Are you wondering how many Google reviews your business needs to get noticed and attract more customers? If so, you’re in the right place! In this article, we will cover exactly how many reviews your business should have and provide 8 foolproof ways to get them – even if you’re short on time.
Having a good amount of positive customer feedback is essential for your successful business. It shows potential customers that others are satisfied with what you offer, builds trust and credibility, and can help boost rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs). But just how many reviews do you need before customers start paying attention? Let’s find out!
Table of Contents
- Q: How many Google reviews do I need? A: That depends on these four things
- How to get more Google reviews (with minimal effort)
- 1. Create a link for customers to leave a Google review
- 2. Add the link to your email signature
- 3. Add the link to your website
- 4. Write a template email asking for a review
- 5. Create “leave us a review” cards
- 6. Run an email campaign for leaving Google reviews
- 7. Reply to your existing Google reviews
- 8. Invite customers to leave a review at the end of your surveys
- How Customer Alliance helps you generate reviews on autopilot
- Final thoughts: How many Google reviews do I need?
Q: How many Google reviews do I need? A: That depends on these four things
Unfortunately, there’s no magic number for the perfect amount of Google reviews (wouldn’t that be nice?) However, there are several factors that can guide you towards finding the right number for your business. Here are the top three things to consider.
Your industry
The amount of Google reviews you need depends on the industry you’re in, as different industries have varying levels of competition and customer expectations.
For example, if you’re a restaurant or hotel, you’ll need a higher number of reviews to stand out from competitors compared to, say, an online clothing store. That’s because customers heavily depend on reviews when choosing between these types of businesses to make sure they’ll receive the quality they expect. In fact, an enormous 81% of people frequently or always read reviews before booking a hotel.
Not only is there a huge choice of hotels and restaurants, but they’re also businesses that are used fairly frequently by most people. If you think about other types of businesses, like accounting firms or estate agents, people search for them only once in a while, meaning the number of reviews they need is lower. Generally speaking, the more reviews your industry tends to attract, the more impact they can have on your business (and the more you should focus on them).
How recent your reviews are
The number of Google reviews you should have isn’t a static number, but one that will change over time. That’s because having recent reviews is just as important as having the right amount. 85% of consumers think that online reviews older than three months aren’t relevant and 40% of consumers only care about reviews submitted within the last two weeks. Why? Potential customers see recent reviews as more reliable and trustworthy, as they provide an up-to-date view of the business.
You could have an absolutely glowing 5-star review, but if the person left it six months ago then there’s nothing to tell your customer that it reflects the experience they’ll have now. So if your last review is more than two weeks ago then it’s time to get some more! It may feel overwhelming to have to constantly generate new reviews, but don’t panic. We’ll go over some great strategies further down that you can use even if you’re short on time.
How many reviews your competitors have
Google reviews can be a key differentiator when it comes to where customers choose to spend their money. Think about the last time you booked a hotel. Chances are it looked a little like this. You opened up your phone or computer, headed straight to Google and typed in “hotels in [your chosen destination]”. You scrolled down to find a handy box with local listings the algorithm has chosen to promote (or the hotels have paid to promote) alongside Google maps.
If you look at the hotels that are there organically (i.e. they’re not paid ads), you’ll notice they all have one thing in common. Lots of reviews. That’s because Google wants to always provide the best possible results for any search. And when a hotel has a lot of positive reviews, it’s a strong signal to Google that it’s one worth recommending over others.
You can apply the same concept to any business in any other industry. If you have more reviews than your competitors, you’re more likely to show up higher in searches and get more clicks to your website as a result.
Open up an incognito tab (this will stop your previous search history from skewing your results) and type in “[your business type] in [your area]”. See how many reviews your competitors have. Your goal should be to have more reviews than any other business on that page.
Your desired Google rating
If you want to improve your rating, you should aim for a larger number of 5-star reviews than if you’re happy to maintain. Google’s rating system considers both the quality and quantity of reviews.
Achieving a higher rating means not only receiving positive reviews but also accumulating a sufficient number of them to outweigh any lower ratings. This requires consistent efforts to gather positive feedback from your customers, as it becomes essential to not only maintain existing high ratings but also offset any previous lower ratings.
