Why Customer Reviews Matter for Search Visibility (2019 Archive)

Recorded in July 2019 and published as part of a dated historical record. It reflects how search worked then, not current advice.

Why are reviews an SEO opportunity?

One of the next things I want to talk to you about in terms of SEO — and this might sound like a really weird one for SEO — is reviews. You've got things like Facebook reviews, Trustpilot, Google. It's always nice to get Google reviews. They're difficult to get people to leave, but that is a really, really big opportunity for you as a website.

If you can get, underneath your listing on the results page, some nice big stars — five-star reviews from Google or Trustpilot, and there are lots of plugins that can make this happen — then one, it looks great, and two, it's taking up more space. More space, more real estate, more chance of a click.

Why is Google Local so valuable?

The biggest thing with Google reviews is Google Local. You'll know that on a mobile device, when you search for something — let's say I've searched for "estate agent" — you're going to get some business listings. Those positions are absolute gold.

We took a local estate agent who wasn't appearing in the local listings. They had, I think, about five to six hundred calls a month organically, from their website and from people knowing who they were. We got them to number one on the local listing, and those calls went up twelve hundred percent. That was a massive increase in business for them — and ranking there was dependent on reviews. Generating a large number of reviews has a big impact.

What about fake reviews?

One of the things we see a lot of people having trouble with is fake reviews — competitors entering fake reviews. An absolute nightmare, and there's not an awful lot you can do to stop it at the moment. With something like Trustpilot, if you pay for a premium account you'll have an account manager who can take fake reviews down, but it's still quite a difficult process. This is a big problem Google needs to address.

How do you generate more reviews?

A really good strategy: follow up every sale and ask for a review. You can automate that, but you want to give people choice. I would ask them for Google first, because those are the most valuable in terms of SEO; give them the chance to review you on Facebook; or why not have an on-site opportunity?

An on-site review does two things: it brings people back onto your site, where they might buy again, and it gives Google another good signal — they came on and filled in a piece of information, which you could set up as a goal.

You're not supposed to incentivise reviews — but there are ways to incentivise a review other than "we're going to give you a voucher" or paying for it. Incentivise people by making them feel like they're part of an experience, or that they're going to get a piece of content. Get them back on your site wherever you can, get them to give you these reviews, and that will give you a massive SEO benefit.