Customer Reviews for SEO: How Customer Reviews Impact?

Today, search engines want to know what your customers think of you before recommending you to their users. After all, according to Semrush, 66% of customers search online before making a purchase. In addition, according to The Power of Reviews, 95% of customers rely on online reviews before doing business with a company.

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In this vein, search engines favor companies with a high number of customer reviews. Indeed, Google wants to offer its users the best possible user experience. What better way to do this than to recommend companies whose customers attest to the reliability and quality of their services? By following this strategy, Internet users will be directed to a company that will meet their needs. That’s why your organic referencing (SEO) is greatly influenced by your number of customer reviews.

Do you want to know more about how customer reviews are good for your SEO? To shed light on the subject, here are eight ways your customer reviews are beneficial for your SEO, as well as eight tips to follow to get SEO through your Google My Business account.

What is organic referencing? (SEO)

Definition of organic referencing

Organic referencing, also known as SEO, encompasses techniques that are implemented in a natural way (that is, free) to allow a site to appear as high as possible in the list of search results performed on a specific topic.

These techniques are based directly on the search engine evaluation criterias. Indeed, before recommending your services to their users, the algorithm of these platforms will seek to evaluate your credibility to offer their users the best possible experience. Thus, the more reliable your organization is according to the criteria of the search engines, the better it will be positioned in the ranking of search results (SERP). This is an essential asset to improve your visibility and attract new prospects!

Don’t know the steps to improve your SEO? Here are six best practices to follow to optimize the organic referencing of your site:

1. Create varied and quality content (articles, promotions, etc.).
2. Structure your website in a clear and ergonomic way.
3. Make sure your website is accessible to mobile devices.
4. Build quality backlinks that are directly related to your main theme.
5. Reduce the weight of your images to optimize the loading speed of your website.
6. Optimize the loading speed of your website.

This is a very brief summary of good practices! Be sure to get help from an expert or do more research if you want to deepen your knowledge in this area.

As a company, acquiring new customers is one of your main goals. What better way to do this than to acquire many positive customer reviews?

• Positive customer reviews help you improve the credibility of your organization. Indeed, by obtaining numerous customer reviews, you will forge the credibility of your company. This tactic will allow you to show your prospects as well as search engines that you are trustworthy. In this sense, take care to regularly ask your satisfied customers for reviews to optimize your online listing. This will help you climb into Google’s local results while attracting new customers to your business.
• Positive customer reviews allow you to maintain a good brand image on an ongoing basis. In addition, responding to customer reviews is a great way to maintain your good reputation. According to Orbelo, 63% of companies do not bother to respond to their online reviews. In addition, TrustPulse’s study proves that 15% of customers whose comments have no answer will stop doing business with you. Interesting, isn’t it? By taking the time to manage your online reviews and address customer dissatisfaction, you show your customers that they are at the heart of your priorities.
• By responding to customer reviews, you stand out from all your competitors who don’t bother to do so. Answer your customers’ opinions and questions in order to build a relationship of trust that will result in better customer loyalty. With this tactic, you’ll get many positive reviews that in turn will generate more traffic on your platforms. All in all, customer reviews are crucial for your SEO as well as your customer acquisition!

The impact of customer reviews on your SEO

As discussed above, customer reviews are important for SEO. Let’s take Google as an example. This search engine wants to give its users quality information, products or services as quickly as possible. Thus, when you perform a local search on a given topic, the Google algorithm will analyze three main criterias to determine the local ranking of each website referred:

• Relevance, to analyze the extent to which the company meets the user’s search criteria. This is where your keywords and customer reviews are important for your SEO.
• Distance, to determine the proximity of the user to a local company. The closer a company is, the more likely it is to be recommended to the user.
• Prominence, to know the popularity of a company or an offline service. For example, a well-known chain of stores is more likely to appear in local search results.

