Appearing among the top results on search engines is everyone’s goal, but only ten will have the privilege of earning a spot on the first page. For this reason, site’s SEO optimization is essential, and that’s where customer reviews provide help.
Find out in this article how it works!
The best sites are the ones we trust, and customer feedback is a critical element in building that trust in your online store. But reviews can do even more: they help you improve your business’s site’s SEO.
Working on site’s SEO optimization is key to ensuring you get:
– Free Google traffic (i.e., organic traffic)
– Long-term visibility
– More sales
Several elements play an essential role if you want to optimize your e-Commerce with SEO: unique text, relevant keywords, quality images, and alt text are some of them.
Without a doubt, optimizing your site takes time and effort. However, some people don’t know that customer reviews also help improve site’s SEO quickly and with minimal effort on your part.
Reviews as user-generated content
Google and other search engines are to present the best possible search result to users. Therefore, Google uses the content these pages contain to determine the relevance of online pages based on keywords entered by users.
By collecting reviews from your customers, you ensure new, updated, and constantly incoming content on your e-Commerce pages. We refer to customer reviews as user-generated content (UGC).
In Google’s eyes, there is no difference between user-generated content and content that you create: if a piece of content is on your page, Google will take it into account while ranking it.
The benefits of reviews for eCommerce
This section will detail seven benefits of collecting and displaying your customers’ reviews on your eCommerce pages.
- Free content
As we mentioned above, SEO optimization takes time, knowledge, and effort. On the other hand, customer reviews are accessible, consistent, and require no commitment.
- Ranking for relevant keywords
Customer reviews allow you to rank for keywords relevant to your brand and products. In fact, before completing an online purchase, consumers actively search for reviews from those who have already purchased the product, and they use keywords like “name of your product/brand + review” to do so.
Therefore, collecting customer reviews is a strategy that allows you to outperform your competitors and redirect more traffic to your site.
- Rich Snippets
Ranking high on Google is essential, but what makes users click on your site instead of your competitors’ is the Rich Snippet.
Rich Snippets are additional information shown in search results and the “classic” elements (title, meta description, and URL of your site), making your page more attractive to click on. The rating stars that come from reviews are an example of this.
- Improve CTR through trust
By now, it’s a given that reviews inspire trust. Even with the best tagline and marketing strategies, customer reviews are trusted because they’re from a neutral third party.
Reviews help you improve your click-through rate (CTR) and, as a result, your traffic, lead generation, and revenue. This is especially true for lesser-known SMBs: as Statista research reports, 93.4% of consumers read customer reviews before completing a purchase.
Whatever you offer, a service or a product, it’s important to know what other consumers think about it.
A great example is Casumo casino reviews, an award-winning online casino that manages to represent a growing legion of modern and innovative players in the industry. Over the years, the casino has accumulated numerous accolades and excellent reviews, which have earned it the great success it has today. Casumo has a wide range of games, bonuses, and features to suit every type of casino player who may have come to the platform, thanks to recommendations from other players.
- A longer retention time
Another SEO factor that search engines consider when deciding on the ranking is the length of time a user stays on an online page.
If a user closes your page after a few seconds (so if you have a high bounce rate), Google will deduce from this behavior that the page did not meet its expectations and will go on to lower your ranking for the related keyword.
By collecting and displaying customer reviews, you increase the dwell time of your visitors. The more reviews you have, the longer a user takes to read them, and the longer the period they spend on your page.
- A better score from Google
By improving your site’s performance (especially the click-through rate), Google receives a positive signal: your site corresponds to users’ expectations. This signal is a decisive parameter in Google’s ranking algorithm, which must constantly work on its user experience to maintain its monopoly.
For example, you got 8th place in the search results, but thanks to the reviews’ rating stars (Rich Snippet), your site is more clicked than the one in the 3rd position. Google will then analyze your site as more relevant and review its ranking.
- Reputation management
Your customers must talk about you and your products. Customer reviews act as testimonials and help build your brand image, or in other words, your online reputation.
Always respond to reviews, especially the less positive ones. Most review collection systems allow for this. Remember to use your customers’ feedback as constructive criticism to improve your service!
Conclusion
Customer reviews are a must for e-commerce businesses. Their reassuring power offers quick and visible results on KPIs. In addition, they provide a better shopping experience for your customers, and they also allow you to keep control of your online reputation and identify your potential for improvement.
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