Get Positive Reviews For Your Church
After claiming your Google Business Page and filling in your profile information, you will want to get POSITIVE Reviews on your Google Page from people in your church. Of course, you will take positive reviews from whoever you can get them from, but people in your church are the best place to start.
You have to be careful with this because people can leave anything they want on the page – positive or negative. This is not the place to send your disgruntled people or those who are on their way OUT of your church.
Do NOT say to someone who is leaving your church… “Hey, let us know what we could have done differently. Leave a Review on our Google Business Page!” You will regret it.
Plus, YOU cannot remove other people’s reviews. If someone leaves a negative review about your church, you can complain to Google. But most likely they will do NOTHING about it.
The best way to overcome and combat a negative review is to BURY IT with more POSITIVE Reviews.
So, consistently directing people in your church who are happy to leave reviews is a great strategy. The two best places to direct people to leave Positive Reviews are your Google Business and Facebook Pages.
One word of advice. You need to let people know that leaving a ONE STAR review does NOT mean they are saying your church is #1. People do this all the time and they make your church and themselves look ridiculous.
“Leave a 5 STAR Review” would be the best instruction you could give unless these sites change how they do reviews.
How can you encourage people to leave Positive Reviews?
- Put an explanation and links in your Bulletin
- Ask for Positive Reviews on your Social Media feeds
- Place links and instructions in an all church Email
- Create a print piece to hand out and set out around the church asking for Positive Reviews
The more positive reviews the better. Not only does Google like it and potentially place you higher in the search engines, but it also helps potential new visitors to your church make their decision about whether to visit or not.
When a person sees that real people like your church and care enough to leave a great review, this may give them the motivation and encouragement they need to come to church.
When you ask people in your church to leave Positive Reviews, you are actually asking them to do a very basic form of ministry and evangelism. You never know what difference that review could make in the life of someone searching for a church.
Something to consider about your Google Page Reviews.
When sending people to review your Google Business page it is easier to direct them to use the Google Maps mobile App rather than linking to the actual Google Business page.
Since people have to have a Google account to leave a review it is easier because they have already logged in if they are using the app. Plus, on the app they just scroll down to the “Rate & Review” Section and they can easily leave a 5 Star Review.