How to (Not) Solicit Google+ Local Reviews

Legitimate reviews is what you’re after. Reviews are the social aspect of every local business. The more legitimate reviews you have the more prominent your business listing will be in the SERPs.

Your employers must not write them and if solicited, Google will make your life miserable, so it’s best to let people write reviews on their own.

But, if you decide to take control of your business reputation on the web and give clients clues how to write reviews, here’s what to pay attention to –

Reviews:

• Should come from people, located near your small business, that have valid Google+ profiles
• Must have their Google+ account filled in with valid info (headshot photo is a must)
• Must not come at a fast pace (for most businesses, twice a month is fine)
• Should be natural and must not be all perfect scores
• Must not contain URLs, but can and should contain your keywords

Not following this list can result in your Google business page to be taken off for a manual review and inaccessible for indefinite amount of time.

People should not leave reviews only on your Google Local business page, but using other local directories as well. You can also create business cards with simple URLs to your local listings.

For example:

• YourSmallBusiness.com/Yelp redirects to your Yelp listing on the web
• YourSmallBusiness.com/Google redirects to your Google Business page

Share them with happy clients and customers along with the instructions written above and expect some nice, valuable ratings for your business.