Everybody Needs 5 Star Google Review Links

Something I find myself doing over and over again is helping companies make it very easy for their customers to leave them 5 star reviews on Google. Yes, it is possible to tell your customers about a url like “ratemybiz.xyz” and for them to immediately be redirected to your Google listing with 5 stars pre-filled in… And with analytics on the traffic, as well!

How to Generate the Link

  1. Make sure you have Google My Business (GMB) set up.
  2. Head over to Google Places API to get the Place ID for your business.
    • If your business does not have a specific address that is shown in the maps (because you are a service area rather than a location), you’ll want to search for your business name and city in Google search. Make sure the query is specific enough so that your GMB listing appears. Click the “Write a Review” button. Click 5 stars. Copy the URL and skip to the goo.gl step.
  3. Add your place ID here: https://search.google.com/local/writereview?placeid=[YOUR-PLACE-ID]
  4. Paste the URL in your browser.
  5. Copy the new URL that appears. It will look like this: https://www.google.ca/search?q=Candid+Cosmedics,+4217+-+101+Sunset+Drive+Cochrane,+AB,+Cochrane,+AB+T4C0W7&ludocid=1154232191628519153#lrd=0x537140b111e4c5f9:0x1004a8101a56a6f1,3
  6. Add ,5 to the end of the URL.
  7. Copy your newly formatted giant URL string. Test it out.
  8. Head on over to goo.gl and paste in the URL. Goo.gl is a free URL shortener service that allows you to view analytics about who visits your short URLs.
  9. Generate a shortened URL.
  10. If you want to view the analytics for the URL, just append “.info” to the end of the URL.
  11. Share your unique short URL!

Taking it Further — Hook up a Vanity URL

In addition to all of this, you can buy extremely cheap vanity URLs that you can redirect to your goo.gl short URL. Something like “www.ratemybiz.xyz”. Buy the domain you want, and then directly in the DNS settings of your registrar, redirect the URL to your short URL.

Have Some Fun With It

What would happen if you asked your users to leave you a 5 star Google review? Think they would want to click it?