Online Reviews heavily influence consumer decision making and they have an impact on your community’s local search rankings. By making the effort to increase your quantity of online reviews, your senior care community can improve ratings, strengthen reputation, and get a better idea of what people think about your community.

If your business wants to take advantage of those opportunities to gain more reviews for your community, make sure you are doing so in a way that’s in line with Google’s guidelines. Below we’ve outlined the ways in which you can get in trouble with sites like Google and Yelp so you can avoid any issues.

Here’s What Not To Do:

Offer Contests/Incentivizing

In order to receive more positive reviews, businesses sometimes offer incentives or contests to reward people for leaving their business an online review. Some businesses try offering a product discount for a review or maybe an entry into a prize drawing — some just straight up offer cash or gift certificates. In the past, incentivizing reviews has been a grey area for many online review sites, but today it’s becoming increasingly clear that doing so is a violation that can ultimately hurt your business.

While it is crucial to do everything you can to get more reviews, it’s just as important to work within the guidelines of each review site to keep your business out of trouble. It is in fact against Google’s guidelines to offer any money, products or services to write reviews for a business. If/when you get caught, Google will act to remove all of those new reviews.

Suggest Review Swaps

This is basically an example of quid pro quo — you leave a review for me, and I’ll leave a review for you. Google’s Terms of Service say, “your content should reflect your genuine experience at the location and should not be posted just to manipulate a place’s ratings.” Review swaps are a direct violation of these guidelines because the review doesn’t reflect the user’s genuine experience and it was posted in order to manipulate the ratings.

Ask Friends/Family (or Employees)

It’s a violation of Google’s guidelines to ask a family member or friend to leave a review for your community just to improve your overall rating. Believe it or not, Google has the technology to understand what’s a real review and what’s just been left there to help improve ratings. When it’s discovered, the reviews will be removed and the person’s account might be shut down.

Not only is this a violation of most review sites terms of service, but it also looks bad. Customers want to know how your business is currently doing with the aid of detailed reviews based on other residents or their loved one’s previous experiences. They likely won’t trust a simple 5 stars with no explanation.

Here’s What You Can Do

So how can your community bring in more reviews without violating any guidelines? It all starts with your staff. As simple as this may sound, providing the best possible experience for residents and their loved ones is absolutely key. So is recognizing that satisfaction. In the senior care industry, it’s unlikely that one of your residents will go leave a review. Instead, it will be their family members or caregivers. It’s up to you and your staff to recognize when someone is having a good experience and ask them to leave a review.

Using Goldn’s review generation platform, you can make it even easier for them to leave a review by sending them a text message with easy-access links to various review sites. Contact Goldn today to learn more about this innovative platform so you can start getting more reviews for your community — the right way!

Call (888) 482-6691 to speak with a member of our team or click here to learn more.