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5 Reasons Why Google My Business Reviews are Important

Before deciding to purchase a product or hire a service provider, most people often turn to reviews both online and offline. In fact, according to a recent survey, 82% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses.

People believe they’re getting honest opinions from online reviews about what products or services are truly like, helping them make more informed purchasing decisions.

If you have a physical location, users will most likely find reviews of your business on Google, the most popular search engine in the world.

Having a Google My Business listing means that people see your business first whenever they search for you online. Aside from reviews, it also shows your store hours, address, phone number, and gives people clear directions to your store.

Reviews improve your rankings.

Reviews can have a huge impact on your search engine rankings. According to Moz, 9% of Google’s search algorithm is affected by review signals.

Google wants to provide the best and most accurate information. The search engine most likely thinks that businesses with the highest number of ratings and highest ratings in general are more trusted by consumers. These businesses are often ones who respond to user questions and reviews.

With this in mind, it should make sense that businesses with plenty of reviews and high ratings get a boost in search engine rankings.

Don’t get me wrong. You shouldn’t forget to optimise the rest of your website or stop creating valuable content. However, getting more reviews on your Google My Business listing could be a significant part of your marketing strategy.

Reviews help build trust.

Reviews are considered trustworthy by consumers since they come from people who’ve purchased the product or hired the service provider before. They paint an honest picture of what a product or service is truly like.

There’s no denying that reviews play a huge role in building trust with users who are coming across your business online for the first time. They play a huge role in whether potential clients decide to do business with you or not.

Reviewers help you engage with customers.

Whether the reviews you get are negative or positive, they still give you a chance to engage with customers and address their concerns.

When a customer leaves a positive review, you can respond and thank them for doing business with you.

When a customer leaves a negative review, you can apologise to them or address the specific issues they mentioned in their review. You can also explain how you intend to do better in the future.

If potential customers see you interact with people through reviews, you give off the impression that you still care about them even if after they’ve done business with you. They know that you’ll address issues they may have with your product if they do decide to purchase from you.

Reviews help you gather information about the customer experience you’re providing.

The more customers leave reviews on your Google My Business listing, the more you discover about what kind of customer experience you’re providing.

You can identify which products or services are doing great and which ones need a little fine-tuning. They can also highlight possible training opportunities among the staff in your physical location.

We would recommend focusing on negative reviews since they help you identify which areas you should take care of right away. By doing this, not only can you provide a better customer experience in the future, but you can also improve your business’s processes and products.

Reviews improve click-through rates to your website.

According to a study BrightLocal did, businesses with positive star-ratings get higher click-through rates to their websites than their competitors. The higher your star ratings, the more clicks you receive from Google’s Local Pack.

As long as your website is user-friendly and has excellent content, a high click-through rate from your Google My Business listing could also boost your conversion rate. You get more opportunities to show users how your product or service could benefit them.

Inversely, if your business has an overall rating of less than three stars, you may want to consider what you need to change so that you can improve it.

Conclusion

Getting more Google My Business Listing reviews could benefit you in several ways.

Reviews help your rankings. The more highly ratings you get, the better your chances of improving your rankings in search engine results pages.

Reviews help you build trust with potential customers. They see what previous customers have said about you can then make more informed decisions about whether to do business with you or not.

Cornerstone Digital is an SEO agency in Sydney. Want to boost your rankings in local search results? Call us on (02) 8211 0668 or email us at info@cornerstone-digital.com.au.

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Darlyn Herradura

A self-professed book and digital marketing nerd, Darlyn Herradura focuses on building trust between customers and businesses with the written word. She understands that creating valuable content is the best way to get found online and happily spends her time doing that.