How to Get Great Google Reviews Without A Google+ Account !

how to get google review without a google + account

Asking people to do things is a chore! Especially when it comes to getting local business reviews. In this post I’m going to show you the easiest tip for getting legitimate Google Places reviews. Local business reviews can have a huge impact when someone decides to choose you over a competitor. But, Google doesn’t exactly make it easy on us to ask for them. There are a number of barriers:

  • Ok, you’ve found a happy customer who’s got a Gmail account! Great!! But wait, now you’ve got to ask them to sign up for a Google+ account. Ugh, did you hear the sigh?
  • It’s impossible to leave a review through a computer without creating a Google+ account (this rules out a majority of users) and makes conversion for your review requests very low! Sure, Google+ is a thriving community, but go as far as your average bus driver, nurse or retired person and I’ll bet they’re probably using Facebook instead, if not nothing at all!

Google+ Local Reviews - The Easy Way!

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The other day on my way to pick-up some delicious schnitzel, I happened upon a way to leave Google+ Local review WITHOUT a Google+ account!

To verify this I enlisted the help of someone who I know HAS NEVER CREATED a Google+ account: my mom.

All the reviewer needs is any type of Google account. It could be Gmail, YouTube, Google Play, Google Drive, a generic Google account (that uses your own email address), etc.

Without sounding like an infomercial: what if I told you that you can get people to write you a Google+ Local review in under 1 minute! It is possible and the key is the Google Maps App for iPhone and Android!

This technique is so awesome because you’ve automatically covered 100% of Android users and a very healthy number of iOS users who’ve downloaded Google Maps (Remember when iOS 6 replaced Google Maps and how unhappy people were? Most people downloaded the official Google Maps app without hesitation. As of late 2012 Google Maps has been downloaded 10 million times for iOS (this number has inevitably continued to climb).

Without any further ado… how to get a ton of Google Places reviews…

Leave a Google+ Local / Places Review in Less Than 1 Minute!

 

Ways to Get Great Google Reviews Without A Google+ Account

The Google Maps app is standard on Android Phones and can be found on most iPhones. Let’s open up the app and have a little look-see.

Let’s start by searching for a place or business… in this case Cafe Polonez. – Estimated time 10 seconds.

Google Reviews Without A Google+ Account

Now, select your search result. Are you getting Excited, you should be! It’s going to be so easy for your happy customers to leave a review! – Estimated time 5 seconds.

tips to get Google Reviews without a Google+ Account

Ahh, there it is! Now let’s scroll down a little bit… RATE AND REVIEW! (most people don’t realize it, but they’re already signed-in to Google Maps (all it takes is a Gmail or other Google account)! – Estimated time 10 seconds.

guide to get Google Reviews without a Google+ Account

Ok, you’re 25 seconds in and we’re already writing the review!

Now simply make a star rating and then you’ll be given the full option to comment. – Estimated time 34 seconds.

hacks to get great Google Reviews without a Google+ Account

Just click Publish and you’re done! – Estimated time 1 second!

There you have it, my mom just left a local business review without having to create a enter in your birthday and all that fun stuff associated with having a Google+ account which would otherwise be useless to her. Oh, and did I mention she did this in under 1 minute!

Think about this, in one hour, you can go from 0 to 60 amazing Google+ reviews! This has the chance to seriously impact your business! Of course, this doesn’t mean you should go haywire, ask a few of your most delighted customers each day. You don’t want to set off Google spam filters.

In case you’re wondering how authentication works. Once you download Google Maps onto your phone it will detect if you’re signed-in to any other Google services. It will pull the correct email and simply ask you to “continue as you” see the screenshot below, when I re-installed Google Maps today.

How to Get Great Google Reviews Without A Google+ Account

Google Maps makes it super-easy to log-in, because I was already signed-in to other Google services, I didn’t even have to enter a password.

How You Can Put This Into Action and Start Getting Reviews!

1.) Ask your customers if they enjoyed their service, follow that up with: “Would you mind leaving us a review on Google Maps?”

2.) Put up a small card at your cash desk or on the tables of your restaurant. Direct iPhone users to this link to download / view Google Maps: http://bit.ly/ZixJpC

Or if you really like QR codes you can use the one provided below:

3.) Have a contest between your employees to see who can get the most Google+ Local reviews. Give the winner a nice gift card and repeat every month.

