6 Best Review Sites for Restaurant Businesses in 2021

6 best reviews sites for restaurant business

In recent times, more and more buying decisions are influenced by online reviews.

Online reviews have almost suddenly become an critical tool for business growth and exposure. They are increasingly acting as online social proof that a business is credible.

Over 80% of consumers affirm that review searching is at the top of their buying to-do list.

If that figure isn’t shuddering enough and you are still asking why you should care about online reviews, let me give two reasons why you should:

  • Online reputation: without reputation you cannot get customers. Nobody wants to do business with a business they do not trust. No pun intended back there. Reviews are the new metrics that customers use to measure the quality of your service. Which means zero reviews equals zero trust and, ultimately, zero business for you.
  • Valuable feedback: online reviews can serve as a feedback channel to know how your business is perceived by previous customers. Bad reviews can help you spot weaknesses in your service that you ordinarily would not have spotted.

Those are only two of the few other reasons why you should care about online reviews. Read 5 reasons why proactively getting 5-star reviews can help your business to know the other reasons.

Now, you may be feeling pumped, like yeah, let’s go get some reviews. But pause and consider this: it’s one thing to want to get reviews; it’s another to know the right places to get reviews on.

There are hundreds of review sites out there. Each one designed uniquely from the next. Do you know which ones are best for restaurants?

Here are five review sites that are great for restaurants:

  1. Google

Almost overnight, Google has become the largest review platform on the internet. Accounting for over 60% of all reviews on the web, Google is a platform you should not overlook.

Google gets hundreds of millions of searches for restaurants daily. That being the case, Google can help you get an incredible amount of exposure.

As a matter of fact, many customers now search for restaurants on Google before they check out any other platform. Majority of these customers choose restaurants from the top 3 Google listings on the results page.

Therefore, since Google pulls this much weight in the review space, you should get your restaurant listed on it.

  1. Yelp

When you talk about review sites, Yelp is one of the first names that come to mind.

Although Yelp isn’t just for restaurants, it has over a hundred millions reviews on it. They have a monthly traffic of 40 million visitors on the average.

Yelp has a “Thank” button that you click to thank those who have left you a review.

Or you could just type in your own response. It is important to mention here that Yelp strictly forbids businesses from soliciting for reviews on their platform.

And so, if you need to ask your customers for a review, do that through your email or WIFI marketing channels.

  1. Zomato

Yeah, it’s like tomato but with a Z.

This is a restaurant search service that was created in India. It serves as a platform for restaurants to display information about their services, and most importantly, get reviews from customers.

Zomato has over 70 million users and as of august 2017 Zomato had reached million orders per month. And in July 2018, Zomato hit a whopping 10.5 million online orders.

That’s a lot of orders, and therefore, a lot of eyes which is good for exposure.

  1. OpenTable

Now this is one platform you should strive to get positive reviews on.

OpenTable was designed as a restaurant reservation in San Francisco, California and founded by Chuck Templeton. Restaurants receive booking details from diners and process them at the back end.

As a result, it is easy for restaurants to keep track of reservations and prevents booking clashes.

After diners have visited your restaurant, they get a message asking for a review of your services. This way you do not even need to solicit for reviews to get some.

To use the platform, just head over to their site and create an account. OpenTable serves over 50,000 restaurants worldwide and seats more than 23 million customers monthly.

  1. TripAdvisor

Trip advisor is a travel and restaurant website that displays accommodation bookings, travel related content, and of course, reviews.

It is currently the largest social travel website in the world with a total of 315 million users posting an estimated 500 million reviews.

Nearly all the content on TripAdvisor is user generated. It allows users to write reviews about any organization (hotels, restaurants, travel companies, etc.) whose service they have used.

Given the number of reviewers on there and the platform’s coverage, it makes an excellent platform for getting reviews. Thus, it’s great for exposure. This article on 4 simple ways to get positive online reviews on TripAdvisor would help you make the most of this platform.

TripAdvisor ranks restaurants with three things: Star ratings, number of reviews, and the recency of the reviews. You can post public or private responses to reviews and also contend reviews you feel are untrue.

  1. Gayot

Gayot is a trusted name when it comes to restaurant, travel, and hotel guidance.

It is also one of the oldest. At 45, Gayot remains a go-to for professional assessment of restaurant food and drinks for different budget level and taste.

Gayot can help potential customers find your restaurant.

It also allows them to write a review on their experience with you. Restaurants are rated here by more than just how great their food tastes. They are rated on décor, wine, ambience, and service.

On there, reviews are written by both professional food critics and restaurant patrons.

Getting and managing reviews on any combination or all of these platforms is a great way to give your restaurant the much needed exposure.

 

If you are on any of these platforms, you should keep a keen eye on your reviews so as not to delay in responding to a negative review. You should also use the positive reviews to your advantage.

 

Are you already using one or more of these platforms? You know it can be difficult to manage them together. Hopping from one platform to another to check your latest reviews can be challenging.

We have a solution to that…

SpotOn Reviews is a software that helps you manage all your reviews in one place regardless of how many platforms you use. One cool feature our platform has is that you receive an alert the

Contact us and we will tell you more about our product and how it can help you make the most of your customers’ reviews.

    Want to take action but don’t know where to start? You’re not alone. Leave your email below, and we’ll get in touch with you ASAP.

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