The impact of Google reviews on businesses today

Consumers depend on Google reviews, which also impact on business ranking.

An Introduction to Google Reviews

The Internet has transformed the way businesses operate and how they interact with their customers. Increasingly, consumers look to the internet and its most popular search engine, Google, for information and feedback prior to making their purchase decision.

Google reviews appear like rich snippets under the links on the search page. Nothing warrants more care and attention from the business owner. These reviews have a tremendous impact on the businesses. They affect the way potential clients find, reach out to and react with the business.

Consumers Depend on Google Reviews

Nearly everyone around you and possibly all your potential customers are making Google searches right now to find nearby businesses and the relevant information regarding the products or services that they seek. In a recent study, Google found that 72% of these consumers depended on reviews to decide whether or not to trust a business.

The impact of the consumer trust factor is huge in any organization, and when Google reviews can inspire or break the consumer’s trust in a business, one can never downplay the importance of this factor in achieving success.

SEO Rating and Ranking

The way we communicate with businesses has changed dramatically over the last decade. If you are a business, you must be visible in the search results.

Your SEO rating in Google determines where you are placed in the search engine results, and hence your visibility to your potential customers as they look for information. Your ranking in Google depends on the number of reviews and of course, the positive reviews you have among them. Simply put, a review on Google will help the search engine determine the relevance of your business to the consumer. If you are not visible on the first or second page of the Google search results, the business is effectively invisible to the majority of consumers looking for you.

The Click-Through-Rate (CTR) and Reviews

Studies have shown that businesses with good Google reviews have a better CTR. This means that there are more visitors to your domain and more consumers looking for information about your company and products. Of course, this has an significant impact on your business: provided the consumer finds what they think they are looking for, web visits may well translate into sales.

An improved CTR would also mean that you stand to improve your ranking in Google search results even further. You can call this a closed positive-feedback loop that has a tremendous impact on your business performance.

More Time on Your Website

Google rates your site and gives you a ranking based on your relevance to the consumer using the search engine. The amount of time the consumer spends on your website is one of the highest rated factors in determining your relevance. The more reviews you have, the longer the amount of time that visitors spend on your website. It has been found that an average customer reads at least 6 reviews before forming their decision. And they tend to read more if you have many. This means that visitors will spend more time on sites that have customer reviews and this again improves the website ranking in Google and hence your visibility.

Each Review is Content

More often than not, consumers posting reviews on Google mention the name of the business or the products or services that they consumed. The reviews then become additional snippets of distinctive content for the search engine and hold a treasure trove of keyword references to your business and your products. Google crawlers track the keywords in these contents actively and the search engine determines their increased incidence as a reason to improve your website ranking, thus raising your visibility to the consumer.

Customer Engagement

These reviews are a good way of improving customer engagement with your business. Today, when you need to occupy the mind-space of the customer as constantly as you can, there is no better avenue than getting your delighted customers to review your business on Google. Every tool at your disposal that can improve customer engagement with your brand is precious. More customer engagement translates to more brand recall and subsequent purchases!

Long Tail Keyword Targeting

Did you know that different consumer’s reviews have great similarity in the way they choose words and describe services? And did you know that many of the consumer searches use the same words to describe the service or product they are looking for?

The more Google reviews there are for your business, the more there are the chances for Long Tail Keyword targeting and thereby for improving your search ranking and your chances of being found by that consumer who is looking just for you!

References:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-google-reviews-impact-your-local-seo-why-matter-wael-batshoun
https://www.shopify.com/retail/119916611-how-online-reviews-impact-local-seo-and-why-they-matter-to-your-bottom-line
https://www.reviewtrackers.com/local-search/
http://www.reviewtrackers.com/google-reviews-important-reviews/
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-reduces-star-rating-threshold-businesses-take-notice/185947/
https://econsultancy.com/blog/9366-ecommerce-consumer-reviews-why-you-need-them-and-how-to-use-them
https://www.en.advertisercommunity.com/t5/Marketing-Your-Business/bd-p/Marketing_Business
https://www.semrush.com/blog/understand-google-review-snippets-to-optimize-your-seo/

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