Use the Google ratings calculator
Wondering how many reviews you need to reach your desired Google rating? We’ve created a handy Google Reviews Calculator for you. Simply input your current rating, the number of reviews you have, your desired rating, and it will provide you with an estimate of how many 5-star reviews you need to achieve your goal.
These four factors should give you a great starting point for how many Google reviews you need. The next step is to reach out to satisfied customers and get those 5-star reviews rolling in. Let’s take a look at how to do it.
How to get more Google reviews (with minimal effort)
As you can see, getting Google reviews should be an ongoing initiative if you really want to reap the rewards. Unfortunately, with so many other things to take care of, it’s something that lots of business owners and marketing managers struggle with. That’s why it’s so important to make review collection as easy as possible for both you and your customer. Here are some low-effort, impactful strategies for generating new reviews that you can put into action today.
1. Create a link for customers to leave a Google review
There’s nothing more effective for putting customers off leaving a review than making the process long and complicated. Luckily, Google has made it really simple to provide a link to your customers that will take them straight to your review page. The only prerequisite is that you have your Google My Business listing set up and verified.
To get your link, all you have to do is:
- Type your business name into Google. At the top of the results, you’ll see everything you can do with your Google business profile.
- Click the ‘Ask for reviews’ icon (the speech bubble with a pen inside it)
- A pop-up box will appear with a review link. Click inside the box to copy it to your clipboard.
See how it works for yourself. Paste the link into a new tab, and you’ll be directed towards your listing on Google Maps, where a box will appear to type your review. With just a couple of steps to complete, it’s a really easy way for your customers to share their feedback, even if they only have a couple of minutes to spare.
2. Add the link to your email signature
If you’re looking to increase the number of Google reviews for your business, one simple and effective way to do so is to add a link to your review link in your email signature. This way, every time you send an email, the recipient gets a little prompt to give their feedback. Again, it’s all about making it as easy and convenient as possible for your customers to leave a review.
To add your review link to your Gmail signature, follow these steps:
- Log into your Gmail account and click on the gear icon in the top right-hand corner.
- Select ‘Settings’ from the drop-down menu.
- Scroll down to the ‘Signature’ section and click the pen icon on your current signature to edit it.
- At the bottom of your signature, add a simple call-to-action. You could use simple “Leave us a review” or “Share your feedback”.
- Highlight the text, click the link icon and copy-and-paste your Google review link. Click “Ok” to insert the link.
- Once you’re happy with how your signature looks, scroll back up to the top of the page and click ‘Save Changes’.
That’s it! Now every time you send an email, recipients will be able to head straight to your review page with just one click.
3. Add the link to your website
Adding a link to your Google My Business page on your website is a great way to encourage people to share their customer experience.
The best place to put this link is somewhere easily visible near the top or bottom of your homepage. Having an eye-catching button or image linking out to a page where customers can leave reviews is a great way to draw attention and encourage participation.
You could also consider adding it in multiple places throughout your website, such as in the footer, in blog posts, or even within product descriptions or other relevant pages.
Just be wary of not adding the link multiple times on the same page. If website visitors see the link too often, it will either start to become annoying or simply blend into the background and go unnoticed.
4. Write a template email asking for a review
Having a template review request email at the ready makes for a quick and easy way to ask for reviews. However, there are a few things to keep in mind to make sure you get the best results:
- Make sure your “From:” line has a real person’s name, and not just the name of your business
- Your email needs a subject line that gets people interested to know more – if they don’t open the email, you won’t get a review
- The content should be short and sweet – make it clear exactly what you’re asking for and what the customer needs to do
- Make sure you personalise the content a little bit, even if it’s just using the cutomer’s name
- Don’t forget to show appreciation for their time, and point out how their review will help other customers
- Make sure you include your link for customers to go straight to your review page
- Don’t specify that customers should leave five-star reviews – it’s important that they feel free to share their honest opinion (and even bad reviews can be helpful for your business!)
Once you’re comfortable with setting up a template, you could also create multiple template review requests. These could have different wording depending on the type of customer (for example, a loyal customer vs first-time purchaser) or the time that’s passed since the purchase (like one day post purchase vs one week post purchase).
Set aside a little time each week (even just an hour) to send out your template emails and you’ll soon see the results.
