We’ve all heard the supposed ‘magic formula’ for better rankings – backlinks, site speed and content to name but three – but what about reviews and SEO? Not only are customer reviews a fantastic way of establishing trust in your brand; they could also help your rankings.
Does Google Reviews help SEO?
To understand the link between reviews and SEO, first, we need to consider the format of said reviews. If you’re interested in local SEO, for example, you could benefit enormously from Google Reviews of your service.
It all starts with a Google My Business profile. Similar to a local directory, Google My Business can present your profile online whenever somebody searches for ‘x services near me’ or ‘X services + place name’. A well-optimised profile will show up in the ‘knowledge graph’ at the top of the Google results, giving you prime real estate to show off your star ratings.
You can also use reviews to help your brand show up before others on Google Maps – helping to push up those conversions.
Understanding rich snippets
While the ‘knowledge graph’ helps to give your business more of a presence in the results pages, it’s not the only way you can use reviews for SEO. If you’ve ever searched for a recipe or cinema movie times, you might have noticed something slightly different from your standard text result.
This is known as a ‘rich snippet’ and you can gain extra presence on Google results pages by having your star rating appear. Not only does this increase visibility; it can also push up click-through rates by up to 30%.
Interacting with your customers
Reviews and SEO have one thing in particular in common – trust. More than half of all customers will only use a service if it has a star rating of 4 or more. Even more importantly, review sites such as Google or even third parties like TrustPilot give you a chance to respond.
Responding to a Google review shows the search engine that your business is active, which in turn, rewards you with better rankings. If satisfying the robots wasn’t enough, it also shows customers that you take a genuine interest in customer care – even if you’re responding to a bad review.
Helping Google with local results
While responding to customer reviews is great for the end user, it can help Google, too. For example, if yours is a local business selling a particular product, but this isn’t immediately obvious on your website or business name, reviews can help a search engine.
Let’s say yours is a local bike shop. Do you also sell reflective vests? Reviews discussing your product range can help Google to better understand your site, and therefore rank you for these terms, such as reflective vests.
Complementing backlinks
If you’re especially interested in local SEO, then reviews may even be more helpful than backlinks. Certainly, backlinks have their place if you’re trying to build your reputation up on a broader scale, but reviews help to localise your site. This helps to instil trusts in your customers thanks to genuine reviews from others.
Even better, add these reviews to your website with a widget or scrolling testimonial bar, and guide users down the funnel when they land. The longer a user stays on the site, the better this looks to Google – so you should use reviews to complement your conversion rate optimisation strategy.
Looking for local SEO tips?
Search engine optimisation is a constant, ever-changing process, but reviews can make all the difference. For help with your strategy, contact beefound.agency.
