All businesses have thrived by word of mouth advertising. Before technology revolutionized the way we do things, the performance of a business would be adversely affected if too many people said bad things about it. Let’s fast forward to now, when customer reviews are now through online platforms such as Google. One negative review can cripple a business.

Google values customer feedback. They’re not just listening to what you say but also what others say. A recent study conducted found that SEO rankings improved when they got more customer reviews. They are critical to your search engine optimization strategy. They will affect:

• Customer purchase decisions
• Which search results get more exposure
• Search engine rankings

Why Google Ratings and Reviews Are Important

Reviews and ratings are an important conversion factor for your business. Be one step ahead of your competition if you have 4.5+ stars and more reviews than your competitors. The higher Google ranking you have builds social trust and will lead to further lead generation. Approximately 84% of people read online reviews before making a purchase, and 54% will visit your website after reading a positive review. Keeping this in mind, your business needs more reviews and higher Google ratings to remain competitive.

Reasons Why Google Reviews Are Important

Reason 1: Reviews can influence your SEO ranking

While reviews may not always be part of the algorithm, positive reviews do affect your business Google rankings in many ways. Three types of search results are influenced by such reviews:

• Maps Searches – Google Maps feature even says the highest rated results are displayed when searching for nearby shops.
• Local Carousel – There is a strong relationship between reviews and the Carousel position
• Mobile Search – Google takes into account the average review count in its mobile search to display results

Thus, it makes sense that Google would display only the top rated results in order to increase user satisfaction.

Reason 2: Updated Google Maps

From time to time Google will collect feedback from its customers to improve its service. Most recently they updated the map search to show ratings and reviews more prominently. This indicates Google takes reviews into account seriously. It also takes the same data to determine the relevance of their results.

How do reviews benefit your SEO?

Google loves online reviews for one main reason – consumers rely on them when making a buying decision. Below are 4 ways you can help increase your search engine rankings:

1. Reviews provide relevant content – We have always heard “content is king”, every marketer knows this. Although content is relevant, it is not always possible for businesses to churn out content on a regular basis. Google wants to know how active your site is, so what do you do? Collect consumer generated media ex. videos, photos, Q&A – all of which can be provided from Google reviews. This allows you to convey a customers shopping experience without hard selling. it will help create conversations among your customers and demonstrates to Google that you’re not just communicating with your customers, but they are also talking about you as well. This helps you boost your off-page SEO and keep your site active.
2. Boost Social SEO – Boosting social SEO comes in the form of social shares, comments, likes, hashtags… which all point back to your site. Social SEO works great for reviews. If you have customers sharing, commenting and liking your news, it will grab your attention. If it is not shared, then it will have little impact on social SEO.
3. Helps Rank For Long-Tail Keywords – Long-tail-keywords are phrases which have low search competition but are easier to rank for if selected carefully. The problem lays with identifying such keywords. By looking at your customers comments and how they phrase concerns, you can use these as keywords for your website optimization.
4. Naturally Shape SEO – Sites are optimized for tanking through a system of basics such as headings, keywords, internal links and backlinks. With reviews, customers work like an army, helping shape your SEO without much effort on your part. Google reviews are especially helpful in bringing in more traffic, which will increase your overall conversion rate.

Final Note

Everyone wants to buy a quality product or service from a reputable company. The best way for a customer to determine this is by checking Google ratings & reviews. Therefore if your business is lacking in this area or crammed with negative reviews, you may be loosing out to your competition.