It is common knowledge that online reviews are playing a significant role in customers’ buying decisions, so it is worth paying careful attention to them. Also, 92% of customers read online reviews and it is also a known fact that reviews tend to enhance your SEO ranking. The consumer reviews, therefore, tend to give the company or product a genuine and objective view.
As a result, many businesses have used customer feedback to draw more consumers or boost their brand image on their websites. However, it works only if they are genuine enough and not just made up by the company. According to research, 91% of 18-34-year-olds trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
So, do you understand the importance reviews hold in an online business?
5 Best Practices for Adding Reviews
When you are strategizing your marketing plan, do not forget to include an amazing review strategy into it-
1. Make sure to add quantitative and qualitative details- The perfect review includes both quantitative and qualitative factors. The quantitative component can include a proper assessment of the product whereas the qualitative component will provide more specifics about the feel or appearance of the product. Many businesses nowadays require consumers to evaluate their product on a scale of 1-5, 5 being the highest rating.
2. Don’t let go of bad reviews- You can get tempted to delete bad or offensive reviews, wanting to just keep the best reviews to display. However, it is considered to be a bad practice. The bad reviews will somehow find a way to seep into your comments section and users will lose their trust if they found out that you have been intentionally removing the comments. So, it is really a lost cause. In fact, if a consumer finds out that a company has only positive feedback, they might get suspicious; these bad reviews can prove to be useful in some ways as they allow consumers to assess acceptable standards.
3. Making posting a review an easy task- Has it ever happened that you tried to post a review, but could not because of how complex the platform was. It is always the best idea to make posting new reviews easy for users. Give them several possibilities to write and post feedback in different fields; for example, you can send follow-up emails, encouraging users to post reviews on their recent purchases.
4. Don’t indulge in the habit of posting fake reviews- Many marketers intentionally pay for “false” reviews in an attempt to falsely raise their products’ star ratings or encourage consumer feedback; they either hire someone to do so or might write feedback themselves. In either case, these reviews are favorable but inauthentic — and the difference is known to most observant clients. It is always advised to let the honest reviews flow, be it negative or positive ones.
5. Make the best of both good and bad reviews- Reviews are an effective way of learning more about your business, and how you can improve certain things. Pay heed to both constructive and negative feedback for growth opportunities as these reviews are not just for customers. These will help you learn where you are lacking and enable you to work on those particular components. Customers are willing to spend 31% more on a business with excellent reviews but bad reviews play an equally important role in the growth of your business.
How to add Google reviews to your website?
One question that is asked time and again from the many businesses is – how to add google reviews to my website? Google allows a company to add customer reviews to your website.
Well, it is pretty easy and can be done in a fraction of seconds!
So, how to add google reviews to a website?
There are 3 ways in which you can accomplish this task-
1. Installing a widget- If you are using a CMS like WordPress, things can become really easy. The widgets are easy to install and are mostly free. The downside to it that it can sometimes not work the way you want it to.
2. Using a review feature- Using a review feature is the best way to obtain these Google stars on your website. With the help of a widget, a review feature can get a star rating on your website.
3. Using the API- Although Google does not let you embed reviews on your website that easily, companies still have access to the API. The API can be used to build a custom-designed Application that connects with Google to automatically access data.
To Sum Up
User reviews are becoming one of the most significant components for any business that is dealing in the online market. Consumers have a higher chance of trusting other people who have already tried your business than just putting their trust in your words; they are aware of how the advertising industry works, and they are conscious that companies are always pushing people to purchase their product by making it look good.
Most online content is overlooked, but customer reviews actually stand out and are read by people. According to research done by Revoo, consumers spend five times as long on a site when they interact with negative reviews, with an 85% increase in conversion rate.
