As a small business, how would you feel if you found out most customers say that their buying decisions depend on online reviews?

The quality of your content, keywords, backlinks, and mobile friendliness have dominated digital marketing strategies since the formation of Google, but customer reviews are another ranking factor that’s dominating search, these days. Recently, Local SEO Guide released their 2017 Local Ranking Factors study, which found that reviews boost local visibility.

This prominent ranking factor helps businesses place higher on search results pages, even if they have low-quality link profiles.

With the help of the University of California, Irvine, and PlacesScout, Local SEO Guide looked at over 200 factors and more than 100,000 local businesses in 150 cities.

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The Importance of Reviews

Here are other statistics worth noting:

• Customer reviews make up 7% of the organic local ranking factors of Moz
• 9 out of 10 consumers read reviews before going to a store
• 90% of consumers feel that online reviews influence their buying decisions
• Customers spend 31% more on a business when it has positive reviews online
• 72% of consumers will only do something after reading a positive review
• 67% users will read at least six reviews before they form an opinion about a business
• 86% of consumers believe even negative reviews impact their decisions
• 79% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations
  

Hopefully, these points will help you understand online reviews from a consumer perspective. These will also help you influence clients’ decisions to purchase your product or service, and to avoid the things that would cause them to walk away.

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How Reviews Fit into the Purchasing Cycle

But before we get into how reviews enhance search engine optimization or SEO, let’s look at how this ranking factor fits into the purchasing cycle for consumers’ desired products and services.

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Typically, by the time a user starts looking at reviews, they have already figured out what they want, and how a particular business can fulfill that want. They’re already in the process of selecting a business.

The question is, how, exactly, do reviews enhance SEO?

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How Customer Reviews Impact SEO

Customer reviews impact search engine optimization (SEO) efforts because they piggyback on another important ranking factor: the freshness of a website’s content. By providing a business with a continuous supply of UGC or user-generated content, web crawlers know the website is active. This drives the website’s position in organic search to higher spots, which, in turn, increases one’s chances of gaining website conversions.

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And if a business has a high position in the organic search listings, it also ranks well on Google’s local pack. It’s worth noting that a business can rank well on local packs even without the traditional ranking factors, such as links, or even an existing website. Simply having good reviews could earn you a ranking on Google’s local pack.

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Reviews also boost long-tail keyword traffic. Reviewers use language that’s more conversational—the same type your target market will use. Therefore, the consistent flow of the user-generated content will help you target more traffic through the right keywords.

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The Challenge: Getting Real Reviews (No Solicitation)

Reviews truly add credibility to businesses and their websites. But what if they’re fake?

Despite crackdowns against prolific offenders, fraudulent review writing is still rampant. With that, many companies are finding ways to monitor reviews and help small businesses obtain real ones.

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One of those companies is Yelp.

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The online directory and search site has the most extreme policies against review solicitation, or the method of asking for reviews in any form. This is to preserve the integrity of the content, and to preserve the confidence of users in online reviews; if people doubt the authenticity of reviews on Yelp and other review platforms, usage could decline. This will also devalue the review platform itself.

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The Strategy: “Encouraging” Instead of “Soliciting” Reviews

Google offers a few guidelines on how to avoid review solicitation and to prevent your website from being penalized by review sites:

“Reviews are most valuable when they are honest and unbiased. If you own or work at a place, please don’t review your own business or employer. Don’t offer or accept money, products, or services to write reviews for a business or to write negative reviews about a competitor. If you’re a business owner, don’t set up review stations or kiosks at your place of business just to ask for reviews written at your place of business.”

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In addition, you can avoid Yelp’s review filter by encouraging people to write long, descriptive reviews. Short reviews aren’t very useful and will probably get filtered. Respond and engage with potential customers, as well; respond to their review, say thanks, send them a message, or add them as a friend. By responding to reviews, you’re telling Yelp that the review is legitimate.

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Also, verify your business using Google My Business listing. This allows you not only to regularly update your office hours and photos, but also to respond to your reviews directly.

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Beyond Having Reviews

It’s not just the quantity of reviews that matter, however. What’s more important is what is being said in those reviews. Google My Business pages rank higher on the local pack if they have a mention of a keyword and/or the name of a city.

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Additionally, your business should show Google star ratings; this snippet can help your website stand out on the search listings. According to a study, 3 to 5 stars increase click-through rate (CTR) by as much as 25% from Google Local Pack. Having a 5-star rating earns 39% more clicks than having a 1-star rating.

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In another study, star ratings lead to an increased conversion rate of up to 17%.

You need to have about five reviews on Google My Business for the stars to show up, however. Google looks at certain third-party review sites to give you an overall star rating; make sure you have a minimum of 30 reviews during the past year with an average of 3.5 stars or higher to get those stars to show up, and to get customers to show up.

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What Does This All Mean?

There’s a lot to digest in this article—but it all boils down to a few important takeaways. First, reviews matter when it comes to search engine rankings. Second, if you want your business to remain competitive, make an effort to acquire reviews on your Google My Business page and other review platforms.

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And third, never pay for reviews—let them come organically, especially in 2018.