Besides the fact that non-Places reviews still count in Google’s overall ranking factors for a business, the role of reviews affecting customer buying decisions has never been greater.
Reviews, including but not limited to those posted on Places, continue to grow in importance as this excerpt from a recent article from Search Engine Land shows:
“In the last 12 months, 70% of survey respondents (i.e. local consumers) claimed to have searched online to find a good local business.
Tip for local business owners in Folsom, El Dorado Hills, Roseville and surrounding Sacramento area: Improve your online prominence by ensuring that your business is listed on all key local search engines (e.g. Google Places) and the leading online business directories (e.g. Yelp & Superpages).
67% of local consumers have read online reviews of local businesses: Nearly as many local consumers have consulted (i.e. read) online reviews as have searched online for information about local business. The two activities are joined at the hip and increasingly consumers rely on the shared experiences of others to help them make their purchasing decisions.
Tip for local business owners: Go online and see what reviews have been left about your business – are they positive or negative? Also, have a look at how many reviews your customers have and how competitive your niche is.
69% of local consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
More and more people (69%) are happy to trust the opinions of online strangers as much as recommendations from people they know. This percentage jumps among younger consumers – with 79% of 16-34 year olds trusting online reviews.
Online Reviews Influence Choices Local Consumers Make
49% of local consumers are more likely to use a business that has positive reviews.
The nature of the sentiment within online reviews has significant impact on the choices which local consumers make, as 49% of consumers are more likely to use a local business after reading positive reviews; but 57% of consumers will avoid a local business that has negative online reviews.
Tip for local business owners: You can’t ignore the grumblings of unhappy customers as they can come back to haunt you like never before. Instead, you need to proactively and publicly respond to negative reviews.
You’ll find that you can quickly turn a bad situation into a positive one by showing that you’re alert to customer needs and working hard to provide a good service. You should also work to encourage your most loyal and happy customers to go out and spread the word.
Local consumers like to read up to 10 reviews before making a decision about which local business to use.
Some consumers are happy to make a decision having read just 1 review, but most (73%) consumers like to read up to 10 reviews before choosing a local business to use.”
Getting yours and your client’s reviews out there to ALL places competitors show up and and ALL places your customers search in is important. There are two main ways to control getting this done. One is get your customers to get their customers to post reviews for them (through a review campaign and just by asking) and the other is to assist review distribution by hiring someone to help – such as Silverstone Business Resources.