Some people think of it as the holly grail, some people know all the ways of making the most of it, and some people don’t really understand it at all, but SEO – (Search Engine Optimisation) is not overly difficult to comprehend and there are lots of ways that you can improve it without busting your marketing budget.
SEO is the process of obtaining ‘organic’ or ‘natural’ web traffic from online searches for ‘free’. It is not like Adwords, where users pay money for daily auctions on keywords particular to their business. With SEO, a search engine like Google ranks information based on what it considers the most relevant to searches and there are many things you can do to improve the standing of your business in local searches. One factor you may not even be aware of is online reviews.
Not only do reviews help a business by presenting consumers with information about customer service, quality, attention to detail, and after care service, they also boost organic growth for SEO.
“In fact according to MOZ’ Local Search Ranking Factors Survey, [2017] online reviews are thought to make up 10% of how Google and other search engines decide to rank search.” (Online reviews and SEO, konstruct interactive, 2017)
How positive online reviews help drive SEO
All of the relevant research in the past few years points to a substantial factor about consumers and their online behaviour – they are looking for reviews before considering contacting a business. A staggering 90% of consumers say that positive reviews motivate them to pick up the phone, so because of this Google takes online reviews seriously and helps businesses with recent positive reviews. Old reviews suggest that a business is perhaps now not in operation and recent ones not only dispel doubts but they also help with establishing ‘relevance’ in online searches. Think then, how damaging no reviews at all are for any business.
“A complete and utter absence of reviews can have a negative effect. This is actually a pretty simple concept, if your competitors are gathering positive online reviews they in turn are then receiving SEO benefits from search engines. If your business is not gathering any online reviews then [it] is not receiving any of the SEO benefits that come with it. This means if your competitor is receiving positive reviews, [they] are receiving an edge that [your business] does not have, and they are most likely ranking ahead of you on search results pages.” (konstruct interactive, 2017)
Reviews provide original content that helps with SEO
“The three pillars to local search are relevance, proximity and authority. How can reviews influence these pillars? By adding content and context.”(Understanding the interplay of SEO and a 5-star reputation, Search Engine Land, 2017)
Every online review written about a business satisfies a number of criteria that search engines like Google use for ranking. The user-generated content of the reviews – the business name, the keywords used etc – establishes relevance and boosts SEO. So not only does committing to industry relevant review platforms work to increase new customers on the basis of the opinions of your past and present customers – the reviews that you accumulate on those sites work to increase Google standing – to optimise how your business appears in search engines.
NoCowboys are New Zealand’s foremost experts on online reviews and online marketing. Talk with them about how they can make your business thrive. They give free online marketing advice.
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