How do customer reviews impact Local SEO?

SEO is a vital tool you can use to grow your business. Local SEO is when customers look for location-based information, such as the best restaurant in their town; SEO is the process of writing content in such a way as to generate the most traffic from search engine results.

Including keywords that your customers use to make searches is important for search engines to know what your business does and when to show your business. Local client reviews can also positively affect your SEO in several ways. Here’s a list of ways customer reviews impact local SEO:

More customer reviews = more sites will mention your company

There are a lot of review sites, and when customers mention your business on various platforms. The likelihood that your business will come up in search engine results will improve. Your bottom line can improve when visits to your business page and business location increase, and customer reviews provide a means of advertising that is completely free of cost.  Find out which review sites your client base prefers, and post links to these sites, encouraging your customers to share their experiences there. This is also where a review management software can be extremely helpful.

   

Your Customers Will Provide You with Keywords

As a business, it is likely that you are familiar with brand research related to your field of expertise, but you may not know the ins and outs of your customers’ lingo. Your clients will speak about your products or services differently than you do. They may provide you with the terms that others are using to search for your company.

You will benefit by incorporating these oft-used phrases into your own copy, and featuring customer reviews will add a much-needed boost to your search engine traffic.

Customer Reviews Can Help Improve Your Ranking

Google ranks websites according to their perceived authority and their ability to provide valuable content. Customer reviews can help tell search engines that your brand is established, and when more people online are discussing your firm, Google will rank your site higher in search engine results. It also helps to add links to customer reviews on your site, because Google rewards sites that contain links to other authoritative websites.

Customer Testimonials Will Lower Your Bounce Rate

Customer reviews help your business stand out; make visitors to your website more interested in your product or service because of the value others have had. The impact on your site’s bounce rate can be meaningful. Can help to trigger higher rankings as bounce rate is arguably one of the ranking factors involved in search results.

Google will Preview Your Star Rating

Many sites that feature star rating systems will show a preview when someone does a search for your brand. This means that a person will not need to click on their page to see that your company was rated favorably, as the star level and the first few sentences will show up on the search results page. Google will sort search engine results based on the number of reviews received, giving you an advantage and an SEO boost. Your good reputation will then precede you, increasing the likelihood that a person will click through and choose you above your competitors.

Overall, local SEO can be impacted by various factors; the use of keywords, linking to other websites, or content that keep visitors on your site. Customer reviews are an invaluable part of your strategy to develop good SEO; to feature more prominently in search engine results, helping you achieve greater sales and success as a company.

Continue learning with these articles

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Franco Breciano

Tech entrepreneur, writes about startups, management, company culture and product design.