Organic website traffic (traffic that is generated from non-paid sources) from onsite Search Engine Optimization (SEO) continues to be one of the most valuable sources of traffic for many businesses. The most effective ways to optimize your website for Search Engines grow in complexity and deepen in mystery every day. There remains, however, specific "must dos" that are known to have a positive impact on the search ranking favorability of a website. Highly important among those SEO items is collecting and displaying customer reviews of your company and/or its products and services.

There is no question about it Google looks at your Google reviews, Facebook reviews, Yelp reviews and more. Google uses reviews to help establish your website's authority and its trustworthiness. Reviews, as well as other factors considered by Google, are used to determine if your website's content is that which is of the greatest value to its customers (searchers). Since Google, like your business, is all about making its customers happy, when someone searches for "best car dealership is Podunk", they want to deliver the freshest, most delicious, easiest to use, most effective content as their product to their customer. If your business's customer reviews support the story that your website provides that content , you get ranked the highest on Google's organic Search Engine Returns Page (SERP).

Need additional proof that Google considers reviews as an SEO element? Google itself included the following in their help article titled Improve your local ranking on Google:

"Manage and respond to reviews 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. High-quality, positive reviews from your customers will improve your business’s visibility and increase the likelihood that a potential customer will visit your location. Encourage customers to leave feedback by creating a link they can click to write reviews." Google is One Thing, But What About the Impact of Reviews on my Prospects and Customers?

As equally important as the fact that Google utilizes your website's reviews, so do your prospects and customers. According to Searchengineland.com:

• 90% of consumers read reviews before visiting a business
• 31% of customers are likely to spend 31% more on a business with excellent reviews
• Reviews can boost your results by using fresh user-generated content
• 72% of consumers will take action only after reading a positive review

And Business2community.com reports that 88% of (online users) trust online reviews when considering a business.

The Growing Impact of Voice Search

Considering the growing influence of voice search, and that many voice search queries are made in the form of a question, the fact that customer-generated reviews often include content in the form of answers is valuable. For example, a voice search may be "What is the best vegan food in Jacksonville?", and at the same time, customer reviews may include statements such as "this place serves the best vegan food in Jacksonville! Perfectly prepared and affordable." Voila! you have a search content match made in heaven!

The Takeaway

• Customer reviews are an important factor in SEO and a major influence on your prospects' buying decision.
  
• Not featuring customer reviews puts your website at a disadvantage compared to other websites in your vertical
• Customer reviews are an organic way to generate content that is a good match to the growing number of voice searches queries

In our next article we will explore ways to request, capture and communicate customer reviews for your website.