The more regularly your business receives customer reviews, the more benefits of SEO it will enjoy.
The elements of online reviews that most significantly impact SEO ranking factors include:
- Regularly updated content
- Improved SEO rankings for long tail keywords
- Organically shaped SEO attributes
- Improved social media SEO strategy
- Increased click-through rate on positive reviews
If you run a company with an online presence, you probably understand the benefits of SEO. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation, which involves the harnessing of relevant techniques enabling your website to climb the search results.
Currently, 13% of search engine ranking decisions consist of signals from reviews. Therefore, when it comes to organic SEO, online reviews matter. In this article, we’ll explain how good review management can revolutionise both your global and local SEO impact.
Regularly updated content
It’s common for brands with an online presence to work on their search rankings by regularly updating and optimising their web content.
However, there is a way of adding to this content without spending any extra time or money. Online feedback, including Yelp, Facebook, TripAdvisor and Google reviews, are accepted as web content that is relevant to your brand and may increase your ranking.
It’s great for reach too. Many companies work hard to be featured in online journals or promoted by social media influencers, but third party review sites will also help. The ease with which this is achieved marks a clear benefit of reviews for SEO.
Improved SEO rankings for long tail keywords
One of the most commonly used forms of SEO is the use of “main keywords”. These are short search terms used by potential customers to find relevant products and services.
“Long tail keywords”, however, are often neglected. These detailed and specific phrases – usually of over three or four words in length – are just as vital in directing customers to your brand.
The main benefit of long tail keywords is that they help to “narrow down” the audience for a particular company, as they are often more descriptive.
For example, a person searching for “bakery” is likely to find generic information. However, the phrase “best bakeries in Manchester” will direct the user to a local company they are more likely to use.
Long tail keywords don’t have to match search terms precisely – they can be semantically related or a partial match.
For this reason, your business’s online reviews can help search engines to understand your company’s activities a little better and thereby direct relevant audiences to you. This, in turn, is likely to result in increased conversions.
Organically shaped SEO attributes
The SEO aspects that you would usually spend valuable time researching and inserting into your brand’s online content are user-generated in online reviews.
This means that your ranking can be improved without any time or money spent. Plus, thanks to the influence that reviews have on an audience, they may even prove more effective than some of your meticulously crafted in-house content!
Improved social media SEO strategy
It’s likely that reviews for your brand will end up being shared via social media – whether through Facebook Business or as a link to another third party site.
This means that information about your business can be spread even more widely across the internet and updated regularly, influencing search engine results still more.
Furthermore, if you’re tagged in any of these interactions, you may be able to enter into a conversation with the users involved, responding to reviews and improving your credibility and your relationship with your customers – thereby adding fresh updates to the content!
Increased click-through rate on positive reviews
Your click-through rate is vital when it comes to conversions. This measures your ability to encourage customers to click on a link instead of passively viewing marketing material.
If potential customers see a collection of five star reviews and great feedback via rich snippets on Google, for example, they are more likely to follow the links attached.
This is because consumers are more likely to trust companies that have larger numbers of positive reviews, as they represent anecdotal evidence of their quality. The more great reviews you have, the more traffic your site is likely to receive.
This is why it’s vital to handle negative reviews well. If you take swift action upon receiving a bad review by acknowledging and apologising for the problem, resolving the issue and making improvements, the author may be more inclined to remove their post.
Through customer reviews, you can receive regularly updated content and better long tail keyword rankings. Your SEO approaches can be made more organic and your social media strategy and click-through rate can improve.
To make the most of these SEO benefits, we recommend signing your business up to as many third party review platforms as possible, making sure to optimise each account thoroughly. You can then begin to encourage customers to leave valuable feedback!