A Real Life Example of The Process I Went Through to Choose a Solicitor
You don’t have to be first in Google to win business. You don’t even have to be the cheapest. If you have reasonable Google reviews, you can steal business right from under your competitors’ noses. And those reviews may enable you to charge more than your competitors. I only asked one firm for a quote so price was not the deciding factor.
The pictures below really tell the story on their own but here’s a little bit of background by way of introduction. Google reviews are becoming so important that business owners who ignore them do so at their peril. I chose Neale Turk Rochfort solicitors who I found in 4th place in Google’s local business search results. Only three businesses appear (see screenshot below) in Google’s local pack on page one of Google’s main web search results. The one I chose was not visible anywhere on page one until I clicked on the “More places” link just underneath the map in the local pack. The reasons I chose Neale Turk Rochfort are principally threefold. Firstly, they had a good Google review. Secondly, their receptionist (hat tip to Elizabeth) was helpful, friendly and courteous. Thirdly, all the other solicitors in the top ten of the local business results had bad reviews, no reviews or didn’t offer the service I needed. I discounted one due to a bad experience about 10 years ago. Although some bad reviews may be inevitable at some stage, there’s nothing worse you can do as a business owner than to ignore them. That sends a message to the reviewer that you don’t care and they’re not important. Ignoring them is really adding insult to injury. Click on the images to enlarge them.
1st Place in Google’s Local Business Results
2nd Place in Google’s Local Business Results
3rd Place in Google’s Local Business Results
4th Place in Google’s Local Business Results
Reviews can work for business owners as well as consumers but they have to be managed. I always have reviews in the back of my mind when working for my clients. I work hard to try and do a great job so that they will be delighted with the service and hopefully be only too pleased to leave a review. Once you have a few reviews, if you get a bad one, your average review score is still going to be ok. If you have only one review and it’s bad, your average score looks terrible. Reviews are just a way of life now and those who embrace them can use them to their advantage and those who ignore them are likely to find their competitors overtaking them.
Reviews not only instil confidence but they help with your local rankings and you only need five Google reviews before yellow stars automatically appear against your listing in Google’s local pack. Here are all our own Google reviews which we have chosen to replicate on our website.
I will leave a review for Neale Turk Rochman shortly. Let’s hope it can be a good one!
[Update, 14th October: I just left a five star review for NTR].
I am also working with Osbornes Solicitors (www.osbornes.net) at the moment, a mid-sized firm in Camden, London. At time of writing, they have 19 Google reviews against their main business website. They understand the value of reviews and manage them to their advantage. We are working for their cycle injury lawyers department on their younger microsite specialising in cycling injury claims.
If you want to know more about Local SEO, you might be interested in reading our other pages on this specialty area of SEO – What is Local SEO? and Local SEO Services.
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Related reading:
Local Consumer Review Survey 2016 by BrightLocal
Impact of Reviews and Ratings on Search Click-Through Rates by BrightLocal
