If you’re just getting your business up and running, or if you’ve been in operation for a while but haven’t quite established a reputation yet, online review sites are an excellent way to get the word out about who you are and what you do. 

Some of the most popular review sites like Reliable Reviews, Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Google Local aren’t restricted to restaurants or hotels. Any business can get listed there. If you have a website for your company, that’s even better because it makes it much easier for users to find your site in search results. 

This article will explain how SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and online reviews can help your business grow by increasing customer awareness of who you are and what services you offer.

What Is SEO?

SEO is the acronym for “search engine optimization”, which is the process of improving your website’s visibility to search engines. Search engine optimization is an important component of digital marketing because it’s the primary way that your website will get discovered by potential customers in the first place. 

Your website must be easily discoverable on the internet so that you can drive relevant traffic to your site and successfully convert that traffic into paying customers. The major search engines, like Google, Bing, and Yahoo, determine a website’s ranking based on a variety of factors, like the number of links leading to the site, the site’s content, and the keywords that are used to describe the site. 

SEO is the practice of optimizing your website with those factors in mind so that the search engines will rank your site higher than the competition. The best way to do that would be to optimize your website for SEO and boost your online presence and visibility through things like social media.

How Does SEO Works?

SEO is all about bringing the right kind of traffic to your site. Let’s say you own a bakery and want more customers to stop by. You want to make it easy for people to find you. To do this, you need to make sure that when people search for “bakeries in NYC,” you show up at the top of the search results. 

You also want to make sure that when people search for “NYC bakeries” or “bakeries near me” you show up there, too. The best way to do this is through SEO. SEO is an ongoing process that requires consistent effort and attention. There is no one-and-done approach to getting your site to rank higher in the search results. The good news, though, is that many SEO strategies are incredibly simple to implement. 

You can create a great digital presence for your bakery by following these three SEO basics:

  • Build your site’s foundation by creating a robust site map, writing thorough content, and using keywords effectively
  • Create links to your site through guest blogging, social media, and other link-building strategies
  • Monitor your site’s performance to identify and fix any issues that could be impacting your SEO

What Is Online Review?

An online review is a piece of content created by a user of a product or service that expresses their feelings and opinions about that product or service. Online reviews are most commonly either written (reviews on websites) or video (reviews on video platforms). 

The idea behind online reviews is that users can share their experiences with others to help inform their purchasing decision. Reviews are particularly important on e-commerce websites, where customers can’t try out a product before they buy it. Most people are influenced by reviews when making a purchase, with two-thirds saying that online reviews are helpful in their decision-making process. Reviews also send a clear message to customers that companies care about what they have to say.

How Does Online Review Work?

The best way to get customers to leave reviews is to ask them to do it. There are several ways to do this. If you have a customer loyalty program, you can encourage customers to “level up” by leaving reviews on their purchases. 

If you have an app or customer-facing software, you can prompt users to leave you a review when they sign in or complete a purchase. You can also put a review form at the end of your confirmation email and on your receipts. While you can’t force customers to write reviews, there are a few things you can do to increase their likelihood of leaving one. 

First, provide great customer service to prompt happy customers to leave reviews on their purchases. Next, make it easy for customers to leave reviews by providing a review pop-up on your app or website. Finally, you can identify the customers who are most likely to leave reviews, such as your regulars or your most loyal customers.

How To Rank Higher In Search Results?

The best way to rank higher in search results is to create content that is relevant, up-to-date, high-quality, and has a lot of links coming to your site. Achieving high search engine rankings is a continuous process, not a one-and-done thing. 

That’s why it’s so important to get started with SEO today so that you can build up your SEO presence over time. Search engine algorithms change over time. That means the tactics that worked well for SEO a few years ago likely won’t work now. 

That’s why it’s so important for businesses to stay on top of SEO trends so that they can keep ranking high.

The Importance Of SEO For SMBs

SMBs get the majority of their revenue from inbound marketing, which includes search engine optimization and paid marketing efforts. When it comes to digital marketing campaigns, SMBs spend an average of $1,500 on SEO, $2,500 on paid search, and $3,000 on social media. 

In the past, it was much easier to rank in search engines. You could get a high ranking without doing much (if any) SEO. While that’s certainly still possible, it’s not easy. 

Today’s search algorithms are highly sophisticated, so you have to meet their high standards to rank. While it may seem like a challenge, SEO is an essential part of any digital marketing strategy.

Why Does Having Online Reviews Benefit SEO?

When you get positive reviews on a review site, it helps to boost your SEO. Search engines like Google will notice your positive reviews, and they’ll increase your site’s ranking. 

Some businesses are wary of online reviews because they’re concerned that negative reviews will hurt their business. While there’s no doubt that negative reviews can damage your reputation, it’s important to remember that search engines don’t take into account the number of reviews you’ve received. 

As long as you’re getting positive reviews, those positive reviews will help boost your SEO.

How To Get Online Reviews For Your Business?

Now that you know how important reviews are for your business, you might be wondering how to get more reviews. Here are a few tips to help you get more reviews and boost your SEO at the same time.

Invite Your Customers To Leave Reviews

The best way to get more reviews is to invite your customers to leave one. Make a special page on your website where people can leave reviews, and include a link to that page on your receipts and emails.

Offer A Discount For Positive Reviews

You can also offer a discount for positive reviews. This works especially well for things like restaurants, beauty salons, or spas.

Build Your Reputation With Your Employees

While it’s great to get reviews from your customers, it’s also a smart idea to encourage your employees to leave reviews, too.

Recent Updates

SEO

People Clicking Your Site

In the past, Google only gave importance to the number of links that lead to your website and not the number of people clicking on your page. This is not the case anymore. The search engine giant has now made it a point to reward those websites that get a considerable number of clicks by increasing their SERPS (search engine results pages) ranking.

Mobile Friendliness

If your website is not mobile-friendly, Google will penalize you and your website will not rank as high in the SERPs as it should. The new algorithm will make sure that only those websites that are optimized for mobile devices get featured on the first page of Google search results.

Voice Search Is Growing Rapidly

With the advent of voice assistants such as Alexa and Google Home, the usage of voice search is increasing. The number of people using voice search has increased by 50% since 2016.

New Language Detection Tool

Google has made a new language detection tool that will help it understand different languages better. When this new tool comes into play, it will make it easier for people from other countries to use search engines in their native language.

Online Reviews

There have been some changes for online reviews as well. The latest reviews for a business will now show up above the fold in the Google search engine results. This means that if you are ranking high, but have older reviews, they may not appear in the first few pages on Google.

This gives you another reason to ask for those reviews from your satisfied customers. If they have written a review recently, it has the best chance of showing up at the top of the page in the Google search results for your business.

Key Takeaways

Search engine optimization is the process of increasing your website’s visibility in search engines like Google. SEO is important because it’s the primary way that people will find your website. 

Online reviews are helpful in the decision-making process and can also boost your SEO by improving your ranking in search engines like Google. You can get more reviews by inviting your customers to leave one, offering a discount for positive reviews, and encouraging your employees

Articles You Might Want To Read:

5 Reasons Why Reviews Are So Important For Your Business

The Role That Online Reviews Will Play in 2022

Online Store Reviews: How to Get Them, Why You Need Them and What to Expect