The Complete Guide How Reviews Boost Your SEO

Reviews are one of the most powerful marketing engines out there on the internet. Online customer reviews are not just important trust signals for your customers, but they can be used to boost your SEO presence when used effectively. Reviews are an opportunity for existing customers to share what they love about your brand to a new audience. In addition, having reviews available publicly convey to new potential clients that you are reliable and trustworthy to do business with.

With over 53% of all website traffic coming in from organic search, it would be wise to invest in building your online reviews to increase web traffic sales and revenue. Although ranking methods are constantly changing, they do factor in original content. At PeerDive, our experts have put together this guide on everything you need to know about how reviews boost your SEO.

What Is SEO?

SEO stands for search engine optimization. The simplest way to define SEO is the list of results when searching an online engine (such as Google). Using its vast collection of data, the engine will pull the most relevant content based on the relevance of your search.

A strong SEO strategy is essential to any business, no matter the size of the company or how long they have been in business. The higher your business appears in the loading results, the more visibility and traffic you will likely receive. However, it is important to remember that SEO is not built overnight. You must be in it for the long haul to develop an effective digital marketing strategy.

How Do Google Reviews Affect SEO?

According to MOZ, online reviews are thought to factor in upwards of 10% of how Google and other online search engines decide to rank a search result. Why is that? Google uses word-of-mouth marketing as part of its strategy. Just as customers use online reviews to validate their purchasing, so does Google. As a result, Google emphasizes recommending businesses with a higher star ranking than those without.

Google works to deliver you the fastest, more accurate results possible. When you search in Google, there are three factors that Google takes into account:

Search Relevance
Distance
Prominence (Popularity aka Reviews)

For example, if you were to search on Google for a dishwasher repair company, they will not provide you results for California if you live in Ohio. In addition, they will show a highly rated business online versus one that is not. Putting in the extra effort to generate new reviews for your business can pay off in the long run.

Does Responding To Reviews Boost My SEO?

The short answer is yes, they do. According to Google, managing and responding to reviews is a way to improve your ranking on their search results. Online reviews signal to search engines that your business is trustworthy. If they recommend your business by putting it higher in their search results, they feel you will satisfy their needs better than someone else based on the search query results.

Not only does having high-quality customer reviews help boost your SEO ranking but responding to your current reviews also encourages future reviews since it encourages your clients to voice their options. In addition, it shows that your business considers every client's personal experience. This will help boost your trust signals to new clients.

Do Negative Reviews Hurt My SEO?

No business likes to receive a negative review. However, as counterintuitive as it might sound, do not delete negative reviews. Why? Studies find that most people will trust a business with a 4.7 rating versus a perfect 5-star ranking. Having too many positive reviews can be a red flag to customers. Customers know when something is too good to be true at first glance.

A good rating that includes negative reviews is a strong indicator of authenticity regardless of the search platform. That being said, you want to try and keep your online ranking above 4-star if you want Google to continue to show your business at the top of their queries.

According to leading SEO expert Neil Patel, the average review score on Yelp is a 3.65, which is the lowest of all review platforms. The average reviews on all other platforms is a 4.42 on Facebook, 4.3 on Google, and 4.25 on TripAdvisor.

While those rankings can seem scary, the truth is that those reviews are trust-building signals to your clients. They let the client know what they are in for before making a purchase. Bad reviews should not be seen as a hindrance to a business. Instead, they should be looked at as a signal of authenticity.

How Do Reviews Help Improve My SEO?

Reviews Generate Long-Tail Keyword Traffic

Having long-tail keywords is key to capturing a niche audience. Although long-tail keywords tend to get much lower search traffic, they usually lead to higher conversion. Having a variety of online reviews can be a great way to organically generate these long-tail keywords and get them to be associated with your business. Usually, these long-tailed keywords are hidden in the reviews themselves. Therefore, future customers will likely find your page when they use similar language in their search.

2) Google Trusts Reviews

Over the last five reviews have become incredibly important to how Google and other search engines determine their ranking. To Google, positive reviews signify that your website is of high quality and therefore is highly valuable to its searchers. As a result, Google ranks businesses higher based on the volume and the quality of the reviews posted by their clients.

For example, a customer who posts a text review combined with some images on your Google My Business Page will rank higher for SEO than a review that leaves a star ranking and nothing else. Try asking your existing clients to post a review and, if possible, for them to include as much detail about your product/service as they can.

3) Reduce Your Bounce Rate

Bounce rates are a huge killer of SEO. One way to reduce your bounce rate is to build various trust signals for your business. 105% of visitors are more likely to purchase if a review is present. Not only do reviews increase customers' knowledge and brand trust, but they help to increase the amount of time customers spend on your page. That translate to a lower bounce rate and a higher SEO ranking.

4) Increase Social Sharing

Over 92% of all customers trust recommendations from friends and family over all other forms of advertising. So it is no surprise that reviews play such a big factor in influencing your customers' decisions. Not only do reviews help build trust signals for your business, but they also increase social sharing for your customers. Social sharing can be a great way to market your business organically to new potential customers.

About PeerDive

PeerDive is a popular online directory created exclusively for businesses to leave and view reviews on individuals before offering their products and or services. Peer Dive was created to help local businesses and their communities make the most informed decision on who they want to do business with.