From Ratings to Revenue: How Remodelers Can Win Big with Google Reviews

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When potential clients are looking to hire a contractor for their home remodel, word-of-mouth referrals are some of the most valued. Yet some potential clients won’t have someone in their area who’s recently done a major remodel. In these instances, Google reviews for remodelers can have just as much value.

How Google Reviews Impact Your Ranking and Reputation

Google reviews are vital to your online reputation management. They help you build trust with your target audience, showing that your remodeling company is legitimate and one that stands behind its work. Yet they do more than just bolster your reputation.

If you utilize Google reviews well, they can become a vital part of your remodeling company’s online marketing strategy. That’s because Google values reviews as part of their local SEO algorithms. A company with a large number of quality reviews will rank better than one that lacks these, so you can boost your ranking more quickly if you learn how to leverage your reviews.

Specifically, when Google chooses businesses to rank well, it considers three review factors. These are:

• Total number of reviews – More is better
• Review score – As close to five stars as possible
• High-quality reviews – The higher the quality of a positive review, the better it serves your ranking

Because they impact both your reputation and your ranking, you can’t afford to ignore Google reviews for remodeling companies. If you’re hoping to gain more leads and business while also improving your local SEO results, then you need to learn to leverage your Google reviews for better rankings. Here’s how you can.

Ensure Your Google Business Profile Is Ready

Before you can get and leverage reviews, you must have some. This starts with an effective Google Business Profile. Ensure that your profile is ready and has the correct name, address, and phone number so you can start collecting reviews. Then, go through Google’s verification process to become verified. Finally, optimize your profile by adding keywords to your description and placing photos of past remodeling jobs on it.

Ask for Reviews

Once your profile is ready, you need to get reviews. On your profile, you will find a shareable link that goes directly to your Google reviews page. Use this link when you contact current and past clients, and ask for a review. Add the link to your website, any live chatting features you offer online, email messages, and SMS messages. You can also create a QR code that directs to your reviews using that link, which you can add to your messaging as well. Whenever possible, as for reviews in person or over the phone when you have a human connection, but don’t shy away from adding links to digital communication, too.

Once you have your link, start asking for reviews. Here are some messages contractors can use to effectively request a review after a remodeling job:

• Rate your experience!
• Your reviews matter!
• Let us know how we did!
• Tell us what you loved about your remodel!
• Are you a past customer? We’d love for you to leave us a review!
• Would you mind sharing what you said today on Google?

Use these scripts any time you interact with a client, but especially if they say they are happy with the services you provide. Positive Google reviews for remodeling companies are the most valuable.

Once the reviews are in place, they will instantly start helping your remodeling SEO efforts. The more reviews you receive, and the higher the star number, the more likely it is that you’ll be chosen for the Google local map pack, which is the most coveted local SEO spot.

Time Your Review Request

While you can ask for reviews on most communication, timing the review request can mean the difference between success and failure in gathering them. Good times to ask for reviews for remodeling work include:

• After a successful final walk-through
• When sending a customer survey
• On the final invoice email
• When the customer calls with positive feedback

Timing your review requests to reach those who have just finished a job is helpful, as these customers are the most motivated to leave a review, provided your work was satisfactory.

Respond to Reviews

Once you have them, it’s time to get busy utilizing Google reviews. Start by responding to all reviews, including good and bad ones. Thank the reviewers for taking the time to provide feedback and respond in a professional manner. In those responses, use some of your remodeling SEO keywords, but naturally, to help boost your ranking.

If you have a review from an unhappy customer, outline what you did or will do to make their concern right. Even if the customer’s complaint is not valid, you can show your professionalism by showing what you did to try to improve the situation. Also, still thank the customer for taking the time to leave a review. Being thankful helps people see your brand as professional and courteous.

Unfortunately, when you open yourself up for reviews, you will have some negative reviews from people just looking to hurt your business. These may not even be from customers, which can be frustrating. For reviews that are unfounded, report them to Google. For example, if someone has never done business with your company and leaves a one-star review with no context, it may be a bot or a competitor. If Google agrees that the review is fake, it may be removed. You can also respond to the review, indicating they are not a client or customer in your response, so others who find it will ignore the review.

Look for Keywords in Reviews

Your reviews can be a good source of keywords, especially long-tail keywords, as you create content to improve your rankings. Read the reviews and see how the customers describe your remodeling services. Pull keywords from that to use for other online content. If people use that terminology to review your services, then other clients will likely use it to search for what you offer.

Remember, the most effective keywords for SEO are the ones people actually type into the search bar. While keyword research is helpful and should be part of your local SEO strategy, finding keywords in content that comes from actual clients is far more effective at reaching people organically. Consider keeping a list of potential keywords gained from reviews and other sources that you can tap when it’s time to create content.

Create Content Using Your Reviews

Your reviews don’t have to just live on Google. You can use plugins to embed them on your website. You can share them on social media as posts. Both of these allow you to leverage Google reviews for remodeling companies to improve rankings on the search engines. Sharing your reviews on other platforms also helps with your online reputation management. It serves as social proof that you are an excellent, valid company to do business with.

In addition to using the reviews themselves as content, you can use the reviews to generate content ideas. If you’re noticing certain questions or concerns coming through on your reviews, or if a particular remodeling service seems highly popular, then create content around those topics. You can create FAQ pages to address questions, videos for social media to show how you’re exceeding customer expectations, or blog posts highlighting a particularly popular service.

Streamline Google Review Management with Surefire Local

One of the challenges of leveraging Google reviews as part of your local SEO strategy is the time it takes to manage them. You have to add another task, logging into Google and checking and responding to reviews, to your marketing checklist. Surefire Local makes this part of the job easier by putting all of your reviews and related marketing tools in one place.

With Surefire Local’s comprehensive marketing platform for remodeling and other small businesses, you can log into one platform and see reviews, respond to them, and leverage them for other marketing efforts. You can connect your review link to your blog, website, and social media, quickly grab reviews to create content, and easily respond to reviews, all from one place. You will be able to more effectively leverage Google reviews while saving time and freeing you to spend that time serving your remodeling customers well.

If you’re interested in seeing how Surefire Local can streamline your review marketing efforts, make plans to attend a demo and see the process for yourself.