For any business, getting reviews is crucial. Your customers can be your biggest advocates or your biggest opponents. Reviews influence consumer trust in your brand and are one of the most important factors when it comes to site ranking.
Google has even released a blog post explaining why you should care about user reviews, and why sites with low Trust Scores are penalized in their search results. Many small businesses aren’t aware of how important reviews are for them until it’s too late.
In this blog post, we’ll break down some key reasons why you should care about customer review ratings, and how to build trust with your customers in the process.
Online Reviews
What Are Online Reviews?
Online reviews are any reviews that your customers leave on a third-party website. These could be on sites like Google, Facebook, TripAdvisor, Yelp, or any other review platform. For example, if a customer on your website review says “Excellent service. The driver was very kind and he helped me with all my heavy bags.” That sentence is an example of an online review.
Importance of Online Reviews
Online reviews are one of the most influential factors when it comes to trust. In fact, according to Google, only 0.36% of people will search for a product if they don’t see any reviews for it.
You can see how critical reviews are for your site’s SEO, and how they can help drive more customers. With the number of online reviews websites get, it’s important to make sure you have a good ratio of positive to negative reviews.
A website with low trust and no reviews is not only an issue for your site’s ranking, but it’s also a red flag for customers who see that you have few or no reviews.
Tips For Getting Reviews
It’s difficult to get new reviews, but it’s not impossible. If you take the time to build relationships with your customers and learn about their expectations for your brand, you’ll be on your way to getting reviews. Here are some tips on how to get more customer reviews.
Respond to Reviews
Respond to negative reviews as well as positive ones. This goes back to building relationships with your customers and being attentive to their needs.
Leave a Review
Don’t only leave reviews on your website. If you see a customer leaving a review, send them a message and thank them.
Guest Post
Don’t be afraid to guest post on other sites too. You can find some useful information on how to get reviews on your business in the guest post.
Get Social
Social media sites are great places to get new reviews. You can leave comments on your customer’s posts, or your own customer’s posts.
Customer Mentions
Make sure to mention your customers when they are on your social networks as well. You can do this by leaving comments on their posts, or sending them a message.
Building Trust with Customers
Why Do Customers Care About Trust Ratings?
The importance of trust ratings is the result of two main reasons. Firstly, if an individual won’t be able to communicate with you, they won’t be able to buy from you either. Secondly, and just as importantly, reviews on sites like TripAdvisor and Yelp are often used as a tool to make comparisons between different brands.
According to Google, the higher a site’s Trust Score, the more likely it is to rank in search results. To put it simply, if Google’s algorithm believes that you are not trustworthy, then they will not show your business in the SERPs. When you have low trust, it’s like being at the back of the class.
Google and other search engines have a way of making sure that you don’t get noticed. Because of this, it’s critical for any online business to build trust with its customers.
Why Is Trust So Important For SEO?
Google receives around 4 billion search queries every day. Customers who search for products based on reviews will often look at sites with a high Trust Score. Trust is one of the main factors that influence how your site ranks on Google. This means that if you want to rank high in the search results, you need to make sure that your site has high trust.
To be sure that your site ranks well, you must be found on the first page of Google. To achieve this, you need to make sure that Google and other search engines believe that you have high trust. It’s important to remember that trust is one of the main factors that Google uses to rank your site. Trust is important for a few reasons.
First, if someone tries to cheat their way to the top of a page with fake reviews, Google will be able to see this and penalize the page. Second, if your customers have a good experience, and leave a review, Google sees this as well. They use these reviews for a reason, and it helps boost your trust score.
5 Ways To Build Trust With Your Customers
Here are 5 ways that you can build trust with your existing and new customers.
1. Be Helpful and Approachable
People love to feel that they can connect with a brand through their products. One of the best ways to build trust with your customers is to be helpful and approachable. If a customer has a question about their product, or if they have a comment about your products or company, search for a solution.
If you have a question, find a solution. If you have a comment, reply. By being helpful, you are also showing that you are approachable. Anyone who is approachable will be more likely to trust you.
2. Be Proactive
By being proactive, you are setting a precedent for how your business will operate in the future. As a business, you must show that you are aware of your customer’s issues and that you want to resolve them.
By being proactive, you are showing your customers that you are listening, that you are willing to work with them, and that you care about their issues. When you are proactive, you are also setting a precedent for how you will approach issues in the future, which is another way that you can build trust with your customers.
3. Be Responsive
Responsive websites are extremely important in Google. These are the websites that are designed to be able to work on any device, whether it be a phone, a desktop computer, or a mobile device.
By designing your site to be responsive, you are ensuring that your products will look the same on the various devices that your customers use. They will also be able to click through your site easily without experiencing any issues, which is yet another way that you can build trust with your customers.
4. Be Transparent
Transparency is one of the highest ranking factors on Google. When you are transparent, you are letting your customers know that you are aware of their issues and that you are willing to work on them.
When you are transparent, you are letting your customers know that you are aware of their issues and that you are willing to work on them. Transparency shows that you care about your customers and what they have to say about your products. It also shows that you are willing to work on resolving any issues that your customers have.
5. Appreciate Customers
The final tip on how to build trust with your customers is to show your appreciation to them. This will show that you are thankful for your customers, and it will also show that you are committed to resolving any issues that they have.
This will also help to build trust with your customers because they will be more willing to tell others how appreciative they were of your product. Putting these tips into action won’t be easy, but doing so will help to improve your Trust Score and result in a better ranking on Google.
To build trust, you have to start with the person you are building it with, which is your customer. When you thank your customers, you are showing them that you appreciate them, and you are showing Google that you care.
Conclusion
Trust is one of the most important factors for Google to rank your site. These days, people rely heavily on online reviews to decide on a product. Therefore, online businesses must make sure that their trust score is as high as possible.
When it comes from your customers, reviews are one of the best ways to build trust with your site. You want to make sure that you are giving good reviews, and that you are responding to all of the reviews that you get.
We hope that you have enjoyed this article and that it has helped you to understand the importance of online reviews, and how to get more of them. There are many different ways to get more reviews, and they are all worth doing.
Articles You Might Want To Read:
Online Review Definition: The Basics That You Should Know
The Importance of Online Reviews: Why Your Customers Care, And How To Convince Them
