What you say about yourself is undoubtedly important, but what’s even more important is what others are saying about you. When potential clients are in the process of deciding who they want to do business with, the vast majority of them will heavily rely on online reviews.
Through the use of Google, reviews are added to the company’s Google Business Listing, and these then become available to anyone who searches the name of your business. Positive reviews are all well and good for the image of your business, but if you want to improve your SEO performance and be one of the highest rankers in your industry, these need to be incorporated into your website.
Adding reviews to your site increases your reach potential, and assuming the reviews are positive, convinces your customers that your business can be trusted. A Spiegel Research Centre study determined that displaying reviews can increase conversion rates by 270%, and this could be from as few as 5 reviews.
It’s worth noting that you cannot simply copy and paste the reviews to your site. This removes the legitimacy from the post and additionally you may infringe the content usage rights. Thankfully the process is reasonably straightforward. There are many plugins that have been developed for content management systems (CMS) that will do the job for you. You may need to discuss this with your web manager.
As we alluded to earlier, online reviews play a big part in how you rank when it comes to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). This is because they have an impact on how you rank locally and industry-wide, what search results generate the most clicks, and ultimately the purchasing decisions of consumers. For example, if your business is a hotel on St George’s Terrace and all the reviews cite a strong internet connection, chances are you’ll rank highly for any searches saying “Perth CBD hotels great wifi.” Incorporating reviews into your website offer time-poor visitors a quick means of accessing accurate information.
Now we see how Google reviews can be a very effective way of attracting new customers and clients, and the best part is, it won’t put a big hole in your budget. Many organisations are simply sitting on their many reviews that they’re yet to incorporate into their website. By “linking” the two together you’re increasing the probability that you’ll get found and engaged with by prospects, and they save time by having their search more efficiently targeted. The benefits are for everyone!
