This document discusses how online reviews impact search engine results and consumer purchasing decisions. It begins by looking at data showing that the vast majority of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business or purchasing a product. It then examines how positive reviews can increase spending at a business and the role of reviews in the consumer purchase process. The document also explores how reviews impact search engine results, specifically how they are a ranking factor in Google's algorithm. It provides tips for businesses on how to encourage and respond to reviews in order to maximize their impact on search and consumer decisions.

1. REVIEWS & SEO
SEPTEMBER 2016

2. How do reviews impact consumers?
How reviews impact site SERPS
Reviews stars in Google – how does that work?
Bad reviews, reviews tips and brand
AGENDA
REVIEWS & SEO

3. SOME OF OUR CLIENTS

4. REVIEWS & SEO
THE DIFFERENCE

5. WHERE DO
REVIEWS FIT IN TO
THE PURCHASE
DECISION-MAKING
PROCESS?
REVIEWS & SEO

6. REVIEWS & SEO
O F C O N S U M E R S R E A D
O N L I N E R E V I E W S B E F O R E
V I S I T I N G A B U S I N E S S .
90%
www.invespcro.com/blog/the-importance-of-online-customer-reviews-infographic/

7. REVIEWS & SEO
O F C O N S U M E R S T R U S T
O N L I N E R E V I E W S A S
M U C H A S P E R S O N A L
R E C O M M E N D AT I O N S
88%
www.invespcro.com/blog/the-importance-of-online-customer-reviews-infographic/

8. REVIEWS & SEO
C U S T O M E R S A R E
L I K E LY T O S P E N D 3 1 %
M O R E O N A B U S I N E S S
W I T H “ E X C E L L E N T ”
R E V I E W S .
31%
www.invespcro.com/blog/the-importance-of-online-customer-reviews-infographic/

9. REVIEWS & SEO
O F C O N S U M E R S W I L L TA K E A C T I O N O N LY
A F T E R R E A D I N G A P O S I T I V E R E V I E W72%
www.invespcro.com/blog/the-importance-of-online-customer-reviews-infographic/

10. REVIEWS & SEO
HOW & WHY
REVIEWS IMPACT
YOUR SEARCH
RESULTS

11. CHANGING FACE OF GOOGLE’S SERPS ALGORITHM – RANKING FACTORS
REVIEWS & SEO

12. DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGIES
PAID
SEARCH
REVIEWS
SOCIAL
DISPLAY
CONTENT
PAID SOCIAL
REVIEWS & SEO

13. On-page signals - 21%
Link Signals -18.3%
External Loc. Signals - 15.1%
My Business Signals 14.7%
Review Signals - 9.8%
Behavioural/Mob. Signals - 6.9%
Social Signals - 5.8%
Personalisation - 8.4%
SOURCE: MOZ REVIEWS & SEO
OVERALL RANKING FACTORS

14. CREDIT: RAND FISHKIN, MOZ
CRITERIA FOR MODERN CONTENT
INVESTMENTS:
One-of-a-kind – appears nowhere else on the web
Relevant – contains content engines can interpret as on-topic
Helpful – resolves the searcher’s query in a useful, efficient manner
Uniquely Valuable – provides information that’s unavailable elsewhere
Great UX – is easy & pleasurable to consume on any device
Likely to Spread – convincingly answers the question: “Who would amplify this
content and why?”
REVIEWS & SEO

15. 6 WAYS REVIEWS BOOST YOUR SEARCH
RESULTS
Fresh UGC – Reviews are essentially crowd-sourced relevant content
Boost long-tail keyword traffic – Reviewers should be buyers – who use the same
language as your targets
Reviews boost the social conversation – your product pages should get shared, but
so should your reviews
Google favours highly rated sites – Both for review quantity and high rating
Receive visible star ratings – 17% improvement in CTR
For products – improve ranking for [product name] + review
REVIEWS & SEO

16. PULL CLIENT
REVIEW
STRATEGIES
REVIEWS & SEO

18. REVIEWS & SEO
REVIEW CENTRE – AVERAGE STARS

19. REVIEWS & SEO
CHAUCER DIRECT SERPS
safe driver insurance
safe driver insurance
#1 on Google for ‘safe
driver insurance’

20. REVIEWS & SEO

21. REVIEWS & SEO
ON-SITE REVIEW INTEGRATION

22. REVIEWS & SEO
ON-SITE REVIEW INTEGRATION

23. REVIEW STARS
– HOW DOES
THAT WORK?
REVIEWS & SEO

24. Google only rarely shows stars in organic
company brand name results today – unless
the word ‘review’ is included
But it can do – in this case ScS owns the
result – Trustpilot provides the review status
REVIEWS & SEO
COMPANY REVIEWS – ORGANIC SEARCH

25. REVIEWS & SEO
COMPANY REVIEWS – ORGANIC SEARCH
Here the word ‘review’ is included.
In this case Trustpilot owns the
starred results result.