I hope you’ve found this useful and practical. Remember that Google will penalize you if you pay for reviews. Instead, I urge you to offer exemplary customer service and ask for reviews at the right time. This is usually after a customer has had a good experience.

So try it out, think of a business you really love and leave them a review using Google Maps on your phone!

Wishing you many happy Google reviews!

-Steve

P.S. This technique works flawlessly as long as the person is signed in to any type of Google account. Whether it’s just a regular Google account (using your own email address), a YouTube account for person to access their subscriptions, or Google Play, etc.

If the person literally has no Google Account, they will be ask to create one within Maps, and then they will be asked to sign-up for Google+. BUT if they have any type of login, they will just be asked to “continue as you” without any mention of Google+.

The thought of joining Google+ is what puts most people off from leaving a review and Google Maps on your phone is a way around this. That why I wrote this article; I hope it makes it easy for business owners to get more reviews to help their business.

Please feel free to connect with me on social media @strategyinventr or leave a comment below!

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55 Comments

  • avatar

    Sweet! This is really good info

    Thnks

  • avatar

    Thank you for this post. Love your content.

  • avatar

    Hi
    Wow, there are so many ways of dealing with the online marketing. When i started my SEO in 2007, all i had to do was just posting 10 articles to be no 1 in Ireland. Right now is like a maze that never ends. Every day i learn something new.
    Top work
    Many thanks

  • avatar

    Thank you so much for this been trying to find a way to get more reviews on Google this will help so much.

  • avatar

    Great Article! Thank you!

  • avatar

    Hello, Blogger, I read your blog where I got the information about mobile marketing and such type of related information. Thanks for sharing such type of blog with us.

  • avatar

    Thanks for the great tip of using Google maps for reviews.

  • avatar

    Hey, thanks for the great tip on a fast review through Google maps. Yes, the task of having people sign up is daunting as my target market is over 62. Appreciate you.

  • avatar

    This was extremely useful! Thank you so much!! 🙂

  • avatar

    Your information found so useful.

  • avatar

    Doesn’t work on my iphone (6).

  • avatar

    Great article Steve Toth.
    With the advancements Google has brought to Google Maps and the Google Knowledge Graph, leaving a business review is considerably easier today than in 2013.
    That said, your article is full of timeless tips and truths.
    I guess I have been fortunate, I have helped many join Google+. Time is often a key factor in getting it done for small business who don’t have the luxury of staff on hand who know how.

  • avatar

    Oh, is it not google maps that comes standard on iphone?

  • avatar

    Hi Steve, this sounds great but when I tested it out on my phone, the review went to yelp.com. Will these reviews also be posted on my google business page even though they’re written through yelp?
    Thanks for your help!

    • avatar

      Hi Sue, you’ll need to go to Google Maps to leave the review on Google. Or you can just search for the business and click “write a review.”
      Hope this helps!

  • avatar

    Thank you so much great info!!!

  • avatar

    Hi Steve, thanks for this really helpful article. A simple solution to an impossible request! Brilliant. All the best, Hannah

  • avatar

    Thanks so much!!

  • avatar

    Thank you for this article, incredibly helpful!

  • avatar

    Fantastic blog, this really will help my business, thankyou!!

  • avatar

    Hey great article. Question for you, how would I go about sending people a direct link to this so they just click and its already ad the maps review section of my business?

  • avatar

    I glad I stumbled across this article it provides a great solution.

  • avatar

    Oh my God Steve, if this works, I will be beholden to you forever. I will gladly send you my first born…I know you’ll send them back but it’s the gesture that counts. You rock.

  • avatar

    Doesn’t work for me anymore. 🙁
    I also tried pasting a Maps link into http://qrcode.kaywa.com.
    Doesn’t work either. Google always wants me to create an G+ account.
    Google, you bastards!

  • avatar

    This does not work anymore, upon clicking write a review you are now prompted to sign up for a google+ account.

  • avatar

    Hi Steve, Thanks for the GREAT post! Very informative and very well written! I was wondering if you know how I could get a QR Code that would immediately bring my customers to my business on google maps? The QR Code that is posted here brings me into maps but then the customer has to search for my business, I am wondering if there is a way to get the URL for the google maps page with my business on it?

  • avatar

    I’m pretty tech savvy and it keeps telling me I need to get a google + account to review.
    I was signed in on my gmail account. Bummer.

