There is a stronger relationship between your customer reviews and your Google ranking than you might think. We know that Google is updating its ranking algorithms frequently and strategies that were effective yesterday might not be applicable today. However, one thing is for sure: your customer reviews are creating unique content that is boosting your website’s authority. Google loves content that is original and relevant. So customer feedback is definitely worth it as it sends strong signals to search engines and improves SEO metrics overall.
Your business becomes more relevant and valuable when you receive customer activity. According to TrustPilot, more than 85% of customers are checking reviews before buying a product in order to validate their decision making. The same works for Google. The more reviews your business receives the more Google is trusting your website and it will rank you higher. Reviews are a way of communication to Google, it signals trustworthiness and authority.
In the 2018 Local Search Ranking Factors by Moz, reviews count for up to 10% of your overall business impact on Google. Although it may seem like this doesn’t matter much, there are actually many other factors at play, such as customizing your website, being active on social media, or on-page activity (keywords, domain authority etc.) In the end, they will all work together to improve your website.
In many different ways, reviews can help you build your business relevance. Google is constantly evolving and your customer reviews have now become a part of what SEO considers when ranking your website. Here 3 amazing things that you reviews have the ability to do:
Reviews actually create keywords
Reviews have the capability to create keywords on their own. Especially longer and high quality reviews create long tail keywords and improve visibility. This brings in more customers, but it also speaks in a language that other clients might as well. By doing this, your company will probably come up when potential clients are conducting research.
Reviews increase your traffic
The fact that reviews exist in your business simply means that you are credible and trusted. There isn’t something specific to do here other than encouraging your customers to leave reviews and create a long term relation based on communication. Stay tuned for our next blog article focusing on the topic of where to encourage your customers to leave reviews at.
Decrease bounce-rate
Another amazing effect that reviews can have is to decrease your website’s bounce rate. This metric is very important to look after as it tells you how much your customers are spending on your online shop. The high amount of visitors that quickly leave your website is straight telling you that something is off. And most of the time, this is highly linked to reviews. Customers nowadays do check for reviews before deciding to buy. Google has mentioned in the past that bounce rate is not affecting SEO ranking. However, reviews can impact your business authority and therefore, your SEO activity as well.
Now that you are aware of the significance of reviews and the necessity to embrace them as they significantly improve your SEO, you can also consider two more essential steps to take in order to emphasize your performance. Here are 2 extra recommendations for your website:
Be aware and respond to reviews accordingly
Responding to your customer reviews means interaction and Google can sense that as it creates new updates on your websites. If you want to further understand reviews and how they can become a successful marketing strategy, check this blog here.
Display your reviews on your website
One last piece of advice from FeedCheck is to display your reviews directly onto the website Utilizing our platform’s FeedCheck widget feature will make this process simple for you. Just copy the provided link and paste it into your landing pages. Additionally, this will increase your organic traffic and maintain customers longer.
PS: It also lowers your bounce rate!