Consumer reviews have a real effect on shopping behavior. 92% of people read online reviews about local businesses. 69% of people will remember reading a positive review, and 88% said such reviews affected their decision to purchase.
Did you know that customer reviews also have an influence on-site SEO and search rankings?
Most of us know by now, search engines love fresh and relevant content. User-generated content (UGC) such as ratings, reviews, forums and even user-submitted video will boost SEO on your site. This, in turn, increases traffic and drives conversions.
How Review Sites Work to Boost SEO
Because reviews and ratings provide unique content which is often updated, review sites are the perfect food for major search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing to gobble up in their site crawls.
When someone searches Google for “best [your product or service] in [your city]”, the first results are typically listings from Yelp, Trip Advisor, or another review site. These sites have the perfect SEO storm of domain authority, popularity, links, and a steady stream of new content. This is why a review site will almost always come before a brand’s own website.
A constant stream of reviews and new information tells Google that your business is still very much active. This helps search engines determine that your business is relevant. They are then more likely to begin showing your site more often or higher within the search.
The more these adjustments result in people checking out your business, the more the search engines will begin to feature you. As your visibility continues to grow, your search engine rank keeps improving, and the cycle continues.
Why It’s Important to Have Reviews on 3rd Party Sites
An important part of reputation management is to amplify the good information out there about your brand. Maximizing your brand’s “social proof”, i.e. the things real people say about you, improves your brand reputation and positions your business as an industry leader.
When you feed your good reviews to third-party sites like Yelp, Google + and other industry-specific review sites, your word-of-mouth marketing expands. It becomes easier for people to find and learn about your business, beyond just your website. And customer experiences improve as they get more information that matters to them. Everybody wins.
So, how do we make sure our advocate voices are reaching those places where they are most likely to be heard (aka Google search results)? Tellofy helps you amplify your good feedback with our 3rd Party Share feature.
How Buzz Boost 3rd Party Share Works
Our automated system targets positive reviews as they are collected. We then ask the customer to share their review to one or more of their social profiles or partner review sites. By simply clicking on a logo, they will be redirected to the 3rd party site. They won’t have to type the feedback again as it’s already shared to our clipboard. You can customize the message to the customer and choose the platforms that are important to your business (Trip Advisor, Yelp, Zillow, etc.)
It’s easy for the customer and easy for you. Happy customers are 50% less likely to leave a review than unhappy customers – so when they do, be sure you’re ready to maximize it!
Final Thoughts
Ultimately, what people are saying about your business and where they are saying it do matter. A strong presence on 3rd party review sites is can boost SEO for your brand. It can raise your search engine rankings, boost referrals to your website or physical location, and ultimately maximize your marketing ROI.