Google reviews: a lever to improve your visibility on the Internet

How can you capitalize on the growing importance of Google reviews for your SEO?

How can you increase your prospects' confidence and encourage them to contact you?

Read this article to find out.

Google is the fastest-growing review site

According to a 2019 Bright local survey of 50,000 businesses, Google's review volume has grown much faster than that of competitors such as Facebook and Yelp: +278% Google review volume over 2019 vs 2018.

Google has established itself as the world's leading review collector. Even in tourism, Google has overtaken TripAdvisor and Booking: +75% growth in reviews on Google vs. +10% on Booking and -21% on TripAdvisor over 2019 vs. 2018, according to a Revinate study.

And perhaps surprisingly, Google is often the most cited by Internet users as the most credible source for reviews.

Okay, so Google has once again come out on top in a new arena: customer reviews.

What's more, Google's algorithm takes customer reviews into account in its criteria for ranking your website. That's why it's important to take an interest.

An example with Léon de Bruxelles

This example illustrates Google's review policy: they put their own reviews very prominently and those of others very far down the page.

Search on "Léon de Bruxelles porte Maillot". At the top of the Google page (on the right of the screen) :

 

At the bottom of the page, Google displays third-party reviews.

The display would have been the same if the volume of third-party reviews had been higher than for Google reviews.

SEO and Google My Business

Google My Business (GMB) is Google's free tool for businesses to appear in search results and on Google Maps.

GMB allows you to display opening hours, a contact number, an address, an overview of your products and customer reviews. Updating your Google My Business account helps improve your visibility.

A business listing or GMB page account with information such as a description, photos, a high volume of reviews and a good score, even if it's ranked in 4th position, can generate more contacts than a listing with little information ranked in 1st position.

So soliciting your customers to increase your volume of reviews and taking care of the customer experience are two important levers for your SEO.

But not only that, we'll also have to respond to negative reviews...

Reply to notices

Rest assured, everyone has negative reviews on the Internet, and it's even suspicious not to have any. Numerous studies show that Internet users are distrustful of sites with 5-star ratings.

The important thing is to show that you're responding. The key is to personalize your answers and respond quickly.

Conclusion

In summary, the elements to take into account to improve your site's SEO and increase your prospects' confidence:

• volume of notices,
• their recency,
• the score
• answers to customers

We hope this article has been of interest to you, so please don't hesitate to contact us for advice on how to boost the volume of Google reviews and your score.