Module 2: Setting up your review foundations
You can't collect reviews efficiently if the underlying profiles are broken. This module fixes the foundations first.
Claiming and completing your Google Business Profile
Your Google Business Profile (GBP) is the single most important review asset for any local business — it's free, and it's what shows in Maps and the local pack. If you haven't claimed yours, go to google.com/business, search for your business, and claim it (Google mails or calls a verification code). If no listing exists, create one. This takes about 20 minutes and it's the highest-ROI 20 minutes in this entire course.
Once claimed, complete every field: correct business name (your real name, no keyword stuffing — "Smith Plumbing," not "Smith Plumbing Best Plumber NJ"), accurate categories (pick the most specific primary category available), full hours including holiday hours, phone number, website, and a 750-character description written for humans. Add at least 10 real photos: exterior, interior, team, work in progress, finished results. Businesses with photos get dramatically more clicks and direction requests than those without — and photos are free.
Claiming your Google profile and leaving half the fields blank. An incomplete profile ranks lower and converts worse than no profile at all — Google rewards completeness, and customers bounce from empty listings.
Build brief
List every platform where your business has a listing, claimed or not. Which two or three do YOUR buyers actually use when choosing?
Saved
Cleaning up your other profiles
After Google, claim and complete your profiles on the two or three platforms your buyers use (from your Module 1 audit). The work is the same everywhere: claim the listing, correct the name/address/phone/hours, add photos, write a real description, and grab the direct review link. Inconsistent information across platforms — different hours on Yelp versus Google, an old phone number on Facebook — confuses customers and hurts search rankings. Pick one canonical version of your details and mirror it everywhere.
For each platform, turn on review notifications (email or app) so you hear about new reviews within a day. Module 4's response system depends on speed — a thoughtful reply within 24–48 hours impresses the reviewer and every future reader. Notifications are the tripwire that makes it possible.
Build brief
Look at your Google Business Profile the way a stranger would — what's missing or outdated that would make a buyer hesitate?
Saved
The rules: what you can and can't do
What you can do: ask every customer for an honest review, make it easy with a direct link or QR code, remind them once if they said they'd do it, and respond to every review publicly. You can also run a general incentive like "leave us a review this month and you're entered in a drawing" — but check each platform's current policy first, because Yelp in particular frowns on anything that looks like compensation for reviews, and policies change.
The rules at a glance
Always fine
- Ask every customer for an honest review
- Make it easy with a direct link or QR code
- Remind them once if they said they'd do it
- Respond to every review publicly
Never do
- Post fake reviews of your own business
- Pay for reviews or offer discounts in exchange for them
- Pressure customers — asking is fine, demanding is not
- Review gating: asking, then only sending the happy ones to Google
Profile completeness checklist
☐ Business name, address, phone verified ☐ Hours set (including holidays) ☐ 10+ real photos uploaded ☐ Services/products listed ☐ Description written (750 chars) ☐ Attributes selected ☐ Q&A seeded with 3 common questions
Claim (or find) your Google Business Profile today. Fill in every single field: hours, services, photos, description, attributes. Upload 10 real photos — exterior, interior, team, work in progress. This alone can take an hour and it's the highest-ROI hour in this course.
Which of these is allowed on review platforms?