Have you been wanting to create an easy link for your customers to leave your business a Google review? Well, look no further, we’re going to explain it in just a few easy steps!
Getting reviews is important for businesses, especially Google reviews. But frequently your customers won’t be able to find where to do that, or how to look you up. That is what your Google My Business Knowledge Panel is for. This is where your customers can click on “write a review”. Of course they have to have a Google account to do that. If they don’t, they can create one from the page that the link brings them to.
If you want to make it easy for your customers to leave reviews, you can send them a link that takes them directly to the reviews window of your Google My Business listing. This way, you can be sure that they’re in the right place. But how do you get that review link? Well, Google has developed something called a “short name” to make it much easier to do that. They used to use a Place ID, which was cumbersome and complicated to retrieve.
To get your Short Name, you have to be a verified business. If you haven’t verified or “claimed” your Google My Business listing, here are some instructions directly from Google:
Claim your business listing through Google Maps:
- On your computer, open Google Maps.
- In the search bar, enter your business name.
- Click your business name making sure you choose the correct one.
- Click Claim this business. Manage now. …
- Select a verification option, and follow the on-screen steps.
Once you have claimed your business listing, you will get a card in the mail from Google with a verification code that you have to enter into your listing. If you are lucky enough to be offered a phone call to get the code, then you can instantly verify your listing. But most people will only be offered the postcard option.
Once it is verified, you can create your short name. From a desktop computer, log in by going to business.google.com, and go to the “info” link on the left. Scroll down to just below the phone number. If someone in your organization has created a Short Name already, it will appear there, if not, simply click the “add short name” link and create one! You can make it whatever you want, provided that the name isn’t already taken. Google will probably give you some suggestions.
Instructions on how to get your Google short name on an Android phone:
- On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google My Business app.
- Tap Profile Add profile short name.
- Enter your short name. You can enter up to 32 characters.
- If your name isn’t available, you’ll receive an error message and have to choose a different name. Try abbreviating your name or adding other descriptions, like your location. You can also pick another word that describes your business or brand.
- Tap Save. Your short name will show as pending, and when it’s ready, it’ll show on your Business Profile.
What is the exact URL to use with your Short Name? Here it is: g.page/[your shortname]. This will take customers directly to your Google Listing. If you want to take it a step further and get them to the review window, just add “/review” after it. So it will look like this: g.page/[your shortname]/review. There you go!
Now you can email or text your customized short name URL to your customers to get more Google reviews.