Green Stick Marketing
Which review websites are the best to ask customers to leave reviews about a business? Why not just ask for business reviews or testimonials on a business’s website? Well, asking consumers to leave a review on a businesses’ website seems a lot more screened and inauthentic than simply asking consumers to leave reviews on a trusted review site.
Before we dive into the Top 10 Review Sites, there are three important customer review tips to follow:
There are many niche business review and directory websites out there and we have brought you a mix of the very best heavy hitters in the online review website world.
In other words, it’s a good idea to add or claim a listing or business profile on these review sites (unless a business doesn’t fit with the niche), correct the business’s listing information and start getting more business reviews!
Plus, getting a business’s listing information on a directory corrected only heeds positive citation results, especially when listed on these big guys below.
Asking the average customer for a review can be hard work. Granted, it is often easiest to get reviews from consumers that are either really happy or really unhappy with the level of service they were provided.
Businesses should always remember to ask as customers are busy creatures and will not remember unless they are asked nicely to leave feedback.
With that being said, which review websites are the best to ask customers to leave reviews about a business? Why not just ask for business reviews or testimonials on a business’s website? Well, asking consumers to leave a review on a business’s website seems a lot more screened and inauthentic than simply asking consumers to leave reviews on a trusted review site.
1. Google
Average monthly US traffic (Alexa): 158.03 million
US ranking (Alexa): 1
Business reviews for: any business
Google My Business is a free tool for businesses to manage their online presence across Google, including Search and Maps. Google is the go-to search engine of choice: as more and more consumers conduct multiple searches on it every day, more businesses are vying for top SERP results.
Very important: Businesses must verify their information to complete their Google My Business registration.
Google My Business puts business data on Search, Maps, and Google+. Because of this, customers can easily find a location from desktop, mobile or anything in between. Google customer reviews show up in search and are known to bolster SEO, so they are essential to the credibility of all businesses.
Google is the king of web traffic
Did you know that Google’s search engine performs over 3.5 billion searches per day (internetlivestats.com)? Businesses should aim to be on Google’s snack pack in order to be readily found when consumers perform a local search.
Users can leave reviews for a business easily and simply. The less friction involved in the business review process, the easier it is to get more reviews. Getting reviews through a business’s Google My Business account is a great place to start.
Average monthly US traffic (Alexa): 85.44 million
US ranking (Alexa): 3
Business reviews for: e-commerce related transactions
Amazon is a powerhouse. Therefore, it is no surprise that it is a popular go-to business review site for e-commerce products. If you don’t use Amazon, you probably know someone that has used Amazon (or uses Amazon faithfully).
In fact, Amazon has been training consumers to use their review system for a long time now. Therefore, we should probably thank them for helping train a mass of consumers to start leaving them and making it as part of an online consumer etiquette, if you will.
Amazon is much more than book reviews
We may think of Amazon as a virtual library, but Amazon is for much more than book reviews. For companies that do any amount of e-commerce, Amazon is a key source of information. While Amazon as a business review website is more targeted and fitting for Amazon marketplace partners, it is a worthy site to note, especially for retailers about what customers like about certain products and how the service aspect of transactions was handled.
Did you know that business reviews have been a part of Amazon’s websites for over 20 years?
Another fun fact: Amazon’s business review system was improved in 2015 to start weighing reviews so they are more up-to-date and helpful (cnet).
Average monthly US traffic (Alexa): 85.57 million
US ranking (Alexa): 3
Business reviews for: any business
Facebook is a social networking platform where users can create profiles, upload photos and videos, send messages and keep in touch with friends, family and follow their favorite businesses and brands. Companies can create business profiles that users can follow and also leave business reviews based on their experience with the company.
Customers now commonly leave reviews on social media
Consumers increasingly interact with brands through social channels, and there is no social platform more prevalent than Facebook. It follows, then, that the business reviews on Facebook are seen and shared by many potential customers. Businesses should take note of the big wins and big mistakes that a business can experience when opening themselves up to social media.
But again, please note that consumers are talking about a business whether that business is aware of it or not (and whether businesses have claimed their business profile or not). With that being said, it is pertinent that businesses are actively monitoring their social media mentions at all times.
Facebook is becoming a popular review resource
Due to the sheer size of the user base of Facebook, it is gaining momentum towards being one of the most popular business review sites. Since most users on the site already have a Facebook account, the process to leave a business review is relatively friction-less.
Consequently, this reduction in friction gives Facebook an advantage over other business review websites where users must create unique logins or log in to the site each time (compared to those consumers that are already living and breathing in Facebook).
Average monthly US traffic (Alexa): 40.47 million
US ranking (Alexa): 64
Business reviews for: any business
Yelp is a platform (review website and app) where users can publish reviews about local businesses. Also, Yelp trains small businesses on how to respond to business reviews, host social events for Yelpers (a.k.a. Yelp reviewers) and provide data about businesses including health inspection scores (Yelp.com).
