As an accountant or CPA, you know how important it is to deliver great results to your customers and make them happy. When customers are happy, they tend to speak positively about your business and spread the word about your services. Despite how pleased they are with your services, sometimes even your happiest customers need a nudge so that they will leave a positive review of your company online on Google.
You have a full plate of tasks already, so getting reviews might not be at the top of your to-do list. However, when you don’t invest in a strategy to garner new reviews and keep your Google reviews updated, it can have serious negative repercussions on your brand. In this article, we’ll help you understand why Google reviews matter and give you some pointers on how they can increase conversions and bring you more customers.
Why Are Google Reviews Important?
Google reviews may not seem like a big deal, but the truth is that they have a very important role in your business marketing. People use reviews to help them learn about a company and determine whether or not they should visit it. Even if your website is polished, your team does great work, and your branding is on point, if you don’t have good reviews, you won’t get business. Plain and simple.
Google reviews can be gathered in a few different ways. You can directly ask your customers to leave a review if they were pleased with their services or if they have been long-time clients of your accounting firm. You can also make it easy for people to leave reviews with links on your website and social media pages that take them directly to Google reviews. Incentives can also work, with the promise of a discount or free nominal service if a client leaves a review on Google for your business.
8 Ways Google Reviews for Accountants Increase Conversions
One of the biggest benefits of Google reviews is the increased conversions it can bring to your accounting firm. When customers look at a large number of positive reviews for your business, it increases the odds of them clicking on a link, visiting your website, or requesting a call with your team. Here are a few of the ways in which Google reviews for accountants are able to improve your conversion metrics.
1. Google Reviews Build Trust
Every company spends money on marketing saying that they are the best and provide the greatest services with the most important experts on staff. However, because every company says this, customers have learned to take this kind of talk with a grain of salt. A Google review, on the other hand, is from a source that isn’t paid for. It’s the honest opinion of someone who has had direct interactions with a brand.
Reviews build trust because they show readers that real people have enjoyed your services and liked being a customer of your brand. It gives a very real look into what you do well, or even not so well in the case of a moderate or negative review. No matter what the review is, it lets a potential customer understand what others think of your brand in a very direct and honest way.
2. Google Reviews Support Digital Marketing
Word of mouth is a powerful form of marketing that is hard to generate. It needs to come organically from people who have genuinely enjoyed working with your brand and tell other people about it. Google reviews help support this kind of marketing and convert more readers into customers just by leaving positive reviews.
Almost every customer will look at reviews before going to purchase from a company or setting up an appointment with a business. They want to know what other people think. This means that Google reviews have a major impact on the success of your marketing strategies and, when utilized correctly, can be a powerful conversion tool to convince leads to become customers.
3. Google Reviews are Part of Audience Searches
Searchers on Google don’t stumble upon reviews by accident. They seek them out intentionally. There are even Google searches for “business name reviews” or “reviews of business name in my area”. These types of searches are important keywords to capture so that you can display your honest reviews.
Customers want to know what others think about your business. In order to meet their needs and make sure they get what they are looking for, you should try to cultivate as many reviews as you can. That way, when a customer looks for your reviews, they have a long list of positive ones to go through.
4. Google Reviews Help with Local SEO
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is an important factor of digital marketing. It’s the practices put in place to help your business rank higher on Google search results pages and show up at the top of search results. The complexity of the Google algorithm means that SEO is an ongoing process that constantly changes or has new developments.
Your Google reviews factor into your SEO strategies. Brands that have more reviews from reliable sources tend to rank higher on Google. These companies have more authority and trust, and the Google algorithm recognizes that. And, the more regularly you get reviews, the better that will appear to the algorithm bots that scan and index pages and websites.
5. Google Reviews Increase Click-Through Rates
You can almost think of Google reviews as the first milestone in the process of turning a lead into a customer. Once a customer has established that your business has positive reviews, then they are ready to move on to the next step of their journey and move towards a conversion to a customer. Google reviews play an important role in the decision process.
When a customer can see that your company has positive reviews from different customers and that they are recent and relevant to their needs, they are more likely to click on a link to your website or social media pages. This click-through rate can also be improved with the use of keywords in your reviews. If you aren’t getting enough relevant keywords in the reviews customers leave, make sure to mention them in your replies.
6. Google Reviews Rule Over Search Engine Results Pages
When a customer searches for a business in their area, the top results are filled with Google My Business listings and reviews of those businesses. You want to make sure that your pages fit right in with your competitors and appear when someone searches your company name. Local listings play a huge role in what links get clicked on the search results page, so you need to make sure your reviews are visible.
Customers also use reviews when searching for businesses on Google Maps. When people look for an accounting firm in your local area, and your business listing shows up, they won’t be as trusting of your services if there aren’t any reviews attached to the pop-up.
7. Google Reviews Work as Customer Surveys
Sometimes getting honest customer feedback can feel like pulling teeth. It can be hard to get customers to respond to a customer feedback survey, which takes time and can feel unrewarding. If you want honest customer feedback, one of the best places to look is in your reviews and in the comments people are leaving on Google.
If you notice trends of your customers saying the same thing, like poor communication or poor customer service, you know which areas of your business might need improvement. You can also use customer reviews as a place to respond to customers, answer their questions, address their concerns, and thank them for leaving their reviews in the first place.
8. Google Reviews Help You Edge Out the Competition
Local accounting firms are in stiff competition. Your reviews can be a great way to edge out any potential competitors and prove that you provide the best services and deliver the best results for customers. If you have more positive reviews than other accounting firms in the area, it might mean that more customers will come your way with their business.
You can also look at the reviews on your competitors’ sites to see what they are doing well and where you might beat them out. This type of competitor research gives you the honest opinions of their customers and can help you learn what your differentiator is.
Schedule a Demo of Our Business Intelligence Marketing Software
At Surefire Local, we understand how important it is to have the right marketing platform by your side. Our business intelligence marketing platform helps you manage your Google reviews in one location, and helps you gather more reviews from your customer base. To learn more about Surefire Local, get a demo of our platform, and learn all the ways in which we can help you grow your business.