Use Keywords in Google Review Responses to Increase Local SEO

So if you’ve read my other blogs or watched my videos then you’ve probably noticed I talk about Google My Business a lot. Why is that? Well, it’s a free and amazing marketing resource for small business owners. It takes 30 minutes to setup and complete.

Here’s another article and video talking about optimizing google my business. To setup your GMB you’ll need to create a GMB account at business.google.com. They will mail you a postcard to verify the account and addresss. From there make suree to spend the next few days adding as much information as possible before you start marketing the account and collecting Google reviews.

• Name, Address, Phone Number (NAP)
• Categories and description
• Hours, Special hours, opening date, amenities, etc
• Products and Services
• Logos, Pictures, Banner, Video, and 360 Google Tour

Once you’ve fully setup and built out your account then you need to think about marketing it and getting more exposure. These things really help get you more traffic and exposure, but I think reviews statistically help more than anything.

• Add pictures, posts, products and service
• Add citations, directories and backlinks
• Add NAP and G Maps on your website
• Start getting 5-star Google reviews

Getting reviews is the hard part that you shouldnt cheat or game. Here is a video and article I wrote about getting 5-star reviews on Google for free. This covers 5 steps and strategies to get good reviews. You can also get reviews on Yelp, Facebook, Bing, and more …. but Google is definitely most important.

• Ask every customer
• Offer incentives
• Add links to your emails
• Add links in follow up checkouts or receipts
• Provide great work or services

Once you get reviews you then need to start responding to them. Let me explain….

Google reviews are massively important. Not only are legit reviews the # 1 ranking factor, they also (obviously) help potential customers make informed decisions. When buyers see a small or local business with tons of good reviews they then tend to trust the accuracy and credibility of that business more —- And honestly, it’s been the key driver of my successful 7-figure retail company, Phone Repair Philly.

Momentum has almost 100 5-star reviews on Google, but we have been around 6 years, and so has PRP. My shops have 4 locations and roughly 2000 5-star reviews. So how did we get more reviews? Simple, but not easy. We asked EVERY SINGLE Customer for at least the first year to leave us a 5-star review. This is hard to remember and implement but easy to understand. After every repair we might have asked about their experience and if they were happy to write a nice review and we’d throw in a screen protector ;).

So make sure to provide great products or services and go out of your way to follow up with customers asking for feedback and explain to them how it will really help your business grow!

This might seem weird, or maybe it makes perfect sense …. but YOU MUST respond to every customer that wrong you a review on Google (or anywhere really). No matter if the review was good or bad, you should respond to the person acknowledging their experience and offer them a kind response.

For good reviews you should really thank them for their patronage and for leaving you a review, and maybe mention something you remember about their experience.

For BAD reviews I’d suggest acknowledging their experience and apologizing they had a bad experience. Maybe ask how you can make it better or improve what you’re business could be doing instead. Never get rude or defensive or respond negatively.

Last but not least … when responding to reviews, Use Keywords in Google Review Responses to help increase your SEO efforts. When you use keyword contextual content in the review OR the review response, Google will pick up on it.

Google is essentially using bots to check keywords on all pages and content to see what people are saying and writing about you. If Google notices customers are making review statements about certain products or services then it must be important enough to have stood out, so they will show other potential customers maybe looking for the same or similar experience.

Google simply wants to know who you are, what you offer, and how you can help and relate to what customers are looking for online.

For example, when I get a customer review for Phone Repair Philly about a Samsung Galaxy screen repair, then I need to acknowledge and respond to that specific mention. Then Google will pick up on what the customer said and also the same keywords and more SEO-friendly keywords in my response.

Take a look at this and try to replicate me in your next review responses!

Customer: “Great phone repair s20”

My response: “Thanks for fixing your Samsung S20 with Phone Repair Philly Temple”

I even included our business name and location in the response. Check the screenshots to the right or below.