{"id":645,"date":"2017-10-27T11:13:25","date_gmt":"2017-10-27T11:13:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.searchenginewatch.com\/2017\/10\/27\/customer-reviews-the-not-so-secret-seo-tactic\/"},"modified":"2020-03-13T18:26:17","modified_gmt":"2020-03-13T18:26:17","slug":"customer-reviews-the-not-so-secret-seo-tactic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2017\/10\/27\/customer-reviews-the-not-so-secret-seo-tactic\/","title":{"rendered":"Customer reviews: The not-so-secret SEO tactic"},"content":{"rendered":"

No matter what industry you\u2019re in or what your business does, you want to be as close as possible to the top of a search engine results page<\/a> (SERP).<\/strong><\/p>\n

And of course, SEO<\/a> is what gets you there,\u00a0taking into consideration more than 200 ranking signals<\/a>, such as the quality of your content, backlinks<\/a>, mobile optimization<\/a>, and keywords<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While these traditional SEO<\/a> tactics have dominated strategies since the formation of Google,\u00a0customer reviews<\/a><\/span>\u00a0are another ranking signal hot on their heels, now making up 7% of Moz\u2019s localized organic ranking factors.\u00a0Reviews<\/a> provide search marketers with a huge opportunity to go above and beyond. But how do they enhance SEO<\/a>?<\/span><\/p>\n

You could say that customer reviews<\/a> piggyback on one of the most important ranking factors: the \u2018freshness\u2019 of your website content<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By providing your business with a continuous supply of fresh, unique user-generated content (UGC),\u00a0webcrawlers\u00a0know your site is active,\u00a0driving your website listing higher, achieving Google organic stars, and increasing website conversions.<\/p>\n

Content produced in association with Feefo<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Obtaining organic stars<\/span><\/h2>\n

But just having reviews isn\u2019t enough. Ideally, your business should show Google organic stars, the recognizable\u00a0rich snippets<\/a> that help your website stand out in search listings. These stars have been proven to increase click-through rate (CTR) by up to 30%, according to\u00a0<\/a>Search Engine <\/a>Land.<\/span><\/p>\n

In order to achieve that seal of Google approval when hosting third-party reviews on your website, it\u00a0must be marked-up appropriately with the correct schema<\/a>: code that helps algorithms return more informative results about websites. There are three key types, focused on homepages, specific products and a business\u2019 individual locations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Coupled with the right schema, your reviews could also appear in\u00a0Google\u2019s Knowledge Panel<\/a><\/span>\u00a0the box that appears on the right of search results with relevant business information.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So even if you\u00a0have reviews, you still won\u2019t show those stars without the correct schema markup<\/a> on your website.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fighting fake reviews<\/b><\/h2>\n

Reviews may add credibility, but what if they\u2019re fake? It\u2019s not uncommon to see fraudulent review-writing services advertised, despite crackdowns (and lawsuits) against prolific offenders. <\/span><\/p>\n

Consumers are practical; they know that nothing is truly perfect and are skeptical of products and services with uniformly positive feedback. Often believing five-star reviews may be too good to be true, people are more likely to be influenced by ratings between 4.2 and 4.5 out of 5, according to GetApp<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Invitation-only platforms negate the threat of fake reviews by only soliciting them from genuine customers who have purchased products from their clients, rather than leaving it open for anyone to leave a review. When people know that your reviews have all been left by genuine customers, the power of that relationship will help you build confidence and sales.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reviews and revenue<\/b><\/h2>\n

Most people factor online reviews<\/a> into their buying process. According to Fan and Fuel research from December 2016, <\/span>92% of consumers hesitate to make a purchase<\/span><\/a> if a product doesn\u2019t have any reviews. Similarly, BrightLocal found that <\/span>88% of consumers trust online reviews<\/span><\/a> just as much as recommendations from people they know. <\/span><\/p>\n

Word of mouth certainly holds weight, but seeing online reviews<\/a> generally comes across as more varied and impartial, granting them equal value. Any way you look at it, people trust people.<\/span><\/p>\n

That trust increases confidence, which often comes with more traffic and more more sales. Since HomeFuels Direct, an oil and gas company based in Northern England, started displaying organic stars on their website, sales have increased by 69% year-over-year.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not just positive reviews that help. Reviews are obviously powerful for SEO<\/a>, but something many marketers don\u2019t realize is that\u00a0negative reviews<\/span><\/a>\u00a0can be just as beneficial in contributing to consumer trust.<\/span><\/p>\n

Volume and variety counts for a lot. Displaying positive and negative reviews shows you have nothing to hide. The positive reviews speak for themselves, while those that are negative provide a great opportunity to show off your customer service skills.<\/span><\/p>\n

Giving consumers a transparent view of the way you handle negative feedback can certainly endear your business to them. In a world where everything is getting more automated by the day, that personal touch really adds to your overall value.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Skate<\/p>\n

To sum up<\/span><\/h2>\n

Consumers today have literally all the choice in the world, which makes\u00a0the need for transparency to help your business stand out against competitors that much more important.<\/span><\/p>\n

Collected and displayed correctly, and coupled with the correct schema, your business can use reviews as a fundamental SEO<\/a> tactic and a means to show Google organic stars. Most importantly, reviews can be influential in building trust with your customers, reassuring them that they can buy through you, with confidence.<\/span><\/p>\n

To further understand how verified feedback will help you obtain organic stars, improve CTR and increase sales, read\u00a0<\/span><\/em>Feefo\u2019s report:\u00a0<\/em>Improve search engine performance with ratings\u00a0and reviews<\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Content produced\u00a0in collaboration with Feefo<\/a>.\u00a0Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Search Engine Watch.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Innovative businesses are turning to customer reviews in an effort to revamp their stagnant SEO strategies. But how can reviews really help your visibility on Google, why does Google value some reviews more than others, and how can powerful reviews help your business boost website conversions?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96,"featured_media":646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[305,339,340],"content_type":[27095],"class_list":["post-645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seo","tag-customer-reviews","tag-online-reviews","tag-reputation-management","content_type-news"],"acf":{"tad_independentcommercial":false,"tad_content_format":false},"post_info":{"name":"Mike Obrien","title":"","thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/reviews-120x90.jpg","category":"SEO","timeago":"8y"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/96"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645"},{"taxonomy":"content_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content_type?post=645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}