How Review Management Helps SEO

You can get the keywords right, as well as the positioning and the semantics; but is it enough? SEO tactics encompass a lot more than just link building and anchor texts now. The modern search engine does not only process information about your business from your website but also gathers and analyzes data provided by your customers about you.

So, how can you further improve your SEO score? Invest in review management. A survey of 30,000 companies by Yotpo – before and after integrating reviews into their websites, tracked a steady increase in organic traffic. By the ninth month, organic views had increased to more than 7.5K, from the lower 5.5k figure recorded in the first month.

Why Reviews Play an Important Part

Although there are many factors at play in search rankings, customer reviews are favored by engines. Since they come directly from your customers, they are weightier in trust and authority. Additionally, the Spiegel Research Center found that 95% of buying decisions were enforced through online customer reviews. In theory, the better the reviews you receive, the busier your sales channel gets.

The modern consumer is one that wants to make sure that the purchase they make with their hard-earned money, brings them maximum value and satisfaction. Which is why according to BrightLocal, 93% of local consumers read online reviews about local businesses before progressing into their buying journey.

#1 – The Customer is Always Right

There are certain signals that a search engine will pick up on to determine the quality and rank of a business website. While content creation helps add value to your business’ persona in terms of SEO, reviews; much like link-building, will add credibility to your business – which Google’s algorithms value more. The more glowing reviews Google’s search engine attains, the higher it ranks the business.

They used to say, ‘no news is good news.’ Not any more.

The more your customers review your business (be it good or bad), algorithms further validate your standing. Google recognizes you as a legitimate operation that can help future customers and rates you higher.

#2 – Reviews Are Content Too

The idea of content creation comes from the SEO’s core function of ‘reading’ your website in relevance to the search query. The more content (or data) you provide for it to collect and process, the better it understands you.

By leveraging customer reviews, you give the search engine’s automated robots more information to grab and bring back to analyze and document. These can be added on to your website or generated on Google My Business; the idea is to help Google understand and see you as a valuable resource and entity.

#3 Great Reviews = Great Organic Traffic Figures

The more stars you receive, the higher your click-through rates will be. Star ratings are the most influential in helping consumers judge and choose a business, and why wouldn’t they be? If you search for local businesses, you are bound to click on the ones with the most stars, as these represent the value of satisfaction received by past customers.

This sends a strong signal to Google’s SEO rankings, as data shows more and more customers choosing your site, this ends in raising your rank.

Review Management – A Fighting Chance for Businesses

Employable by all shapes and sizes of businesses, review management presents, in itself, a comparative advantage. By managing online reviews, businesses can differentiate their services through evidence provided by their customers, which help increase their rankings on Google.

Local businesses can attract more traffic by paying attention to their reviews. A study of Local SEO Ranking Factors ranked reviews with the relevant keywords as the second determining factor of a local business’s success in their community.

Increasing Reviews

When asking for customer reviews you will want to make sure that the review-leaving process is as streamlined and user-friendly as possible. Rather than asking customers to leave reviews on Yelp or Facebook, link them directly to your Google My Business page.

You can even take it a step further and direct them straight to the review window, eliminating any possibility of a change of heart.

Many businesses are scared of bad reviews, which is a rational fear. BrightLocal found that a bad review can lead to a 40% loss. When a customer makes a purchase with you, you can email them a review link; if the customer has had a bad experience direct them to a form which puts them in touch with the correct person.

Reviews can be integrated into your website or spread around the internet thanks to social networks. In the words of Shiv Singh, “The purpose of a business is to create a customer who creates customers”, which makes existing reviews a great option to drive and create trust-based relationships with current and future customers.

Need help with review management?  DevLab Creative would love to help out.