Impact of Customer Support on Your SEO
Factors that affect rating of websites constantly change and are becoming more focused on the content and whether the content is unique, helpful and relevant. User reviews within customer support section of a website is content that many disregard. However, it can be a significant support to your SEO.
Why are user reviews important?
For those who believe that customer comments are not that important, the following number may come as a surprise. The statistical analyses done in recent years show that 88% of the potential customers read the reviews before buying and more than 70% base their trust in a brand on reviews they find online. Therefore, potentials customers are very much aware of reviews and are actually reading them.
Apart from the fact that visitors to your website will value the comment section, having reviews can also boost your SEO in several ways.
Free content
If you’ve even scratched the surface of SEO, you know how important new content is. Keeping your website fresh and relevant demands a lot of time and/or money, depending on your willingness to commit to this task.
By allowing your customers to leave comments and reviews, you are basically opening a potentially rich source of new content. People like when their opinion is heard, and will type characters upon characters of reviews, and since these are your customers, it is highly likely that they will use similar word combinations they use to google similar products. This will boost long-tail keywords presence in search engines, and all of it for free.
More conversation about your products
Reviews can spark discussions and attract new customers. Good word of mouth was important long before the Internet changed the face of marketing, so why don’t give your satisfied customers place where they can share their love for your products or services with others.
Search engines take reviews into consideration
Reviews can also boost your ranking in search results. Among ranking factors, review signals comprise 10%. Most SEO Adelaide experts agree that search engines favour websites with significant number of reviews, because this is proof that a site is reliable, authoritative and present in social consciousness.
Reviews on third-party sites
Apart from adding reviews to your own sites, you should consider using third-party sites, where customers gather to review products, places, and services. Some of these include Yelp!, Angie’s List, Consumer Reports, Epinions, and Dex Knows. Search engines also have their sections for reviews – Google+ Local / Google Places, Yahoo! Local, and Bing Places. Presence on these websites can lead to receiving star ratings or making your products rank higher in search results.
How to utilize reviews?
There are several things you should keep in mind when it comes to reviews. Firstly, you ought to have a strategy. As with everything else regarding good marketing plan, you don’t want to leave reviews of your products and services to a chance.
Next, you should be the one who encourages reviews. There are many ways to do this, including campaigns, social media, or website. Sometimes, you need to ask. Most people won’t mind writing a few words about your business, however they’ll need reminding.
The point of reviews is also to track the quality of your business. If one of your products receives mediocre reviews, try to find a way to improve it. This way, people will see that their feedback matters, which can lead to more positive reviews.
Apart from paying attention to reviews, you should also interact with your customers. It is a good idea to respond to them, at least to say thanks. Another way you can show that you care is to reward people who are your loyal customers. You shouldn’t go overboard, but a gift for an especially creative or good review from time to time can inspire more people to leave their comments.
It is important to stay leveled and calm, especially when faced with bad reviews. The most important thing is to answer all comments, both good and bad, calmly. This will set the tone of your business, and you want to be seen as helpful and understanding.
When it comes to bad reviews, you must be prepared that there will be some. You can’t appeal to all, and you must accept harsh criticism as well as praises. Use these comments to review your products and services in order to make them better. You shouldn’t hide or delete negative comments, their presence will give the overall review more realistic tone. If you start deleting comments you don’t like, it may negatively affect your image.