Reputation management is essential on review sites
Yelp has become a name synonymous with business reviews, as the site has over 102 million reviews and counting. As the world’s largest outlet for online customer reviews grows, it might be time for all small businesses to start caring about what consumers are saying online; and more specifically, about their Yelp reviews.
Consumers aren’t going to give a small business any attention if all they see is negativity surrounding their Yelp customer review page.
Yelp has a distinct reviewer culture of “yelpers”
Consumers who review businesses and leave business reviews on Yelp have become known widely as “yelpers.” Yelpers leave business reviews to help others in the community make purchasing decisions and it’s important for your local business clients to keep an eye on them.
Business review sites such as Yelp, point to the growing importance of review monitoring to manage a business’s online reputation. In summation, if we haven’t won you over on Yelp yet, maybe these hilarious Yelp reviews will.
Average monthly US traffic (Alexa): 28.27 million
US ranking (Alexa): 118
Business reviews for: any business
TripAdvisor is a travel website company where users can leave business reviews of places they’ve visited. Users can also book rooms, find flights, discover to do and reserve tables at participating restaurants. TripAdvisor operates websites internationally in over 25 countries.
King of the niche: travel directories and travel-related reviews
Another fun fact: business review volume occurs the highest in the travel vertical.
Apparently vacation stories must also travel the gap between online and in person. Well, if a person really wants, at least they can avoid the vacation slide shows online. ?
Average monthly US traffic (Alexa): 6.15 million
US ranking (Alexa): 647
Business reviews for: any business
The Better Business Bureau aims to help people find and recommend businesses, brands, and charities they can trust (bbb.org).
The BBB is built on trust
Based on a business rating review system, BBB educates consumers and assists people in finding trusted businesses. The Better Business Bureau tries to protect consumers from fraudulent business or scammers.
Company profiles on BBB contain a short company bio and a history of complaints made about the business, as well as an A – F rating.
Average monthly US traffic (Alexa): 10.5 million
US ranking (Alexa): 694
Business reviews for: any business
YellowPages is an online internet yellow pages directory owned by YP. YP is a local marketing solutions provider that focuses on helping local businesses (and the communities within) grow.
YP: an IYP directory with large traffic volume and review capabilities
Yellowpages has business review capabilities. Companies can manage their reviews on the review site after claiming a free business listing on their page.
Average monthly US traffic (Alexa): 10.5 million
US ranking (Alexa): 694
Business reviews for: any business
YellowPages is an online internet yellow pages directory owned by YP. YP is a local marketing solutions provider that focuses on helping local businesses (and the communities within) grow.
YP: an IYP directory with large traffic volume and review capabilities
Yellowpages has business review capabilities. Companies can manage their reviews on the review site after claiming a free business listing on their page.
Average monthly US traffic (Alexa): 6.48 million
US ranking (Alexa): 957
Business reviews for: any business
Manta is an online small business service directory, search engine, and review site that provides small businesses with the information to the network.
Manta: a directory with solid traffic volume and review capabilities
The site helps small businesses connect and grow through their community where users can buy from, partner with and connect to companies.
Average monthly US traffic (Alexa): 5.44 million
US ranking (Alexa): 1,755
Business reviews for: service-related businesses
Angie’s List is a service listing and review website that offers user-based rankings and reviews of service professionals in local areas.
Angie’s List reviews are from members
Because Angie’s List is a paid review site, it is known to be less filled with rambling reviews from customers and spam. Members grade companies using a report card scale from A-F on price, quality, responsiveness, punctuality, and professionalism.
Angie’s List is divided by categories such as a house, auto, health, pets, and services.
Average monthly US traffic (Alexa): 3.67 million
US ranking (Alexa): 2,418
Business reviews for: any business, mostly restaurants
Foursquare is a local search and discovery service mobile app. The app helps users discover new places/businesses through other Foursquare business reviews.
Foursquare is a powerful social media review tool
Users can let friends know where they are and find out where their friends are. Users can also collect points, prize badges, and coupons for checking in at places. In any case, with 55 million monthly active users, Foursquare is a powerful force to monitor customer loyalty and feedback.
The importance of responding to customers online could not be more important, as reviews are often the first point of contact a potential customer has with a business. Aside from the fact that reviews from customers help other customers decide whether they should visit a business or not, business reviews are now more prevalent on search results pages.
There are a variety of methods a business can employ to ask for more business reviews, including emailing consumers manually, asking consumers to leave reviews with codes and review sites on their receipts, or utilizing review generation software to automate the business review process.
In Google’s markup—the annotated content that appears in search—of a company or product, business reviews and ratings can now be included in search results. In other words, when a user performs a search on Google, Google will find and possibly display review summaries from online business reviews and consumer ratings. Below is an example of how business reviews now showing up in search results.
In conclusion, there’s no getting away from business reviews. Sorry folks. The good news is that there are methods to get more business reviews as well as effectively managing reviews from customers.
Also, businesses needn’t fear about negative online reviews, there are ways to negate the effect of negative reviews (see what we did there?)!
Indeed, the important take away here is that it is important to respond to reviews, good or bad. By and large, it shows that a company cares about its consumers.
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