Extremes are harmful, and that applies in the case of Google reviews, too.
According to the latest updates, now even Google values a mix of reviews on GMB profiles, which aligns with 67% of consumers favoring the same to get a more real picture of a business.
Having diverse reviews for your products and services comes with multifold benefits and significance for the growth of your brand or business.
In this guide, we will find out why you, too, must prefer to have both types of reviews on your Google profile and how you can manage all your reviews to enhance your reputation overall.
So, let's get started!
Importance of Having A Mix of Positive And Negative Reviews
Google reviews are important for your brand or business to increase awareness and generate revenue by gaining more customers and having a mix of reviews comes with its own set of advantages like the following:
1. Adheres to Google's policies
Google's latest updates clearly indicate how Google values the authenticity of reviews. If you only have positive reviews, it may signal to Google that you have manipulated your reviews.
Therefore, you must have both types of reviews on your business profile to stay in line with Google's guidelines and also come across as real and relevant business.
2. Helps in being more authentic and credible
Along with complying with Google's policies, having both types of reviews on your profile makes you appear more authentic. A mix of both positive and negative reviews shows your customers that your business can be trusted.
Also, when you have reviews with diverse opinions from your previous customers, it makes your business more credible than those competitors who only focus on showing their positive reviews.
3. Crucial for attaining customer's trust
Will you ever trust a business that only has positive product reviews when you are scrolling as a curious customer? No, right?
The same goes with your potential customers, as it gives them genuine insight into your products or services. Your customers will trust you more if you show both of your positive and negative reviews on your profile.
4. Importance in purchase decisions of customers
Research shows that almost 97% of customers rely on reviews to make their purchase decisions. So, if all you have is positive or only negative reviews, your customers will struggle with their decisions.
Therefore, having both positive and negative reviews on Google is important to win the customer's trust and also aid their purchase decisions.
5. More reviews, more conversions
Whether positive or negative, having more reviews increases the overall review count on your business profile, and studies have shown that businesses with a higher volume of reviews tend to see higher conversion rates.
Also, when you have diverse reviews on your profile, customers spend more time scrolling through them, and the positive reviews on your profile may influence them to hit that buy button.
6. Impact on SEO and profile ranking
Google considers various factors when ranking business profiles, including the quantity and quality of reviews. So, even if you have unfair Google reviews, they still contribute to the review count, helping you rank higher.
Moreover, if you have a business with a physical location, gaining several reviews can help improve your local SEO and improve your business's visibility in local search results and Local pack listings.
7. Gives you a competitive advantage
Embracing both good and bad reviews sets your business apart from competitors who may only showcase positive feedback.
By showcasing all your reviews to your potential customers, you convince them that your business doesn't filter out negative feedback but instead uses it as an opportunity for improvement.
Thus, having a mix of reviews on your business is actually a good idea. In fact, it can help you create a more genuine and practical image of your business that helps you connect with more customers.
But when you have both positive and negative reviews, you must make efforts to manage them and maintain a strong reputation for your business.
How To Manage Positive And Negative Reviews For A Better Reputation?
Reviews affect your reputation more than any other metric and help your business grow. Therefore, taking the right measures to manage them is crucial.
Here are some ways that can help you manage your Google reviews while helping you maintain the online and offline reputation of your business:
1. Monitor your reviews regularly
You must monitor all the reviews on your profile regularly to stay updated about your customer preferences and also understand customer's perceptions.
To track your reviews, you can set up Google alerts from your profile settings to receive email notifications whenever your business name is mentioned online. This way, you can manage all your reviews, whether positive or negative.
2. Always respond promptly
To maintain your Google reviews, you must time your responses properly. Timely responses will not only build a better reputation for your business but also help prevent further escalation of a negative review.
Therefore, be more active with your responses to manage your Google reviews. You can create some response templates that you can access whenever you see a common issue in another customer review.
3. Engage with all types of reviews
As a business owner, you must never ignore a negative review if you want your customers to stay. No one wants to feel ignored. Isn't it?
Therefore, to maintain your reputation online or offline and retain more customers, start engaging with all types of reviews on your profile. If you have a positive review, thank the customer; if there's a negative review, solve their problem.
4. Flag and report fake reviews
Sometimes, when your competitors can't gain reviews for their own profiles, they add fake reviews below your GMB profile. Generally, such reviews use overly negative language without any specific details about the actual problem.
Such reviews can harm your business or brand reputation and mislead potential customers. So, if you suspect a fake review on your profile, flag it and report it to Google.
