You may have noticed that Google has a built-in review system – both for businesses as a whole and individual products through Google Shopping.
These are amazing opportunities to improve first-time conversion rates and build trust amongst your target market.
It’s a great, free, tool for creating social proof on the world’s biggest search engine. But, how do you get started?
Today, we’re going to go over a quick guide on how to turn on Google Reviews, also known as Google Seller Ratings, for your business.
Where Are Google Reviews Pulled From?
Before we get started, it’s important to consider where Google actually pulls its reviews from. According to them, they use these three sources:
- Google Customer Reviews: A free program that collects post-purchase reviews on behalf of merchants.
- Aggregated performance metrics from Google-led shopping research.
- Shopping reviews for your store domain, which include reviews from various third-party sources and users of Google Search.
The method we’ll be covering is setting up Google Customer Reviews – which is the easiest way to get started with aggregating reviews for your business.
How to Set Up Google Customer Reviews
Setting up Google Customer Reviews is relatively simple – but it can take some time for the reviews to start rolling in.
To get started, follow the following steps:
- Create a Google Merchant Center account if you don’t have one already, and sign in.
- Make sure your Merchant Center account is both verified and claimed.
- On the left-hand navigation, click “Growth” and then click “Manage Programs”.
- Find the card that says “Customer Reviews” and click “Enable” at the bottom of that card.
- Follow these instructions to integrate Google Customer Reviews into the checkout page of your website.
- You’re all set! Once you have a sufficient number of reviews, you’ll qualify for a badge showing off your status and you’ll be able to show your rating in your Google ads.
How to Turn Off Google Customer Reviews
If, for whatever reason, you need to turn off your Google Customer Reviews (for instance if you’re being review bombed) here’s how you do that:
- Log into your Google Ads account and click “Ads & Extensions”
- Click Automated Extensions under the “Ads & Extensions” menu
- Open the right-hand menu and click “Advanced Options”
- Under advanced options, click “Turn Off Specific Automated Extensions”
- Select the seller rating extension
- Enter your reason for wanting to turn off the extension, and click “Turn Off”
This will disable these reviews from showing up alongside your Google ads – but remember to also remove any badges you installed on your site if those are also going to be a problem.
Conclusion – Why You Should Turn on Google Reviews for Your Business
Google reviews are an amazing, free, tool for creating trust with first-time buyers. This is a pervasive and huge issue in the e-commerce world – and business owners should take every advantage they can get.
If you enjoyed this article or found it helpful, check out more e-commerce marketing content on the inSyte blog or listen to the inSyte Podcast.
This article was brought to you by Syte.
We’re a specialist e-commerce and lead generation digital marketing agency dedicated to driving up your bottom line.
If you need any help running your business’ Google ads strategy effectively, feel free to reach out with the form below or check out our case studies page to see what we’ve been able to do for our clients.
