How To Ensure Your Reviews Stay In The Search Results

June 6, 2023 | Digital Marketing

Google release updates on the use of third-party reviews. Find out what it means to you and your business.

How-To-Ensure-Your-Reviews-Stay-In-The-Search-Results

Google have been making some changes to their guidelines lately on what is and isn’t allowed when it comes to local business reviews.

The first, announced on 25th August 2016, Google announced a huge change to online reviews. Instead of having a minimum of 30 reviews to have Seller Ratings appear within AdWords ads, you will now need 150.

The second, announced on 28th August 2016, saw Google update its local business guidelines to say that using third party review sites is still permissible, but no longer preferred.

The third and final, announced on 11th September 2016, brought to us an update in the appearance of reviews in the search results. Now third party reviews will appear in the knowledge graph alongside your local business information, therefore becoming more apparent in the search results.

Google-reviews

How will this affect me?

The first update affected many businesses across the web. AdWords ads that did not meet the new threshold had their Seller Ratings withdrawn. Google has previously said that having star ratings can improve your click-through rate by 17%, so these businesses may have seen their visitors or conversions drop after these guidelines were put in place. Whilst this seems like an unfair change on Google’s part, it is becoming more evident that they are looking to find ways to ensure all reviews are real and fair. This means that for anyone looking to solicit reviews should choose a third-party who collects genuine, purchase-verified reviews with an excellent response rate.

The second update changed the rules for marking up local businesses. Previously, you could mark up your website with local business schema and include reviews in this. Whilst this method is still permissible, Google stated that it now prefers reviews that aren’t from third party sites when it comes to this type of schema. Instead, you should focus on using product and organizational schema as these are still in line with the guidelines. We haven’t yet seen any punishments being enforced over this schema change, but it’s a good idea to protect your website in case these do start rolling out.

The new updated guidelines also say that the reviews for your site must be fair. This means that both positive and negative reviews should be shown, so if you currently collect your own reviews and only post positive ones, you could see your rankings drop. You should always remember that negative reviews should be viewed as a positive. They give your business both the opportunity to understand areas that need improving, as well as the chance to turn a negative experience into a positive one by responding appropriately.

The final update seemed to go hand in hand with the guideline amendments that came out a few days before. It seemed as though when it comes to local searches, third party reviews would become less prominent. However, a change to the appearance of the knowledge graph actually means the opposite. Third party reviews now appear in the right hand column of search results (on both desktop and mobile) alongside your business information. If you aren’t currently using third party review sites, now would be a good time to start as Google are starting to take reviews heavily into account in the search results.

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Why should I be collecting reviews?

Now that you’re up to speed with the latest Google updates, here are some reasons why you should collect online reviews to help your business as well as improving your SEO:

  1. Firstly, you are able to see what your customers really think about your products and services and can identify any weaknesses that you previously weren’t aware of. It also shows existing customers that you care about their opinion, and potential customers that you deliver excellent customer service. After all, 95% of unhappy customers would return if you deal with their issue [Source: NARMS].
  2. Using recognised approved Google partners to collect your reviews increases trust amongst consumers. Customers are more likely to part with their hard-earned cash if they know that you work with trusted and respected companies.
  3. As we mentioned before, it can drive business to your website! Once you have 150 online reviews you’re eligible to show Seller Ratings within your AdWords ads. As a result, your click-through rate can improve by 17%.
  4. It helps spread your business by word of mouth. If you’ve provided a great service or product to someone, they’re more likely to leave you a review, tell their family and friends and shout about it on social media. This is the same for video reviews. Sharing these on social media not only helps boost your brand visibility, but it also creates some great backlinks to your site!
  5. Using a known third party site will improve your trust flow to your customers. With Feefo, video reviews are available for customers to leave for you. These are more likely to be shared on social media which in turn will create some great high quality backlinks to your site. These will help your SEO and boost your online relevance.

Google is always changing its’ guidelines and how things appear in search, but with the tips above you can always ensure you’re ahead of the game.

Fake reviews

Something to be aware of when collecting your online reviews is that fake reviews are quite common. If you’re using an open platform such as Google reviews, the chances of you receiving disingenuous reviews are quite high as anyone can create an account and leave a review. False reviews can skew your online reputation and potentially lose cause you to lose business.

Using third party review systems is the most secure way to collect your reviews. Platforms like Feefo work on an invite only basis meaning that only customers who have actually purchased products or services from you can leave a review. This means you have peace of mind that all reviews written about your business are truthful and can be trusted.

Collecting user-generated Content

Keeping content fresh on your website is important for appearing higher in the search results as Google prefers sites with recent and relevant content. Being creative with your content and inviting your customers to join you is the perfect way to do this. According to statistics, consumers are 89% more likely to buy a product after looking at user-generated content.

Why not encourage your customers to leave video reviews instead of just text? By doing this, content is instantly more shareable and is more interesting to your potential customers. As well as this, video content is a lot harder to fake and therefore is more believable to your consumers.

Collecting-user-generated-content

Sharing on social media

Another way to ensure your reviews stay high in the search results is to share them on social media. Not only does this create relevant and high authority backlinks to your site, but it also shows customers that you’re interested in hearing their opinions. Replying to any questions you get on social media and sharing any messages or posts that you get is also a good idea as it shows consumers that you’re engaged and read their messages.

On social networks such as Facebook, you can add a reviews tab to make it easier for your customers to find your page and leave a review. Some third party review systems have their own integration apps for the main social media platforms that will link to the rest of the reviews on your site. It’s important to make sure that you aren’t duplicating your reviews across different sites as this is something Google frowns upon and you could be pushed further down the search results for doing so.

Connecting offline with online

With so much focus being put on online shopping, collecting reviews from your in-store customers is often overlooked. In-store reviews are perfect if you have more than one branch and would like to see how your business compares across these. Not only that, but you can merge these you’re your online reviews so you have all feedback in one place. Handing out businesses cards with tailored QR codes or website information on how to leave a review are effective ways of collecting these types of reviews.

In conclusion, Google is looking more and more into the opinions of third parties online. Taking into account the new updates rolled out and the new look and feel of the knowledge graph, now is a good time to start paying attention to your online reviews.

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