Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction
The powerful advantages of Google reviews are numerous and impactful for businesses. Google Reviews help build brand credibility online and serve as a quick gauge for potential customers considering your product or service. In addition, they can greatly improve your local search ranking, provide a level playing field (big or small, reviews are transparent and revealing), and can vastly improve your business’s reputation.
What is a Google Review?
A Google review allows any customer to write a brief appraisal of their personal experience with your company. The review is written on your Google My Business listing. A well-performing business can really benefit from this ‘raw’ rating system.
In short, achieving positive reviews on Google will have dramatic effects on your local ranking, brand trust, and level of feedback. And remember, the more the merrier.
Top 5 Powerful Advantages of Google Reviews
Let’s have a look at the top 5 benefits of Google Reviews in a little more detail.
One of the significant advantages of Google reviews is the increase in brand trust. The internet is creating an increased amount of information available to customers. With this increase is a greater expectation of transparency. Today, the vast majority of customers perform online research before committing to a purchase. As such, they will be looking for reasonable Google reviews of both the business and the product or service. This is how we buy things now. In fact, a recent survey concluded that an impressive 72% of customers felt more confident buying from a firm with positive reviews.This is a huge competitive advantage. Similarly, for those receiving negative reviews, confidence could still be maintained with the right response.
Among the various advantages of Google reviews, one key benefit is the boost in local SEO and exposure. Lots of factors influence the Google Algorithm. After all, it’s hugely complex. But one thing we do know, Google reviews influence local search ranking. Of course, other SEO tactics are still essential, such as keywords and regular blogging. But, combined with a complete Google My Business page with good reviews, your website is on its way to the top.
Furthermore, once you’ve collected good reviews, you’ll be included in the ‘map pack’. The Map Pack is a list of businesses (ranked by reviews) that are near to the searcher’s location. This is awesome free exposure.
A couple of great advantages of Google reviews are free customer intelligence and up-to-date customer feedback. This information is gold as a customer survey and should be treated as such. However, not every response is going to be positive.
Customer reviews that are negative can still be valuable. They also provide important information that should be acted on. You must respond to any negative reviews with a genuine commitment to fix the situation whenever possible. We know that customers read negative reviews too so that they can see how you respond as a company.
Keeping track of all your customer reviews on various sites can be a headache. You can do this manually or you can try a review management platform such as Fetch Review. This enables you to not only easily request and receive reviews but also to quickly manage any responses.
Another significant advantage of Google reviews is the improvement in conversion rates. Once a customer clicks through to your website, success is in sight. Your website is well-written with SEO content and it looks great. However, that may not be enough. If you’re getting good Google reviews, make sure that you display them everywhere. Sometimes, a good review score is enough to provide additional confidence and convert that customer (source).
Google reviews build confidence because they are seen as genuine responses. On the other hand, it is possible to buy reviews. But the thing is, most folks can spot fake reviews a mile off. And so can Google. Because of this, you risk being sidestepped by customers or even blacklisted by search engines, so don’t go there.
Conclusion
There’s no doubt that Google is the big hitter when it comes to the power of reviews. But don’t forget other platforms like Facebook, TripAdvisor, and the many others. In fact, building strong brand trust across all the popular review sites will definitely improve your brand exposure, buyer confidence, and ultimately, click-through conversions.
To see how your business can really benefit from a review management platform, and start collecting vital reviews, click here to try Fetch Review free!
