Have you ever wondered why every business owner requests their customers give a 5-Star rating on Google? Does it really matter to have 5-Star ratings and excellent reviews on Google for location-based search queries? Yes, it does! Google reviews are often the first impression a customer gets of any business, which could actually make a huge difference to overall reputation. It can also act as a determining factor for customers over whether they will choose you or your competitor. In short, Google reviews can give your business a big credibility boost without even spending a penny.

Google reviews play a significant role in leveling down the playing field and improving Google’s ranking for local SEO. According to the study, 88% of consumers trust online reviews, and they majorly impact the success of any company more than anything else. 97% of consumers have stated that reviews influence their buying decision; therefore, every business like seo company india should keep review management as the top priority if they are running a consumer-facing business.

Here is what Google has to say about it and its official stance on Responding to Reviews

“Google review count and score play an important role in local search engine ranking. More reviews and positive ratings mean more satisfied customers, which in turn improve your local business ranking.”

“Interact with customers by responding to their views that they leave about your business. Responding to customer reviews (good or bad) shows that you value your customers and their feedback. Positive reviews from your customers will act in your favor as they will help grow your business visibility and increase the likelihood that your potential customers will visit your location. You should always encourage your customers to leave feedback once they complete the product purchase or when you have completed your services for which they have hired you. Share a link on which they can click to write reviews.”

“Google doesn’t offer paid reviews for better local rankings. Google keeps details of the search algorithm confidential so that its ranking system should remain as fair as possible for everyone.”

Therefore, we can say that reviews are an essential determinative ranking factor that can also be quantified. Let’s find out how Google considers reviews and how it affects the SEO rankings of the local businesses.

How Does Google Reviews Help In Local SEO?

If you are still not sure about how online reviews affect the rankings of the businesses, then here are a few explanations on it. These include:

1. Reviews Increase Brand Trust: Today, every consumer researches a business on Google before purchasing any product or hiring a company for its services. They read reviews to determine the quality of their services and experiences with the local business. Here, Google reviews play an important role. Consumers believe that positive reviews help them trust any local company. This gives an excellent opportunity to local businesses to gain a competitive edge over the other businesses by collecting Google reviews. On the other hand, it also makes it essential to respond to negative reviews, which will further build customer trust.

2. Google Trusts Its Users: Google depends on certain signals to determine whether a website deserves good rankings or not. Just like Google considers inbound links like an endorsement of trust; hence, it rewards you with better visibility. Similarly, customer reviews for any business tell Google everything about your business, like whether it is real or not, their experience with them, and other important information based on their interaction. This can help future potential customers to make their decision. Google actually considers such things for local rankings as well.

3. Customer Intelligence and Feedback Loop through Reviews: Feedback loop and customer intelligence are two advantages that you gain through Google reviews. Every Google business review could serve as a customer survey response for you. It will generally tell you a few things:

  • Whether your company offered a positive customer experience or not.
  • Where your company did an amazing and where not.
  • What product or service they received from your business.

By negative reviews, you can quickly get to know the areas you need to improve and where you should be praising.

4. Google Likes To Read: Google “reads” your website to know more about your business. When you leverage customer reviews on your website or generate them on Google My Business Page, there is lots of fresh content generated with several keywords that help Google understand your business. While writing reviews for your business, your customers unintentionally include certain keywords when describing your products and services. When Google reads those reviews as well as keywords, it adds SEO value to your business. Thus, reviews fill all the loopholes and content gaps that may exist on your website, pushing your rankings upward and improving the overall visibility of your business website. 

5. Excellent Reviews Are Equivalent To More Clicks: People trust reviews. Let’s consider a situation. If you are looking for service and you have two options. One company has 2-Star ratings, and the other one has 5-Star ratings. Which one would you like to click? Obviously, the one with a higher rating. Click-through rates highly influence SEO ranking. If your website has a high percentage of searches, Google assumes that you are doing something right and rewards you by ranking your website on higher rankings. Therefore, reviews can play a big role, especially when you are generating reviews regularly.

How Should You Get More Google Reviews?

If you are convinced that Google reviews really play an important role in your business success, then you should quickly get started. Never think of buying reviews for an immediate boost, as they will not help you in any way. The best and successful businesses have real reviews that they have earned fair and square. Both customers and search engines can easily spot fake reviews. Always stick to true and tried methods of getting reviews, such as email, personal requests through message, or others. Getting reviews through the ethical route will stay for long and prove beneficial for the long run.

Conclusion

Google business reviews can drive brand trust, local SEO, and feedback for your business. So, make sure you utilize the true potential of Google reviews and take all the benefits that your competitors may be using. They are free, and you can see incredible outcomes in a relatively small amount of time. At last, Google reviews are one of the most cost-effective ways to drive leads to your business. You can easily and quickly gain the trust of your potential customers in your geographic area.