Reviews Matter: Why Google Reviews are Vital for Your SEO Success?

Do Google Reviews Affect SEO? To understand the question, you first need to understand the relationship between Google reviews and SEO. With the rise of Digital marketing, the reliance on online shopping has increased significantly. Imagine this-you are looking for face cream and trying to buy a cream that says it contains honey, almonds, and more. Now you’re crazy about it and want to buy it online, but then read customer reviews that say the product isn’t as good as the photo, or the quality or something bad. Maybe I’m going to buy it.

And to the question, Do Google Reviews offers SEO ranking? Yes, Google reviews do really affect your local SEO rankings. They’re not a game-changer that will instantly catapult you to number one in search results, but they can influence how Google evaluates your relevance for local searches. And it boils down to one main reason – trust. How does it work?

Online reviews are highly valued by both marketers and customers. Reviews help marketers understand their online performance and what their customers are talking about. Reviews help customers determine the authenticity of your product or service and which of your services is the best.

There are many other factors that affect SEO, but Google reviews aren’t one of them, but these online reviews can convey credibility and authority and act as a signal to search engines. More than ever, we are working to build online reputation management. Studies show that reviews can help increase product/service awareness, increase sales and popularity, and increase conversion rates. This is probably the purpose of SEO.

Also Read: 100% Best FREE SEO TOOLS for SEO Ranking

When evaluating a website, Google focuses on E-A-T: Expertise, Authority, and Trust. Here, “T” is trust (the basis of the relationship between purchases and customers and marketers, which guarantees Google’s algorithm that the business is trustworthy.

“Recently Google banned anonymity. Companies drop rankings overnight. These reviews are rated up to 15% by Google. This is how Google rates local companies. You can see for yourself.

For Instance, If you plan to have dinner at a restaurant;  visit a restaurant that has good reviews and no bad reviews. Believe it or not,  Google trusts your customers more than you say. Your review can produce both positive and negative results. 

1. Local customer reviews build trust
2. Bad reviews steal your charm
3. Positive customer reviews increase traffic
4. Local reviews tell Google about your site
5. A 5-star rating may have more clicks than a 2-star or 3-star rating

Apparently, Google reviews can improve your online reputation and credibility with Google. These reviews of Google My Business Profiles are often noticed by customers and can influence their decisions. You can improve overall online performance by taking advantage of the possibilities of Google reviews.

1. Local customer reviews build trust

In today’s business world, clients have a seemingly less direct approach to reviewing companies and their practices. They often post their criticisms to online forums and review sites, where these critiques are seen all over the world wide web. Some business owners see these online reviews as an obstacle to their success.

In reality, the exact opposite is true. Quality online reviews are one of the best ways for businesses to succeed in the 21st century. Business owners and their administrative staff need to embrace the power of reviews to bolster their existing clientele and expand new markets.

Reviews are generally qualitative rather than quantitative. They capture the feeling a customer had after visiting your business. These emotional responses, when encountered in an online setting, can dramatically affect the opinions of other potential customers.

Below are five ways to build trust using quality reviews.

1. Sharing Reviews: Getting Out There
2. Collecting Reviews: Valuing People
3. Monitoring Reviews: Keeping Things in Check
4. Responding to Reviews: Being Proactive
5. Requesting Reviews: Replenishing the Supply

Also Read: HIGH DEMAND DIGITAL SKILLS: This is what Professional Do

2. Bad reviews steal your charm

Also called reputation management, improving your online reviews is an increasingly popular offering among SEO agencies. We should include it as part of a holistic SEO strategy. The goal is to increase the quality and quantity of online reviews, which will improve your reputation, increase your prominence in search results, and boost your visibility among local SEO listings.

More importantly, increasing the number of reviews adds social proof and influences other factors such as believability. They may not all be perfect, but a few less-than-desirable reviews are, in some cases, desirable. For example, a business with 10 perfect reviews (e.g., five stars out of five) will be less believable than one with 1,000 less-than-perfect reviews (e.g., 4.2 stars out of five).

