We have talked about in great depth about why getting and managing online reviews is critical. However, actually getting the review has always been the difficult part.

The Lastet Reviews Update

Up until now, leaving a review for a company on Google was always the must difficult as it required the user not only to have a Google+ account but also to be signed in. Often times, this required extra caused many customers to give up and move on to other things!

As first reported by Conrad O’Connell having a Google+ account is not longer required. Now customers only need to enter is their First and Last name as well as log into their Google account.

Here is a quick look at what the new process looks like:

Once signed in the user will be able to leave a review for the business by using the same process as before.

What This Means

While this might seem like a small change it is going to have large effects for any local business. As with anything online, customers attention spans are very short – and more steps that get in the way the more likely they are give up and move on. Because this change makes it much easier to leave reviews we expect to potentially see more and more customers leaving Google reviews for service companies in the near future.

If you are not currently managing your online reviews for your business this is now a perfect time to start. Local SEO is an ever changing game and we believe that this is just the start of Google making changes to increase the importance of reviews for local businesses.

If you have questions on this change or how to manage your online reviews give us a call and we can help you out.