The importance of Google Reviews for real estate agents

There’s no denying the internet has revolutionised home buying, selling, and letting. Homebuyers can view a property listing online or be given a virtual tour without entering the front door.

They can also access neighbourhood demographics, market trends, and a property timeline that shows a house’s date, year, and sold prices over time.

Similarly, sellers also benefit from the extensive reach of online listings, especially on market leader Rightmove, which receives an incredible 127.5 million monthly visits. This means their property can be seen by anyone worldwide. 

Virtual tours enable them to highlight their home’s best attributes to ensure a quick sale. Those who prefer to do their own viewings can even set up an online booking system that fits in with their schedule.

With the ability to research extensively online, potential buyers and sellers are more proactive and informed in their decisions than ever before. This also applies when choosing the best estate agent for buying or selling a property.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a traditional “bricks and mortar” estate agent located on the high street or an online agent. To attract and retain customers, you must focus on building a good online reputation.

One way to bolster your online credentials and boost your local search rankings is through encouraging, monitoring, and replying to all your Google reviews. 

Why do real estate agents need Google Reviews?

Efficiently managing Google Reviews is integral to a real estate agent’s online reputation. Potential home buyers and sellers looking for an agent can see the positive feedback about you on your Google Business Profile (GBP) and be persuaded to use your services. 

Google Reviews are highly influential in customers’ buying decisions. To determine if your estate agents could be the one for them, users will check your Google Review rating and what your past customers say about you. 

Estate agents can invest in digital campaigns, social ads, targeted email campaigns, and professional property photographers. However, you can’t buy brand reputation. In the digital space, this is built by promptly reading and responding to customer feedback, regardless of their experience. 

Google Reviews for real estate agents is one of the most powerful marketing channels for driving sales and demonstrating your credibility and expertise.

Use your online presence to create an attractive brand that’s customer-centric, transparent, and happy to embrace modern technology and buyer-seller trends. Continuously review your online reputation and take steps to make improvements. 

How to get reviews for real estate agents

Leveraging reviews doesn’t have to cost you anything, yet they are effective at creating public opinion (hopefully positive) and generating more leads. 

Let’s look at some simple strategies you can implement to encourage customers to leave reviews on your GBP.

Make sure you have an optimised Google Business Profile

A neglected GBP will put off customers from leaving reviews. If you don’t acknowledge feedback, they won’t see the point in giving up their time to reveal their experience. 

Assess every segment of your profile. From creating regular Google Posts to promoting open house events and uploading high-quality images of your agent’s outside properties you’ve successfully sold, you must make your GBP stand out.

This will afford your estate agent better search visibility on relevant queries by motivated buyers and sellers near you. Multi-branch estate agencies have a much more challenging task of optimising all their GBPs, but this can be achieved with an all-in-one data management tool.

Ask clients for reviews

If you’re already an established estate agent, you can make a start by asking your current and former clients for reviews. 

Eventually, landlords, home buyers, and sellers in your area will hear your name when looking for a reputable real estate agent. Google Reviews follow a similar pattern — they’re most effective when they accumulate over time.

Asking a customer to leave a Google Review is easier said than done. Many find it uncomfortable, but it doesn’t have to be. You can create a templated message to connect with former clients via email, but we recommend emailing them individually. 

Try jog their memory about specific details of the process where you excelled, such as the negotiation stages. This will encourage them to give an authentic, detailed, and keyword-rich response.

Let them know the benefit of reviews to your local business. Explain that they go a long way to building trust and are a transparent way to encourage potential clients to get in touch.

The best time to ask for a review is right after the house purchase or sale. If you’ve provided a good client experience at all points of contact, the customer should be more than happy to praise your hard work.

You can’t get away with only collecting the odd reviews here and there. Even though a 5-star rating praising your “professionalism” is satisfying, it won’t be enough. Google wants to display relevant and helpful results to customers looking for real estate agents, so you’ve got to put the groundwork in if you’re new to the industry. 

Likewise, if you’re an established multi-branch estate agency that’s completely overlooked its local SEO strategy, you need to look back through your records and connect with past clients (as well as existing ones).

Estate agent GBPs with positive, recent reviews will always win over those that don’t. Eventually, your wealth of reviews will date back months or years, indicating that you’re consistent and can be trusted.

This will push you to the zenith of local search results for important industry queries such as “real estate agents near me”.

Make it easy

When emailing clients, make it even easier for them to leave reviews for your real estate agents by including a Google Reviews link while you’re thanking them. This can often be enough to convince customers to provide you with substantial feedback. 

SMS messaging also gives you a direct line to customers. They can open the shortened link from their mobile device and begin crafting a review of their experience with your estate agent within minutes. 

