The impact of reviews on SEO - Everything you need to know

Abstract

Imagine 40,000 index fingers worldwide, clicking on the Google Search bar every second of every day. Those 40,000 searches each second translate into 1.2 trillion searches per year - which has meant that organic search has become the dominant method for your business to be found online. However, you're competing with every other business for the attention of consumers online. Having a comprehensive SEO strategy in place is imperative if you're interested in having a healthy portion of those 1.2 trillion clicks come your way.

This shift to an even more digital-dependent society has caused companies to rapidly evolve their online presence. With more companies competing for the attention of consumers online, it’s imperative to have a comprehensive SEO strategy in place.

SEO is one of the most complex elements of online marketing, with a laundry list of factors that influence your search ranking. For years companies have focused on the usual inputs to SEO strategy such as content, topic clusters, keywords and backlinks. However, one often overlooked and significantly influential piece of the SEO puzzle for local businesses in particular is the impact of customer reviews.

Google now takes reputation management into stronger consideration than ever before. Consider that 93% of consumers use online reviews in determining their buying decisions; search engines are well aware of this, and they factor it into a business’s SEO ranking.

In this guide, we’ll break down everything you need to know about the impact of reviews on your company’s SEO, and how to ensure that you’re set up beautifully to drive more reviews and higher rankings in the months to come.

Introduction

Website traffic can be an important KPI for any company. More traffic often means more potential leads and more engagement from existing customers. Keeping up with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) best practices is an essential part of hitting your traffic targets.

However, keeping up with SEO is easier said than done. As technical as it can be, one important often overlooked influence on search ranking is online reviews.

Your company’s reviews provide Google with a highly-regarded data point to understand the legitimacy and trustworthiness of your business. When companies use reviews properly, they can increase their visibility on search engines and attract new customers.

Let’s dig a little deeper to understand what is it about reviews that gives them such significant impact on your SEO.

Why do online reviews matter for SEO?

It comes down to trust. Ask yourself, whom do you trust more — a salesperson telling you that their company/ product is the best, or a customer who says the same? We tend to trust what others say about us more than what we say about ourselves, and so does Google.

Google’s algorithm measures how trustworthy your company is by “reading” what customers are saying about it. When a customer gives your company a review, whether positive or negative, it tells Google a few important things:

• The company is a legitimate operation
• It has real customers who have interacted with it
• How well the company serves its customers

That third point is a crucial part of SEO. If we go back to how Google approaches their platform, they aim to provide their users with the highest-quality search results. The more positive reviews your company has, the more likely Google will view your brand as a trustworthy resource and boost your search ranking for relevant keywords.

Given that 75% of people never scroll past the first page of search engines, and that organic search drives 51% of all website traffic, it’s easy to see why companies should invest time into getting more online reviews...

Download this guide for more invaluable insights