When you have launched your website with a range of services & articles, you can focus on reviews for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
Reviews aren’t just reputation markers—they’re SEO assets.
Experts across the industry agree that reviews influence Google’s algorithm, customer trust & ultimately business performance.
Think what can I do to send positive signals to the algorithm to get more search results?
One important method is to encourage reviews on credible platforms for your niche.
“Reviews are an expression of the good & bad sentiment customers feel about products & services.”
Moz conducted studies over years to analyse the factors that influence search engine rankings, & they found reviews play a key role, especially in Local search rankings.
“There is no single answer to which factors carry most weight because Google handles results differently across their products, & for different markets, industries, platforms, & devices,” they said.
A good approach is to build profiles on the main review platforms for your niche, then reach out to associates & customers for reviews.
Associates are people you’ve assisted while volunteering your services, & others you have helped while at university or working on community projects.
Moz believes Google uses 3 types of reviews—Google-based reviews, e.g. Google Business Profile, Third-party reviews, e.g. LinkedIn, & First-party reviews on your website.
It’s always good to vet the review platform you’re considering, as not all review sites are trusted, some remove truthful negative reviews after requests, causing credibility issues.
You might ask, “How can I build reviews quickly from zero as a new entrepreneur?”
Smart entrepreneurs will feature review systems for customers in their business & marketing systems to expedite reviews growth.
They promote their preferred review platform, request reviews on their Home page, & in other areas where customers visit, e.g. Contact page.
They add a request to “Leave a Review” on their order confirmation page with a CTA, plus on their invoice, & on the invoice delivery email with CTA (multiple requests).
They might create an automated email sequence, e.g. “Leave a Review” shortly after their service is completed or product delivered, with a post-purchase survey.
The ACCC has guidance on how to ensure review practices are legal in AU. For example, if you offer incentives, they must be clearly disclosed & given regardless if the review is positive or negative.
Tip: Examine where your competitors have their reviews for your industry niche, then build a system to grow reviews.
10 Credible Review Platforms
For new entrepreneurs who want to know what are the best review platforms to join, below is a list of 10 review platforms across different industries.
- Google Business Profile (GBP): Primarily for local search performance, GBP can significantly impact your visibility on Google searches & Google Maps Local Pack;
- LinkedIn: Request reviews for your services or company, send 20 review invitations & mark projects complete. Premium subs. display their latest 4 or 5-Star review;
- Clutch: Your search for business services starts here. List your business, request reviews & brief a project to get connected to the best-fit providers;
- Hotfrog: Australia’s freshest local business directory. List your business, add video, articles & special offers. Request reviews & write reviews;
- G2: Specialises in software & SaaS product reviews, making it perfect for these types of businesses with subscriptions & introductory offers;
- Capterra: A resource for software developers, WordPress users, & IT services, providing professional in-depth reviews & ratings;
- Lazada/Shopee/Amazon: If you’re selling products or services, third-party reviews can improve your reputation by providing good signals to search engines;
- Angi (formerly Angie’s List): Is a good tool for trades & service-based businesses, particularly in the home services industry who want to build third-party reviews;
- Airtasker: For businesses offering services on the platform, customers post jobs, business are ranked & provide quotes/services, & customers leave reviews;
- Yelp For Business: Find home services, restaurants & other businesses. Yelp can help you connect with local customers near your business location.
Tip: Aim for all three types of reviews that Google pays attention to—Google-based (GBP), third-party (LinkedIn), & first-party (your website) reviews.
Customer reviews on these platforms can play a significant role in improving SEO & business performance.
10 Ways Reviews Boost SEO Growth For Entrepreneurs
New entrepreneurs often ask how reviews impact SEO growth? Below are 10 proven ways reviews can assist the SEO growth of an Internet business.
1. Guiding Consumer Choice
Research by The Bazaar Voice on 30,000+ global shoppers found 88% use reviews to discover & evaluate products.
If you’re like me & you purchase goods online from Lazada, Shopee, or Amazon, then you know that good reviews impact who you buy from.
When in the Philippines I buy my Subaru parts online using star-ratings as supply is limited locally, so I try to buy from sellers with over 4.7-5.0 stars.
I like to read reviews from happy customers before buying parts, & I prefer to buy from sellers with a higher number of items sold to increase my deliverability.
I have given reviews for sellers who provide quality products & for faulty product warnings. This helps genuine sellers grow their business & protects consumers.
2. User Generated Content
For an Internet business positive reviews & high star-ratings impact everything from conversion rates, to SEO performance, & being displayed higher in search results.
Search engines favour User Generated Content because it indicates the business is active & currently engaged with its customers.
TBV’s Shopper Experience Index, found 59-65% of people in AU, USA, & UK rely on User Generated Content in their buying decisions.
They found consumers use a combination of UGC, e.g. high-quality testimonials, star-ratings, & number of reviews & products sold—as signals influencing buying decisions.
Most people have compared online prices & reviews with in-store products & prices, when shopping, & whoever has the best price & quality usually wins business.
Good reviews also help to verify the quality of what people are buying.