There are three types of online reviews:

1. Map listings (e.g., Google Business, Bing Places, and soon Apple Maps).
2. Review sites (e.g., TripAdvisor, Yelp, and industry-specific directories).
3. Social pages (e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn Company, Instagram Business, etc).

If you haven’t claimed your profile on these local listing sites, you should. In addition to using them as marketing channels, it allows you to keep a finger on your reputation’s pulse and to respond quickly to anything unfavorable the moment it’s posted. More importantly, when dealing with fake reviews (and believe me, you will get them), it allows you to deal with them more efficiently.

Once you have claimed these profiles, you will be notified when people post reviews. When you get positive ones, it’s an opportunity for you to respond and thank them. You can also inject some marketing by mentioning your brand, another product or service, or a special offer. When you do get negative reviews, however, here are three things you should do to help you deal with them:

1. Amplify positive reviews,
2. Increase positive reviews, and
3. Remove the negative ones.

Also Read: How to make money with TikTok? Use Viral & Trending hashtags

3. Positive customer reviews to increase traffic

Testimonials and product reviews can be one of your greatest sales tools. Over 70% of consumers say they look at product reviews before making a purchase and nearly 68% indicate they are more likely to buy from a site that has trustworthy product ratings and reviews. Social proof can reassure hesitant shoppers, provide additional context, and reduce returns by ensuring buyers are satisfied with their purchases.

4. Local reviews tell Google about your site

Google reviews provide useful information and help your business stand out. Reviews show up next to your Business Profile in Maps and Search. Do Google Reviews affect SEO in your business? Yes, it does.

Tip: Your customers don’t need a Gmail address to leave a review if they sign in to their Google Account.

5. A 5-star rating may have more clicks than a 2-star or 3-star rating

From the findings, we can see that showing a positive star rating of 3+ stars has a positive impact on click-through rates. Now the same question I will ask you? Do Google Reviews affect SEO? The higher the star rating the more clicks a listing received from Google’s Local Pack.

We also discovered an uplift that earning additional high-star reviews had on lead generation from Google Local. Going from a 3-star to a 5-star rating can earn a business 25% more clicks. This alone justifies the extra investment of time and effort to generate more positive reviews.

However, when a business had less than 3 stars displayed on their Google search listing, the click-through rate was less than if they have no stars at all.

These results were consistent across the different business types and SERP variations that we showed to participants.

Going from a 3-star rating to a 5-star rating gets a business 25% more clicks from Google Local Pack

Moz lists the top 8 local pack ranking factors accordingly:

1. Google My Business Signals (Proximity, categories, keyword in business title, etc.) 25.12%
2. Link Signals (Inbound anchor text, linking domain authority, linking domain quantity, etc.) 16.53%
3. Review Signals (Review quantity, review velocity, review diversity, etc.) 15.44%
4. On-Page Signals (Presence of NAP, keywords in titles, domain authority, etc.) 13.82%
5. Citation Signals (IYP/aggregator NAP consistency, citation volume, etc.) 10.82%
6. Behavioral Signals (Click-through rate, mobile clicks to call, check-ins, etc.) 9.56%
7. Personalization  5.88%
8. Social Signals (Google engagement, Facebook engagement, Twitter engagement, etc.) 2.82%

Will the Google Reviews disappear soon?

We are not thinking. There was no better way to get an accurate representation of your business, along with customer reviews and other user-generated content. Any business is the best in town, but in this era, customer feedback is important.
In my personal opinion, verification speed will be a bigger factor in all of this. Being able to keep getting new reviews, positive or negative, is a good sign that you are still in business. Google has discovered that Google has millions of fake business listings, so review consistency is a great way to distinguish between genuine and fake.

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Ruby is an IT Engineer | Blogger | Digital marketer who offers Copywriting, ghostwriting, and blogging services to provide digital marketing content that gains social media attention and increases search engine visibility.

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