Google Reviews can make or break the success of marketing campaigns for contractors

August 14, 2017 - By Aaron Hockel

Reviews are not all created equal

Love it or hate it, online reviews about your contracting business are here to stay. While all online reviews matter, they are not all created equal. Google Reviews are some of the most important for contractors, because of the way people use Google and the way Google uses reviews. Here are 4 important ways Google Reviews are impacting your residential contracting business:

Visible on all searches for your name

If Google is the modern phonebook, every time someone goes to look up your phone number by searching your business by name, your Google reviews are visible. Think about a word of mouth referral, that goes to find your phone number using Google. Less than stellar reviews could give them second thoughts about calling your business, or even worse, not call at all. Here's an example of how reviews appear when someone searches for our company by name on Google:    

Can make or break other marketing efforts

In the scenario above, a word of mouth referral uses Google to find your contracting business's phone number. But think about all the other ways you market your services? It is a very natural course of action to use Google to find a business after seeing or hearing about them in other places. Wrapped vehicles, yard signs, hard mailers, radio or tv ads, billboards, etc. can all steer people to finding your business information on Google.

Determine your local SEO rank

Google uses reviews about contracting businesses to determine where they show up in local search results. This includes overall rating, total quantity of reviews, dates of reviews, and the content inside reviews. If your business is not consistently adding positive reviews to Google, it will negatively impact your local SEO rankings.

Influence eligibility for Google Home Services

One of the newest opportunities for residential contractors to drive leads from Google is Google Home Services. These are special ads that require vetting from Google and they use reviews as one of the key criteria in determining whether or not your business becomes a Google Guaranteed contractor. This program is rapidly expanding, so do not let your reviews hurt your chances of being eligible. Need more help generating online reviews? Here are 4 ways contractors can generate more positive online reviews, or you can contact the marketing team at AltaVista. They will provide a free analysis of your current Google reviews and a detailed plan for how to drive more reviews. Set up a free consultation by sending them an email or calling them at 800-313-2168.