5. Create “leave us a review” cards
These cards are typically small, paper cards that include the business name and a direct link to the business’s Google review page. Customers can take these cards with them as a little reminder to leave a review once they get home.
You can hand out these cards with every transaction, or put them in conspicuous places in your business, like the reception desk or near the entrance. The card’s design should be eye-catching, with your logo and colours that match your brand. It should also contain clear instructions on how to leave a review, such as “Visit our Google review page” with an arrow pointing at the URL and a QR code included on the card.
One thing you’ll need to bear in mind with this is that there will be some people (for example those who don’t know what to do with a QR code or don’t have a way to scan one) that will have to manually type in your review link. For that reason, you might want to shorten your Google review link using a free service like bitly or TinyURL.
6. Run an email campaign for leaving Google reviews
If you don’t want to send individual emails, then running an email campaign can be a great way to generate more reviews. Of course, you must make sure you only email customers who’ve agreed to receive communications from you, by either opting in when they signed up or subscribing to your newsletter.
You can use the exact same tips as above (your email newsletter provider should give you some personalisation options), and even combine it with an enticing newsletter design to improve your response rates.
Another handy thing about running a campaign like this is that you’ll also be able to see how successful it was, down to the exact number of people who clicked your Google review link. This gives you a bit of room to experiment with the content and see what gets the best results.
Pro tip 💡: When you use this strategy, it’s a good idea to stagger your email so they’re not sent to your entire list at the same time. If you suddenly get a big surge in reviews all on the same day, this will look suspicious to both your customers and Google, and could even end with your profile getting flagged.
7. Reply to your existing Google reviews
It may be surprising, but replying to existing reviews on Google encourages other people to leave their own. Why? When customers see that their feedback is valued and taken into consideration by the business, it gives them extra motivation to leave feedback of their own.
However, it’s important to remember that generic, two-word replies won’t have quite the same impact. Personalised, authentic responses are what you need to inspire others to take action.
Not only will it get you more Google reviews, but it will also help create meaningful relationships with customers and foster long-term loyalty. Plus, the majority of businesses don’t reply, so it’s the best way to stand out from the crowd.
We know that adding another task to your long list of to-dos might sound a little daunting, particularly if you’re a small business owner or running a small team. That’s why we put together a guide to help: “5 Time-Saving Strategies For Responding To Online Reviews“
8. Invite customers to leave a review at the end of your surveys
Combining review requests with your surveys makes perfect sense, as the customer has already shown a willingness to provide their feedback.
Think of it this way. If they’ve already taken the time to answer your questions, then adding a few sentences for a review won’t seem like that much extra effort. However, to minimise the chances of the customer clicking away (and losing your survey response as a result), it’s best to make the review request optional and leave it until the end of your survey.
Another great thing about including a review request in your survey is that your surveys are likely automated (and if they’re not, they should be!), which means one less thing for you to do to increase your Google reviews.
How Customer Alliance helps you generate reviews on autopilot
To make sure you’re consistently generating good reviews, the best thing you can do is have solid review management software on your side. When you set up Customer Alliance, you get automated review requests, along with a whole suite of tools that will help you better understand your customers and offer exceptional service.
Once the reviews come rolling in, our Review Stream collects them all in an easy-to-use dashboard so you never miss a single one (and don’t have the headache of checking all the review sites). You can even reply to reviews straight from your dashboard, using helpful templates or even our AI Reply Assistant.
If you get negative reviews, you’ll get an alert on the platform so you can act quickly to address the issue. This goes a long way in creating more happy customers and keeping that review score high.
Final thoughts: How many Google reviews do I need?
Getting more Google reviews is a great way to build trust with customers and increase your online presence. With the tips we’ve provided in this article, you should be able to get started on creating an effective strategy for collecting customer feedback without too much time or effort.
Whether it’s through email campaigns, surveys or replying directly to existing reviews, all of these tactics will help you increase your total number of reviews and improve your online reputation. By taking advantage of what each strategy has to offer, you can ensure that your business stands out from the competition and attracts new customers. Combine this with great service and a good experience, and your Google star rating will soon be on the rise.
So don’t wait any longer – start building up those valuable Google reviews today!
