The Importance of Online Reviews for Your Business
When you look up your business on Google, what shows up?
If you’re on top of your SEO game, you’ll likely find results pointing to your website or social media pages. If you scroll down, you might see the reviews your business has. If you don’t see any reviews, it’s likely that your business is new or you haven’t realized the importance of online reviews.
Online reviews are an important marketing tool in today’s digital world. They are a vital way to increase sales, build credibility (social proof), and expand brand awareness.
In this article, we’re telling you how online reviews can help grow your sales and make your business more credible.
Read on!
Online Buyers Want to See Reviews
You might think that building a search-optimized website and selling quality products is all it takes for online buyers to start streaming in, but you’d be wrong. Not completely wrong, though.
Over 90 percent of online buyers read online reviews before deciding whether or not to visit your business or make a purchase. This is to say, if you run an online ad for the hats you sell, most people who come across that ad aren’t going to make an immediate purchase, however cool your hats look.
They’ll Google the name of your store, and see the reviews it has. If your store has plenty of positive reviews and high ratings, there’s a good chance they’ll want to buy the hats. If your business doesn’t have any reviews, they might ignore the ad completely.
Reviews Indicate That Your Business Indeed Exists
In a country where over half a million small businesses start every year to join the over 30 million businesses that are already in operation, it can be difficult to find the best for your needs. There’s also an increasing number of fraudsters purporting to sell various products and services. If you aren’t careful, you could fall victim to a scammer.
When you run an ad, your target audience needs to know that your business indeed exists. They need proof, especially if it’s an online business without any physical presence.
Online reviews will give your business credibility. If a potential customer goes online and sees that there are reviews from past customers, they’ll know that the business is legitimate.
Even if the reviews are generally negative, they still offer enough proof of your business’s existence. Sometimes that’s all a potential customer needs to know.
Online Reviews Are Good for SEO
Building an SEO-friendly website isn’t all you need to rank on Google and other search engines. There are several other techniques you need to utilize.
Did you know online reviews are good for SEO, especially local SEO? Yes, digital reviews don’t just enable your business to build trust and credibility with customers. They build trust with search engines as well.
If your business is getting lots of good reviews, Google will notice and reward you with good rankings.
Therefore, work on getting online reviews. Yelp is one of the review sites that you should focus on. Learn more about generating reviews from Yelp.
Online Reviews Increase Sales
Online reviews will increase sales, improve business credibility, build customer trust, and even give you an edge over your competitors. The modern customer wants to read reviews before doing business with you, but those reviews need to be positive.
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