Online Reviews Are The Key to Building Consumer Trust
Let’s start on common ground: you know online reviews are important for your business. Reviews help your Google search ranking and optimize your SEO efforts across the board. What is equally, if not more, important are the additional ingredients it takes to optimize your Google presence.
As the internet continues to evolve into a forum-based platform, consumers look to their most-trusted-stranger for recommendations– online reviews. It makes sense that consumers turn to reviews as a compass — to understand similar path-to-purchase decisions.
Reviews do much more than rank your products and services; they are key in framing the image of your brand and quality of your services on the world wide web. Regardless of your business, online reviews are important for every product and service. Here’s what we know: responding to your reviews makes your business stand out– in a good way.
Responding To Your Reviews Is the Key to Your Brand’s Online Reputation
Gone are the days when pricing was the sole factor in making a buying decision. Top of funnel consideration starts with a quick Google search to gain valuable insight about what you offer and how you do business. This first step establishes a customer’s initial impression that will lead them to contact you or your competitor.
Reviews influence the trustworthiness of your company to both Google and customers. If that isn’t convincing enough, a BrightLocal Survey revealed that 87% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses. And the review site consumers look to most often? You guessed it, Google.
What other people are saying about your company provides consumers with the confidence that your product or service will solve their problem. How you respond speaks to the quality of customer service and care that your business provides. It is a way to build an engaged relationship with your customers that stretches past a purchase.
While customers are more likely to purchase a product or service that has customer reviews, the impact of review responses may carry more weight than you imagined. 71% of customers changed their perceptions of a brand after seeing a public response to a reviewer, and were more likely to vote the company as “helpful.” Needless to say, reviews leave an impression on your business, and responding to them builds trust in your brand for the future.
Increase Your Local SEO by Optimizing Your Google Local Pack
SEO and Google’s Local Pack are in a committed relationship. When thinking about your SEO strategy for your business, there are quite a few things to consider.
Google’s Local Pack works to target your local audience. If you aren’t familiar with the term SERP (Search Engine Results Page), it is likely that you’ve seen its function. The Local Pack is related to a user’s search query and Google responds by providing both paid and organic results.
You’ll find that SERP’s are an important component of SEO, and how your business appears on Google. Research shows that 46% of all searches on Google are seeking local information. To make sure your business shows up on Google search results for local SEO, your Google presence and polished profile are a must.
Think about when a potential customer searches on Google for “audiologists near me,” the chance that your audiology business will show up instead of your competitors is dependent on your Google My Business Profile. Your business is more likely to gain traction when your webpage is higher up on Google’s search results.
Make Google Algorithm Your Friend
Google’s algorithm is as complex as the world we live in. Google aims to provide a blend of the most relevant and quality results for a query, so frequent updates are to be expected. As a business owner and marketer, it is important to keep this in mind when maintaining your SEO-friendly presence.
The most recent algorithmic updates consider various traits and signals when evaluating the ranking of a webpage. You can probably guess what’s coming next… indeed, consumer reviews have a significant impact on Google’s search algorithm.
Google prefers websites that have reviews and maintaining positive reviews are parallel to a higher ranking for organic search results. Google also values businesses that connect with their customers by responding to their reviews. To put it simply, your reviews and the way your business interacts with them are important, without exceptions.
Responding To Your Reviews Is Important, But It Doesn’t Make Your Life Easier
If you’ve made it this far, it’s clear you care about the success of your business.
CallSource also cares about the success of your business!
We know your time is valuable. With CallSource’s RespondNow!, our trained staff can respond to your reviews so that you may focus your efforts elsewhere. From responding to reviews with a personalized approach, to carefully crafting a response to a negative review, there is a whole world to consider when approaching your business’s reviews. And we’d like to think we have the secret sauce down.
If you’re ready to enhance your business’s online reputation and your Google presence, CallSource has your back. Contact a CallSource specialist to get started.
Links:
How to Set up Your Google My Business
SEO Local
CS Reviews
Respond, Now!
References:
https://www.brightlocal.com/research/local-consumer-review-survey/
https://www.google.com/search/howsearchworks/algorithms/
https://moz.com/ugc/the-insane-power-of-online-reviews-for-local-businesses
https://seranking.com/blog/google-local-pack/
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/12-local-seo-stats-every-business-owner-and-marketer-should-know-in-2019-i/549079/
