Online reviews have become a trusted source of user-submitted information about businesses, products, and services. A third of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, and this is especially true for millennials.
That’s why your business must have a strong presence on review sites like Reliable Reviews, Google, Facebook, and Yelp. When potential customers are looking for a business like yours, the first thing they will do is search for you online. The more prominent your business appears on search engines, the more likely customers interested in your services will find you.
Having a strong presence on these sites not only drives more traffic to your website but also helps establish your business as an authority in your field. In this article, we’ll go over why online reviews matter and what you can do to increase yours.
Online Reviews In 2022
In 2022, online reviews will be used to facilitate more than $250 billion worth of transactions. That’s 12x more than they’re used for today. Online reviews have become an important source of information for a variety of industries and products.
Consumers look to online reviews as a way to make informed purchasing decisions based on the experiences of other people rather than just their own opinions. With so many products and services available, it can be difficult to know which ones are best. Consumers rely on online reviews to provide information on everything from restaurants to plumbers.
Online reviews have become so important that many businesses now offer incentives for customers to write reviews and star ratings for their products. This can include offering a discount for people who write reviews or free products for those who rate their experience at a certain level.
Online Reviews Statistics
- There are more than 1.7 billion online reviews written each year. This number is expected to increase to 2 billion written online reviews per year by 2020.
- 82% of consumers read online reviews on businesses that interest them. That’s almost 4 out of every 5 people.
- Online reviews are the most trusted form of marketing available. 69% of people use online reviews to find a new business.
- 84% of people say they are more likely to use a business they’ve seen positive reviews for.
- 79% of people say they are more likely to use a business they’ve seen negative reviews for.
- 80% of people say they are likely to change their minds about a product or service based on an online review.
Online Reviews Developments
Google will start ranking businesses with few or no reviews lower in search results. This is part of Google’s effort to combat fake reviews. Instagram will start ranking businesses in the Explore section of users’ feeds based on reviews. This is a more visual way to find businesses with reviews than on Google.
Facebook is trying to replicate the success of Amazon’s product reviews with the launch of its product review feature. This allows customers to submit reviews for products that were purchased on Facebook. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and more are changing the online review landscape.
More and more, people are turning away from websites like Yelp and Google reviews to share their experiences and opinions on social media. This makes finding and accessing, reviews increasingly difficult.
Why Are Online Reviews Important?
Increase Your Google Rankings
When potential customers are looking for your products or services and you show up in the top results, they are more likely to click on your link. Having a strong presence on Google means you show up at the top of search results for your targeted keywords.
Having positive reviews will also help boost your rankings. Google uses reviews to determine how relevant a business is to a specific keyword. So if you’re a roofing contractor, having a strong presence on Google helps potential customers find you when they’re looking for someone to do repairs for their roof.
Establish Brand’s Authority
People are more likely to trust a business with many positive reviews than one with very few or no reviews. Having a presence on Google and other review sites helps establish your brand as an authority in your industry.
If you’re a roofing contractor, for example, potential customers are likely to trust you more if you have a strong presence on Google. Having many positive reviews for your services also helps new customers find you more easily.
Establish Products Identity
Knowing what your customers think about your products is important. Reviews are a great place to see the successes of your products and how they are being used in real-life situations. They are also a place to see how your products may be failing. And this can help you to identify areas for improvement or changes that you may want to make in your product line.
Product reviews also play a role in building your product’s identity. In the same way that positive reviews can help build your brand’s authority, positive product reviews can help build a product’s identity. Product reviews are a great way to see what customers are saying about your products.
They can help you identify what aspects of your products customers love. And they can also help you identify areas of your product that might need improvement or to be changed.
Identify Problems
Reviews can help you identify potential problems with your products or services. If you see a trend of negative reviews, then you may want to look into why customers feel that way. Negative reviews can not only help you identify problems but also areas that you can improve.
Having a strong online presence and a strong presence on review sites like Google, Facebook, and Yelp helps you to find customers who might be having problems with your products or services. With review sites, you are not only getting reviews from people who are happy with your products and services.
Reach More Customers
If you have positive reviews, you’re likely to attract more customers. Google displays a company’s reviews in their Knowledge Graph, which is a box on the right side of the search page that contains information like hours of operation, address, phone number, and more. Having lots of positive reviews on these sites helps you reach more customers.
Provide Customer Feedback
Review sites are a great place to get customer feedback. Having an open-ended review section on your website or your social media page is a great place to get feedback from customers who have used your services.
These reviews are useful for you, your potential customers, and Google. They are valuable feedback from people who have used your services, and they also help potential customers decide whether or not to do business with you.
Conclusion
Reviews are incredibly important for the success of any business. To get reviews, though, you need to ask for them. And you can’t just ask for them once and then wait for the reviews to come in. You need to proactively encourage your customers to leave reviews. And you can do this in a variety of ways.
You can put a link on your website or social media page that encourages people to leave reviews. You can put a sign on your storefront that asks people to leave reviews. You can put a message in your email signature. Whatever way you choose to encourage people to leave reviews, make sure you do it often. People aren’t likely to leave you a review after just one purchase or service.
You need to put the request out there often so that you can get a steady stream of reviews.
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