How to Get Customers to use Keywords in Your Reviews

Have you ever read a review that said something along the lines of “Service was good, I’d go back”? Reviews like this don’t really provide any useful information to prospects, which is what people are looking for when reading reviews. Ideally, all reviews should be highly specific and provide answers to some of the most common questions consumers might have.

If done correctly, reviews can be utilized as a helpful SEO tool when they have keywords in them. By having certain keywords in your reviews, they can act as an additional SEO tool and help you rank higher in search results.

But since you can’t write reviews on behalf of your customers—or directly tell them what to write—how do you make sure they use the keywords you want?

In this blog post, we’ll be discussing how you can get customers to use keywords in your reviews by asking the right questions, as well as giving some examples of what questions could get the results you want.

We’ve discussed timeand time againhow consumers often don’t think to write a review if they aren’t asked to do so. So, if you want to get more reviews from your customers, you need to start by asking them for reviews.

The easiest way to do this is via email, which is unobtrusive and makes it easy for consumers to click on a link that takes them directly to the place you want them to leave a review. We’ve developed our own Review Builder servicethat generates these emails and sends them automatically, driving our clients’ customers to all the websites they want reviews to appear on, including Google, Facebook, Yelp, Angie’s List, Houzz and more. However, this is something you can also do yourself with an email marketing campaign.

The key to getting what you want out of a review is how you ask. By asking customers for specific details, you’ll give them an idea of what they can write about. It also gives them inspiration on how to start their review and what to talk about if they get stuck.

Ask them questions that focus on the areas that will include the keywords you’re targeting. If the keyword you’re going after is the name of a service, such as “kitchen remodeling” or “window cleaning,” be sure to ask customers what service they received. This will immediately prompt them to provide some sort of detail that mentions the name of the specific service they received.

When you ask a simple yes/no question, it’s hard to get an extensive response, much less one that has specific keywords in it.

Instead of asking “ were you satisfied with your service? ”, try asking “ what was your favorite part of the experience? ”. This guides the customer into elaborating on your service, which will likely add a few keywords in there. Plus, lengthy reviews that provide detail are found to be more useful by other users than short reviews that give little to no helpful information.

If you’re having a hard time figuring out what questions to ask to prompt the response you want, here are a few examples of questions to consider including in your email:

• What specific service did hire us for?
  
• What were the best parts about working with us?
  
• Have you had this service done by another company? If so, how did we compare?
  
• What location did you go to?
  
• Would you recommend us to a friend?
  

Notice how these questions force the customer to include product or service names, as well as a possible location name. These are important keywords that will greatly help SEO efforts for your website, and give future customers a comprehensive idea of what it’s like to work with you.

Reviews are already a great tool for your business, but when you can guarantee specific keywords are used in them, you’ll experience even more benefits from each review.