Website Reviews: Why do you Need them and How to use them?

Many site owners underestimate the importance of reviews on their web resource and are guided by one simple principle: if users want, they will leave a review on my business. In fact, user testimonials are one of the most effective marketing tools that are successfully used to increase sales and increase conversions on the site. That’s why you should think about how you can embed Google business reviews to your website fast and free, even if you’re not sure yet. 

A huge amount of research and numerous surveys prove that reviews are what most customers want to see before deciding to make a purchase. 7 out of 10 users first study opinions about the company and only then decide to order a product or service. In this way, reviews can eliminate the doubts of potential customers and help them choose products, and for you they can become invaluable information about your audience.

Why are many website owners afraid of their customers’ reviews?

The main reason for this is the fear of getting negative feedback from consumers. Negative opinions about the work of the company or the products offered can scare away potential customers. However, in this case, it is enough just to learn how to correctly respond to such comments. So you can not only rehabilitate yourself in the eyes of dissatisfied customers, but also inspire confidence among potential customers and win them over.

The presence of negative reviews on a website alone can increase consumer confidence in the opinions they read. The main thing here is not to overdo it with criticism. Bad reviews will only benefit your business if they are in the right proportion to the good ones. Negative opinions make positive ones more believable, but if their ratio is too small or, conversely, large, consumers may doubt. If, for example, a product page contains 15 reviews, 2 of which are negative, then the remaining 13 will look quite convincing. However, the picture will change if this proportion is changed, for example, 5 versus 15 negative. This means that a third of buyers were dissatisfied with the quality of services or goods, and this is already a lot.

Reviews and SEO: is there a connection?

Increasing conversions and improving the user experience should be the main goal of reviews, but we should not forget their significant benefits for search engine optimization. These include:

Fresh, unique content for search engines

Search bots love unique content that is updated regularly. Reviews are a great way to get as much of this content as possible and increase your chances of ranking higher in search results.

Upgrade for “product name” + reviews

Numerous surveys show that more and more consumers are looking for the product name + the word “reviews” (or “ratings”), for example, “buy a smartphone Chicago reviews.” If your site has product reviews, then you are more likely to increase traffic and click through rate (CTR).

Indexing

Stimulating the activity of visitors is one of the ways to get search robots to quickly index new pages of the site. A regularly updated page with reviews along with new comments on articles and other content will allow the site to be constantly updated, which means that search robots will see your site sooner.

No duplication

Review snippets can appear on multiple pages of a site, such as category or home pages. However, it is very important that full comments are placed on a separate page.

How can you get customer opinions?

So, there is a page for reviews, but their number is too small? Are clients reluctant to share their experience of contacting your company? Something needs to be done!

• Use customer email after purchase. Send a customer an email asking them to leave a review after they have purchased a product or used your service. This method of obtaining opinions is the most effective: in practice, 54% of reviews are received in this way.
• Make the commenting process as easy as possible. Make sure that reviews can be left as simple as possible: a convenient form, no unnecessary fields to fill out, etc.
• Offer incentives for writing reviews. For example, a discount on a subsequent purchase of a product.

Reviews are a great tool to help consumers evaluate the level of service, product quality, advantages and disadvantages of a particular model, etc. Only correct reviews work correctly: from real customers, with real text and emotions, possibly with grammatical and punctuation errors. Fake reviews or their absence on the site will not bring the desired effect or the effect will be the opposite.