Gain Reviews – Improve Your Google Places Ranking

3rd Mar 2011

| 1 minute to read

You have your Google Places profile, you have optimised it completing as many fields as possible, but your still not gaining the rankings you expected.

Well much like a web page there is more to ranking than simply optimising the profile, especially if you are in a highly competitive field.

One area that may be lacking is the number of reviews you are receiving.

Gaining reviews from satisfied customers could be the difference between you ranking and just missing out. Reviews will also help build up your Google Places profile.

Google feeds from review sites and the more you gain the better your chances are of gaining some serious SERPs space.

A good example is the Hotel trade. This is a highly competitive sector with every review counting. If we look at (a very generic search) “Hotels in London” you can see just how many reviews the top ranking Hotels are receiving. If you were looking to compete then you need to start gaining some serious feedback.

Search for Hotels in London — Local Listings for Hotels in London

It’s easy for your customers to leave a review and there are a number of sites where they can do this. Asking customers to review you on sites such as Yelp, TripAdvisor and other sites where you are listed will start to build up your review count. It should be made as straightforward as possible for them to find the sites and a gentle reminder certainly wouldn’t go amiss.

A steady stream of reviews coming in will start to strengthen your profile. If you are in a competitive field the temptation will be there to create “made up” reviews. Even if you appear to be miles away from your competition this isn’t advised. Google and other search engines are constantly on the look out for obvious spam and hoaxes. A sudden influx of reviews will stand out and simply draw attention to your profile. If Google has reason to believe that your reviews aren’t all that they appear to be, you could lose even more ground on your competition.

Some examples of review sites that you should look to be gaining reviews from:

Yelp
TripAdvisor
Qype
Bview
Yell Reviews
ReviewCentre
Ciao

To keep up to date with my latest posts and other issues in the field of local search, follow me on Twitter at @Impact_Andy

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How To Improve Your Local Business Google Places Ranking? | Google Places Revealed!
11th Oct 2011
[…] Places Revealed! Has all the secrets to getting a good Google Places ranking for your business.Know What Goes Into Your Google Places Ranking To Get More Customers To Your Business Do you know wh…ou don't. It's one of the net's most talked about secrets and the perfect vehicle to bring your […]
Reply
web design in Melbourne
1st Apr 2011
Yes, when we have more reviews on google place, we can get high placement. I tried it for many clients, and did many campaigns to collect reviews online and offline. It was success. After few reviews came, next day our listing went up. only issue i face, some customers do not have gmail AC and they prefer to use their office emails. so volume decreased due to that reason.
Another point I noted that, not to add same review for your website as review or testimonial. then value go down on google place listing
Reply
Sam Stratton
3rd Mar 2011
Some great pointers here and steering away from ‘fake’ reviews is a good take away from this post. There are many natural ways to get your customers to review your company or service, and this is what everyone should be doing.
Reply

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