  • avatar

    Thank you thank you thank you! I’ve been struggling to find a way to enable all of our employees to get happy clients to leave reviews (since I do the marketing from home office, I’m not at the office with them or I would get the reviews). In the legal field, you have to strike while the happy is still hot, if you wait a few weeks to get a review, people have generally gone on to “I just want to put it all behind me”. Now I can put this into my big review push for this year which of course centers around Google reviews to hopefully increase our search results.

  • avatar

    This works great, thanks for posting it!

  • avatar

    I don’t think this is still possible. When I try to do it on my phone, it pops up a window that asks me to create my Google+ profile. If I cancel, it says:
    “To share reviews with the Google Maps community and friends you must have a Google+ profile.”

  • avatar

    This article has solved a big problem that a lot of people were facing. Now even without an account people can be told of the benefits of giving their reviews which will go a long way to provide authentic feedback to prospective customers.

  • avatar

    Nice advice! Especially like the ideas for leaving cards inside the restaurant/business with links to the map and/or qr code, provides a really quick and easy way for customers to review.

  • avatar

    This is very informative, precise, detailed, and great use of visual assistance. You are very thorough and indicative of the necessary steps.
    You found the loophole. Excellent article.

  • avatar

    Excellent tip, as a minimal mobile user this is good information. Some of my clients will be able to make use of this very easily. Very quick and simple, this is exactly what they want.

  • avatar

    I was excited to see the post because of the hassle of trying to get customers to get a Google+ account. When I tried it on my own phone to rate a local restaurant, I got a message on the Maps App that said “to share reviews, photos,and more with the Google Maps community, you must be signed in and have a Google+ profile”
    Any ideas??

  • avatar

    Great insight here. I love simple solutions to normal problems, however to take this one step further, employees asking for reviews should know how to go get the Google Map app onto their customer’s mobile device, or at least check their customer’s phone to see if they already have it – and as you said, likely they have it by default. I find my clients are very willing to comment but only if it’s fast and easy as you stated. Great job and thank you!

  • avatar

    Wow, great post! We have been struggling to get our customers to leave us a Goog places review and we know its because they don’t use Goog Plus…..they are mostly older and non technical. But this is a great tip. We will definitely mention this to our customers who want to leave us reviews.

  • avatar

    This is extremely useful, since so few people I know use Google+ and I have been trying to get people to leave more reviews for my resume restructuring business. Also – I have to say – I LOVE that you used your mom as the guinea pig, because I think we can all relate with the idea that if anyone’s mom can do it, then surely anyone in the world can do it! Moms are just so adorably naive about such things.
    Thanks for a great article! You’ve got a dedicated reader now!

  • avatar

    This is great for people who want to hold on to the little bit of privacy they have left on the internet, thanks for the info 🙂

  • avatar

    Good to know! Thank you for sharing that.

  • avatar

    Is there any way to bring the attention of our audience??? If they will arrive to our Local listing, then only they will be able to know about us & can leave feedback/review.

  • avatar

    This is very useful information. I like Google+ but I don’t like always leaving that account’s information everywhere. Sometimes a nice semi-anonymous posting goes a long way, if I want to get my information across without linking it to myself forever.

  • avatar

    Sweet! This is really good info. Cheers Steve!

  • avatar

    Hi Steve
    Thanks, just to clarify – a person with no Google account that installs this app will only be required to create a general Google account from the app interface, without being forced in to Google Plus, and can then leave a review?
    (I know I can just try this myself but it’s kind of nice being lazy and just asking you, lol)

    • avatar

      Chase, let’s say an alien lands on Earth and wants to leave a review. They need to create a Google and account and then a G+ review within the Google Maps app.
      But, if they have an intergalactic Gmail address, they can leave the review without one.
      Hope this helps!

  • avatar
    Maureen McCabe 

    on 

    This is a fantastic ‘how to’ blog. I received a great review from someone yesterday, who only had a gmail address and didn’t want to sign up for Google Plus. Hallelujah there is a solution!

  • avatar

    Thanks Steve, this is a really useful bit of information (also thanks for the thorough how-to). Only thing I’m wondering is if this works the same way for people that don’t already have a Google account when they install the app.

    • avatar

      You’re welcome Chase. All you need here is some type of Google account. It could be Gmail, YouTube, Google Play, Google Drive, etc.
      If you don’t have any type of account, you will be asked to create a Google Account. which (to me) seems like less of an encumbrance vs. joining Google+ an entirely new social network (which they’re probably not going to use).
      Also, when creating a new Google account, the person has the option of using their existing email, which also makes things easier.

      • avatar
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