We all know that positive feedbacks are always good for business.
Most customers make their buying decisions based on the stars a business has got. And they shop from the business with the highest star rating.
According to one study, over 90% of people trust reviews as much as they consider in-person recommendations. And an average customer goes through ten reviews online before they decide to shop from a business.
It is simple–the more stars you have, the more clicks you get. After all, who wants to go for the 2-star business instead of the 5-star one. The feedback and rating system lets the customer choose the “trusted” services. Customers determine the quality of your business by the reviews you get.
But how do positive reviews help my business with search engines? Now that’s the key question.
Your search ranking is determined by several factors, right?
Positive online feedback from the customers has a solid influence on search engine ranking. When search engines like Google come to know that your business got positive feedbacks, it indicates the authority of your website. It makes your business more trustworthy.
According to Moz.com, reviews are important offsite SEO signals and carry over 50% of the ranking factor weight.
Simply put, positive reviews can improve your EAT score which in turn establishes you a good brand in the eyes of Google or other search engines.
How Reviews Can Benefit Your SEO
Customer Feedback Increases the Number of Keywords:
Customers are also content creators, whether they write feedback or social media post. It means that you can see the reviews–whether they are on social media or Google–in the form of user-generated content. Every time people drop a review, search engines like Google is provided with a fresh piece of content.
Be it positive or negative, it is likely to include keywords relevant to your business, services, or even location. This way, Google can have a better picture of your business.
Helps You Get a Competitive Edge:
Reviews also let you get ahead of your competitors. Collecting reviews and incorporating rich snippets on your website can positively impact your listings in the SERPs. They will occur as Rich Results listings, meaning that any feedback you have collected will appear as golden stars in the listing. It will not only attract visitors but also leads to higher CTR than your competitors, irrespective of your positioning in the SERPs.
But how it will affect SEO? Well, a good CTR is one of Google’s ranking signals. The more visitors enter your website, the more it shows to Google that you are “popular”. And it can improve your ranking.
Google Consider Reviews:
Google also values reviews and has an advanced way to understand reviews. Positive reviews tell Google that your services or products are of high quality. You must have noticed that Google often shows results with high volumes of reviews first. After all, the search engine giant wants to ensure positive results for its users.
Provide quality offerings to your customers and get high-quality reviews to see yourself at the top of SERPs.
Responds to Reviews Promotes Interaction:
Whether your customer drops negative or positive feedback, try to respond to each one. This will not only conveys a message that you care for the customers but also increase engagement. As a result, you can see a positive impact on your SEO.
For example–
- Responding to reviews can make your customers change a negative review, or even delete it or they can make it up for by giving positive feedback.
- It can generate more keywords.
How Google Customer Reviews Affect Bounce Rates:
A high bounce rate can kill your SEO rankings. And it is equally true that 105% of visitors can buy from you if reviews are present. This is because reviews are social proof and increase your brand trust. For example, if a product has mostly positive feedback, a potential customer will feel encouraged to buy it as they are assured of its quality.
Reviews promote both consumer knowledge and brand trust and thereby people are likely to spend more time exploring your site. Result? It leads to a lower bounce rate, increasing Google rankings.
It Benefits Your Local SEO:
Reviews are important for your local ranking. When someone searches “XYZ shop near me” and your business appears, they are likely to check the reviews first. In fact, Google also takes positive reviews into account to show the best results.
The Bottom Line:
What is a key takeaway? SEO is highly dynamic, and you need to consider unconventional ranking factors such as reviews that might be overlooked by many of your competitors.
Reviews help people determine the quality of your products, thereby influencing their buying decision. Whereas are positive reviews are a goldmine, a timely response to the negative reviews can change the perception of the customer about your business.