Google yourself. What do you see? Is your business boasting a hearty amount of positive online reviews? Or have your competitors surpassed you with their online reputation? Online reviews are one of the first trust factors potential customers use when determining who to do business with. The internet is the main area we use to do our research about a business and to see what others have to say about them. Inside the four walls of your business, you may be running a high-quality operation. However, your customers are creating your reputation by what you say about it.
Online reputation management (ORM) is about taking control of the online conversation. It uses techniques and strategies to ensure that people find positive information about you when they are online. It is also the other half that boosts your SEO efforts. Combining ORM and SEO is essential to driving traffic and generating more business for your company. In this article, we’re going to share some of the reasons why ORM and SEO should go hand in hand with your marketing strategy and how to set up a powerful review system for your business.
Why Online Reviews and SEO Go Hand-in-Hand
While online reviews work as trust signals to potential customers, they also improve your online rankings when used effectively. Google has evolved its algorithms dramatically over the years. While “content is king,” content centered around user experience takes the ultimate throne. User-generated content (UGC) in the form of online reviews has a profound impact on search rankings in a number of ways:
- Each online review is treated as a new piece of content. Fresh and informative content means a great deal to search engines as they want the most relevant content on their search engine results page (SERP).
- Google relies heavily on E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) when determining when content to provide in SERP. A steady stream of positive online reviews sends a signal to search engines that your business is trustworthy. If they deem it to be a reputable brand, they will put your company ahead of others in the search results.
- SEO aims to make your website visible to search engines, while ORM focuses on improving your business. trust and credibility. When you increase your number of online reviews, it also increases the likelihood of customers visiting your website vs the competition. This increased traffic sends a positive signal to the search engines that you are a credible business, which increases your rankings.
How to Improve Your Online Reputation
When people are checking out your business, I guarantee the majority of them are checking out your online reviews first. Negative reviews can not only damage your online reputation but will also undermine the effectiveness of your SEO efforts. A well-formulated online reputation strategy is a powerful tool for creating a positive brand image and winning over customers. Here are some ways to boost your online rankings through customer reviews:
Using Off-Site SEO
Off-site SEO is any action you take outside your website to build your digital footprint. This can come from credible backlinks to your page, keeping your social media business pages active, and creating a third-party review platform. Google uses these off-site signals to measure the level of E-A-T of your brand. Third-party sites can come from your online business listings, such as your Google Business Profile. Make sure all your online directories are completely filled out with the most accurate information about your business. The more complete, the easier it makes for customers to understand your business and for Google to use this information for search queries.
Display Reviews on Your Website
Showcasing customer reviews not only on your website but on a key landing page of your site makes it easy for search engines to find and index. When you display your reviews separately, it allows you to diversify your content and add relevant content to your pages. Both contribute to an improvement in organic online rankings. Make sure any new reviews that come in are synchronized on your review page. This new text makes your website more valuable to Google because it continues to add more context about your business and if it’s helpful to the user’s search query. This helps feed the user experience algorithm since search engines want to provide more reputable search results to their users.
Use Long-Tail Keywords
From an SEO standpoint, reviews can help your business rank for long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are three or more word phrases that are specific to your product or service and the user’s search intent. Using long-tail keywords on your website can increase the likelihood of appearing in the search results if it matches what the customer is looking for. Online reviews can often feature these search terms, and it can happen organically when a customer describes their purchase or experience. This makes it more likely that a future customer will find your page through a similar search. Long-tail keywords may get less specific search traffic, but they will usually have a higher conversion rate as they are more specific.
Not only is responding to customer reviews just good business practice, but it’s also another opportunity to utilize additional keywords to help you rank higher. When you reply using those relevant keywords, it gives search engines a clear indication how what your page is all about. In addition, Google encourages brands to respond to reviews. They state that businesses should “interact with customers by responding to reviews that they leave about your business.” If Google makes it a point to respond to customers, it’s a good indication that this matters to them.
Improve Your SEO with Online Reputation Management
We all wish every happy customer would automatically leave a raving review online, but sadly that’s not the case. As a business owner, you have enough going on and don’t have the time to personally reach out to every customer for a review. This is where reputation management comes in.
That’s where online Reputation Management comes in. By actively managing your online reputation, you’ll have the power to maintain your positive reputation and repair negative ones. Online Reputation Management works by actively monitoring mentions of your brand on websites and social media. It monitors online reviews, addresses any content or customer feedback that could damage the brand, and uses strategies to prevent and solve problems that could damage your reputation. It essentially helps you manage little fires before they cause serious damage.
Our online review system provides multiple ways to improve the customer experience and gather online reviews by integrating customer feedback options on the sites that matter to you most.
Our Online Review System Features
- A dedicated review page to display all your online reviews
- Automatically contacts your customers through our hands-free database to obtain new reviews
- Text-email option to send to customers asking to leave a reviews
- Auto-detect where your customers are logged in and take them to that site to leave a review – no log-in necessary
- Help generate more online reviews through custom-made QR codes taking them directly to your review site.
- Management feature to help intercept a bad review and connect with your customer to resolve any issue.
How We Can Help
Your online reputation matters. Your potential customers are looking to trust you, and online reviews are their best resource. Being proactive makes it easy to boost your online reputation and win more sales. Our review system allows you to efficiently solicit and collect feedback, monitor customer satisfaction, and generate positive reviews. We help you regain control by protecting your most valuable asset: your reputation. Follow us on YouTube for helpful videos to improve your digital marketing strategy. Contact us to schedule a demo and learn more about our online reputation management strategy.