Will obtaining positive business reviews help to improve my company’s SEO?
Introduction
When a customer is looking for a local business these day’s they are spoilt for choice. That’s to say whether they are looking for a local plumber or a pet shop, there’s normally loads of businesses to choose from.
And when all the companies have rather fancy websites, and stock items at a similar price, how on earth does a customer choose between all these companies?
Well, seo agencies like ours are noticing more and more that customer reviews are important.
The reviews are important for two reasons, firstly that they can obviously help to generate more sales, secondly they can also help improve a business’s seo.
With that said, as with most things to do with online marketing, there’s a right way to implement the work and a wrong way.
So without further ado let’s have a look at how business reviews are now an integral part of the seo process.
Do positive business reviews have any impact on SEO?
Yes, simply put they do. With that said the reviews must be genuine, plus some reviews will have more of an impact than some others.
This article will advise you on which reviews can really help to improve your company’s seo.
But before we explain which reviews can really help your business it’s worth bearing this in mind, Bright Local undertook a survey, and the survey revealed that 57% of consumers will only use a business if it has more than 4 or more stars.
Now this gives you an idea of how important reviews are, so let’s have a look at how your business should be obtaining them.
Where should our customers be encouraged to leave reviews?
There are a whole heap of places where your customers could leave reviews, for example there are social media accounts, business directory websites and also search engine pages, such as Google My Business listings.
Now when we are advising our clients, we always recommend that if we are working on a local seo marketing campaign, that reviews should be directed towards the businesses Google My Business account.
Why are reviews left on Google My Business so important?
If you’ve ever searched to find a local business, you will know that Google will show a number of local businesses that have Google My Business accounts.
SEO’s refer to these listings under many different names, such as the map listings and before when typically seven businesses were displayed, we would call these listings the “7-pack”.
Now all has changed, and normally Google only typically shows three local businesses, so yes you guessed it things are now much more competitive.
Yet, when these business listings are displayed, it’s then a piece of cake for the person to click and see the businesses Google My Business listing.
With that said, because it’s so easy to see the listing, if it displays a five star rating, combined with reviews left by many businesses, well this is likely to help the company’s seo.
The reason for this is not just because the business has a high star rating, but its more likely to mean that people click on your business listing. This means high star ratings, combined with good business reviews will improve a businesses CTR, which stands for click through rate.
Should my business be writing fake reviews?
No, most definitely not. We get approached by businesses to work with that have already left fake reviews. What these businesses do not understand is that by doing this the business is likely to be removed from the map listings.
This means when a business has written there own reviews, they will not show up in the local business listings.
The reason being is the search engines, like Google have very sophisticated algorithms that can detect when someone or a marketing agency is trying to fool the algorithm.
This can mean that the business in question is removed, and instead you are then making it easier for your direct competitors to obtain more business.
With loads of new reviews will by website’s SEO be massively improved?
The simple answer is no. Some business owners will believe that by having a few positive business reviews this is all that is needed to reach the top.
However, when it comes to local seo there are many factors that will need optimising in order for most businesses to reach the top.
For example, here are just a few factors that your seo agency should consider:
· Business citations
· NAP listings and making sure that they are consistent
· Optimising the Google My Business listing
· Local backlinks
· Good quality backlinks
· Content marketing
Can business reviews be left anywhere other than Google My Business?
Positive business reviews can sometimes be the make or break factor in determining whether a customer purchases an item or service from your company.
So you have to imagine yourself in your customers shoes just for a second, that’s to say, if there are loads of good positive reviews left on many different websites, well this can mean that more people choose your business.
If your customers are asking where to leave positive business reviews, and you are unsure as to which websites you can use, why not have a read of this article. The article states 22 websites that customers can leave reviews on.
How should business reviews be obtained?
This is a question that we get frequently asked, that is how should a business be obtaining business reviews?
Well one thing is for sure, that is you shouldn’t purchase fake reviews, as we earlier mentioned the algorithms may detect that the business reviews are fake.
So, here’s what we recommend instead.
In person
Perhaps you offer a service in person, for example you may well be a friendly carpet fitter. Now when that luxurious new carpet is covering the home, and the customer is standing back to admire the fine workmanship, well then will be an opportunist time to ask for a business review.
Why not make it easy for your customers? And by this we mean writing a step by step instruction of how if they wish they can leave a business review.
Remember, or seo agency recommends that if you are looking to improve your businesses seo, that reviews are left on Google My Business and that they are real reviews, not fake.
You may well be at the point where you are about to send over an invoice for all your hard work.
Yet, all that customers appreciation for your hard work may go unnoticed by the outside world.
So, why not capitalise on that good will? Why not at the point of invoice ask if the customer would be so good as to follow the link your businesses Google My Business page, and to leave a review.
If you would like more seo help and advice, why not give us a call?