26. REVIEWS & SEO
COMPANY REVIEWS – PAID SEARCH
Paid search ads get stars if advertiser
meets Google’s criteria
Ad links to advertiser, rating links to review
site

27. REVIEWS & SEO
AD ‘RATING’ LINK

28. REVIEWS & SEO

29. REVIEWS & SEO
PRODUCT REVIEWS – ORGANIC SEARCH
Stars + 3 out 4 top
organic SERPS
Deploy ‘rich snippets’
Make reviews clear on product page
Author’s name needs to valid

30. REVIEWS & SEO
PRODUCT REVIEWS – PAID SEARCH
Google ads show stars for
resellers but not for products
– except in Shopping results
(taken from reseller sites)

31. REVIEWS & SEO
RICH SNIPPETS
Featured Snippet
Rich snippets:
Star ratings
Time to cook
Calorie info
Rich snippets:
Ingredients
WHY USE THEM?
To increase organic traffic
– duh
Differentiation from
the competition
Help search engines
understand what
your site and content
is about
Rich snippets:
Instructions
Description

32. REVIEWS & SEO
ORGANIC SEARCH CRITERIA PAID SEARCH
COMPANY REVIEWS
‘SELLER RATINGS’
• Search includes brand term + ‘review’
• Need >150 reviews on independent review
site
• Review site owns result
• Don’t forget Facebook stars!
• Need >150 reviews on independent review site
• Main link as set by advertiser, ‘Ratings’ link goes to
Google aggregation of approved review site reviews
PRODUCT REVIEWS • Use rich snippets on product page
• Reviews must be on product page
• Reviews must have ‘valid’
reviewer name
• Google shows stars for shopping results – taken
from reseller sites
• Supplier rating may show in product results
FOR COMPANY/RESELLER RATINGS YOU MUST HAVE A THIRD PARTY SITE REVIEW SUBSCRIPTION
SEEING STARS - SUMMARY

33. REVIEWS & SEO
AND FINALLY. . .

34. There’s always one!
Negative reviews are most sought out and read – these
visitors are the most engaged. The want to know what can
go wrong and what the company did about it.
Consumers don’t trust brands with no negative reviews
Bad reviews – point out what sucks about your product or
service!
REVIEWS & SEO
BAD REVIEWS
C U S T O M E R
R E V I E W S

35. 1. Have a strategy! – Why leave your reputation to chance?
2. Encourage many reviews – ‘velocity’ counts
3. Track and improve your score
4. Reward reviews – not ‘give rewards for good reviews’!
5. Right time – right place – there’s a best time(s) to ask for a review. Find out when that is
6. Use rich snippets – on your product pages to get your reviews found in search
7. Reply to reviews – Apologise. Demonstrate how you dealt with the issue. Give your side of the story
if you have to.
8. Keep calm and carry on! – Your tone of voice can have a huge impact in your responses.
9. Sign up with the best third party review site – it hurts to pay, but you will get more, better reviews,
more feedback, more options for promoting and socialising reviews – better SERPS – and see stars!
REVIEWS & SEO
MAKING THE MOST OF REVIEWS – TOP TIPS

36. REVIEWS & SEO
BRAND, BRAND, BRAND
H O W B R A N D C A M E T O D O M I N AT E G O O G L E ’ S R E L E VA N C Y A L G O R I T H M
We actually came up
with a classifier to say,
okay, IRS or Wikipedia
or New York Times is
over on this side, and
the low-quality sites are
over on this side.
Matt Cutts, Head of Web
Spam at Google
Brands are the solution,
not the problem… brands
are how you sort out
the cesspool.
Eric Schmidt,
CEO of Google
W H AT D O E S
G O O G L E S AY
A B O U T I T ?