Everyone has heard the phrase good news travels fast. In the business world, however, bad news travels at the speed of light.
Reviews are the lifeblood of any business. You can develop all the great marketing campaigns and content you want, but bad or even no reviews at all can make all your efforts pointless.
Approximately 85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Reviews are crucial to the success of any business.
Reviews can be used to improve SEO as well as building customer trust. And now for the million dollar question, how do you use review feedback to manage your brand reputation?
We’ve gathered a few tips and hints to do exactly that. So, keep reading to ensure your brand’s reputation!
Review Feedback to Improve SEO
As mentioned, review feedback can be used to improve your SEO.
In fact, reviews play such an important role in your local search engine ranking that they are estimated to account for between 10.3% and 13.13% of your overall Google Local Pack score!
Therefore, reviews need to be an important part of your overall SEO strategy.
Search engines like Google and Bing love online reviews of companies. Search engines know that 49% of consumers need at least a four-star rating before doing business with a company.
Reviews show trust in the company, which leads to its authority rating—all of which are factors in SEO.
Incorporating reviews into your SEO strategy involves having a customer review plan and diversifying review sites.
Developing a Customer Review Plan
When developing your plan, be sure to include how you solicit reviews, where you will direct customers to post your reviews, and how to deal with negative reviews if they occur.
Start by asking customers who leave positive reviews to also leave reviews on Google, Yelp, Facebook, or any industry-specific review channel that is important to your business. This will help increase your brand recognition and boost your search engine rankings. However, be careful when asking, as some review sites like Yelp prohibit direct solicitation.
For negative reviews, redirect the customer back to the company. As much as possible, you don’t want negative reviews being found on other sites.
You also want to respond properly to negative reviews. Recognize that no one expects perfection. However, they do expect their concerns to be addressed and resolved. By responding accordingly, you demonstrate to current and potential customers that you take your business and their patronage seriously.
Be sure to address the customer’s issue, offer to look into the problem, and follow up with them. This goes a long way towards good customer service reviews and experiences. It also shows you care about customers and will stand behind your product by addressing problems that arise.
Diversify Where You Post Reviews
As mentioned, ask your customers to leave reviews on different sites. Choose which sites to leave reviews on to improve your brand recognition. Reviews on Amazon and Google are essential. However, social media needs to be addressed, too.
Facebook is more trusted for reviews than Google. So be sure to ask customers to leave feedback on your Facebook page as well.
Use Those Reviews
An effective review feedback plan can take your company to the next level and get a leg up on your competition.
Asking for reviews to be left on varying sites, and properly responding to both positive and negative reviews and keeping them site-specific will go along way in improving your SEO.
Brand recognition and reputation are what can lead to fast growth, lead generation, and high conversion rates.
For more information on review feedback and your reputation, contact us today.
Speak with one of our digital marketing gurus and ask about our Review Generation and Management Services to help simplify and streamline the review process!
We look forward to helping you achieve success in your business!
