Why Online Review Generation Is Essential For Contractors

These days, an estimated one in ten American workers is a contractor. Working as a contractor comes with unique challenges, and they must be flexible throughout their work day.

In order to maintain a steady income and grow your client base as a contractor, you need a strong online presence. This includes modern web design and updated SEO practices, but it also includes something that many contracting businesses overlook: strong online reviews.

Review generation can be tricky to navigate. Previous clients may not think about leaving a review, even if they're happy with your work. How can you get your review numbers up, and why does it matter?

Read on to learn about the benefits of reviews for contractors and how to get your previous clients to leave reviews in the right places.

The Importance of Reviews for Your Contracting Business

As a contractor, you have a full plate and may not want to add another step to your to-do list. However, while increasing review generation does take work, that effort will pay off more than you know. Let's take a look at the importance of reviews for anyone who is running a contracting business.

Reviews Establish Credibility

Using anything to help build credibility is important for your contracting business. Beating out competitors for a job is essential to your business, so let’s use your reviews to build credibility around your business. Reviews are influential when it comes to getting new customers. People want to see what others think about a business and its services.

A steady stream of recent reviews can do wonders for your credibility. Many potential clients want to know what to expect before they sign on, and reviews give them more than just your word to go off of. 

Reviews Boost SEO Performance

Boosting your search engine ranking isn't just about a fast website or the right keywords in the right places. These things are important, but without reviews, you may still fall short of the search engine ranking you deserve.

Reviews boost Google rankings, in particular, because they tend to reduce your website bounce rate and increase industry-specific organic keyword usage. Plus, if you take the time to respond to your reviews, Google sees that as high engagement levels, which is also an important component of SEO.

Example of An Increasing SEO Report

Reviews Enable You to Improve

Reviews make your business more credible and more visible, but they also provide an important opportunity for you. They give you an opportunity to see what your clients think about your skills, services, and overall performance.

Some contractors shy away from review generation because they fear negative reviews. However, poor reviews give you insight into where you stand to improve. It's better to know your weak spots and address them than to ignore them and continue making the same mistakes. 

Reviews Increase Profits

The bottom line is that reviews increase profits. In fact, one major study found that reviews can increase a business's sales by up to 270%.

The best part? You don't need five-star reviews across the board to see a difference. In fact, that same study found that potential customers and clients had a tendency to respond better to businesses that had a few three or four-star reviews in the mix because that variation made all of the reviews feel more believable. 

How to Increase Review Generation

Now that you know the "why," let's talk about the "how." As we've said already, review generation does take some effort. With these steps, you can simplify the process and sidestep the time-consuming trial-and-error process. 

Consider the Best Place for Your Online Reviews

Any online review stands to improve your business, but you're better off consolidating your reviews in one place when possible. That way, potential clients don't have to go scouring review sites to track down one review at a time.

You know your contracting business better than anyone, which means that you know best which review site is going to help you most. However, we're here to recommend that you focus on Google Reviews. Google Reviews has become the most popular review site and has the greatest impact on your SEO for Google. 

Create an Easy Pathway to Leave Reviews

Before you start asking for reviews, make sure that it's easy for clients to leave them. You can create a page on your website that will take clients to your review site of choice or include a link to it in an email. 

The goal is to make it as easy as possible for clients to leave reviews. Generally, people don't mind taking a few minutes to write out their thoughts. However, they do mind having to do all of the heavy lifting themselves, and if leaving a review involves too many steps, they may abandon the process before completion. An easy way to cut down the number of steps is to use a QR code for the customer to leave is a review. A QR code is a one-of-a-kind, scannable image that takes the user right to a website that is linked to this code. Once scanned, this QR code will take the customer straight to a review page. This is an easy and effective way to get and leave reviews.

Ask for Reviews ASAP

While it may seem pushy to ask for a review the day your contracting work is complete, you should move quickly. The longer you wait to ask, the less likely your client is to do it. Asking within one day of completing the project ensures that you're appealing to the client when their emotional response (good or bad) is still high.

Outsource Your Review Generation

You know now that review generation is important. But you may not have the time or energy to take care of it yourself. That's where we come in.

Outsourcing your digital marketing is a great way to stay relevant and maintain a high search engine ranking without distracting you from your clients, services, and day-to-day operations.

AltaVista Is Here to Boost Your Contracting Business

If you own or work for a contracting company and want to grow, generating online reviews for your business is critical. Increasing review generation can seem like a daunting task, but the reward is worth the effort.

Are you looking to grow your business with online review generation? We can help. Contact us to find out more about our services and how to partner with us.

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