Almost every business owner knows that he/she needs testimonials from real customers. While businesses can take advantage of both Yelp and Google Reviews, very few businesses understand the importance of comparing the two platforms before taking a pick.
When it comes to comparing Yelp vs. Google reviews, one thing generally stands out: Google Reviews are much better. Unlike Yelp Reviews, Google Reviews are easier for your customers to leave, are more visible, have less competition, create more impact, and offer your business more opportunities. If you’re not taking advantage of Google’s review system, you’re missing out on a valuable opportunity to reach new customers and build your business. Google has the biggest search engine market share and its reviews are prominently displayed on business listings.
In this detailed Yelp vs Google Reviews comparison guide, we will help you better understand why your tree service business needs to focus more on Google Reviews. Read on to figure out why more businesses are using Google Reviews.
Yelp vs Google Reviews: Why You Should Focus on Google Reviews
1. Google Allows You to Ask for Testimonials
On its official policy, Yelp indicates that businesses are not allowed to ask for testimonials from customers. Yelp argues that businesses will not ask for testimonials unless they know the customer will leave a 5-star review.
Google’s official policy, however, allows businesses to request their customers for reviews. Google does not just allow you to request reviews—the platform also makes the process much easier by giving you a link you can use to get the reviews.
2. Google Reviews Help with Local SEO
Local SEO is extremely vital for companies in the tree service industry. When someone searches for a tree trimming or tree pruning and he/she is in your area of operation, a properly executed tree service local SEO will help your company come up first in the search results.
Google Reviews play a key role in Local SEO Lead Generation. Some of the local SEO ranking factors that revolve around Google Reviews include:
- Average weekly Google reviews
- The number of reviews your business has gotten in the last year
- Average reviews that mention the city you want to rank in
- Total number of Google reviews
- Number of reviews that mention a target keyword
Google uses reviews as a ranking factor because they offer one of the most effective ways of gauging customer satisfaction. If 200 people indicate your business offers 5-star tree services, Google considers this a sign of satisfaction and will show your Google My Business page to customers interested in the services you offer.
Yelp Reviews, on the other hand, do not directly impact your SEO rankings. This means that you could have a large number of testimonials on your Yelp page and your tree service business may still not show up when potential customers perform local searches.
3. Google Reviews Generate Calls and Clicks
An important factor to consider when comparing Yelp vs. Google reviews is the impact that the testimonials have on the potential customers. The testimonials left on Google generally generate calls and clicks even if your business is not ranked first.
When customers perform a local search and notice that your business has a large number of reviews with an average 4.5-star rating, the chances of them calling your business are extremely high. This suggests that having positive Google reviews from customers is an ideal way for your business to earn calls and clicks even if your custom-designed tree service website is not ranked #1 on the Google results page.
Yelp reviews are rarely displayed the same way Google Reviews are. This means that you could have a large number of 5-star reviews on Yelp and interested customers may not know your business is the best at what it does.
4. Google Reviews Do Not Get Filtered Like Yelp Reviews
One thing about Yelp vs Google Reviews is that Yelp is known for filtering out testimonials. If you leave a review on Yelp for a tree service business, the likelihood of you seeing that review again is very low. Yelp loves to filter reviews that it thinks are not real, legitimate, or honest. While this may look like a good thing, Yelp is not always right.
Google, on the other hand, does not remove a lot of testimonials. This means that when you are using Google to collect your reviews, you do not have to worry about getting a large number of reviews at once. Taking advantage of Google allows you to keep your happy customers and testimonials.
5. Yelp Features a Lot of Trust Issues
The issue of trust is a major concern for people comparing Yelp vs Google reviews. It is not hard to come across discussions about:
- People who often create fake Yelp testimonials to get paid
- People paying Yelp to remove bad reviews
What’s more, a lot of customers often complain about abusive Yelp staff, the Yelp review filter, and a troubled business model. This means that the Yelp review issues are much more public.
In the long run, the trust issues expressed about the Yelp Reviews suggest that Google Reviews may carry more weight than a testimonial on Yelp in the future. For this reason, when focusing on long-term tree service marketing, sticking with Google Reviews could be more beneficial for your business.
6. Anyone Can Leave a Review from Any of Their Google Accounts
One more thing to consider when thinking about Yelp vs Google Reviews is the ease of use and accessibility to customers. For someone to leave a review on Yelp, he/she will need a yelp account. What’s more, he/she will need a few friends and testimonials to keep the new review from getting filtered.
Meanwhile, on Google, anyone with a Google account can leave a testimonial for your tree service business. This indicates that anyone who has ever watched a video on YouTube or accessed their emails on Gmail is good to go.
7. Lower Competition on Google
According to the Yelp Factsheet, more than 244 million reviews had been left as of December 31st, 2021. For a long time, Yelp was the place to go to research small businesses. For this reason, a lot of companies worked hard to get more reviews.
The reviews on Google are much lower. What’s more, even big players in the tree service industry may still have lesser reviews than a recently established tree service company. This suggests that your chances of beating big businesses on Google Reviews are much higher compared to when you decide to use Yelp.
