While “word of mouth” is known to be a powerful communication tool among consumers, online reviews have become a tool that Google uses to reflect a website’s ranking on a search engine result page (SERP).
Cyrux Smart Solutions Inc. is here to share with you that Google uses online reviews to help rank a website among its competitors. For example, if more people leave positive Google Reviews, Google will rank the website higher on SERPs. This is essentially just how the traditional word of mouth was used – consumers who had a good experience would share their experience and it would encourage their friends/family to use the same products or services. To continue learning about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and online reviews, follow this guideline.
How Do Online Reviews Affect SEO?
Search engines are smart as they can gather and sort large amounts of data. One piece of this data they look at is online reviews. Search engines like Google use reviews to improve a website’s search rankings. Positive reviews about a company can signal that they are of great authority and are deemed trustworthy by the public. In this case, a highly reviewed company will then outrank a close competitor that has a smaller number of less positive reviews.
This process should not be surprising to you – if you use Google in your personal life, you may notice that the SERP gives you quality information right away – online reviews are one piece of this outcome.
Just How Much Influence Do Online Reviews Have?
The quick answer is: more than you think. Reviews have a massive influence when it comes to website ranking. In a recent study, it has been concluded that the impact of reviews has been increasing by over 20% every year. This means that more and more customers are using online reviews to give their thoughts on the recent products and services they have purchased. For companies, this means that consistently receiving high-level star reviews and ratings are going to make a website more popular among search engines.
Does The Volume of Online Reviews Matter?
There needs to be a balance between both quality and quantity when it comes to reviews. Quality matters because customers must be saying positive things and quantity matters as more reviews can lead to improved rankings. When there are more reviews listed on a website, this can be better as each review typically contains either a keyword or a long-tail keyword. Customers who are reviewing a product or service tend to include keywords within their opinions overall helping the SEO for that website.
How We Can Help
If you would like to improve your ranking via Google Reviews, consider encouraging customers to leave reviews and create a strategy to respond to each review within 24 hours. While customers use online reviews as a new form of word of mouth, your business must utilize reviews to influence your website’s search ranking.
To get SEO help, our team at Cyrux Smart Solutions Inc. provides Online Marketing in Newmarket services and we would be happy to help you get your website ranking higher on SERPs. For a consultation, call us today at (416) 222-0035.