For a long time, online reviews and SEO have been closely linked. Moz estimates that online reviews account for 10% of how Google displays search results.

The importance of online customer reviews in today’s business world cannot be overstated. But due to the notoriously secretive nature of Google’s algorithms, finding out how to leverage them to achieve stellar remains somewhat unclear.

We’ll go over some of the tried-and-tested tips that will make customer reviews one of your strongest tools for SEO. Although these are tips you can do on your own, it pays to hire digital marketing services for your business, especially if they’re specialized, like real estate, technology, and others.

How Customer Reviews are Relevant for Your SEO

Because of Google’s featured snippets, direct answers, and suggested videos, it’s more important than ever to keep up with reviews to succeed in the online marketplace. Here are some ways reviews can benefit your SEO:

1. Google sees customer feedback as keywords

Google receives fresh content every time a customer leaves you a review. It is likely to contain keywords relevant to your business, product, services and even location. This enables Google to gain a better understanding of what your business does, enabling it to better position you in the SERPS.

2. Google trusts reviews

It’s no coincidence that Google often shows businesses with high volumes of positive reviews first. A positive review tells Google that your site, product, or business is of high quality and is therefore highly valuable.

3. Customer reviews affect bounce rates

A high bounce rate kills SEO rankings, as many webmasters and SEO specialists are aware. Consumer reviews increase both brand trust and consumer knowledge, resulting in more time spent browsing your website and more conversions.

Making Reviews One of Your Strongest SEO Weapons

As Google trusts your customers more than your site, getting more reviews is an important part of your SEO strategy. Here are some ways to get more customer reviews and improve your SEO, according to top SEO consultants.

1. Get reviews from your customers

Send a simple request to your past customer mailing list asking for a review. Set up emails to ask loyal customers for reviews at the point of purchase. You could also include a request for a review on your receipt, so every customer sees it. Thank your customers for their loyalty and let them know how important good reviews are to your business.

2. Incentivize customer reviews

Consider incentivizing your customers if they are unwilling to provide reviews. The promise of a discount on a future order can go a long way toward convincing someone to leave a review for your site, products, or services.

3. Choose the right review platform

Today, there are a variety of online review platforms available. There are many factors to consider when choosing which platforms you want to gather reviews on. Additionally to getting listed on the major ones like Google Reviews, Facebook Reviews, Yelp, and so on, you need to take your industry into account.

For example, if your business is related to real estate, consider choosing a review platform for industry to boost your search engine optimization results.

4. Respond appropriately to both positive and negative reviews

Taking the time to respond to reviews shows that you value your customers and the feedback they leave about your business. So, when you receive a review (whether it’s good or bad), you need to have a plan in place to deal with it properly. The most important thing when responding to a review is to let it out. It is never, ever, ever a good idea to respond to a review when you are emotionally charged.

Reviews are a powerful SEO weapon with a lot of firepower. The tricky part is knowing how to use them effectively. In the end, it comes down to your ability to gather them on the right platform, respond appropriately, and use them to improve your company in the long run. For specific industry SEO services, like for real estate, health, and technology, be sure to hire a reliable business to help you meet your goals.

Consult with Top Results Consulting Today

Are you ready to implement these simple yet effective search engine optimization strategies in your business?

Here at Top Results Consulting, we use the best and latest online marketing techniques to find new customers for your business. We continually research the latest changes and update our lengthy technical checklist according to best practices. Better yet, we use our years of experience to manage your online marketing project so that you and your website company always know what’s next.

Reach out to us to see how we can help your business. Call us at (818) 600-1850 or visit our website at https://topresultsconsulting.com/.