Why Google Places Reviews Are *Even More* Important For Your Business Than They Were Before
In a previous post about
Why Google Places Reviews Are Important, And Will Become Even More Important In The Future.
I touched on what Google Places reviews mean for the restaurant business in Northern Ireland.
Since that post, Google have stopped using reviews from third party web sites, and are now only showing reviews posted from Google accounts.
Here is what happened on my Android phone previously when I looked for ‘Restaurants’ :-
As you can see, there were 71 great reviews for The Cuan.
But here is what the search results look like now :-
Oh no…. There is only one review for the Cuan now, and it has moved down to second in the results.
To make matter worse:-
The one review I am shown is only 4 stars!
What does this mean for the local restaurant business (and all local businesses across the UK to an extent)?
It means there is a huge opportunity to make sure your customer service is as good as it can be, and make sure that customers add positive reviews to your listing in Google Places.
If you miss the opportunity to do this right now, you will be playing catch-up for a very long time to come…
*Update – 17th August 2011* – Here is yet another reason why you really, really need to take notice of Google Places reviews – Google Related – finding related content as you browse.
*Update – March 2012* – Here is another piece of research which backs up how important customer reviews are on local listings :- 72% Of Potential Customers Trust On-line Reviews As Much As Personal Recommendations.
2 thoughts on “Why Google Places Reviews Are *Even More* Important For Your Business Than They Were Before”
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You should check out Geoffrey Moffett’s course from Coleraine in Northern Ireland.
I’ll do a review on this blog if I get a free copy :-)