In digital marketing, Google business reviews are too important to ignore.
Why? Customers will spend 31% more if there are positive reviews for your business.
Additionally, customer reviews can have a significant impact on your SEO. This is particularly true when it comes to local searches. These days, review signals are an important factor for both local packs and organic search results.
Why are business reviews so relevant for SEO? There are at least five reasons for it.
1. Organic Search Traffic
From a marketing standpoint, every customer review will contain some natural long-tail keywords.
As experienced business owners will tell you, these keywords can work wonders for your SEO strategy. Unlike simple keywords such as “pizza,” long-tail keywords are far more likely to help you reach your local audience.
Over time, Google will start associating your site with those search terms. The more reviews you acquire, the more your rankings will increase.
2. Star Ratings
It’s easy to see why having star ratings next to your site listing is a good thing. These ratings serve as solid proof of satisfied customers, and they make consumers more likely to check out your site.
According to recent studies, star ratings can help your site outperform the higher listings on Google. Of course, you need a large number of reviews and a high average rating.
3. Unbiased Content
By their nature, customer reviews are unbiased content.
Why is this important? For starters, this kind of content represents your business in a real and organic manner. Consumers like unbiased content because they understand that it’s impossible to please everyone.
In other words, not every business review needs to be a five-star one. What you should focus on, however, is the level of your customer service. In the long run, good customer experience will have a big impact on your reviews.
4. Product Page Rankings
For e-commerce sites with a large number of products, Google business reviews can be a huge boon. Every time one of your individual products is reviewed, Google will rank it higher in local searches.
Additionally, reviews on product pages will help increase your click-through rate. And, as we’ve mentioned, consumers are more inclined to buy products that have reviews.
5. Local Pack Results
Finally, there’s the fact that Google really likes customer reviews.
The reason should be self-explanatory. For them, reviews are a great way to make the local pack results relevant to their users. It’s no coincidence that sites with a lot of reviews always rank at the top of local searches.
Since Google’s local pack is now showing only three results (instead of seven), accumulating reviews is more important than ever. Keep in mind that local listings are particularly important to mobile users, and they generally don’t have a lot of patience.
Need Help With Google Business Reviews?
If you have other questions regarding this topic, or if you need help with your Google My Business profile or Local SEO strategy in general, you can contact us right here.
One of our digital marketing experts will get in contact with you as soon as possible to discuss your particular needs and possible solutions.
In addition to providing hands-on strategies to increase your Google business reviews, we offer a wide variety of Google My Business Services including GMB profile optimization, spam removal, GMB Suspension Reinstatement/Insurance, and more.
