Unfortunately, we live in a world that has come to rely on Google for all of its answers – from "where should we eat?" to "who should we call when our air conditioner dies?" (Well, I hope you'd know who to call, but stick with me here.) We all want to play to Google, trying to figure out what we can do to show our prospective customers why they should call us over 'Joe Schmoe' down the street. It also tells Google, this is why you should show me.
Relatively recently, Google actually threw the SEO world a bone and shed some light on
how it ranks local searches. It boils down to three key points: Relevance, Distance and Prominence. To illustrate how Google works this all out, this is conceptually how its algorithm "thinks".
Search "ac repair"
Google: Okay John Smith. You're looking for "ac repair". Well let's see… I can tell you're in Jamestown, Virginia right now. 1Let's see which contractors provide ac repair service to that area?… okay. 2Now, where are they located in relation to you?… okay. 3Now, how well-known are they and how good are they at providing ac repair?...
Point #1 Relevance - That's relatively easy for contractors to do between their Google My Business listing and their Google My Business listing and their website.
Point #2 Distance – This is harder. You have competitors in your service area, and some of them are closer to John Smith's location than you are! Google thinks, "the closer you are to John Smith, chances are you'll get to him quicker and the more likely you are to serve his area."
Point #3 Prominence – This is the one I really want to focus on as it's both the hardest of the three and probably presents the greatest opportunity for improvement.
You should be doing everything in your power to help Google understand what people think of your service! Google understands that
over 90% of consumers care about how good of a job you do by observing them hunt for reviews. People care, so Google does, too.
Genuine, properly coded, online reviews are social word-of-mouth referrals. Google also puts a great deal of stock in them as they aren't you saying how awesome your company is—it's somebody else.
If you aren't implementing some sort of campaign to receive more reviews, then you are shooting yourself in the foot. There are many different ways to get more reviews and countless review platforms to receive them on. While Google trusts a review on its own platform more than anywhere else, getting Google reviews tends to be a chore in-and-of itself. To leave a Google review, you must not only have an account, but must also be signed in. If your customer isn't already signed in, I wish you the best of luck getting that review. We live in a world where many