Complete Guide to Google Merchant Center | Everything Your Business Needs To Know

With the competition becoming fiercer every day, Google reviews have become more important for e-commerce and brick-and-mortar businesses. With almost 65% of all inline users turning to Google as their preferred search engine, Google has become the larger source of online reviews. With online reviews becoming necessary for any business, let's dive into how Google Customer Reviews work.

What Is Google Customer Reviews

Google Customer Reviews is a free online service owned and run by Google. It allows business owners to collect data from a customer who has purchased from you. Based on the data collected directly from your customers, reviews are aggregated and displayed across Google as a star ranking. A company's Google Customer Ranking helps users recognize which businesses are reputable.

To start receiving online reviews on Google, a business must first set up a Google Merchant account. After that, Google will do most of the heavy lifting by collecting customer feedback for you.

Having an established review site on Google Reviews is a tried and true way to prove to new prospects that they can trust your business to deliver to proper expectations.

How Do Google Customer Reviews Work?

Depending on how your site is set up and if you have an e-commerce or brick-and-mortar, a customer may receive an email directly from Google asking them to leave feedback about their experience with you.

So how does this program work? The good news is that it is much simpler than you think. Getting a customer review is broken down into three simple steps:

#1) Google Customer Reviews Opt-In

After a customer buys something from you, Google will send them an email asking them to complete a survey about their experience buying from your business. This email is usually sent to the customer when they expect to receive the purchased item.

#2) Completing The Survey

Those customers who have decided to opt-in are directed to a simple online survey consisting of a 1-5 star ranking system. There is also an additional feature that allows customers to leave a comment about why they gave that star ranking.

#3) Ranking

Once Google has collected the data, they will aggregate all of the rankings into data for your business that will be displayed on both organic and paid search results. This collected data will be available for you to look at on your Google Merchant Account.

This ranking data is an extortion type that automatically reveals higher-ranking advertisements. The data will be used to help customers find and qualify the most trustworthy businesses.

How To Set Up Google Customer Reviews

Sign in to your Merchant Center account (or sign up if you do not have an account).
Select “Merchant Center programs” from the dropdown in the upper right-hand corner.
Click “Get Started” in the Google Customer Reviews card and accept the Program Agreement.
Add the survey opt-in code to your website.
Add the badge code to your site wherever you want. This will make the badge appear on your site, allowing you to display your seller rating online and show customers that you’re integrated with Google Customer Reviews.

How Are Google Customer Reviews Different Than Google Product Ranking?

Although both services are offered directly by Google, the main difference between Google Customer Reviews and Google Product Ranking is that product rankings do not reflect your business as a whole. Instead, they focus on one product and how happy or unhappy customers are.

On the flip side, Customer Reviews are a ranking of your customer's overall experience with your brand and will consider the product ranking data to determine your ranking.

To make it simple, product ranking helps customers select a quality product, while customer reviews will tell customers who is a reputable business and who is not.

What Are The Benefits of Google Customer Reviews?

It Is A Free Service

Unlike other ranking collecting programs, Google Customer Reviews is free to the customer and the business. Unlike other services that charge a heavy premium to collect review data. Google Reviews provide a way for many e-commerce businesses to show starts on their advertisements and or products that otherwise they could not afford to show.

Contributes To Your Google Seller Ranking

All the feedback generated through your customer reviews is counted towards your Google Seller Ranking. These are the stars that show below your business on Google Ads. Usually, you would have to pay for a feature like this, but with Google, it is entirely free.

Not only does having a high ranking on Google boost conversion rates, but it dramatically increases a business's trustworthiness to other buyers. As a direct result, you could see your PPC spending reduce by as much as 17%!

Google Shopping

Not only does customer feedback help with building trustworthiness for your business as a whole, but also individual products. Along with Google Seller Ratings, if you set up your Google Customer Reviews to ask for specific product feedback, the collected feedback will count towards your product ratings. This feedback will appear in paid and organic search results, including Google Shopping.

This will lead to increased conversions and an overall boost in online traffic.

Google Customer Reviews Website Badge

The Google Customer Review badge is a great visual way to help shoppers identify your site with Google. Although the feedback that you get from Google reviews will not automatically display on your website without doing a custom code, you can enable a badge that will show you your overall score. In addition, it will be displayed in the form of an overall star ranking.

How To Enable Google Customer Reviews in your Google Merchant Center account

Log into your Merchant Center account.
Make sure your Merchant Center account is verified and claimed.
In the page menu on the left, click Growth.
Click Manage programs.
Go to the Customer Reviews card.
Click Enable to sign up.

What To Do If You Receive A Negative Review

If you have a business, you know that getting a negative review now and then is inevitable. There will always be a customer out there who will never be satisfied with their experience, no matter what you do.

When it comes to dealing with a negative review, the first thing you always want to do is respond to the review. Never let a negative review sit unanswered for a long period of time. If left untouched for too long, this could cause customers to draw unnecessary conclusions about your business. Make sure to personalize your response based on what the customer is referring to. If at all possible, you want to try and turn a negative review into a positive one.

Please see our complete guide for a step-by-step guide on responding to customer reviews.

Having An Issue With Negative Reviews?

PeerDive is a popular online directory created exclusively for businesses to leave and view reviews on individuals before offering their products and or services. Peer Dive was created to help local businesses and their communities make the most informed decision on who they want to do business with.