The reviews that companies can get from their customers tend to have a direct effect on the credibility and reputation of a business, and, when those reviews are left on the right platforms, it can directly contribute to the website ranking of the company’s website and search engine results pages. Not to mention, customer reviews are a very effective way for companies to persuade other potential customers to start making purchases from the business. One of the best places where companies should be motivating their customers to leave their reviews is on Google, because it’s the most used search engine in the world these days, and many customers expect to see reviews when they look up a company on the platform.
Credibility and trust
Positive customer reviews make other potential customers a lot more likely to trust a company. These types of reviews can have a direct effect on the bottom line of a company because nearly 90% of customers these days tend to read at least a handful of reviews before they make a purchasing decision. That means whenever a potential customer reads a positive review, they are going to visit the company’s website, look for more reviews, or even visit the company’s physical location before making a purchase.
Purchasing decisions
Reviews online can oftentimes be just what a potential customer needs to move on from thinking about making a purchase, to actually making that purchase. When many people read through customer reviews, what they are actually looking for is reassurance that they will be making the right choice in terms of the purchasing decision, as well as motivation, to make the decision in the first place. When customers are trying to make a choice, seeing positive reviews online can give them that reassurance and motivation that they need. However, if a company doesn’t have a lot of reviews, or if it has a lot of negative reviews, customers might be put off and decide to do business with another company.
Website ranking
There are many different strategies that companies can utilize to improve their ranking on search engine results pages that search engine optimization efforts require. However, one of the ways that companies can improve their ranking on search engines like Google depends on how well they are able to handle the reviews that the company generates. The more reviews that a company has on Google, and even on the website, the higher it will start ranking on search engine results pages. Additionally, a company’s search ranking can also increase if that company starts responding to each and every review it gets from customers, whether positive or negative. Both of these strategies, getting customers to leave reviews, and responding to those reviews, are a great way for a company to improve the way that potential customers feel about the business. This is because negative reviews can easily be turned into positive ones when the company replies to that customer to figure out a way to fix the problem that they are having. In addition, by responding to positive reviews, companies can show that they care about every customer equally.