The Importance of Google Ratings and Reviews

 

Collecting review content on an ongoing basis is a critical part of an overall ratings and reviews program. But it’s only one component of a much bigger process. Throughout the last 5 years or so of SEO, one thing has remained a constant: the importance of high-quality links. While it does not link specifically to what we're talking about here, the basic principle is the same when understanding the importance of a good review.

 

Google’s pretty clever and has developed a way of understanding reviews just as searchers do. Positive reviews signify to Google - just as an ink would - that your site/product/business is of high quality and are, therefore, highly valuable.

 

It's no coincidence that Google often shows businesses with high volumes of quality reviews first - it all comes back to wanting to offer its users the best experience possible from start to finish.

 

Focus on providing great service to your customers and collecting high-quality reviews off the back of that, and you should see your shop appearing at the top of results on Google. Online review statistics show that 58% of consumers would pay more to support a company with good reviews, 38% of customers look for at least a 4-star average review while some customers spend up to 31% more on companies with excellent reviews.

 

 

Negative feedback and negative phrases can actually harm your chances of ranking with the search engines. It was found that negative sentiment is one of the ranking factors that Google considers when determining where to place you in the search engines.

 

A negative review can drive 22% of customers away, 94% of customers say they’ve avoided a business due to negative reviews, and you risk increasing customer churn by 15% when you don’t respond to reviews.

 

 

Getting a negative review can feel like a punch to the gut. After all, your shop is laser-focused on service repair, fast, and efficient which your customers love. So it’s never fun to hear negative feedback about something you’ve worked hard to create. But negative reviews are inevitable. Even the most well-loved businesses get them from time to time. Some people are never satisfied. Some have a misunderstanding of what needed to be done and why. Others had unrealistic expectations.

 

Of course, negative reviews are never the end goal. But there’s a positive side to negative reviews. Yes, you read that right. In fact, one and two-star reviews can actually be good for your repair shops if responded to correctly.

 

 

Although, there are dozens of things a client considers when determining which shops to do business with — and which to pass up. But one top consideration is trust. In order to earn that trust, your shop must be transparent.  A key way to do that is to display feedback from other shoppers — including the negative kind. Our research found that 56% of customers say a shop's response to a review changed their perspective on the business.

 

 

Whilst Google can often be quite ambiguous when it comes to letting us know the ins and outs of ranking factors, of late, it's publicly encouraged the collection of and responding to reviews. Google's My Business Support Pages states, "interact with customers by responding to reviews that they leave about your business." Responding to reviews shows that you value your customers and the feedback that they leave about your business - and we're certainly not ones to argue with Google.

 

Responding to reviews serves benefits SEO in multiple ways:

Even more keywords for Google to crawl.

You're seen to be regularly interacting with your customers which could signal a fresh, frequently-updated website.

Responding to reviews successfully can encourage customers to change a bad review, or even delete it, which will help your overall review positioning and could improve CTR - one of Google's ranking signals.

 

 

In conclusion, ratings and reviews are important as SEO is always moving and you can't afford to have a stationary strategy - reviews are essential if you want to stay ahead because they help in building a trustworthy image by displaying the past reactions of your customers. Whether you offer services, products or a bit of both, reviews do and will greatly influence the way people interact with your listings and website, both directly and indirectly impacting your SEO efforts.