Do online reviews really matter?
Online reviews do matter and they make a big impact on all types of business mortar business or an e-commerce site.
Impact Of Online Reviews, According to research by Review Trackers,consumers always or very often check online reviews, a survey by Podium suggests that 93% of consumers say online reviews do impact their buying decision, and consumers do read the reviews before making the buying decision.
There are many studies on how reviews influence consumer behaviour, without a doubt online reviews are important as these are feedback from your customers about how they feel about and think of your products and services.
Below are some statistics about online customer reviews. We will also dive into how to acquire online reviews as well as how online reviews influence search engine rankings on local SEO. Impact Of Online Reviews.
If you prefer visual content to written information, we have prepared an infographic for you, we hope you enjoy reading our blog and find it useful. Click here to see the infographic.
Without further ado, let’s see how consumers react to online reviews.
How online reviews impact businesses
Impact Of Online Reviews, Displaying reviews can increase conversion rates ,shoppers say reviews influence buying decisions. 88% of buyers are influenced in their buying decision by reviews.
Having five reviews results in purchase likelihood increasing by a factor of almost four times. Given two products with similar ratings, consumers are more likely to buy the product with more reviews.
How online reviews impact consumers
Impact Of Online Reviews, buyers trust reviews as much as personal recommendations. (Bright Local),consumers trust a local business more after reading positive reviews. visit a local business’s website after reading a positive review. consumers trust a local business more after reading positive reviews.
consumers look for either information on the reviewer’s experience, or problems the reviewer experienced when reading reviews.
Which online review platform?
A recent online reviews survey by Review Trackers found that Google is the review site of choice.
Impact Of Online Reviews, According to studies, Google dominates nearly 60% of online reviews and reviewers are also more likely to leave reviews on Google than elsewhere. (Review Trackers)
With Google dominating the review market, consumers today are most likely to search for local businesses, finding information about the company and make their visit all without leaving Google. It’ll be more important than ever for businesses to understand how that works and pay close attention to their local search and rating on Google. Impact Of Online Reviews.
Dealing with negative reviews
We all know that negative reviews will hurt your business and it happens to almost every business owner. However, responding to negative reviews can generate positive results. Statistics show that customers who posted negative reviews have changed their mind with positive feedback after receiving a reply from the business. Below are some tips on how to turn a negative review into positive action for your business.
How online reviews impact SEO
Impact Of Online Reviews ,Now we know the stats and facts about customer reviews let’s take a look at online reviews from the SEO perspective and see how important it is to utilise the power of customer feedback.
In the 2018 Local Search Ranking Factors report from Moss, it shows that online reviews make up 15% of the local pack ranking factors. As you can see from the chart below – review signals came in the top 3 factors and outranked on-page signals, citation signals, behavioral signals, personification, and social signals. According to Moss, online reviews are factored into organic local search rankings too.
The evidence of the growing importance of online reviews is undeniable. An official statement from the Google My Business support page titled ‘Improve your local ranking on Google’ confirms this. Google review count and score are factored into local search ranking. More reviews and positive ratings will probably improve a business’s local ranking. Impact Of Online Reviews.
Why you need online reviews and how to ask for one
Impact Of Online Reviews, With the ease of leaving a review online, more and more consumers are seeking out online reviews in order to decide upon their purchase decisions. This basically means that consumers are more likely to do business with you if they know that other customers have reported a good experience. So, finding ways to acquire more reviews will increase your business credibility, boost your brand reputation and truly differentiate your business from the competition.
Impact Of Online Reviews, Now that you know how online reviews influence consumer decisions and the benefits of having online reviews, it’s time to build your own online reputation management strategy. Below are a few practical tips to get you started on asking your customers to leave a review for your business.
1. Send out a survey to find out how your customers feel about your products or service.
2. Follow up with a thank you email and ask for a review.
3. Make it super easy for your customers to leave you a review by including a custom link to your business’s review page. For Google reviews, you can use the Google place id tool to create a short link to include in your email.
4. Encourage customers to rate their experience of the services that you have provided along with your brand mention as this will generally include the niche keywords that you wish to rank for.
5. Make sure you give the customer a guideline to follow as it will have a positive impact on the return rate.
6. Reply to the review. According to research, by responding to reviews, you are not only building trust with your customers but also gaining trust from search engines like Google. As we all know that Google likes to show credible sites on the search results page, just make sure you use your keywords naturally in the reply.
the importance of online reviews is hard to ignore. Impact Of Online Reviews Although we can’t prevent fake reviews, this does not detract from the power that good, honest reviews have in helping consumers make their buying decisions. This, in turn, will help businesses generate more revenue from customers that feel assured about the quality and service they can expect from your company, meaning happy customers that will return to your business again and again. Impact Of Online Reviews.
How can we help?
Impact Of Online Reviews, Securing positive business reviews should be a part of your wider marketing strategy. Customer feedback links directly to the Delight stage of the inbound methodology which emphasizes the importance of generating great user experiences for everyone that interacts with your business.
Impact Of Online Reviews you want your existing customers to serve as brand advocates for your business, encouraging others to explore your products and services, reviews serve the perfect platform for this. If you’re looking to begin your inbound journey and start securing consistent and sustainable growth for your business, get in touch with our team of experts.
During the last couple of years, the popularity of online reviews has grown significantly. Reviews help people decide which products or services they should buy, where they should travel and even where they should eat. Over time reviews have slowly become an integral part of business on the internet. Impact Of Online Reviews.
Numerous studies have been carried out to help determine the exact impact that both positive and negative reviews have on the popularity, number of sales, product awareness, conversion rate and profitability of businesses selling products or services.
The Positive Impact of Reviews on Businesses
- The increased likelihood of consumers spending more money
- Having numerous positive reviews increases the likelihood of convincing customers to pay more money for products or services. In fact, studies have shown that consumers are likely to spend around 31% more on products and services from businesses that have excellent reviews backing them up.
- Increase in business revenue
- Having negative reviews will surely affect your business, yet for every star that a business gets, chances are that a business’ revenue will increase.
- The customers’ trust is increased
- 57% of customers won’t use a business that has fewer than 4 stars
The Negative Impact of Reviews on Businesses
- Negative reviews can be damaging to the prestige, profitability and trustworthiness of a business
- A single negative review can drive away approximately 22% of customers, whereas around three negative reviews can drive away
- A single negative review could cost a business around 30 customers
- People hesitate to purchase from businesses with no reviews or with too many negative reviews
A single negative review could cost a business around 30 customers Tweet this
Our annual online reviews research shows that negative reviews stop 40% of consumers wanting to use a business. In the unfortunate case that these negative reviews pop up on Google searches, the businesses can potentially lose around 70% of their future customers.
In an era where the internet has taken over the world, online reviews are bound to drive customers towards or away from your business. Making customer satisfaction an essential part of your business can only help your company’s sales and profitability. Impact Of Online Reviews.