All companies must control their Online Reputationwhether or not they have a website. We will never tire of saying it, even if your local business is small and you don't have a website, surely someone has mentioned you on the net.

You just have to take the test, Search for your brand or company on Google. Surely the first comments and opinions we see will be those made by users in Google My Business reviews.

What is Google My Business?

Google My Business is a free and easy-to-use tool for companies to manage their online presence through Google, including the Google search engine and Google Maps.

Having control of your business on Google My Business is paramount, not just for manage the Online Reputation of your business, but because it is also a very important point to consider for the positioning of your company.

On more than one occasion, we have seen businesses that are on Google My Business but that don't have an owner. This is a very common mistake, especially among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Let's imagine for a moment that your business is on Google My Business, but you don't have control, How will you manage negative reviews? How will you optimize all the information? Luckily, there's a link where you can request ownership of the site. But to be in control and be the administrator, you'll need to verify the site.

How do I verify my location on Google My Business?

You must create or claim a Google My Business listing to begin the verification process. Depending on the type of business, you can verify your listing using one of the following methods: through a postcard, by phone or by email.

Benefits of using Google My Business

Managing your information:

You can manage the information that users will see on Google when they search for your company or the products and services you offer. Verified companies are twice as likely to be trusted by users. Users who find your company on Google and Google Maps will be able to learn more about your business, such as your website, business hours, address, etc.

View statistics:

You can learn how customers searched for you and where they come from. You can also view information on how many people have called you directly using the number that appears in the local search results in Search and in Maps.

Engage with customers:

This is one of the sections you'll need to pay more attention to. You can read and respond to customer reviews. You can also include images of your business. Companies that add photos to their listings receive 42% more requests for directions on Google Maps and 35% more clicks on their websites that don't.

SEO positioning:

A business with all the fields of the completed forms, images of the business, and with answers to their reviews, will be better positioned than another business that does not carry out these practices.

The importance of Google My Business Reviews

They provide very valuable information for your company and responding to them can help you: gain the trust of customers. When responding to a review, your response will appear below the customer's review in Google Search and Maps, under the label “Response from the owner”. Google users will see both the customer review and your response when they review your business reviews on Google.

It's vitally important Reply to reviewsand above all, the negative ones. A business that responds to negative complaints is a business that cares about its online reputation, but even more so about its customers.

Reviews are very important to the Local SEO positioning, the more positive reviews we have, the better positioned we will be, which will lead to more clicks to our page.

How can we get more reviews?

• Include the address of the local page in news emails, email signatures, business cards, etc.
• Google My Business can be promoted on the business website (it can be a double-edged sword, if the service is not perceived as positive, we will achieve the opposite).
• Reserve a prominent space on your website to give visibility to reviews with links to Google My Business reviews.
• Invite customers to review on Google My Business when they make a purchase or use your services at your establishment.

How to manage negative comments or reviews on Google My Business?

Often, we find managers or marketing managers who don't want to have negative reviews on the Internet and want to eliminate them.

First of all, for Minimize negative reviews on your Google My Business page, we want to highlight a point that is vital for any company, we have to offer a good customer experience in our business. This is the basis for not having complaints.

If we have negative reviews, we must ask ourselves if those complaints are true, or are they false. If the complaints are true and the customer has had a bad experience, the first thing we should do is apologize and manage the complaint, show that we care about our customers and offer solutions.

It is true that on many occasions we can find false complaints, users who have never been to our place and make complaints just to damage the company's image. These are perhaps the most difficult to detect and manage. But let's not forget that Google reviews are not anonymous, we can see the name of the person making the comment.

How can we minimize the impact of negative reviews on our Google My Business page?

As we have already mentioned, the first thing is to offer a good customer experience. If we have a lot of negative reviews on our Google My Business page, there are several practices, which can help us minimize the impact.

A company's employees, customers, suppliers and collaborators can write positive reviews. For example: I have been working in this company for 3 months and I am very happy with the way it works, I recommend this company because... etc.

Can we remove negative reviews from Google My Business?

In principle You can't delete negative reviews, but we can mark as inappropriate those that violate Google's review policies.

In short, in order to avoid negative complaints, we must always offer a good customer experience, and to keep current customers satisfied, attract new customers and turn a disgruntled customer into a prescriber, it is essential to manage and respond to all the reviews received on our Google My Business listing. In addition, this management will help us to improve our local positioning.

If you still have any questions or want more information about Google My Business, or you want us to review your website, don't hesitate to get in touch contact us. We will be happy to advise and help you.