Your goal is to lay the foundations for the customer, so all they need to worry about is filling in the details. 

Offer fun incentives

With the right incentive, estate agents can grow their review numbers in no time. This could be through a small gift card, mini hamper, or entry into a larger prize draw through your social media channels. 

Be careful what you offer, though, as the costs of incentives can add up quickly and burn a hole in your business account.

Remember that investing in reviews for your real estate agents is a long game. Pair this approach with some of the other tactics we’ve listed for a well-rounded strategy to ensure a constant stream of reviews without costing you the earth.

Incorporate in marketing materials

Marketing materials are vital for boosting your business’s visibility. They can also be an effective way to extract Google Reviews from your customer base. 

You can incorporate a QR code on your property brochures or SOLD house signs to direct clients to your review page. Alternatively, why not add a short, engaging video on how to leave a review to your Google Posts?

Other great marketing ploys for reviews are at local events or creating a real estate app for your business that clients can download and interact with. 

Respond to all reviews

Regularly monitor your reviews and be prepared to address them promptly, positively, and professionally. If any are negative, carefully evaluate the situation and find out what went awry so you can put it right.

Responding to all your reviews (positive and negative) sends the right message to prospective vendors and builds rapport with your target audience. It highlights that you’re prepared to engage with customers and show other users searching for estate agents what it’s like to do their property business through you.

Replying to reviews is a catalyst for obtaining more and a local SEO ranking factor. You’re also providing Google with new content it can use to index your pages better.

To maximise the SEO value of Google Reviews, estate agents should use keywords in their responses. Let’s use the search query “sale my house quickly” as an example, which received an average of 1,600 monthly searches. 

Users searching this term on Google are clearly looking for an agent to sell their property ASAP. If you can use these keywords in your review responses organically, Google will push your GBP up the rankings as a strong match to the searcher’s needs.

Similarly, review snippets highlight review-based content that mentions keywords matching the user’s content. This gives your company an easy-to-read starred review, usually positioned at the top of the SERPs.

Build processes

Whether it’s your property viewer, lettings manager, or mortgage adviser, your entire workforce must sing off the same property brochure if you want your firm to be hot property. Requesting reviews from your clients should be the norm, not an exception.

Train your team to keep tabs on their reviews and ensure you have a process in place for gathering reviews consistently, especially straight after a successful house let or move. 

Encourage internal feedback to optimise the process, and each team member feels confident in their ability to gather and generate positive ratings. You can always incentivise your team with a prize in return for hitting impressive review numbers.

Common challenges for real estate agents getting reviews

Client reluctance

Unlocking the review door for your clients isn’t always easy, even when you’ve wildly exceeded a client’s expectations. The happiest customers now relaxing in their dream home can sometimes be reluctant to post their real estate agent experience online. 

This could be because there is a weak social link between your real estate agency and the customer. For example, more than sending an email with a Google Reviews link is required to induce them to write a review. A personal ask could provide the breakthrough instead. 

Some customers will insist they simply don’t have the time to write a review. Be persistent (without being pushy) — sometimes, you need to ask more than once.

Don’t get despondent if one or two still refrain from leaving a review. As long as your local estate agent firm continues to provide a fantastic service, the reviews will keep totting up.

Technology barriers

Technology doesn’t always go according to plan. All it takes is a blurry QR code or the Google Review link you sent via text not to load, and that small window you’ve opened to draw in the customer has shut.

Not all generations and age groups welcome technology either, so it’s probably not worth chasing customers who have limited access to devices.

Negative reviews

Buying or selling a property is a long-winded, expensive process, which means real agents often catch a lot of flak. Delays, a lack of communication, an over-salesy approach, and dubious valuation tactics to maximise their commission are common complaints thrown at estate agents.

There are plenty of great estate agents are out there, but even they aren’t immune to negative reviews.

Yet negative reviews can positively affect your estate agency if you handle them correctly. Many online users are sceptical if they don’t see any negative reviews on an estate agent’s GBP, and their presence can actually build trust with your brand.

They show you’re not trying to hide anything and are collecting honest, genuine reviews.

You can also use negative feedback to improve your processes. Look for key themes and understand why some clients wouldn’t use your agency again after an evaluation so you can continue delivering the best experience possible.

How Mirador Local can help

Estate agents with multiple branches in different locations must keep all their GBPs updated to ensure a consistent online presence and brand representation.

Mirador Local enables you to manage all your GBPs from a single, easy-to-use dashboard, including responding to Google Reviews and updating your branch opening hours. 

Help potential buyers, sellers, and landlords gain confidence, so they can choose you as their local estate agent. If you need a new home to manage all your GBPs, get the keys to your dream local SEO tool today.