HOW DO REVIEWS AFFECT SEO?

BySnehal Kadia
customer review email template.....-58bd7a77

Reviews reflect user experience. When a customer visits, partners or uses a product/service from a business, they leave behind an anecdote of their experience. This acts as a guiding tool and influences the decision-making of new and potential customers. 

It is not just the number of reviews that have an impact on the business reputation, but it is also the type of review that matters. A positive response brings an impactful twist to the business. Here’s what it does:

  • ORGANIC RESULTS

Reviews play a huge role in influencing local searches by helping the business achieve a higher ranking. For example, when a person searches “Mexican restaurants near me” they are highly certain to convert. Good reviews help you lead this list of results attracting organic traffic to visit your site. Positive reviews boost qualified leads and increase conversions.

  • AUTHENTICATE YOUR BUSINESS

Despite the huge shift to the digital world, people still take time to believe and have faith in the authenticity of a business. Through online reviews and rankings, it ensures the audience that the business is real and has a customer base that has experienced its products/services. 

  • BUILD TRUST

People are certain to choose a business they trust over a business they are not sure about or do not trust. Through positive reviews, the business gains the trust of the audience by proving its capability in delivering the promised products/services. This instantly attracts the audience to the business. 

Reviews are truly impactful and can bring a drastic change to your business reputation. With quality services or products, you can impress your customers. However, not all customers are aware of posting reviews online. You can urge them to leave a review and share their experience. One of the best and most formal ways to do so is by sending out emails. You can also get assistance to write a customer review email template to send to your current and previous customers requesting them to post their reviews for your business/site. Authentic reviews and positive experiences will bring about a good change to your online reputation.

Reviews constitute an important part of SEO and obtaining new reviews on platforms such as Google my Business and Trust Pilot. The business is influenced by both, negative and positive feedback. This gives rise to the question of dealing with negative reviews and what to do in case of negative feedback received online. 

The main purpose of reviews is to create a sense of trust and faith in the business in the minds of the audience. A bunch of negative reviews shall affect the business no matter how effective the SEO strategy is. 

Rankings will be the primary sufferings upon receiving negative reviews. On the brighter side, these reviews are verified to check how authentic the review is. This restricts customers who haven’t availed of your services and leaves behind negative opinions. 

Moreover, other factors such as the intensity of a negative review are also taken into consideration by the audience. For example, if a business selling bags online receives a review complaining about the delay in delivery or interaction with a rude customer care executive. It is unlikely for potential customers to be influenced due to the negative remark. Although, for a restaurant, if there are reviews such as poor quality of food, unsatisfactory taste, etc. the decision-making of the potential customers will be affected. Most people wouldn’t prefer to go to such a restaurant. This will indirectly affect the restaurant’s local ranking. What harms a company’s reputation the most is financial wrongdoings as they cause a massive rank drop and portray a regrettable reputation. 

Customers share their true opinions, complaints, and advice regarding a product to help other consumers with their buying decisions. Consumers would also much rather believe in what experienced customers say about the business than what the business says for itself.

Upon entering a local search term in Google such as “Ballet classes near me”, there is a list of results visible to you. These search results depend on factors such as:

  • How relevant is the business/site to you
  • The distance between the place and where you search about it
  • How popular the business/site is

The business with the most reviews and highest ratings will be at the top of this search result. This means that a business/site with a rating of 4.5 or more is recognized by the search engine and is a trustworthy brand among customers. The high rating contributes to getting a higher ranking on SERPs. This is due to the keywords (usually long-tail keywords) used by the customers who expressed their opinions in the form of reviews.Moreover, several people attach photographs, videos, and other user-generated media as a form of a review or along with their review. This serves as fresh content for search engine crawlers.

 

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