Here are some ways to get more reviews for your business. These are my personal experiences as a review website “superuser” and others are just common sense. Your feedback is welcome. No 1-star ratings please. Visit our website and learn more about How to earn positive reviews.

Participate on the most popular review sites.

Review sites don’t all have the same quality. Make sure to look for review sites that allow you to remove fake reviews and provide tools to business owners for responding to reviews. Activate your account to optimize your listing. It’s free. You will be notified when reviews are added and traffic reports about how many people visited your business page each week by claiming your listing.

You should be proactive in all aspects of your reviews.

Your reviewers should be thanked for their positive and negative feedback in a prompt manner. Yelp.com allows business owners to reply publicly or privately to reviews. A personal message can be a great way for you to thank a reviewer. This shows that you are paying attention as a business owner. You should not be rude or defensive. I have seen this backfire when a reviewer posted the rude reply of the business owner with an updated (and more negative) review. You can see my post on how to respond to negative reviews.

Make the most of special offers on your listing page.

Yelp and other review sites allow businesses to post offers on the listing page. These users are more likely to be active reviewers, so you can direct your offer towards the top online “influencers”.

Link to review websites on your site.

Include your site logo in all social media links.

Promote your presence on review sites.

Add a link to your e-newsletter and include it in advertising and social media. You can blog about reviews and link back directly to the page. You shouldn’t allow a few bad reviews to make you want run and hide. You already have a loyal customer base that thinks highly of you. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be doing business.