How to Improve Your Local Search Rankings with Customer Reviews

Publish Date:

March 17, 2024

5 min read

How to enhance local search rankings with customer reviews

Introduction

Are you a business owner trying to build your brand locally? You’ve put up flyers, sent out pamphlets, actively campaigned in your neighborhood, and more, but to no avail. Unfortunately, you’ll need to do more to attract local customers. One of the fastest ways to increase your local visibility is by leveraging local search ranking. Any time someone is in your neighborhood and needs a product or service, they are sure to Google it. And if your site and Google Business profile are optimized well for local search engine rankings, you will rank higher.

The primary piece of asset that influences local SEO is customer reviews. And in this blog we are going to understand why that is the case.

Why Customer Reviews Matter for Local Search ranking

Customer reviews play a key role in improving local SEO rankings and online visibility

Apparently, third-party reviews are the most important decision-making factor for 42% of online users when making a buying decision.

The Connection Between Reviews and Local Search Rankings

Reviews and ratings are trust signals of sorts. They have the power to influence and portray what a business looks like in the eyes of Google and also in search results locally. About 15% of Google’s local ranking factors come from reviews which makes them very essential to SEO.

One can just take a look at this article on LinkedIn on "to understand the impact of reviews on local SEO a lot better.

Reviews and Click-Through Rates (CTR)

When a business is rated high and constantly receives over 4 and 5 stars on Google, the search engine automatically starts bumping and pushing it further up in terms of visibility. It works much better than other ways of reaching more eyes like advertising. Advertising might give you a temporary spike in how many people reach your site or look at your business listing.

But the effect of SEO is long lasting and permanent. It is going to take a lot of changes for it to be swayed or affected and go back down. Moreover, there is an immediate trust factor built up by the audiences when they see a high ranking business. The more stars and positive ratings you have, the more confident a buyer feels to do business with you without pondering over it.

Collecting More Customer Reviews to Improve SEO

A cafe owner places a QR code on a table for customers to leave reviews — Image Source

Best Practices for Requesting Reviews

Timely requests have a larger success rate with how many responses you will receive. Do not wait too long and ask customers for a review right after certain milestones like finishing a purchase, reaching out to support, or them speaking highly of your product with you.
Give clear instructions in your request by using prompts and forms that they can understand easily and start filling out. It also needs to be short and accessible to them.
Personalize requests by mentioning their name and why they have been chosen to give you the review or testimonial. This will make them feel more important and have a sense of exclusivity.
Give them different formats and options to fill out the form like whether they want to submit via a text message, email, or a simple form. Let them also choose whether they want to submit in audio, video, or text reviews.
Offer incentives if possible or if you would like to get them to purchase more from you or just simply sweeten the deal. Since you are primarily receiving something from them first and not the other way around.

Check out specific tips for 100 Customer Feedback Questions That’ll Bring You Answers 🔥

Industry-Specific Examples

House of Huegah: House of Huegah combined QR codes and Feedspace to effortlessly gather feedback, display customer love, and build trust.
Insectek Pest Solutions & Yelp: This local pest control company used Yelp to promote their business and also collect lots of customer reviews.
Hestlund Efterskole: Hestlund Efterskole, an after-school program based in Denmark worked with Feedspace to build a feedback and review collection engine. They had simple requirements like collecting feedback from parents and reviews from their students.

How to Manage and Respond to Reviews

Reviews give you a chance to speak to your customers and address their concerns publicly. This makes you seem like an active business owner who is available for anyone that would like to engage with you.

Moreover, it gives you a chance to further boost your SEO by organically injecting long-tail keywords like your product offering, business features, and areas served. This will only have a massive positive impact on your SEO and help you grow a lot further in your visibility.

You don’t just have to stick to responding to Google reviews for this. There are a host of other review sites, forums, and online spaces where people might be discussing your business. Engage in active social listening and check out where you can make a meaningful contribution to the conversation about your business.

How to Handle Positive Reviews Effectively

A restaurant owner happily responding to positive customer reviews online — Image Source

Respond promptly and personally by using their name, mentioning details that they have used in the reviews, and genuinely appreciating them for their time.
Use them for internal improvement by making changes or adding features or services requested. After this you can respond to the reviews and show off how their review was actually very helpful to you to gain insights and make changes in your internal systems for the better. The customer will feel like their words have had meaning and might even encourage more of your customers to leave reviews and suggestions for you.
Build relationships with those that speak highly of your product by having them join something like an exclusive slack community or be part of a loyalty program. You can even further ask them to promote your brand on their social media and pages to get more reach and eyes on your business’s products and services.

The Right Way to Respond to Negative Reviews

Restaurant owner addressing customer feedback with a response to a negative review — Image Source

Always try to respond as quickly as possible. Ideally within 24-48 hours so that people can see that you are actively addressing your audience concerns.
Don’t get defensive when you are receiving criticism. Responding emotionally can escalate the situation. So, always take your time to evaluate and deal with your feelings first, craft a reply, and then share it.
Whether positive or negative reviews, always thank the reviewer for taking their time out to leave feedback for you and helping grow your visibility.
Don't shift the blame or avoid taking responsibility. Always respond and own the situation even if you are in the right. How you use words to craft a reply can make or break your relationship with your customers.
Suggest a specific remedy and offer a solution. Don’t just apologise either.

You have to ensure that the customer, if they are unhappy with you, will want to come back and do business with you again.

Learn More About – How To Tackle Google Fake Reviews 🔥

Optimizing Google Business Profile with Reviews

There are apparently 11 key Google Business Profile ranking factors that affect your overall rank and how you appear. Let us take a look at some of them.

How Reviews Influence GBP Rankings

Reviews have a big impact on Google Business Profile rankings. Google uses it as a key SEO signal. If your customers leave positive reviews with keywords that are relevant, Google understands this as a validation of your business and what it does.

Using Reviews to Improve SEO on Google

Reviews from customers that are positive in nature increase your visibility in search results. Because Google considers many factors like review sentiment, rating, how recent it is, and even the content in it.

When customers leave reviews, they often mention the exact product or service they used. These details can make your business more relevant in local search results—especially on Google Maps and your Business Profile.

Google also values fresh and candid content. So, you need to keep bringing in and requesting for new reviews. Regularly updated and relevant reviews can give your profile an edge—especially when competing locally. However, overall SEO performance also depends on your website quality, backlinks, relevance, and other signals.

Leveraging Reviews to Outrank Competitors

Case Studies of Businesses That Improved SEO with Reviews

Cricks Automotive: A car dealership that used reviews from Google to bring in additional sales.The average car price being is $26,333, meaning, an estimated $79,000 in additional revenue.
Lampehuset: A lighting store that was able to increase organic visibility through Google search ranking including getting +416% clicks from organic search, +410% more products on first result page, and +540% more organic impressions!

Take Action – Improve Your Local Search Ranking with Customer Reviews

Don't leave the powerful SEO benefits of customer reviews untapped for your business. Start today by implementing a strategic review management system: train your staff to politely request reviews at optimal customer touchpoints, create easy-to-follow links for leaving feedback, and set up automated follow-up emails to satisfied customers.

Respond promptly to all reviews, addressing concerns in negative ones and expressing gratitude for positive ones, which shows Google your business actively engages with customers. Incorporate review monitoring into your regular marketing tasks, analyzing feedback for keywords and service improvements.

Sign up for a free account with Feedspace today. All new users receive a workspace with unlimited review import options and access to promoting their reviews by creating a Wall of Love. Happy review collecting!

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Rahul Pai

Author

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