20 Customer Review Websites For Your Local Business

Word-of-mouth marketing is one of the most successful methods for building relationships with potential customers because people tend to choose a product recommended by someone they know. However, with the growing influence of the digital discovery of products and services, electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) has assumed a new significance today.

Customer review websites are a great source of eWOM for your business. Over 75% of customers use online reviews to make their purchasing decisions, which is why your digital marketing plan should include online review management.

However, with the abundance of customer review websites, it can be tricky to know where to focus. This post will help you sort through review websites to help you manage customer reviews better, generate more reviews, and stay on top of online reputation management.

What Are Customer Review Websites?

Customer review websites are web platforms used by customers to rate and review businesses, and potential customers to find information about you and your competitors for making purchase decisions.

Being present on customer review websites is vital for your business because:

• 90% of customers read online reviews before visiting a business.

• 84% of customers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

• Customer reviews boost your local ranking, accounting for 17% of Google’s ranking factors in the local pack

Popular customer review websites include Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business), Yelp, and social media sites like Facebook. However, the list doesn't just end here. There are several vertical-specific review websites that you should consider for your business.

After all, customer review websites not only strengthen your online reputation but also improves your chances of landing in the coveted Google 3-Pack. Google uses third-party review data to rank businesses and having your data available on multiple customer review websites helps establish you as a credible search result.

Customer Review Websites For All Businesses

Here are some of the most common customer review websites for all businesses, regardless of the industry.

Google

With over half of internet users using Google to scan reviews, it remains a popular location for posting and reading reviews. Most users (77%) use Google to find reviews of local businesses.

Google makes it easy for your customers to leave an online review. They can sign into their Google account and rate and review a business. All you need to do is make sure your business profile is updated and encourage customers to leave a review.

You can use the platform to also respond to reviewers, enhancing your relationship with them. Responding to all reviews, especially negative reviews, goes a long way in building trust amongst your customers.

Facebook

In 2022—even with the growing popularity of other social media platforms—Facebook continues to have nearly 3 billion active users who post millions of reviews for local businesses they interact with on a regular basis.

The power of Facebook in influencing decision-making is undisputed with over 200 million businesses operating Facebook pages and nearly 30% of users checking Facebook and Twitter for online reviews.

Like Google, Facebook used to offer a star rating system earlier, which has been recently simplified with a ‘Recommended’ or ‘Not Recommended’ rating system.

User recommendations are automatically displayed on Facebook business pages. As a business, you should encourage recommendations by asking people to like your page and leave an honest review of their experience at your location.

With the right review management software, you can embed Facebook reviews directly into your website, making it easy for anyone to rate and review directly from your homepage.

It’s interesting to note, Facebook recommendations and user comments have viral potential, particularly if a review is witty or addresses a sensitive subject. Such cases present a tonne of opportunities for a business. However, in the case of negative reviews, the matter becomes more sensitive. This is why it is important that all Facebook reviews are addressed and answered in time so that businesses can maintain control of their narrative.

Yelp

Along with Google reviews, Yelp is one of the more widely known resources for finding information about local businesses, especially in the US and Canada.

• Yelp has about 96 million unique visitors each month.

• Yelp users have posted over 200 million reviews.

• Most Yelp users (97%) buy something from companies they have found on the site.

Yelp contains a wealth of information for customers that help them make purchase decisions. Users can skim through the profiles of reviewers on the site to form an opinion about whether they trust the information. Yelp also allows for voice searches which makes it one of the most popular review platforms for millennials, especially in the restaurant and hospitality space.

Unlike Google and Facebook, Yelp discourages review requests from business owners. The best way to get more Yelp reviews is to ensure your business profile is up-to-date, accurate, and displays plenty of photos. You could also add a Yelp sticker to your website, and post a window-cling in your store to influence people to submit their Yelp reviews.

Trustpilot

Trustpilot is a social platform similar to Yelp which people use to rate and review businesses. However, it differs from all other platforms in two key aspects: 1) Users can only see ratings and reviews for the last 28 days for a business, and 2) It allows businesses to request users to leave reviews.

Over 2.3 million companies worldwide use the platform to interact with customers. This site requires more engagement than Yelp or Google, but it’s an excellent platform for building trust with customers and determining how you’re handling online reputation management.

Bing

Microsoft’s Bing search engine is the second most popular after Google, with over 1 billion active monthly users.

Like Google, Bing populates its map with local searches of popular businesses when someone uses “near me” search terms. Bing reviews are accessible to users only after they set up a business listing on Bing Places.

