How to Get Google Reviews After Google+ Update

Google+ Redesign Leaves Business Owners Scrambling for Review Links

If you’re a business owner that’s highly engaged in your online marketing campaign, you’ve probably noticed Google’s design updates to Google+ (Google My Business). With the launch of the new design, Google also removed a few features, making review links virtually impossible to find.

A lot of business owners are left asking themselves a few (very important) questions: Is my local SEO campaign in jeopardy of losing SEO value? Will my local rankings drop? How do I get Google reviews after the Google+ update? Yes, Google reviews still exist, but finding review links to send to clients is much harder now.

Google+ New Look vs. Old Look

Before the redesign, logging in to Google+ means you probably saw something like this:

After the update, you’ll notice a much less crowded, sleeker Google+ page for your business:

To the naked eye there’s very little difference. But to SEOs, there’s a couple big changes…

Local Pages Are No Longer a Part of Google+

In the past, SEOs and online marketing companies have relied on Google+ for hard and steady ranking signals to improve local SEO rankings. A well-optimized Google+ page can improve how your company shows up on SERPs. Now, many of those features have been removed.

Removed Features After Google+ Design Update:

• About/Posts – Users visiting your company’s Google+ page can no longer toggle between your posts and About page. Instead, users must click the small “i” found in the bottom-right portion of your cover photo to view pertinent business information.
• Followers/Following – Feature removed by Google.
• Page views – Feature removed by Google.
• Cover photo dimensions – Feature changed by Google (new dimensions are 1084 x 609 pixels).
• Profile pictures – Feature removed by Google.
• *Reviews – Visitors are now unable to read Google reviews directly from your Google+ page. Additionally, visitors cannot leave Google reviews directly from your Google+ page.

According to Greg Gifford of Search Engine Land and other local SEO experts in the industry, these changes will have little to no impact on local SEO search results and business rankings.

How to Get New Google Review Links After Google+ Update

There are two ways to get new Google review links to send to your happy clients.

Get Google Review Links via Branded Search

To get a new Google review link after the Google+ update, simply do a branded search in Google. For us, this means Googling “Blue Corona.” For Bob’s Heating & Cooling, search “Bob’s Heating & Cooling.” For “Stan’s Painting,” search “Stan’s Painting.”

From there, you should see a sidebar on the search results page populated with your business information. Simply copy and send the link from your web browser and instruct your clients to click the “Write a review” button on the page:

Get Google Review Links via Review Link Generator

Grade.us, an online tool to get more business reviews, plugs into the Google API to get new links. To get a Google review link after the Google+ update, follow the steps below:

1. Go to the review link generator.
2. Type in your business name and postal code where prompted.
3. Click “Get Google Review Links” button.
4. Select your correct business location and click “Continue.”
5. Copy any and all review links you wish to send to clients, and voila, you have a new Google+ review link!

Recap

Business owners—don’t worry! Your Google+ reviews are still visible on the web and have not been removed. There are two ways to get new Google+ review links after the Google+ design update. Simply follow the directions above and resend those links to your happy customers!

In today’s digital economy, online reviews are just as important as ever before. From a consumer viewpoint, positive Google reviews and 5-star reviews across other directories builds adds trust and authority to your brand. From an SEO perspective, earning as many positive reviews can still have a positive effect on your business and improve your local search rankings.

Local SEO Experts

Founded in 2011, Blue Corona is a team of local SEO experts focused on helping small and micro-sized companies grow their business using the web. With more than a decade of combined SEO experience, our local SEO experts can help you improve your local search rankings on Google, Bing, and other major search engines.

Want a FREE SEO analysis of your website? Give us a call or fill out a form on the web to learn more!