Testimonials on your website and other Web venues can help improve conversions. Good reviews on review sites like Google Maps and Yelp can help attract more people to check you out and also improve conversions. In this article, I’ll outline the steps we go through for ourselves and clients to increase the number of testimonials available and get good reviews.

As you’ve undoubtedly noticed, there are a growing number of reviews on the Web for all types of products and services — not just restaurants and hotels — on sites such as Yelp, Google Maps, Bing, shopping search sites and many industry/market information sites.

Having testimonials and good reviews can help persuade people to at least consider doing business with you. Meanwhile, good reviews on sites such as Google Maps or Yelp can encourage people to click to learn more about what you have to offer from among a list of competitors.

Here’s an example of local results on Google for [Italian pastries new haven ct]. (As I write this, I’m thinking cannolis on the way to see my mom in the hospital. That’ll make her feel better… and me, too.) Those orange star ratings from Yelp attracted my eye right away. I’m thinking of stopping at Lucibello’s, the highest rated pastry shop.