To improve your SEO, you first need to understand how your customer reviews affect these criteria. To shed more light on the subject, here are eight ways in which your customer reviews directly impact the SEO of your website.

1. Google’s algorithm assesses the level of trust before referring to Internet users

Before recommending you to its users, Google’s algorithm analyzes your reviews to assess your level of trust. In addition, a high number of positive customer reviews show that your customers are loyal to you and appreciate your good services. This commitment from your current customers proves to Google your credibility as a company and further encourages it to recommend you to its users on the search engines.

On the other hand, responding to your customer reviews is also crucial for your SEO. By taking the time to forge a relationship of trust with your current customers, you prove to the search engine the quality of your services as well as your customer support. With this in mind, take care to manage your customer relationships to increase your positioning in search engines. This is why customer reviews are a key component for your SEO.

2. Customer reviews generate more traffic on your website

Customer reviews are not only beneficial for your SEO, but also allow you to attract potential leads to your digital platforms. Did you know that Google’s first five hits capture 67% of clicks?  This is an opportunity to attract people to your website and make you discover new prospects!

Beyond the Google recommendations, the more positive reviews you have, the more people will want to visit your website. As you go along, the more traffic you generate on your website, the more Google’s algorithm will judge you to be a reliable source and recommend you to its users. With this in mind, it is important to ask your satisfied customers for reviews, which will then be beneficial for your SEO. This will greatly facilitate your acquisition of new customers!

3. Online reviews help Google understand what your business is doing with customer reviews

Did you know that your customer reviews help Google better understand your company’s mission? Indeed, a good customer review accompanied by a detailed text is a wealth of information for Google’s algorithm. This authentic and relevant content allows it to identify certain keywords related to your product and service offering. As a result of this analysis, the algorithm will be able to better reference you to its users to meet their current needs.

Detailed customer reviews are one of the key elements for SEO. To this end, it is good that reviews left (stars) are accompanied by specific comments. This will prove beneficial for your positioning!

4. The more customer reviews you have, the more people use different keywords that will position you (long-tail keywords)

When your customers write text-rich reviews, they use a variety of keywords related to your business and service offering. These long-tail keywords with three or more words have little competition volume, but can account for up to 80% of the traffic generated by search engines. Their presence in your customer reviews will improve your positioning in Google’s results and set you apart from your competitors.

For your SEO, it may be useful to study the long-tail keywords used in your customer reviews, and then integrate them into your website and content! 

5. When searching for a nearby location, Google Maps first shows nearby locations that have the highest ratings

It’s well known: Google wants to offer its users the results that best suit their current needs. For this purpose, Google Maps offers users the best recommendations based on the location of the user.

To optimize your SEO, take care to improve your local positioning using best practices, then maintain your e-reputation. A local company with a good reputation and prominence is highly likely to be recommended by Google Maps, especially if it is close to the user concerned. Are you wondering why customer reviews are important for SEO? With a lot of positive reviews and an excellent e-reputation, you could even appear in the Google Local Pack! This is a huge asset in attracting new prospects to your branches.

6. For equal score, Google favors a company with a higher volume of reviews

Did you know that for the same number of customer reviews, Google prefers the company with a higher volume of reviews?

Certainly, customer reviews are important for your SEO. They will increase the company’s chances of appearing in Google’s first results. However, if two companies have the same score of customer reviews, Google’s algorithm will analyze the volume of these reviews by omitting text reviews.

During this analysis, Google prefers reviews with relevant information, keywords related to the user’s search, as well as reviews with the best ratings. This approach directly affects the ranking of recommended websites: the company with the most positive reviews with relevant comments and keywords will therefore be the most referred by the famous search engine.

7. Google prefers detailed customer reviews

Google’s algorithm prioritizes the quality of customer reviews rather than their quantity in order to inform their users. Don’t forget this detail when you ask for customer reviews for your SEO! Google wants to offer its users the most accurate and relevant information possible. For this purpose, its algorithm prioritizes approved reviews of texts, since they are more interesting for Internet users.

