Written on by Nile Flores
As a business owner, trust with customers is huge, and that’s why reviews are super important. In fact, online reviews are ranked better on Google search than a business with no reviews. There are a lot of places for your customers to leave reviews, and Google is one of them.
In this article you’ll learn why you should encourage customers to leave a review on Google for business. You’ll even learn a few ways on how to add Google Reviews to a WordPress website.
Google Reviews are just one of many tools that Google My Business provides for business owners to utilize, in order to correctly display their company’s information on Google search. If you run a business, and haven’t taken advantage of this free service, then you’re missing out on features like:
Add business location
Add business URL
Add business hours
Ad business phone number
Add photos for business
Display reviews from customers
Add a business “About” description
Add menu
Add a business logo
Added special attributes about your business
If your business has a physical address, then you can add your location. Google will add your location to Google Maps.
Got a website? You can list your website, so people can visit and learn more about who you are and what you offer.
If your business is only open within certain hours of the day, or possibly closed other days, then you can specify this on Google My Business.
Accept phone queries from customers? You can add your phone number for your business.
Adding photos for your business, allows anyone searching for services like yours, to see what you have to offer. For example, if you’re a candy shop that handmakes some unique treats, then you’ll want to upload those types of photos. These will help entice customers to buy from you, versus other business listings that don’t have any photos at all.
Your customers can submit reviews about their experience with your business. Each review is displayed along with your business’s search results.
Adding a short description for your business gives your customers a bit more insight about what services you offer. Use this section to add a few key bullet points on those services, and make sure to let people know what you do differently than similar businesses in your niche.
Own a restaurant? Well, Google My Business allows you to list some of your menu! This is great in case you allow people to call in orders to go.
Add your business logo to your listing, so people can remember and identify your business well.
Google My Business has a section that you can choose to display badges that tell people whether you’re a business that is veteran-owned, LGBTQ-friendly, black-owned and women-owned.
You only need to sign up and fill your business’s information into the areas they provide. Make sure to include your business phone number and address. Google My Business will mail you a postcard that has a verification code, to help verify that your business is legit.
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Over 93% of people read online reviews before purchasing anything. Whether you’re a clothing department store, amusement park, restaurant, or government facility, customers can leave reviews for just about anything. Sure, your customers can leave reviews on Yelp, Facebook, Angi, and Google, but you’ll want to display some of those reviews in a central place - like your website.
Your website is your home base, and usually will have the most information about services and products you sell. Also, you probably display more detailed content on your website, so why not reviews too. In fact, they are a great addition, as they let people know exactly what the community feels about your business, which is known as building social proof.
Why Google reviews? Well, according to BrightLocal, over 63% use Google to learn about businesses. This is more than Facebook pages that allow customer reviews, as well as Yelp, and more.
There are a lot of different methods to embed Google reviews to a Website. For example, you could sign up for a service like EmbedSocial, fill out the info for the places you want to display reviews from, copy the code they provide, and paste it somewhere in a widget or post or page.
Another, more difficult way is to create a child theme, and add some code. However, it’s better to keep things simple, so you’ll learn 2 easy ways on how to add Google reviews to a WordPress website.
Method 1. WordPress Plugin
Method 2. Screenshot reviews and add to site.
The easiest method to embed Google reviews for WordPress is to use the Widget for Google Reviews plugin. It’s free, and you can display this on your WordPress site in the following formats: slider, list, or ratings badge. You can embed Google reviews in your sidebar widget, or as a shortcode, in your Gutenberg content editor, or other page builders. With this plugin, you can set up several different methods to display your Google reviews widget.
Step 1. Before configuring this plugin, make sure that your business is verified. If you didn’t receive a postcard, then use the phone method to verify your business.
Step 2. Go through the detailed Full Installation Guide tab, in the plugin, to sign up for a Google API. The instructions include screenshots to follow along.
Step 3. Get the Places ID for your business’s location. This is what you’ll use to add to your widget. If you’re having trouble with finding your Place ID, the plugin has a helpful support section to guide you to find that. However, Step 2 should help with finding your Place ID.
Step 4. Name your widget and save.
Step 5. Connect with Google and add your Places ID to the field on the left.
Step 6. Configure the widget. You can select how you want the widget to display.
Step 7. If you’d like to add the Google reviews to a widget, you can go to Appearance > Widgets, and select the Google reviews widget you’d like to display.
With this method, you bypass using the Google API, as well as the added scripts in method 1, which add to your website’s load time. And sometimes platforms on Google can be slow, and in some cases down. This method avoids your site from loading slower or for the reviews not displaying at times.
Step 1. Look up your business on Google and click on the link next to the review rating. A window will open up and display the most recent reviews for your business. It will also show your star rating.
Step 2. Take a screenshot of your reviews or rating average. You may want to screenshot each review individually and add it to specific places on your site, rather than all of them together.
You can either use your graphic editor or Screenshot.net to help take a screenshot of your Google reviews.
Step 3. Add the images to a widget, or to your posts or pages.
Step 4. Link those images to your Google business listing, and also add text to your site to encourage customers to leave a review.
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Even if you choose not to display Google Reviews on a WordPress website, you should be taking advantage of the Google My Business tools. The more you add to your Google My Business listing, the more chances you have in attracting people to choose to buy from you. Don't forget to respond the reviews and good luck!
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