How Better Google Reviews Can Help Customers Find Your Business
“Great company!”
“Highly recommend!”
“Awesome team. Five stars!”
There’s nothing wrong with any of these reviews. They’re positive, they’re quick to write, and they’re certainly better than no review at all.
But if you’re a business owner hoping your Google reviews will help potential customers decide whether they want to work with you, short reviews with no real substance aren’t doing you any favors.
The problem with these reviews isn’t that they’re too short; it’s that they don’t tell us anything.
What did your company do? What was the customer looking for? What was it like to work with you? What problem did you solve? That’s the information that makes a review useful to prospective customers and to your business.
Keep in mind that reviews aren’t read only by people. Detailed reviews can also give Google more context about what your business does and provide AI-powered search tools with more information as they decide which businesses to recommend.
So, what makes a review useful in the first place? It comes down to giving the reader a little more than a five-star rating and a few nice words.
What Makes a Google Review Useful?
A useful review gives a reader enough information to picture the customer’s experience.
It doesn’t need to be long, it doesn’t need to sound polished, and it definitely doesn’t need to read like marketing content. In fact, a review that sounds like a real person describing what happened is much more convincing.
Generally, the most useful reviews include:
- What the customer needed help with
- What service they used
- What it was like to work with the business
- What results or improvements they saw
- What stood out
- Whether they would recommend the business
You don’t need every point above to appear in every review. Even two or three of these details can make a big difference.
5 Ways To Write the Perfect Google Review
1. Mention The Business By Name
It may sound obvious, but it’s worth mentioning. Start by telling people who you worked with.
Rather than starting with “They did a great job,” use the business’s name naturally in the first sentence. For example:
“We had a great experience working with Iceberg Web Design on our new website.”
Now the reader immediately knows who the review is about. It also gives Google and other search tools a little more context about which business the review is referring to.
You don’t need to repeat the business name throughout the review. Once or twice is plenty. The goal is to make it clear who provided the service.
And if the business serves a particular industry or location, mentioning that naturally can add even more useful context.
“Iceberg Web Design helped our Minneapolis construction company redesign our website.”
Is much more informative than
“Great team! Really happy with the work.”
2. Describe The Problem You Were Looking To Solve
Before you hired the business, you had a reason to look for help. Whatever the reason, explain it. For example:
“Our old website was difficult to update and wasn’t generating many leads, so we were looking for a new site that would be easier and more effective.’’
This gives the reader some context for everything that follows. More importantly, it helps target potential customers who may be dealing with the same problem.
If someone is frustrated with their own outdated website and comes across a review from another business that had the same issue, they’re much more likely to reach out.
You don’t need to go into the full backstory. One or two sentences explaining what wasn’t working and what you hoped to improve is enough.
3. Name The Services You Used
Once you’ve explained what you needed, tell the reader what the business did for you.
If you hired a web design company, mention whether they redesigned your website, built a new site, helped with SEO, developed an eCommerce store, or provided ongoing support.
For example:
“Iceberg redesigned our WordPress website and helped us improve its content and structure.”
Is more useful than
“They helped us with our website.”
Specific services also make it easier for prospective customers to work out whether the review is relevant to them. Someone looking for a WordPress developer can quickly see that the reviewer had a WordPress project. Someone looking for an SEO agency can look for reviews that actually mention SEO.
4. Share Results or What Stood Out
Now get to the part prospective customers really want to know: what happened after you hired them?
If you saw a measurable result, share it. Maybe the new website brought in more leads. Maybe organic traffic increased. Maybe your site became faster. Maybe your team can make updates more easily than before.
Numbers are great if you have them. For example,
“Since launching the new website, we’ve seen a 40% increase in organic traffic.”
But not every result has to be a number.
Sometimes what stands out most is the experience itself. Was the team responsive? Did they communicate clearly? Did they make a complicated process easy to understand? Did they go above and beyond when something unexpected came up?
For example:
“The team was responsive throughout the project and explained everything clearly, so we always knew what was happening and what we needed to do next.”
That information is useful, too.
If you can include both a result and something about the experience, even better:
“The new site has brought in more leads, and the whole process was much easier than we expected. The team was responsive, organised, and always happy to answer our questions.”
The key is to explain what made the experience good, rather than simply saying it was good.
5. Explicitly State Whether You Would Recommend The Business
You’ve explained what you needed, how the business helped, and how the experience went. Now there’s one simple thing left to answer:
Would you recommend them? If the answer is yes, then say it:
“We’d highly recommend Iceberg to other businesses looking for a new website.”
You can also explain why:
“We’d highly recommend Iceberg to other businesses looking for a web design team that’s responsive, knowledgeable, and easy to work with.”
It might seem obvious that a five-star review means you’d recommend the business, but saying it directly makes the review much stronger.
For someone comparing several businesses, an explicit recommendation can be the final bit of reassurance they need to make a decision. And if you can tie the recommendation back to your experience, that’s even better:
“If you’re looking for a web design team that will take the time to understand your business, we’d definitely recommend Iceberg.”
That gives the review a natural ending and leaves the reader with a clear takeaway.
What Does a Great Google Review Look Like?
By now, you might be wondering what a great Google review looks like when all of this advice is put together. Here’s an example:
“We worked with Iceberg Web Design to redesign our WordPress website. Our old site was difficult to update and wasn’t generating as many leads as we’d hoped, so we needed something more modern and user-friendly. The Iceberg team was responsive throughout the project and explained everything clearly. Since launching the new site, we’ve seen more leads through our contact form, and it’s much easier for our team to make updates ourselves. We’d highly recommend Iceberg to other businesses looking for web design and development.”
It’s not a particularly long review, but it gives a prospective customer a lot to work with.
How Do Specific Reviews Support Your Business in AI Search Results?
Reviews aren’t just useful for potential customers. They can also help AI-powered search tools understand what your business does and who you serve.
For example, “Great company!” doesn’t give an AI tool much information. A review that mentions the service, industry, location, or result gives it much more context.
So when a customer naturally mentions something specific, that information can help reinforce what your business is known for.
You don’t need to give customers keywords to include. Just encourage them to be specific about what they needed, what you did, and how it helped.
How To Ask Your Customer for a Google Review
Once you’ve delivered a good experience, don’t be afraid to ask for a review. Most happy customers are willing to leave one; they just might not think to do it unless you ask.
Keep the request simple. Let them know where you’d like them to leave the review, thank them for working with you, and give them a few prompts if they’re not sure what to write. For example:
Hi [First Name],
It was a pleasure working with you. If you’ve been happy with your experience, we’d really appreciate it if you could take a couple of minutes to leave us a Google review.
If you’re not sure what to include, you could mention what you were looking to solve, what you worked with us on, how the experience was, or any results you’ve seen.
Thanks again!
[Name]
Don’t make the request overly formal, and don’t tell customers exactly what you want them to say. The value of a review comes from hearing about a real experience in the customer’s own words.
A few specific details can turn “Great service!” into something much more useful for the next person considering your business. Mentioning the problem, the service, the experience, the result, or simply why they’d recommend you gives prospective customers something they can actually use when making a decision.
It also gives Google and AI-powered search tools more context about your business and the work you do.
So, when you ask for your next review, don’t just ask for five stars; ask your customers to tell the story behind those stars.
Need Help Managing Your Online Reviews?
If you’re a business owner and need help keeping track of your online reviews, Iceberg provides review management as an accompaniment to our digital marketing services! Our team can respond to positive reviews on your behalf and alert you when a negative review needs attention. Drop us a message to learn more or give us a call at 763-350-8762; we are Website Developers Who Answer the Phone!®
