In this day and age, there’s no need for consumers to run on hearsay about a product. Once upon a time, you asked your neighbor or your friend about a product you were keen on buying. If they gave it rave reviews, you were more likely to buy it.
Businesses nowadays cannot rely on hearsay, however, for better or for worse. Customers demand a review feature from the retail websites they make purchases from. Consumer trust and confidence drop when there isn’t a review feature, which is why ecommerce websites always offer a chance for customers to leave their opinion for others to read. Don’t let this scare you as businesses that believe in their products will need to rely on the quality of their brand shining through in reviews. Here’s why you should support reviews for your products.
Transparency Really Matters
There are some things you simply cannot buy and one of them is integrity. Customers are far more likely to trust you when you are supportive of completely honest product reviews. For one thing, it shows you have confidence in your products and services. It also gives consumers a subliminal message that you are not afraid of people who disagree with you. Brand self-confidence is highly respected and can be very useful for social media marketing purposes.
The biggest benefit you stand to gain is having a high product review score. Search engines will always rank products with greater public satisfaction, higher than the rest. New reviews will also boost your SERP ranking as Google’s algorithm pushes new and relevant content higher. Therefore customers giving you positive reviews all year round will keep you in the limelight.
Being Given Priority
In the effort to give consumers valid information as quickly as possible and in a short and sharp a method as possible, voice search results are increasingly the most important. That’s why you need to have a voice search for seo strategy, which takes into account the quality of reviews your products receive. ‘How’, ‘what’ and ‘best’ are the top three words that are searched for in voice searches.
If a customer wants to know ‘what is the best toothbrush?’ virtual assistants like Google Assistant, Bixby and Siri will take into account user reviews and present the very narrowed search results for that particular product type. Voice search is set to become the most popular form of search, which means it will be given priority investment and development in this decade by search engines, virtual assistants and by your competitors. One way to get ahead is to support customers leaving their reviews.
Instant Gratification or Otherwise
It’s difficult to know when you’re doing something wrong. Customers that leave negative reviews should be taken seriously. Respond to their review and offer to help solve their issue. If it’s purely a unique problem, then at least you salvage your reputation publicly. If there’s a flaw in your product, you will receive free feedback and notification of where you need to invest in the future.
It’s in your best interest to encourage customers to make customer reviews. Not only are you building a solid public image, but you’re getting ahead of the curve regarding voice search SEO.
