Did you know that people today value the opinions of reviewers online just as much as they would a personal recommendation? If you didn’t know this before, you do now! This means that online reviews for your business have never been as important as they are in this Internet-savvy era where most of the research is conducted online before any product or service is purchased. Here are some more reasons why you need Google reviews for your business:
Helps Boost Local SEO
The more reviews you have online, the better it will be for people looking for you locally: boosting your SEO over time. Consider the following:
- Businesses need to be easily visible and at the top for people searching for relevant products and services within a local area.
- Google uses reviews and comments when ranking websites within local searches.
- Generally the businesses that appear at the top are the ones that have received the most positive reviews.
- Customers read local reviews closely before entrusting their money to a particular business.
Online reviews are making all the difference – to consumers and to search engines, so you need to make sure you’re getting as many as possible from your customers.
Builds Trust In A Particular Brand
With the Internet, customers have access to more information than ever before so you need to be as transparent as possible to help customers understand you better. Consider the following –
- A transparent business that provides a lot of information through their reviews with nothing to hide helps people feel more confident in its products and services.
- Customers research businesses and their practices before they purchase from them – reading readily available reviews can help convert a prospect into a customer much faster.
- Transparency also means responding to negative reviews and not trying to hide them – this shows that you care about your customers and are taking steps to make improvements where needed.
Reviews have such a powerful impact because customers are able to see how others feel about a product or service. This makes them trust a brand more.
Gain Valuable Customer Insights
Sometimes you run your business assuming you know your customers well, but that may not always be the case. Perhaps buying behaviour has changed or your products are more appealing to a different demographic or something else entirely. A Google review:
- Helps you better understand what the customer likes or dislikes about your product or service.
- Helps establish whether you delivered a positive customer experience and whether they were happy with every aspect of your business.
- Helps you understand where you went wrong and what areas may need improvement so you can make effective changes.
The more you understand your customer, the stronger a position you will be in to provide real value to them. Never hesitate to ask your customers for a review after a transaction so you are in a position to fully understand what people think of your business.
Improves Visits To Your Website
According to SEO Shark from Sydney, getting customers to click through to your website is important from a business and SEO perspective and reviews can help improve this rate. Consider the following:
- Getting website visits through review pages can help to improve your SEO over time.
- Review ratings appear near your business name in Google, so positive ratings will drive more people to your website.
- Your website should be organised and able to offer value once customers visit your pages so they can be enticed to buy something from you.
- Advertise your Google ratings on your website so people are reminded of your positive reviews as they browse through your pages. The positive perception is more likely to convert them into customers.
Google reviews give you a storefront so people already have knowledge about your business before they visit your website. Make sure you work hard to get as many positive reviews as possible to encourage more click throughs to your website.
With so many advantages, you’ll want to start focussing on earning as many Google reviews as possible if you haven’t already. Don’t try to buy reviews because search engines and customers are smarter than that and can often spot fake reviews. This could put your entire business in jeopardy. Focus on good customer service and high-quality products and the great reviews will keep pouring in.