Must-know online review sites

Every successful company depends on reviews. Brick-and-mortar retailers and local companies in particular have to rely on the digital word-of-mouth in order to gain visibility and awareness in the large pool of competitors, to direct purchase decisions to their advantage and to build long-term customer trust .

What used to be recommendations from friends or family are in today’s digital world online reviews which people turn to for advice on buying decisions.

As a local retailer, restaurant owner or service provider, how do I decide which platform is best for me and my company? Are there any that are specific to my industry?

While no company needs to limit itself to just one review website, not all have to be targeted for every industry. Instead, use the ones that suit the services you offer and your target audience the best. An insurance broker will not be very popular on TripAdvisor, whereas Google, for example, can be used regardless of any industry.

The most popular review sites to collect more customer reviews

Here are the most important B2C review platforms that you should know at a glance:

Google Business Profile: Probably the best-known industry-independent rating platform is Google My Business. As soon as you have created an account for your company there, customers can assign stars to your business and write reviews directly on Google. These are displayed in the search results and in parallel in Google Maps and, if used correctly, can also improve the visibility of the company in the search engine. The big advantage lies in the SEO relevance, i.e. the more pictures and meaningful texts you share and the more (positive) reviews you receive, the higher your company will be listed in the search results. Since 88% of the people which do a local search on their smartphone visit a business within a week Google is particularly important for local businesses.

Facebook: The social network does not actually offer a star rating, but users can recommend or not recommend companies with their own Facebook page in a short text. These ratings are then prominently visible on the company’s page. This function can also be deactivated by the company but should be used for obvious reasons. After all, Facebook is still the most popular social media platform and is for almost 60% of all companies the most important social media platform besides Instagram and LinkedIn.

Yelp: The website provides guests of restaurants, bars and delivery services the opportunity to leave a review. According to its own information, Yelp has around 100 million visitors a month from 30 countries uploading around 24.000 photos a day. The structure of the portal is very similar to the one of Google Maps thanks to the location entries for each gastronomy establishment. Would you like to register your café? There is probably already a corresponding entry here, as Yelp gets its data from other websites and lists the companies independently. As the owner of the business, you can take over and revise the entry.

Foursquare: Once known as the number one for local social engagement by collecting lots of reviews on local businesses, the platform has focused on providing location intelligence in recent years. The aim is to help bars, restaurants and clubs reaching local consumers. The linking of social media profiles or menu details provides users useful insider tips.

TripAdvisor: On this platform, users can rate touristic and cultural offers such as hotels, restaurants, attractions, event agencies and transportation. Often users also share their own photos on the platform. With around 460 million monthly visitors, TripAdvisor is the largest travel portal in the world.

Bewertet.de: The fee-based website specializes in service companies. Are you looking for a tax advisor or would you like to have your floor renovated? The website offers the option of searching for industries and postcodes and based on the entries, recommends the companies with the best ratings. Companies must register for a fee and can then ask customers to assign up to five stars.

Trusted Shops: Do you run an online shop in addition to your local shop? Then Trusted Shop is an important website for you, as it has blossomed into a pioneer in the evaluation of online shops in recent years. Companies decide for themselves how and where they want to incorporate customer opinions. The Trusted Shops certificate and the company’s star rating can often be seen in online shops. As an official partner of Google, the ratings are also shown in the search results.
Jameda: Doctors, naturopaths, psychologists and other people working in the health sector are rated here by patients according to the school grade principle. Around five million users have already written more than two million reviews per month. The website offers patients online appointment bookings in medical practices. Even video consultations were introduced during the corona pandemic.

“Whether you’re running a local retail shop or restaurant or any other service business, customer reviews can help increase your credibility with buyers and attract new prospects. There’s no reason to limit yourself to just one or two review sites, either so explore multiple options and decide which platforms are right for your business and target audience.” Markus Demirci, founder and CEO of mPocket.

You don’t know which review site is the right one for you or how you can encourage your customers to leave a review? Maybe you are already one step further and don’t know how to answer that many reviews?

With our mPocket app you create a direct connection between your customers and your local business. The app helps you to increase your customer frequency and your sales per customer by sending review requests with just one click or directly in the store. It will be easier for your customers to write reviews about your business, which helps you to achieve a better ranking and more visibility online and thus also offline. On average, our customers receive 40% more reviews with mPocket than before.

* For reasons of better legibility, the simultaneous use of male and female language forms is dispensed with. However, all descriptions apply to all gender types.

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