How often do you reply to the reviews you get online? Do you only reply to the positive reviews, or do you try to respond to the negative ones as well?

Believe it or not, replying to the reviews you receive, whether they’re positive, negative, or pretty neutral, is a great way to boost your online credibility and even your search engine rankings!

Here’s how it works: whenever you receive a review online, whether it’s on Google, your website, through your FGmarket vendor profile page, or somewhere else, that review is public information. Anyone who visits the reviews section of your company on Google, your website, etc. can see those reviews, and they can see whether or not you acknowledged the reviews.

If I happen to go to your Google reviews and see that you have a lot of reviews, a mix of both positive and negative, but you haven’t responded to any of your customer’s reviews, I might think twice before deciding to buy from you.

That’s because when customers see you have responded to your reviews, however bad they may be, it shows that you are paying attention to what your customers are saying. It shows that you can take criticism of your business, learn from your mistake, and strive to correct the error in the future.

In fact, according to ReviewTrackers.com, 51.7 percent of customers expect a response to their review in seven days or less.

Not only is responding to online reviews a good strategy for building customer trust, it is also one of the ways you can improve your Google rankings.

One of the ways Google knows how to boost some websites in search results over others is how frequently you get and respond to your Google reviews.

According to a recent survey of SEO experts by Chat Meter, 13% of Google local ranking results are determined by reviews and responses to those reviews. That might not seem like much, especially when you consider more important players in the SEO game, such as keywords and mobile optimization, but every little bit counts when it comes to trying to improve your Google search ranking.

Responding to reviews can improve not only the trust between you and your customers, a key factor in the buying cycle, but it can also improve your SEO to get more people to your website!

Don’t be afraid to respond to your online review. It can help your business out in a big way.

Reviews are important for maintaining customer satisfaction and improving the trust between you and your customers. Not only that, they can also improve your SEO rankings because the big boss in charge of searches, aka Google, pays attention to the reviews you receive, especially through your Google Business listing.

Sometimes, however, it’s hard to get customers to actually leave reviews for your business (well, that is, until they have a negative review to give out. Then, they’re more than happy to tell you how they feel).

Do you need some assistance with getting your customers to leave your more reviews? Here are a few simple things you can do right now to encourage more customer reviews.

Ask For Reviews

The simplest thing you could ever do is just ask people to leave you reviews.

A lot of businesses try everything under the Sun to get people to leave reviews, but they always manage to skip over the easiest strategy: asking for a review.

You can ask for reviews in a ton of different ways: through email, social media, marketing material, or in person.

Simply asking someone for a review is often all you need to do. Many times, customers don’t even know how or where to leave you a review, or that they even have the option to do so.

Make them aware of how important it is to you and your business for them to leave you a review.

Give Them A Reason

Why should someone leave you a review? Aside from the obvious benefits that it gives your business, people need to know why they should even put in the effort to do so.

A lot of businesses have integrated some type of reward for customers who leave them reviews, such as discount codes or free products.

Give your customers a reason to leave you a review, and encourage them with freebies and discounts that give value to the effort they have to put in for leaving a review.

Respond To Reviews

Do you respond to your reviews? No, I’m not just talking about the positive reviews that you receive; those are easy to respond to. I’m talking about ALL of your reviews, both positive and negative.

Responding to reviews gives your business credibility online, and can help boost your SEO rankings in the eyes of Google. Yes, even responding to negative reviews is beneficial to your company.

Remember, however, when you respond to negative reviews, do it in a way that’s both professional and respectful. Never get into a fight with a customer that has left you a negative review, and don’t try to defend yourself over small issues, like a shipping mistake or less than perfect customer service. You can’t please everyone all the time. Remember that when it comes to the reviews you get.

Reviews are extremely beneficial to your perceived integrity and reliability. Make sure you’re getting reviews from customers to not only improve your brand awareness and trust, but also your SEO rankings!

Reviews can make or break your company. If you’re doing well and tending to every need your customer has, then the chances of you getting positive reviews are very high. But, if you’re neglecting your customers by not offering them great deals, quality products, and awesome customer service, you’re highly likely to get a lot of negative reviews.

It’s easy to think that negative reviews are awful for your company, but that’s not always the case. Any review you receive can be used as a learning tool to improve on what you did wrong the first time and make it better for your customers in the future.

Make It Simple

Customers aren’t going to feel inclined to leave you a review if it’s difficult and frustrating for them to do so. Make your review tab, or review form, prominent on your page and easy to navigate to for your customers. You’ll find that a lot more reviews will be written when it’s easy to submit one.

Are you asking your customers to leave a review, or are you just assuming they’ll do it on their own? You can’t always assume that a customer knows that you’d like for them to leave you a review, or that they even know where to leave a review in the first place. You have to start encouraging them to leave a review. One of the ways to do this is by sending out emails encouraging reviews, with a link that goes directly to your review page. You can also include a simple message, like “Like us? Leave a review!” on a lot of your marketing material, such as newsletters, business cards, emails, advertisements, and more. Sometimes, people just need a gentle nudge in the direction you want them to go.

Social Media

Did you know that Facebook has an option for customers and followers to leave a review of your business? It’s built into your business Facebook Page and follows the same format as your Atwill Media review form. Make sure you’re using your Facebook Page to gather customer reviews as well. If customers aren’t willing to leave a review on your website, they are much more likely to leave one on your Facebook page for everyone to see.

You can also encourage reviews through social media, such as posting on Twitter and Facebook with a link to your review page or posting an Instagram pic directing customers to click on a custom link in your bio.

Incentives

Do you offer your customers incentives for leaving a review on your Atwill Media website? These incentives are oftentimes called feedback rewards, and they’re simple bonuses and coupons that encourage customers to submit reviews. These could be surveys that you send out that give customers a coupon code once completed or a special percentage off one of your products or services for leaving a review. Explore different ways to incentivize customers into leaving you a review.

Use Negative Reviews

Have you ever received a negative review and then chose to ignore it rather than respond? Did you know that sometimes negative reviews are advantageous to your online credibility? Negative reviews aren’t the end of the world; they actually show customers, and the smart folks at Google, that you’re a credible business. No matter what type of review you receive, however, you always need to respond to it. Not responding is a bad strategy and can make you seem disconnected with your consumer base.

Reviews are powerful tools and can help or hurt your business, depending on how you approach them. Use your reviews to your advantage, and grow your business for the future.

This post was originally published on Atwill Media’s blog. Need a new custom-built website for your business? Check out Atwill Media, for beautiful, customized websites that are made for success!