We live in a growing digital world where everything is constantly developing and transforming. Electronic devices have become part of our daily routine; we use them to connect with friends and family, to carry out work-related tasks and as a form of entertainment. This innovation has been particularly useful (to say the least) throughout this past year.

The pandemic has forced us to stay home to help protect ourselves and our community. In the meantime, we adapted to these unprecedented times, using the resources available to maintain our day to day life as normal as possible. This adjustment has led many of us to keep working, socializing, and purchasing thanks to the advancement of technology. Indeed, this pandemic has changed the way we sell and shop, now relying on e-commerce businesses to get everything we need.

Online shopping has been a saviour during the different lockdowns. We’ve appreciated the range of products available, the fast delivery and how easy it is to use. And today, even though most shops have reopened, we still have maintained a soft spot for online purchases. However, as you may well know, shopping online comes with its risks: customer disappointment, cart abandonment, slow delivery, you name it. These experiences have led consumers to be more sceptical about online brands, especially those they haven’t tried before.

As a start-up, it’s vital to build a solid reputation so to be seen as a trustworthy and credible business in the eyes of potential customers. Online reviews can do all that for you without you having to lift a finger.

The Power of Customer Reviews

Did you know 88% of consumers trust reviews as much as personal recommendations and that this type of social proof can increase a company’s conversion rate by 270%?

Reviews have become part of a customer’s shopping experience. No matter what sector they are looking at (fashion, food, electronics or automotive), they will check past customer feedback to see if the brand they are interested in is worth buying from. They expect to see positive and negative reviews, star ratings, company responses and even visual aid to better understand how credible, successful and trustworthy the brand is. Consumers trust reviews as much as word of mouth suggestions; they want real people to tell them their experiences.

Indeed, customers won’t shop from a brand if they can’t find reviews about them. Almost 90% of consumers will only consider purchasing from a company if they can first read past customer feedback.

As we’ve discussed, reviews help promote trust, credibility and increase conversion rate. This is because customers trust this type of social proof more than advertising. Not only, but this feedback can also help improve your SEO ranking.

Content is seen as one of the most important ranking considerations based on the Google Quality Rater. Therefore, the more content (e.g. reviews) you have, the more Google will notice. Google trusts your customers’ opinion more than yours, and potential customers also think that way. This means that reviews can help increase click-throughs and reduce bounce rates. Through these actions, Google will see you’re offering something valuable, and thus will place you higher in the results page.

Improve Your Online Visibility

We’ve established how vital customer reviews can be to improve your SEO. A great way of showcasing this feedback on a SERP is through rich snippets. At Psydro, when a business joins one of our plans, we will add a rich snippet to their listing at no extra cost. On the snippet, potential customers will see the number of reviews you have, the star rating and a recent review as the meta description. Kew Electrical and Turquoise Blue Tattoo are Psydro verified businesses and are a great example of how powerful these rich snippets can be. When searching for the company’s reviews (e.g. ‘Kew Electrical reviews’), the first result that appears on the SERP is their Psydro page.

When a user clicks on this result, they will arrive on the company’s Psydro business profile; another viable Google listing. This page increases brand awareness and also helps improve online visibility. This is because each review represents a unique piece of user-generated content, which increases the number of potential keyword variations.