5. Respond to negative reviews professionally
Since you are responding to your reviews publically, always maintain a professional tone while addressing those bad reviews on Google.
Your potential customers will read all reviews and responses in the future when they visit your profile. Therefore, how you respond is very important. It can either win you a customer or else ruin the deal.
6. Keep tracking the review volume and ratings over time
You must also track the review volume and overall rating on your GMB profile to manage and understand the types of reviews you are gaining.
Tracking these metrics will help you understand your customer's preferences and identify any trends in customer feedback. A consistent decrease in ratings can depict issues that need to be addressed before it becomes more complex.
7. Personalize your responses for each customer
Lastly, manage your Google reviews with personalized responses. Such responses can help you turn dissatisfied customers into loyal ones and also enhance your reputation as a business.
Whether you are responding to positive or negative reviews, make your customers feel heard and valued by tailoring your responses for each customer.
So, this is how you can manage your business's reputation by monitoring your Google review and tracking some key metrics.
Are Negative Reviews Better Than Positive Reviews?
It is true that every business dreams of those 5-star reviews that help them bring more sales and a better profile ranking on Google. But the top players in the business world understand the impact of even terrible reviews.
While positive reviews on Google give you a better rating and reassure you that your customers liked your product, their impact stays stagnant. You thank your customers, and the association ends.
However, the negative and bad Google reviews are the real trials for a business to build a better image and win its customers and potential customers' trust.
In fact, the negative reviews below your profile give you an opportunity to showcase your expertise when you respond to them with your authority and display yourself as a credible business owner.
Moreover, they also serve as an early indicator of any future issues that may arise due to a common problem faced by your clients or customers.
Therefore, negative Google reviews are not always bad, and gaining them is okay. All you must do is manage and resolve them as soon as possible and keep getting more reviews for your business profile.
Also, you must keep trying new ways to gain more Google reviews for your business to maintain this balance of reviews.
5 Tips To Get More Google Reviews For Your Business
Gaining Google reviews should be your top priority if you want to rank your profile on Google. Here are some proven ways that will help you gain more reviews and improve your review count:
- Ask your loyal customers in person
- Provide direct links to your review page
- Collect reviews through QR codes
- Buy genuine Google reviews from authentic sites
- Offer incentives to those who leave a review
- Invest in review generation tools
If you want to explore more ways to gain Google reviews, then here are 25+ methods to boost your Google reviews with real-life examples.
Now, in some cases, businesses do have a good number of reviews on their profile, even their profiles rank, but they don't see an increase in their sales.
Therefore, if you want to experience balanced growth both in terms of review count and business sales, negative reviews are important, too.
Is buying negative Google reviews a good option for balanced growth?
If you want to display your business as a genuine and trustworthy one, you can purchase negative Google reviews and display them on your GMB profile.
These negative reviews will also help you achieve balanced growth and maintain your reputation in both online and offline markets to levels that seem real.
Moreover, buying reviews from genuine platforms can be a great strategy to assess how Google reviews are impacting your sales specifically.
Final Thoughts:
Now that you understand how even negative reviews can play an important role in your business reputation, you must maintain this balance of reviews on your profile and make efforts to improve your Google reviews to increase revenue.
Show all your reviews whether positive or negative, to be more trustable for your customers and appear as a real and authentic business.
When you have a balanced profile, both Google and customers will trust your business, and you will get the best of both worlds: a better ranking and a customer who trusts your business.
FAQs
1. Why is it important to have both positive and negative feedback?
When you have both types of reviews, your business comes across as an authentic and credible entity, and more customers trust you. In fact, Google stood by the same principles when it gave its update on how it values all types of reviews.
2. How can I manage my Google reviews, both positive and negative?
To manage your Google reviews, monitor your business reviews regularly and keep tracking the key metrics like your review volume and overall rating.
When you spot a negative review, resolve it quickly to win your customer's trust and show dedication towards your commitment to providing the best to your customers.
3. Where can I buy positive Google reviews?
You can purchase Google reviews from top and authentic sites like BuyReviewz.com. Such platforms provide real and genuine Google reviews from real and active accounts that boost your profile ranking while complying with Google's policies.
4. Is paying for Google reviews safe?
Yes, it is absolutely safe to pay for Google reviews if the reviews are from real users and accounts. You must ensure that you are buying reviews from a trustworthy growth service provider.
5. How many 5-star Google reviews does it take to offset a negative review?
You must gain around 10-20 5-star reviews to balance out your rating and reduce the impact of a negative review.
However, the exact number to offset the entire impact of those negative and unfair reviews that are left varies depending on your existing review history and the overall sentiment of your reviews.