The Best Review Sites For Home Contractors
People are checking out your online presence and your web page these days before they call you. They’re Googling your company, they’re looking you up on LinkedIn and Facebook to see what other people are saying about you. If they like what they see, they’ll call you!
I’m bringing this up because I got a really good question from a business owner earlier this week, asking: “What are the best sites for someone to review my business?”
I’d like to dig into that a little bit because I get a lot of my business through my Facebook and Google reviews. It’s one thing for me to sit here and say, “I’m a really good marketing consultant, and I can help you formulate all these strategies, and blah blah blah.” Of course, everyone is going to say they’re good at what they do, right?
But it gives it so much more weight when someone I’ve worked with says, “Mario did this, this and this, and if you don’t hire him, you’re crazy! He’s helped my business go from point A to point B.” That’s what gets people to call me! It’s not what I say, it’s what other people say about me!
The bottom line is, you need reviews that people can find. Here are some tips for where to put your reviews, and how to get them:
1. Google.
The first place I want you to get reviews is Google. On your Google + page customers can go to the “About” section and write you a review. I like this for two reasons: First, Google looks at these reviews when it comes to their ranking algorithm. The more reviews that you have, especially if they’re good, thought-out, well-written story reviews, with five stars, that’s going to carry a lot more weight than a company that doesn’t have any reviews.
Second, these reviews will show up when someone searches for your company or industry. It’s great to rank high in Google, but it’s even better when your reviews show up on a search! Google indexes that information, so people can actually go through your reviews before they call you. I encourage you to Google your business right now! See what people are saying about you.
2. Facebook.
The second place is Facebook. I say this because a lot of people spend a lot of time on Facebook every day, so it’s easier if they don’t have to leave the platform to go give you a review. There’s a handy “Review” tab on your business Facebook page they can use. When you go to my Facebook page, you see about 25-30 reviews of people that have used my services or heard me speak, etc. When people see these positive reviews, they are pretty much sold on my services before they call me!
3. Be selective!
And now a bonus tip: Don’t ask everyone you come into contact with to review you! You don’t want mediocre reviews, where they say, “Yeah, he was okay.” You want people who are over the moon for your services! I’d much rather have 25 absolutely great reviews, than 1000 lukewarm or mixed reviews.
So when you have that raving fan, I encourage you to get them to leave you a review. I always ask them where it would be easiest for them to leave a review. Don’t just make it all about you, make it easy for your clients and customers to go out and review you! It may be easier for them to go to Google +, or it may be easier for them to go to Facebook or even Yelp!
I hope this helps you get more reviews for your business because it’s one thing for you to say you’re great, but when you have hundreds of people talking about how awesome you are, the phone is never going to stop ringing!