AH, THE MYSTERY behind a high Google rank. No business needs to be told about the importance of SEO on their company’s success. We all crave it and search endlessly for ways to bring our rankings high up in Google’s algorithms. We also all know the positive outcome that good reviews can have on a business, but not many truly understand the connection that the two have. While customer reviews should be prioritized as a method of bringing business anyway, they also do have an impact on SEO and your business’ ranking. Below you’ll find a number of ways the two are connected and why reviews should be added to your SEO strategy.
Google Loves Authenticity
First and foremost, reviews prove that your business is an official business making official transactions. The importance of links on rankings is well understood. We all know that links back to your website from another relevant site is a great way to gain Google’s trust and show the relevancy of your content. In turn, Google rewards you with higher visibility and ranking. The same logic applies with customer reviews, showing Google’s algorithm that many people have interacted with your business and that those recorded experiences could be of use for others to see, whether positive or negative. While reviews in general put you on Google’s map, positive reviews show Google the relevancy of your business. Google itself is a business that prioritizes the needs of its searchers, and if your reviews can prove to it that you’re a secure and profitable business for it to feature up high, you’ll receive a higher ranking.
Click Through Rates
Consumers themselves also crave original content and security in their decision, which is one of the reasons why people love reviews. Because of this, consumers will often choose a company or a product based on its star rating. The higher your rating, the more people see it and click on it, in turn also triggering Google’s trust in you and boosting your rankings, giving you more visibility. The process generates a consistent loop, and your website’s CTR is a strong factor in whether or not you maintain your ranking.
Keywords Keywords Keywords
They are the basis of SEO. Mentioning those key words that consumers search up so that your business gets put on their radar is SEO 101. Keywords are a great way for Google to also understand the in’s and out’s of your business and provide relevancy to its searchers, which is why they even pull them from reviews. Customers will inevitably mention a key word when writing a good or bad review for you, unintentionally increasing its word count. While you may solely focus on the main set of keywords that prove most beneficial to your SEO, reviews can often mention secondary words that are still relevant, filling the content gap on your website. By also responding to reviews as a business, you’re adding more keywords and giving your website the regular fresh update that Google craves.
Good for Local Business
The Local Pack- the box in Google’s search result page that shows businesses relevant to the search that are in near proximity to the searcher’s location. In the local pack, the businesses star rating appears directly below the name of the company, with the number of reviews beside in parentheses. The business are listed in order of proximity to the searcher, with the highest rankings and the most reviews as secondary but still strong determining factors in its list placement.