Did you know that getting reviews from your customers or users is a key part of local search engine optimization (SEO)? Well, it’s true, and even Google admits that having reviews and responding to them does help local SEO. Let’s take a look at why reviews are so important and how responding to them can help your site’s local SEO stats.
Why is local SEO important to your business?
So, at this point, you’re probably having a couple of thoughts depending on how big your business is. Part of a big national or global company? You may be thinking that your business doesn’t need to bother with local SEO. Employed by a small business? You may be thinking that you can’t afford to improve your local SEO. But both of these thoughts aren’t 100% true.
Let’s start with the fact that 87% of people read an online review for local businesses in 2020. Even if you’re a multinational company, your local retail locations may not rank as highly if you aren’t giving your customers a chance to review your services or locations. Small businesses that can’t afford a huge marketing budget may have an even harder time showing up in search results if they aren’t being reviewed. Why? Here are a few reasons:
- Not having reviews may be viewed by searchers as a sign that your business isn’t trustworthy.
- A lack of reviews may cause people to scroll by your listing in search results.
- Google algorithms are less likely to view your business as authoritative or trustworthy.
And, just getting the reviews isn’t enough anymore either.
Responding to reviews does do a lot to boost local SEO numbers
It’s not like people do internet searches just to read reviews, right? False. Moz.com reports that more than 25% of local searches are done simply to read business reviews. “OK fine,” you may be thinking, “but surely they aren’t expecting businesses to respond to reviews?” The answer is, yes they are. A 2020 Brightlocal survey found that 20% of reviewers expect to see a response to their review within the next 24 hours.
That statistic alone should demonstrate the value of responding to reviews your customers post. You’ll be meeting their expectations. Yet there are other local SEO benefits that can come from responding to reviews, such as:
- Getting the chance to learn more about what your customers want.
- The ability to use consumer feedback to inform content marketing and other facets of your digital marketing plan.
- Google algorithms viewing your business as more trustworthy and authoritative.
- Gaining a higher position in local search results.
- Increasing traffic to your website and your physical retail locations.
Want to generate more traffic, conversions and better reviews on your site? BURG+CO. can help
Increasing traffic to your website plays a role in increasing conversions and can bring in new clients. If you do it right, the increase can also lead to more people leaving positive reviews on your site. However, it’s difficult to meet all these goals when you don’t know how to. Fortunately, helping businesses generate more traffic, conversions and improved user experience that can lead to better reviews are some of BURG+CO.’s specialities.
Our team has years of experience in helping businesses improve their digital presence, conversion processes and user experience to attract new leads and retain existing ones. If you’re looking to perform better in search engine results and attract more visitors to your site, we’re ready to talk to you to see how we can help. Contact our team today for more information about our digital marketing services or to schedule a complimentary consultation.
