Customer Ratings and Reviews: How They Affect Local SEO in Greenville

When you’re out to try a new product or service, whose opinion and recommendations would you trust most? That of the business owner, or that of a former client who has firsthand experience? Of course, given how modern consumers arrive at purchase decisions, the latter’s feedback takes precedence—and this makes customer reviews important to businesses.

In fact, due to the significance of customer reviews and ratings, even search engine optimization in Greenville, SC and other areas, particularly SEO campaigns aimed to promote local businesses, consider online feedbacks as critical elements that need to be constantly monitored and managed. An article by Amanda DiSilvestro posted at Yahoo! has this to say:

Online reviews have always been a part of Google and good business management, but just recently Google has really started ramping up places you can features reviews. Based on some of these moves […], it seems that business reviews are going to be more important than ever in 2014. Small business owners need to make sure they’re taking advantage of all the different review options, making efforts to earn quality reviews, and communicating with the team about updating and managing comments.

Fortunately, business owners can rely on leading Greenville SEO companies like Spark Local Marketing to help them understand the relationship between consumer reviews and SEO. As a basic introduction, here’s what you have to know about online reviews and search engine marketing:

Online Reviews and SEO—The Profitable Connection

Google Values User-Generated Content

Other than fresh and relevant content that can be found in your website or social media profile, it seems that Google’s hummingbird also favors user-generated content. So, if you enable customers to leave product reviews on landing pages, for one, there’s a higher probability for your site to receive greater crawl frequency as well as organic traffic, and then be deemed relevant in searches.

Presence of Keywords

The more customers there are who talk about your product or brand, the more exposure your business will get. Google bots will crawl through these reviews and find your site relevant, especially if users link to it or leave reviews directly on a certain product/testimonial page. Over time, your site will be placed higher, if not at the very top, of search results pages by virtue of relevance. Needless to say, keywords are vital to SEO, and online customer reviews are another way to maximize them.

There’s no doubt that what customers have to say about your company and everything it offers can have a significant effect on your bottom line. Therefore, you can’t let online reviews go unnoticed and unmanaged. Work with an internet marketing expert, and make the most of online ratings and reviews.

(Source: Why Online Customer Reviews Will be More Important in 2014, Yahoo! Small Business Advisor)