When people search for your business online, reviews are one of the first ways to determine whether to purchase your product! Positive reviews will help you elevate your rankings in Google and attract more customers.
The feature of writing reviews is a standard on all social media and local directories platforms, including Google My Business. It can help your business establish trust, and your prospective buyer will feel comfortable purchasing from you. Around 68% of your buyers are affected by the reviews, so you must have positive reviews. Suppose you still have a low star rating and no reputation management; most users will skip your business if your star rating is below 3.3. You can consider ZealousWeb’s local SEO packages because a low star rating will impact your sales.
However, only a few people write reviews for a business, but the high number of reviews will increase your click-through rates. E-commerce businesses need an opportunity to leverage the power of online reviews, and our local SEO packages will provide you with that opportunity.
What Is Local SEO?
The term local SEO applies to optimizing a website for local search results. It ensures your business ranks higher when people search for a similar business in your city. For instance, if you search for ‘sandwich near me’ on Google, the search engine will display a list of sandwich places in your area along with their website, phone number, address, and direction.
Local SEO packages are split into two categories – one is local pack results, and the other is local organic search results.
Local Pack Results
Local SEO packages help you search for prospective buyers based on the user’s location and distance from the user to the business. It pops up at the top of the search and mainly displays three types of results – local businesses, restaurants, and other companies. Your business needs to rank higher in local pack results because users may need help scrolling down the page.
Local Organic Search Results
It is the remainder of the search results below the local pack results. These results are displayed according to the relevance and quality of the website rather than geographical location. You must optimize your website to increase your chance of showing up in local organic search results.
Impact of Reviews on Local SEO Rank
As noted by Google –
- Interaction with customers by responding to their reviews will ensure that you value your customers and their feedback.
- Local SEO packages will help you receive positive reviews from your customers. It will improve your business’s visibility and increase the chance of potential customers visiting your location.
- Encourage customers by providing a feedback link they can click to write reviews.
However, customers only sometimes provide a lot of detail. But, reviews are a determinative ranking factor that can be quantified
Reviews As A Ranking Factor
Local SEO packages’ ranking relies on three primary factors – relevance, distance, and prominence. Reviews fall under the prominence category, influencing SERPs.
According to Moz’s survey of 100 local SEO experts, it was found that 83% of them said that having online reviews have helped with their local SEO rankings.
Your search engine rankings will only improve if your business has good reviews. Google places a lot of emphasis on review signals when determining how high your website ranks in the search results. At ZealousWeb, our experts can show you results on your search engine rank with local SEO packages.
Review Categories
Star Rating
It is based on the average star rating of all the reviews that your business has received to date. For example, If there is an average rating of 4 stars, it has received a minimum of 4 stars out of all the reviews received.
Number of Reviews
It indicates the total number of reviews your business has received.
Review Velocity
According to BrightLocal, the average business in the US receives about one new review each week. What does this mean? It conveys the speed of your reviews. It says your business will need more reviews if you want to improve its search ranking. More reviews will have a higher chance of appearing in the first three packs on local search results.
Elements Affecting Local SEO
Now you know the factors affecting your local SEO packages. If your online business has good reviews, it will perform better in search results.
Review Quality
Review quality will affect the impression of your search engine results significantly. Google values review from real people over machine-generated ones. Your local SEO package will perform well if your ratings are above four stars. ZealousWeb does not suggest you pay for fake reviews. Instead, encourage your customers to provide honest reviews.
Review Diversity
The number of your reviews affects your search engine rankings. The more reviews you get, the higher the chances for your business to get featured on the first page of local search results. Try to get reviews on all famous review sites, such as Yelp and Google Business Profile, to get optimum exposure.
Keywords
When your customers write a review about your services on Google Business Profile, they usually include keywords that describe your services. For instance, a customer may leave a five-star review for a nearby restaurant that defines the specialized ‘pizza by slice’ so that the customer can order it. This customer will undoubtedly mention ‘pizza by slice’ in the review as a keyword. A restaurant owner must respond to this reviewer by giving a 5-star review.
Relevant Content
Relevant content is another essential aspect that Google values when determining search rank for local SEO. So purchasing our local SEO packages will get you new reviews, and responding to your customers will keep your listing up to date. As a result, you will improve your chance of featuring on the first page of search results.
