An actionable guide to update your TripAdvisor listing
Alongside Google My Business, TripAdvisor is what I like to refer to as ‘the people’s platform’. Given the name, consumers of your product(s), give advice to others about how they experienced your said product. Everyone likes having a voice, and if that voice is a positive endorsement of your business, it can work wonders.
Don’t believe us, watch the video below:
When our customers take the time to leave a review of our business, it is important that we take the time to acknowledge that. I like to describe the importance of responding to reviews like this:
If you decide to have a dinner party and you spend hours in the kitchen prepping an amazing meal. Your guests come, they eat, the conversation is flowing and now it’s the time when everyone is saying goodbye and on their way out, your guests thank you for all your efforts and compliment you on the meal you have provided them with. Do you stand there and say nothing? No! You thank them for the lovely compliments and everyone is happy. It’s the same with our review platforms! Take the time to acknowledge what your customers are saying – after all they are giving you feedback from experiencing your product that you have no doubt put a lot of hard work in! It’s also important to acknowledge the not so good feedback as it gives us a chance to demonstrate how constructive we can be with criticism (helpful hint: keep in mind all your past and potential customers that will be reading your response).
The value of these third-party endorsements on platforms like Tripadvisor can be extremely valuable to a business. When a potential client is researching a business, what your customers say is super important. We can use these reviews in other areas of our business too. For example, on our website. Reviews back up what we say. Scatter these reviews throughout your website – choose reviews that are complementary to specific products, so they are relevant to what you are selling.
The good news is that once the foundations are set up, the platform is relatively easy to maintain. Here are a few top tips to update your TripAdvisor listing:
- Respond to all your reviews – even the not so good ones. If you find you aren’t having reviews come in fairly consistently – have a brainstorm with your team about ideas for actively seeking reviews.
- Keep your listing up to date. This means your address, website, contact details and any other specifics. You want your TripAdvisor listing to rain consistently with what your other platforms say.
- Have at least 10 wonderful photos and keep these up to date. You want to showcase your product. Customers can also upload their pictures, so be a team player!
- Have you received any TripAdvisor awards? If so, show them off! Displaying your awards on your website can help strengthen trust in your product.
- Keep an eye on your rounds (score). We recommend at least 4 rounds. If you have less than 4, take the time to do some quality research into what people are saying – your reviews provide valuable feedback as to what people love and value and what can be improved.
Two things AI assistants now check on your listing
The tips above keep your TripAdvisor listing healthy for the people reading it. Two more are worth watching, because AI assistants like ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews increasingly read TripAdvisor when a traveller asks them for a recommendation. Both are simple to act on.
The first is your reply rate. Responding to the occasional review isn’t enough. AI tools summarising your business look at how many of your recent reviews you have actually replied to, and so do travellers. A listing where most recent reviews sit unanswered reads as inattentive, even when the reviews themselves are glowing. Aim to reply to the majority of your recent reviews, not just a handful.
The second is recency. If your most recent review is months or years old, an AI assistant checking how current your listing is can read the business as inactive or struggling, no matter how strong your historic rating. A steady trickle of fresh reviews keeps the listing looking alive. This sits alongside the score we mentioned in point five above: staying at or above 4 is worth the effort, and so is showing that people are still reviewing you.
Your free AI marketing coach, right in your pocket
The free Pocket Rocket app gives you a personal AI marketing coach, website audit, weekly action plans and 5-minute tips. Built for tourism operators.