Not all review sites play games with customers and business owners.
In that way, Yelp and Google+ are outliers. Reviews there are important, of course. But if you run into difficulty getting reviews there, the last thing you should do is throw in the towel. That’s because the vast majority of review sites aren’t such a PITA.
I’ve rounded up all the review sites I know of that make it very straightforward – in one way or another – for customers to write reviews. They make customers jump through a minimum of hoops.
Sure, that also means that it’s easy for people to post bogus reviews. But these non-Yelp, non-Google sites follow a different philosophy: let the reviews through and let readers make up their own minds as to what’s legitimate. (Given how lax Google’s review filter has become and how Yelp’s filter hasn’t gotten any better, I think there’s much to be said for the hands-off approach.)
Here are some sites that make it especially easy for customers to post reviews – and most of these sites are pretty important.
Review sites that accept Facebook logins
It’s a hassle to ask customers to create a username on a site just so they can review you there. It’s usually easy, but not as easy as being able to skip that step.
That’s why some sites let customers use their Facebook usernames to post a review, rather than create a username.
Here are the sites (I know of) that let customers sign into Facebook rather than create a separate account:
Avvo
BBB
Bizyhood
EZLocal
Facebook (don’t forget to get reviews there)
Foursquare
InsiderPages
OpenTable
TrueLocal.com.au
Trulia
WebLocal.ca
WeddingBee
Yell.com (UK)
YellowBot.com
YellowPages (.com, .ca, and other equivalents.)
Zillow
One big upshot of these sites’ Facebook-friendliness is that you can post a “Hey, please review us” request on your Facebook page (assuming your customers follow you there). The chances are good that it’ll result in reviews, especially if you tell your customers how easy the process is.
By the way, there are other sites that let you sign into Facebook rather than create a new username if you simply want to “join” the site, but that don’t require a username to write a review. HealthGrades and SuperPages are examples: you don’t have to be a “member” of the site or sign into Facebook to post a review. I’ve excluded those sites, partly because there are a lot of them.
Review sites with badges or widgets
I covered this in my post, Ultimate List of Review Widgets and Badges for Your Local Business Website.
Sites that allow anonymous reviews
See 17 Sites That Allow Private or Anonymous Reviews of Local Businesses
Sites that make reviews easy in other ways
TripAdvisor has a nice app that lets you add a “TripAdvisor Reviews” tab to your Facebook page.
Angie’s List has forms you can download, print, and give to your customers (or patients). They can fill out the forms and mail them to Angie HQ, where the powers-that-be will post the review to your page. Kind of cumbersome, but it’s an option.
Houzz gives you forms, too. (Thanks to Ben Bowen for this intel.)
HealthGrades lets you order forms, too, but I believe you have to contact them and ask for the forms.
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I’d like to keep updating this post as I learn of more sites that make it relatively easy to post reviews.
Do you know of a site I missed?
Do you have a favorite?
Leave a comment!
