the travel industry.

You can ask recent visitors to review your page through Review Express – https://www.tripadvisor.com/ReviewExpress

You are not allowed to incentivise reviews

Better Business Bureau

The BBB is still a place that people look for reviews. They have almost 1.9 million reviews read per year.

Review can’t be anonymous and the BBB validates every review that comes in.

The goal with the BBB might not be specific reviews, but to become a BBB trusted business. If you have all the proper licenses and accreditations for your field you can apply to become a trusted business. This allows you to add the BBB logo to any of your online and offline properties. It does require you to pay dues in order to keep your trusted status.

Because of all the hoops you need to jump through information on a business from the BBB is more trusted then a yelp review.

YP

Yellow Pages has partnered with the BBB so when someone finds you on YP your BBB reviews will also show up. I would focus on the sites above, but at least claim your free YP account so you are able to respond to reviews through the platform.

$69/$79/$99

14 day free trial

Discounts for multiple locations

https://www.reviewtec.com/get-started

$29/$49/$99

14 day free trial

$99 plan lets you have up to 10 locations

https://endorsal.io/pricing

$29/$49/$99/$249

14 day free trial

Wall of love and FOMO pop ups and incentivized requests

People can upload their image for the review

https://www.grade.us/home/plans

Best for agencies that want to sell review plans

TRACK REVIEWS

https://appsumo.com/repuso/

This is a great wordpress review plugin because it allows you to show google, facebook and yelp reviews all in the same place.

Users can write a review for these properties right on your site.

Free version or $85/year. WordPress plugins are different from other paid software. Once you buy the plugin you can use it for as long as you want as long as it still functions. So if you only pay the first year you can still use it in the second. You just won’t get any updates or bug fixes that they publish.

https://endorsal.io/pricing

This app is listed above, but also features great ways to show off your reviews to website visitors.

Works on all sites not just wordpress.

FOMO pop ups. You can have pop ups in the bottom corner showing off reviews while people are on your site. This draws much more attention to the review then a static box somewhere on the page. This is available starting with the $49/month level.

This app is more expensive, but since it also allows you to request reviews through their review funnel it is worth the price.

• Stats on social proof
• On home page on the right click on “Share Review Form” this will create a link for you to share with customers.
• On the review page you can respond and flag any reviews.
  • You want to reply to all reviews good or bad.
  • If bad don’t be aggressive but try and show you want to make that person happy.
  • Reviews (Social Proof) is one of the biggest reasons people use businesses these days. If you are active with the reviews it also makes you look like you care for the customers.
  • Also when you make someone feel special they are more likely to suggest you. These people have already gone out of their way to review you so they are ready to pass on your name.
• You can tab in-between all reviews, those you have responded to and those you have not responded to.
• In order to flag a review for being inappropriate click the three dots to the right of the review.