Most business owners know that positive online reviews for their business are helpful. When deciding which business to patronize, a customer is much more likely to choose whichever one has the higher average rating. However, reviews also have a lesser known, but just as important, function. Reviews can be a powerful tool when it comes to boosting your SEO efforts, especially in the case of local SEO. Here’s a helpful guide on exactly how customer reviews can help your ranking in search engine results.
Do Online Reviews Get You in the Local 3 Pack?
The short answer is yes, online reviews can go a long way in helping you get into the coveted local 3 pack. Of course, to help in this way, the reviews need to be positive. A business with a low rating will almost never make it into the local 3 pack. Google wants to populate the local 3 pack with businesses which excel at what they do and have a high authority rating, and they see a high number of positive reviews as strong evidence of both of these.
Do Google Reviews Help SEO?
Google reviews make a big difference when it comes to improving SEO. For best results, the reviews should be frequent, detailed, and positive. Search engines, especially Google, see this as a strong signal of trustworthiness and authority, both traits that can help to increase your search engine rankings. To ensure your business is receiving these reviews, it is good practice to be proactive in getting your customers to leave reviews. This can be as simple as just asking them in person or through email, or a more aggressive method, such as offering a small discount on their next purchase in return for leaving a review.
Does Responding to Reviews Help SEO?
It is always a good idea to respond to all reviews your business receives. When it comes to your search engine ranking, Google likes to see that you actively engage with your customers and care about their experience with you, and responding to reviews shows exactly that.
Responding to reviews also provides additional benefits, such as showing customers that your business is trustworthy. Responding to reviews is also a great way to change a customer’s opinion if they were not satisfied with the service or product they received.
Review Snippet Structured Data
Review snippet structured data, also referred to as review schema, is an invaluable tool when it comes to SEO. It provides additional indicators to Google about what content is on a webpage. Review schema allows ratings from your website, either of specific products or your business as a whole, to be featured on Google search results. When ranking your webpage, Google likes to see a lot of information. Providing more information through review schema will cause your site to rank higher in search results.
Referral Traffic
Customer reviews lead to a higher level of referral traffic, which is website traffic arriving from outside sources. For example, someone sees a review praising your restaurant on Yelp, and then they click the link to be redirected to your website. Referral traffic has a very positive effect on off-page SEO. Google considers high referral traffic as a positive ranking factor, as it shows users’ confidence in the authority and relevance of the website.
Displaying Reviews on Your Site
Obviously, displaying reviews on your website can be helpful in attracting customers, but it also has the benefit of improving SEO. As long as they are properly optimized, Google will see these reviews when it crawls your website. When Google sees that there are a high number of positive reviews on your site, it will increase your webpage’s ranking in search results.
Best Customer Review Sites for Businesses
Nowadays, there is a flood of customer review sites on the internet. WIth this plethora of options, it can be difficult to know where best to focus your efforts when trying to convince customers to leave reviews. Here are some customer review sites that we feel can really help boost your SEO efforts.
Google Business Profile (Google My Business)
Your GMB profile may be the most important of all of these sites. This is the profile people see in search results on Google, featuring information, photos, and Google My Business reviews. Having a full GMB profile can be the deciding factor when it comes to getting into the local 3 pack.
Facebook is one of the most popular and well-known social networking sites. Its high number of users means it can be easy to get a high number of reviews here.
Yelp
Yelp focuses solely on crowd-sourced reviews. It is widely used and considered trustworthy, meaning a lot of weight is given to reviews here when it comes to SEO.
Better Business Bureau
The Better Business Bureau is a private, 501 nonprofit organization founded in 1912. Having been around for over a century, it is considered by many to be the most trustworthy source when it comes to the quality of a business. The BBB has a high authority ranking, so reviews here can greatly increase your ranking in search results.
Foursquare
Foursquare provides personalized recommendations of places to go near a user’s current location based on places they have previously been or shown interest in. Users can also write reviews on Foursquare. While not as popular as Facebook, reviews here can still be useful when it comes to SEO.
Clutch
Clutch is a website that allows users to search for, hire, and review business service providers. Having a presence here can be very helpful for businesses in the business services industry (marketing, IT, etc.).
HomeAdvisor
Homeadvisor helps users find local service professionals to carry out home improvement, maintenance and remodeling projects. They can then leave reviews for professionals they have hired. This is a good site to focus on if you’re in if your business focuses on home services.
Glassdoor
Glassdoor is a recruiting site where users can leave reviews of places they’ve worked. It is considered one of the most well known and trustworthy recruiting sites, so reviews here can really help with SEO.
Merchant Circle
Merchant Circle helps small and midsize businesses network with other local businesses and reach local customers. Reviews here can be very helpful to businesses whose main focus is local SEO.
Angi (formerly Angi’s List)
Angi is similar to Homeadvisor, helping users find home services professionals and allowing them to leave reviews. Like Homeadvisor, Angi is best used by businesses which provide these services.
