Online reviews benefit customers and businesses alike.
They help customers determine whether businesses are worth buying from, and they help businesses earn credibility.
In this post, I explain the benefits online reviews give to customers and businesses.
Key Benefits of Online Reviews for Customers
- Helping customers research businesses
- Helping customers research products
- Helping customers confirm the validity of businesses
- Giving consumers another source for recommendations
1. Helping Customers Research Businesses Online
According to a statistic from BrightLocal’s Local Consumer Review Survey, 71% of consumers read online reviews while browsing local businesses.
Furthermore, according to a report published by Power Reviews, 87% of Gen Z shoppers and 81% of millennials purposefully seek out websites that have reviews when they’re interested in purchasing something.
This proves how important reviews are to customers and how much of an influence they have when consumers look for products and research businesses online.
Reviews tell consumers a few things about businesses:
- A business’ overall review rating is a representation of how customers feel about a business
- Review count lets customers know how popular a business is and how credible their review rating is (the more reviews, the more credible a business’ rating appears)
- Review sentiment lets customers know if opinions about a business are generally positive or negative
- Individual statements made in reviews let customers know more about a business, specifically about things the business themselves don’t mention in marketing materials
2. Helping Customers Research Products Online
Customer reviews also help consumers conduct product research.
This happens when there’s a disconnection between how a business markets their products online and what consumers actually want out of those products.
Product reviews let consumers know specific things about products that product pages don’t mention.
For example, reviews about a bedspread might mention how much cats and dogs like or dislike it or how much fur it collects. Reviews about a water bottle might mention how much mold grows in little nooks and crannies that exist in the bottle’s lid.
3. Helping Customers Identify Real Businesses
According to BrightLocal’s survey, 40% of consumers read reviews from at least two sources while browsing local businesses.
22% look at reviews from at least three sources.
There are a few different reasons why consumers might do this, but a big reason is identifying real businesses.
The more directories, social media platforms and review platforms you’re a part of, the more credible you appear online.
4. Giving Consumers Additional Trusted Sources
In their Local Consumer Review Survey, BrightLocal discovered that 42% of consumers trust online reviews as much as they trust personal recommendations from friends and family.
29% trust reviews as much as they trust recommendations from influencers while 27% trust reviews as much as they trust reviews from industry experts.
This means online reviews act as an additional source for consumers, allowing them to confirm their own suspicions or confirm recommendations from other sources.
Key Benefits of Online Reviews for Businesses
- Helping businesses increase local search rankings
- Filling Google Business Profile with local keywords
- Filling Google Business Profile with more photos
- Increasing influence on the web overall
- Helping businesses connect with customers more
- Helping businesses identify issues in quality
- Helping businesses give customers what they want
- Making businesses appear more credible
- Earning backlinks
- Increasing website traffic
- Displaying reviews in text ads on Google
5. Helping Businesses Rank Higher in Local Search
Local SEO is important. Improving it can increase the likelihood of your business appearing on the first page of Google for local keywords that relate to your business.
Research shows that reviews have a direct impact on local search rankings.
A study by Localo revealed that businesses who rank in one of the top three positions on Google SERPs (search engine results pages) have 240 Google reviews on average.
Plus, BrightLocal’s survey reveals that customers expect businesses to have between 20 and 49 reviews in order for them to appear credible.
6. Adding Local Keywords to Google Business Profile
There’s only so many keywords you can add to your Google Business Profile without resorting to keyword stuffing, a practice deemed as spam by Google and consumers alike.
Online reviews, at least well-written ones, help pad your profile with local keywords.
Reviewers might mention the street you’re on, the neighborhood you operate in, products you offer and similar words that help identify your business.
You might find yourself ranking higher for these keywords over time.
7. Adding More Photos to Google Business Profile
According to Localo’s study, businesses that rank in one of the top three positions in local search have more than 250 images added to their profiles on average.
You can certainly try to add this many images to your profile yourself, but it’s much more effective to have customers contribute to this number by including photos in their reviews.
Try to create customer experiences that offer more photo opportunities as a way to increase the number of photos customers add to reviews.
8. Increasing a Business’ Presence on the Web Overall
Businesses who appear whenever the product or service they sell is mentioned are more likely to succeed.
This is called brand recognition. If I say the word “soda,” a few brands that might pop up in your head include Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Dr. Pepper. They also show up when I google “soda.”
By getting more reviews and adding your business to more review platforms, you help increase the likelihood of your business showing up whenever consumers search for products or services that relate to your business.
With that said, Google should still be your priority when receiving reviews. According to BrightLocal’s survey, 83% of consumers primarily read reviews on Google.
9. Helping Businesses Connect with Customers Online
Reviews don’t just help your business rank higher on Google; they also give your customers a way to leave feedback for your business. This gives you opportunities to connect with customers after sales are complete.
When you receive a review, respond to it whether it’s positive or negative.
Respond to positive reviews by thanking customers for shopping with you and sharing insights into things they praised your business for.
Respond to negative reviews by owning up to mistakes, sharing insights into how you plan to improve and offering to reconcile.
10. Helping Businesses Identify Issues
Receiving a negative review can be pretty devastating, especially if you’ve worked on building a business that offers nothing short of perfection.
Unfortunately, you can’t please everyone, and mistakes do happen. There may even be issues with your business you’re overlooking.
The good news is you can uncover these issues in negative reviews.
Jot down customer complaints. You’ll find that some issues are one off while others are subjective. Some might be widespread. You’ll know this if multiple customers complain about them.
Once you identify an issue, you can work on correcting it.
Related: 4 Ways to Turn Negative Reviews into Positive Marketing
11. Helping Businesses Meet Customer Expectations
While most reviews will likely mention products and services you actually offer, some might express a different sentiment: customer wants and needs.
These can appear in positive and negative reviews alike and can clue you into things that might be missing from your business.
When you notice this type of sentiment in a review, jot it down under lists like “customer wants” and “customer expectations.” You might start to notice trends in things customers want or expect out of your business.
12. Adding Credibility to Businesses
Because consumers use reviews as a way to identify whether or not a business is real or trustworthy, it’s safe to say that online reviews help your business appear more credible to customers.
By receiving more positive reviews and more reviews in general on a regular basis, you can do a lot to help your business seem more trustworthy than competitors who appear alongside your business in search results.
13. Earning Backlinks for Business Websites
Google, Yelp and Facebook are important review platforms, but you can also receive reviews from sources like social media posts and other websites.
In fact, BrightLocal’s survey revealed that 48% of consumers read business reviews that are published by local news sources.
Websites that review your business will likely link to it, allowing you to receive backlinks, an important ranking factor in standard and local SEO alike.
Try sending free swag to these sources. They may be more likely to create reviews for your business.
14. Increasing Traffic to Business Websites
When you receive more reviews, you appear higher in local search results. This increases traffic to your website given the fact that the majority of interactions with Google profiles occur with the “Website” link on profiles.
In fact, 48% of interactions with profiles are made for this link, according to a study by Birdeye.
Birdeye’s study also revealed that each Google review leads to 80 additional website visits on average.
15. Displaying Reviews in Google Ads
If you rely on Google Ads to promote your business, you can add your review rating to certain ads, such as text ads.
However, there are criteria. You need at least 100 reviews and must maintain an overall rating of 3.5 stars or higher.
But they can make your ads appear more credible when you apply this element to them.
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