Online reviews have become so popular that many brands and businesses now actively seek out online reviewers to get their products and services reviewed. They do this because online reviews are by far the most influential metric when it comes to showing potential customers what a brand is like.
It’s why Google has put so much effort into its search algorithms, why all top hotels and restaurants have a website, and even why Airbnb hosts display pictures of their properties on websites before they list them as places to stay. Because of this, businesses of all sizes are looking for ways to get their products or services reviewed more effectively. And while there isn’t one best way to do that, there are some key elements you should look for when scouting review platforms.
Conduct Your Own Research Before Hiring
While it’s important to make sure you get an online review platform up and running, you also want to make sure that you conduct your own research. This is because there are a lot of review sites out there with bad practices, untrustworthy reviewers, and bad user interfaces. That’s why you want to make sure that you do some research before hiring a platform. Go to Google and type in “review site reviews” and see what comes up in the search results. You want to make sure that you’re hiring an online review platform that is popular, has good reviews, and that is easy to use and navigate.
Things to Consider in an Online Review Platform
Who the Reviews Are From
Just because a business has a review on a review site doesn’t mean you should trust it. You want to make sure that the people reviewing your business are actually customers who have engaged with it. If they’re writing the review on behalf of a brand, they aren’t actually reviewing it, they’re just using it to get their own product or service reviewed. You want to make sure that the people who are writing reviews on your platform are customers who have a genuine recommendations for your business.
Urgency
You’ll also want to look for review sites with high levels of urgency. While it’s great to get reviews from customers who have been in touch with your business, you want to make sure that they’re customers who are willing and able to write reviews immediately. That’s because you only have a certain amount of time to get reviews on a review platform. You want to make sure that the review site you’re using offers high levels of urgency so that you can get those reviews posted quickly.
Mobility
You’ll want to make sure that the review site you’re using is mobile-friendly. This is because you want to make sure that customers can easily submit reviews on your platform from their phones. And while you can use your website to get reviews on review platforms, you want to make sure that your customers who want to write reviews can easily submit them from their phones. That’s because, just like other types of online reviews, mobile reviews are by far the most influential.
Compatibility
You’ll also want to make sure that the review site you choose is compatible with your brand. This is because you want to make sure that customers are comfortable submitting reviews from your platform. For example, if you’re a restaurant, you want to make sure that customers are comfortable submitting reviews on a food website. That way, you know that the reviews people submit on your platform will have a place on your website.
What You’ll Need Once You’ve Decided on a Review Platform
Create an Account
Once you’ve found a review site, the first thing you need to do is sign up for an account. This is because you’ll want to make sure that you’re logged into the review site when you want to start writing reviews. It’s also important to make sure that you select a username and password that are both easy to remember and that you can easily find online. You don’t want to have to worry about forgetting your password every time you want to go on a review site.
Decide Which Reviews You’re Going to Display
Once you’ve signed into the review site, you need to start deciding which online reviews you’re going to display. Before you start writing reviews, you need to decide which reviews you’re going to display on the review site. This is because you want to make sure that you’re only displaying reviews that are from customers who want to write a review for your business. You can do this by making a list of all of the businesses you want to go to and making a note of how many reviews you need to get. Once you’ve done that, you can start browsing review sites and filtering them to only show reviews that are from your list.
Hire a Professional Service Provider for More Expertise
While it’s important to make sure you do your research and find a review platform with high levels of legitimacy, you also want to make sure that you hire a professional service provider. This is because you want to make sure that your review platform is performing well and that people are being satisfied with the reviews they’re getting. That’s why you want to hire a professional service provider. They’ll be able to do a deep dive on the review sites they’re hiring and make sure they’re performing well and that people are happy with the reviews they’re getting.
Bottom Line
If you want to get online reviews on review sites, you want to make sure that you’re only posting reviews from customers who want to write reviews for your business. You can do this by making a list of all of the businesses you want to go to and making a note of how many reviews you need to get. Once you’ve done that, you can start browsing review sites and filtering them to show reviews from only your list.