Review and Response Metrics
Suppose you are soliciting customer feedback and responding to their reviews with SEO-rich content. But how do you know if your strategy is working?
Below mentioned metrics will help you keep an eye on it –
Review Score
Review score, also known as star rating, is one of the broadest metrics related to reviews. It helps you keep track of your score as it evolves. You need to analyze if your last month’s reviews push your overall score up or down and the performance of which department within the business. It may be manual work for you to build these reports directly from google, but it is crucial to determine the score.
ZealousWeb’s local SEO packages break down your business’s ratings by duration and profit period. Our experts also isolate performance across multiple review sites and compile the data into easy-to-understand language.
Percentage of Negative Reviews
From all the reviews your business received last month, what percentage were three stars or less?
Widewail reports that high-performance businesses receive less than 10% negative reviews in a given timeframe. 10-12% negative is ok to deal with, but receiving 20% of negative reviews demands additional attention.
ZealousWeb’s local SEO Packages make it easy to identify the specific areas of your business that receive unjustifiably negative reviews and help you resolve them.
Review Volume
Higher review frequency brings positive effects. It enhances SEO by ensuring a consistent flow of the latest content, minimizes the impact of negative reviews, and provides your potential customers with ten recent reviews so they can trust your business. However, it is crucial to initially grow your business review volume by 10-25%.
Review Diversity
Review diversity is a vital indicator for local SEO packages. It reviews volume across multiple high-value review sites related to your industry.
That’s why it becomes a fragment of your review volume metric. Please ensure that your business has accounts and an active presence on leading review sites such as Google, Facebook, and Yelp. Then, identify review sites relevant to your business to help your business achieve review diversity
Response Time
When responding to unsatisfied customers, the time between the review and posting a reply is vital. Look at it from the customer’s perspective. When customers wrote a review, they were unhappy but still interacted with your business. After a week, they may refrain from engaging with your response. But this particular week, they will talk about their negative experience with so many people, which will affect your brand.
It would be best to respond to the review the same day it is posted. However, replying after two days is also considered exemplary. If you wait more than two days, you miss an opportunity to resolve the issue and earn your business back.
Impact of Negative Reviews On SEO
Negative reviews do affect your business. However, negative reviews in moderation are considered helpful for SEO. Sometimes a few negative reviews increase your credibility as it shows genuine feedback. A company with only positive reviews appears suspicious to your prospective clients. Moreover, your prospective clients are intelligent enough to discover the practice of discouraging negative reviews if you only show positive ones.
According to Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines, negative reviews are regular and expected.
The high volume of negative reviews will surely pull down your star rating and hurt your local SEO ranking. However, according to Windwail data, if you follow the best practices and benchmark your negative reviews under 15%, you will not have to worry about your online reputation.
Benefits of Google Reviews
A Google review is a quick and straightforward process, and the benefits are long-lasting. The more customers leave a Google review, the more you can accomplish your business objectives. If you still need to get more serious about Google reviews, now is the right time to change your perspective and prioritize it with ZealousWeb’s local SEO Packages.
Here are some advantages of Google Reviews –
More Reviews, More Leads
Your consumers tend to rely on your online reviews as much as personal recommendations. In this digital era, the majority of consumers may trust online reviews. If you build up your reviews, Google searches will likely engage with your business.
Positive Reviews Translate Into Purchase
Consumers have a habit of reading reviews before making a purchase. They read multiple reviews until they are confident enough to decide. Local SEO packages will help you gain more Google reviews, and more clients will invest their money in the purchase.
Higher Reviews, Higher Rank
Google rewards businesses that receive frequent and positive reviews. It is defined as a local SEO ranking factor, as confirmed by Google.
More The Reviews, Lower The Cost
There are no charges involved in writing a review and responding to it. Constructive endorsements for your business on your business profile will serve as free Google advertising for your business.
Concluding Thoughts
ZealousWeb has years of experience helping local businesses get top rankings in local search results. We can also apply a wide range of other effective techniques to gain fruitful results for the local SEO of your business.
Your prospective customers trust what your consumers have to say about your services. So if you need help in review management for your local business, get in touch with ZealousWeb now! We’ll make it easy for you to manage your ranking, reputation, and revenue with our affordable SEO packages.