Indeed, a good customer review accompanied by a detailed text is a gold mine for Google. This is relevant and authentic content that attests to your qualities as a company. This feedback justifies your ratings, which ultimately allows users to determine whether your service offer corresponds to their specific needs.

In addition, a review without text is not convincing for your prospects. Not only does it not have any useful information, but it can also result in a false opinion, spam, or even the opinion of someone who has never used your services.

With that in mind, when you ask for a customer review, invite your satisfied customers to leave a detailed comment or text to justify their rating of you. Such a practice will prove beneficial for your positioning on search engines!

8. Google values the frequency and consistency of customer reviews

The velocity, that is to say the regularity as well as the frequency of your customer reviews, is important for your SEO. It proves to Google’s algorithm that you are a reliable company and recommended by many customers. This encourages the search engine to refer you to its users.

In addition, the study conducted by BrightLocal proves that 73% of Internet users think that customer reviews dating back three months or more are not representative of the quality of a company’s services. In this sense, you need to regularly acquire customer reviews to show your prospects as well as search engines that you are always trustworthy. These recent customer reviews will be beneficial for your SEO and will help you attract new customers to your business.

Beware of these elements that Google penalizes!

Now that you know that your customer reviews are important for your SEO, it’s time to optimize your SEO. However, poor SEO optimization can result in a penalty from Google and be detrimental to your positioning on SERP.

To avoid such a mistake, here are eight practices penalized by Google:

1. Keyword Stuffing: If keywords can strengthen your SEO, too many keywords placed in a risky way can be disastrous for your SEO. To this end, take care to place your keywords well without overloading your website and your content.
2. Poor quality content: Content that is of little use to your users may result in a Google penalty. With this in mind, avoid integrating automated or duplicated content into your website.
3. False reviews: Google prohibits companies from manipulating notes from a place. For this purpose, it is strictly forbidden to buy false reviews, under severe penalties.
4. Poor quality backlinks: Backlinks that are out of context and from questionable sites can be harmful to your SEO. Make sure you disavow them so you don’t get a Google penalty.
5. Sudden mass reviews: Google’s algorithm doesn’t like to get multiple reviews all at once, as it seems fraudulent. In this sense, avoid encouraging your customers to leave you a bulk of reviews and take care to delete your spam.
6. Unanswered reviews: As mentioned above, responding to your customer reviews is important for your SEO. By neglecting your customer reviews, you risk causing many customer dissatisfactions, in addition to being difficult to contact. This will damage your credibility and ultimately your Google SEO.
7. Negative reviews: Google wants to offer its users the best possible experience. To this end, take care of the quality of your services to avoid negative reviews and customer dissatisfaction. A lot of negative customer reviews can be harmful for your SEO: it will discourage Google from recommending you to future prospects, which will prevent you from acquiring new customers.
8. Lack of online reviews (low volume): Google prefers companies with the highest volume of online reviews. For this purpose, a lack of customer reviews can result in a poor ranking in search engines. Be sure to ask your satisfied customer to leave you customer reviews for the sake of your SEO. It will attest the quality of your services and increase your positioning in Google search results.

How can you get more customer reviews on your opinion platforms?

InputKit is the solution to get more positive reviews online!

Do you want to get more customer reviews for your SEO? If so, InputKit’s online review enhancement solution is for you!

With our solution, you can schedule a customer satisfaction survey at the right time, one to two hours after the experience. With a rate of 49% for email and 57% for SMS, these completely automated and personalized surveys will allow you to improve your customer experience according to the concrete needs of your customers. These surveys present a golden opportunity to collect more customer reviews!

Following a satisfaction survey, our solution automatically offers your satisfied customers to leave a positive review online. With this feature, you can increase your number of customer reviews on your Google My Business or other review platforms to attest to the quality of your services. This is a great strategy to optimize your local SEO while facilitating your acquisition of new leads!