3. Boost Search Rankings
Positive reviews on Google Business Profile, improve business rankings in local search results, as Google’s algorithm considers reviews from their products a high-quality signal.
In addition they use third-party review data from platforms like LinkedIn, Airtasker, & Yelp to assist search results & determine the best results to display.
On these platforms & in the SERPS, they trigger algorithms to display the best rated sellers first, helping seller’s improve their visibility.
First-party data is another component in Google’s evaluation, e.g. recent customer reviews & testimonials published on your website to boost SEO results.
Tip: If you want to improve your search rankings, build systems to request reviews across Google-based, third-party, & first-party systems.
4. Increase Website Traffic
Reviews are the new “Word of Mouth” & a major factor in Google Maps listings & Local Pack rankings.
Accumulating positive reviews on credible platforms for service-based businesses improves search performance & visitor referrals from these platforms to a website.
As a result of reviews, more potential customers are likely to visit from both organic search results & review platform referrals.
Then as web visitor traffic grows, it further enhances your SEO performance, by providing a higher-traffic signal to Google—generating more listings.
Tip: In addition to asking for reviews, try posting your services on review platforms to start the traffic from LinkedIn & the SERPs.
5. Builds Trust & Credibility
Reviews act as credible social proof from people who have engaged with a business.
I know when I’m a prospective customer, I’m more inclined to trust a business with numerous positive reviews & 4 to 5-Star ratings.
I also like to read both positive & negative reviews for my evaluations on product sellers & service providers, before deciding to proceed.
Negative reviews can be turned into positives with empathy & professionalism, & when they’re handled well they can strengthen credibility.
The trust gained from reviews increases user engagement, CTR, & conversion rates on a website, beneficial to the business owner.
6. Opportunity For Outreach
Every review or testimonial from a customer is fresh UGC, sending a positive signal to search engines.
Once you have established your review profiles on the main platforms (GBP & LinkedIn) & added review systems to your website, you can get proactive by requesting reviews.
Timing is key, send requests shortly after project milestones or completion, & after positive interactions with a link to your Google Business Profile or LinkedIn.
Marketing automation platforms can strengthen reviews with every client receiving an automated request with invoice delivery.
Ask yourself, “Who can I reach out to & request a review each week?” Then look back in 3-months to watch your reviews & social credit growing.
7. High-Quality Backlinks
It’s well known that high-quality backlinks from authoritative third-party sites signal to Google that your website is credible & trustworthy.
When you have a business profile on review sites like LinkedIn, Clutch, & Hotfrog, & directory sites, e.g. Local Chamber of Commerce, this builds authoritative backlinks.
I noticed improvement in my rankings for SBMarketer searches on Google (p3 to p1) after I set-up my review profiles & listed on a number of credible directory sites.
This is like priming the search engines to understand that you’re a professional business, you’re active & currently operating in your industry niche.
Tip: Make sure your NAP data (name, address, phone) is consistent across the platforms.
8. Better Click Through Rates
Businesses with positive reviews (UGC), higher star-ratings & more reviews are likely to receive more clicks from SERPs, as these are signals to Google to provide a top listing.
One of the key reasons reviews & UGC boost CTR is because consumers trust peer voices more than polished branded content, so their more likely to move forward from this information.
Rich snippets also help improved CTR, as Google often displays star-ratings, review count & snippets from UGC, all making your visibility more prominent.
A high CTR also signals to search engines that your result is relevant to the user’s query, which can positively influence SEO performance in receiving organic listings & traffic.
Tip: Incorporating UGC in email marketing campaigns to increase CTR by 78% (Amra & Elma).
9. Provides Customer Keywords
Reviews provide helpful keyword diversity from organic long-tail queries & conversational language.
Customers can significantly enhance your SEO performance by using keywords related to your business services in their reviews.
This is because search engines consider customer reviews as “Very Credible UGC” which boosts the credibility & relevance of your website.
The natural & varied language customers use in their reviews can improve your search visibility for those terms, potentially adding new queries.
10. Contributes To Schema Markup
Reviews are wrapped in schema markup, e.g. Simple Review Schema, so Google knows they represent customer feedback, ratings & testimonials.
They can boost SEO performance is from their contribution to schema markup, & particularly rich snippets.
Search engines evaluate the data from rich snippets, e.g. star-ratings, volume of reviews, reviewer name, & review dates, in considering whether to display a page for a business.
In some results pages, the rich snippet data is displayed with your listing.
For example, if you search for SpaceX on Google Maps, you see a star-rating (4.8 from 1200+), which comes from their Google Business Profile.
10 Ways Reviews Boost SEO Growth For Entrepreneurs
Industry leaders believe reviews is one of the best SEO growth strategies for new entrepreneurs, as search engines use reviews as a key evaluation criteria for results pages.
5-Star customer reviews provide credibility & trust for a business, reassuring consumers, & providing high-quality backlinks to a website.
It makes sense for search engines to rewarded business with 4 or 5 star-ratings with higher ranked search listings, as these are like “Word of Mouth” referrals.
Start building your review platforms & systems as soon as possible to leverage the SEO benefits for your business.
Let me know how reviews work for you, & what’s your favourite review platform in the comments below?