Customer Review Websites for Restaurants

If you own a restaurant or a cafe, these are some of the review websites where you should be present.

OpenTable

OpenTable gives users the option to rate and review restaurants under five categories - Food, Service, Ambience, Value, and Noise Level. Customers can also upload photos and let other users know why they are recommending a particular restaurant. Its user base is roughly 1.6 billion per year—a whopping audience base that every restaurant owner should take advantage of.

Zomato

Another place diners go to find restaurant recommendations is Zomato. This app makes it easy for users to log in and access the list of local restaurants, bars, and clubs and browse through star ratings and user reviews.

Zomato combines a 5-point grading model and a user’s credibility score on the app to arrive at the displayed ratings. If your business has a lot of positive reviews, you may end up in one of the top lists featured on the app.

Foursquare

While Foursquare serves as a city guide with listings for various outings, the site is also great for finding restaurants in any area. Users can sort restaurants by cuisine, location, and even what’s trending in the area.

Zagat

This review website is an oldie but a goldie. Zagat has been a staple for restaurant reviews since 1979. What started as a guide, now serves as online platform customers can use to rate and review restaurants. The site has rebranded following the pandemic, featuring interviews with chefs, restaurateurs, and others in the hospitality industry.

Food Delivery Apps

A pandemic-induced development is the rising popularity of food delivery apps as review websites. They have become a standard way of finding and reviewing restaurants. In light of this, it becomes really important for businesses to make sure customers find them on popular apps like Uber Eats, Door Dash, Postmates, GrubHub, Caviar, Takeaway, and others.

Customer Review Websites for Hospitality

Whether you operate a hotel, a car rental, an airline, or any other hospitality business, you need your customers to find you on these sites.

Tripadvisor

Tripadvisor is a trusted source of first-hand information from travelers about hotels, resorts, restaurants, shops, etc. The site offers reviewers the option to add descriptions of properties, share a star rating, and add visually-rich content to present a realistic picture of the location. The total number of users on Tripadvisor is estimated to be over 1 billion as of 2021.

Expedia

Many travelers turn to Expedia for affordable vacation packages. Having customer ratings and reviews on the site can bump up a business in search results while making it easier for customers to book a stay or plan their travel. The site also offers links to experiences.

Booking.com

Booking.com has more than 1.5 million hotel listings. It’s easy to use and integrate with other apps like OpenTable, letting travelers manage and rate their experiences in one place.

Viator

While many travel sites have air, hotel, and transportation covered, Viator handles the other parts of a vacation. This site allows users to search for and buy tickets for experiences. Customers can see peak times for popular attractions and read genuine reviews from others that have participated in the experiences.

Customer Review Websites For The Healthcare Sector

If you are in the healthcare space, it's important to show up on these review websites for new patients to find you and old ones to stay connected with you.

WebMD

Review platforms in the healthcare space such as WebMD are increasingly becoming popular with people using them to find doctors. Ratings and reviews left on WebMD capture honest experiences of people visiting a medical practitioner and helping others make decisions in times of need. The Doctor Finder feature on WebMD is particularly useful in this context.

Doctor.com

Doctor.com is a review management tool that healthcare businesses can use to manage reviews, respond to them, update listings, etc. The platform serves as an online reputation review monitor specifically in the healthcare sector.

Doctolib (in EMEA region)

Doctolib is the go-to platform for booking appointments with healthcare professionals in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The site lets users compare doctors, read and write reviews, book appointments, and more. Over 60 million people currently use the site for their healthcare needs.

Customer Review Websites For Service Industry

Yellow Pages

The booklet that used to show up on doorsteps is now available online. While people used to sift through the Yellow Pages directory to find businesses back in the day, more and more use it today to review businesses and read about their local businesses to make purchase decisions.

Manta

Manta is a business directory that attracts 11 million monthly users. The site lists 41.7 million businesses, connecting them to customers in local areas. Manta also offers an SEO analysis tool business owners can use to see where they stack up in local searches.

Angi (formerly Angie’s List)

This site lets people rate and review service professionals and contractors. The site requires a membership to allow the rating and review capability, so customers can trust the reviews. It also connects professionals to people in need of their services.

Conclusion

There are plenty of places customers can find you online, and many allow them to leave a description of their experiences with your business. Encourage your customers to leave a review and improve your local SEO and online reputation by being present on all the relevant review websites for your business.

If the thought of tackling so many review sites has you thinking about time management, check out the Uberall CoreX Reviews solution. These programs let you view and manage reviews from one platform, keeping you visible without taking up all your time.