Online reviews are obviously essential for restaurants and hotels, but why would other businesses need them? The truth is that reviews have a search engine optimization benefit for all businesses, even those in industries that have not traditionally relied on reviews to attract customers. Modern consumers see reviews ant ratings when they search for businesses online, and those reviews can have a big influence on consumers’ choices. But perhaps even more important, reviews can boost your business to the top of search results.
Reviews Improve Search Rankings
According to the Moz 2015 Local Search Ranking Factors survey, the quantity and quality of reviews of your business contribute significantly to your rank in search listings like google. Receiving many good reviews on sites such as Google, Yelp and TripAdvisor allows your business to dominate local search results, which means that you’ll be the destination of choice for consumers in your area. Up to 50 percent of local searchers visit a business within a day of conducting a search, which means that using reviews to improve your search rankings translates into real footfall and revenue.
How Do Reviews Affect Search Engine Optimization?
In addition to impacting your search rank, there are other compelling reasons to have lots of good reviews. When a customer searches for businesses like yours, some of the results they see are likely to be reviews posted on sites such as Yelp and TripAdvisor. The reason for this is that these sites are large, authoritative and contain what search engines view as actual consumer sentiment.
If they search using Google, the world’s most popular search engine, then reviews posted on Google business listings will be featured right in the search results. If no one is talking about your business online, you may not show up in the first page of search listings at all, which means you could be missing out on a huge amount of local search traffic.
What If My Industry Doesn’t Receive Reviews?
If you are in an industry that doesn’t typically receive reviews, then every positive review you receive is even more beneficial. Even just a few good reviews can give your brand more visibility and influence in local search listings, allowing you to crowd out competitors who have no reviews.
Take, for example, HVAC contractors. While they may have specialty reviews on sites like Houzz or HomeAdvisor, they don’t typically rely on consumer level reviews on large public review sites like Yelp or even Google reviews. Getting reviews on those platforms, however, can have a very powerful effect on their search rank. Consider the two search results below. Both are for the search phrase “HVAC contractors” but in two different markets. The first is for Milwaukee, WI. Notice how all three of the top results have no reviews. Then look at the second with is for Los Angeles, CA. Notice how JW Heating and Air is at the top of results. One of the main reasons they are there is because they have 38 consumer reviews on sites that are being factored into the search results. Now imagine the opportunity of Bintz Heating and Cooling in Milwaukee, WI or another contractor who does not even make the top three – they could move to the top of results by getting consumer reviews.
Milwaukee, WI
Los Angeles, CA
So, How Do I Get These Reviews?
That’s what RatingsMax is all about. We get you more, and better reviews while also getting you direct customer feedback.
Even if you are in an industry in which reviews are rare, RatingsMax can help you get reviews for your business. These reviews in turn help you to increase your business’s visibility in search engines with in turn leads to more business.
