How to leverage customer reviews for SEO

Customer reviews are an important marketing tool. A recent study found that almost nine out of ten customers read reviews before buying a product. But how can we use customer reviews to their full potential and leverage them for SEO? 

How can customer reviews benefit SEO?

Customer reviews play a big part in leading to those all important conversions. If your audience doesn’t trust your service or product, they’re less likely to convert.

Sure, you could spend hours upon hours writing the most detailed product descriptions, but if there’s no reviews to backup your facts, how do your potential customers know it’s true? According to a 2022 online statistics study, 92% of consumers will hesitate to buy a product if it doesn’t have any reviews. 

Customer reviews can also help to boost engagement levels and create a customer-business relationship. By replying to reviews you can ‘humanise’ your business and show potential customers that you care. 

Utilise reviews for Google posts

Local SEO continues to grow in importance and your Google My Business profile is a great place to showcase your reviews. Approximately, 46% of online searches are related to a location — meaning that Google My Business profiles are frequently visible on the search results. 

By taking snippets of the reviews left by customers, you can create eye-catching posts to grab the attention of online users. Just be sure not to include the name of who left the review for privacy reasons. 

Display customer reviews on your website

Another great place to display your reviews is on your website itself. Here are a few effective ways to do it:

• Include reviews in the header or footer of important pages
• List a few reviews in a sidebar on your ‘about us’ page
• Use a carousel to showcase multiple reviews on your homepage 
• Create a page dedicated to customer reviews
• Add reviews above or below products

Use Trustpilot and Google review widgets

Not only do online users like to see reviews, they also like to see star ratings. Having a good star rating is a great way to stand out from your competitors and further build that level of trust. 

You can add small review widgets, such as one from Trustpilot or Google Reviews, to your website. These are an effective way to immediately give customers a  sense of confidence and easily allow them to click through to see reviews. 

Share good reviews on social media 

Social media is a great place to engage with potential customers, boost awareness and bring your brand to life. Since social media can help you reach people on a large scale, it’s worth levering your reviews on this platform. 

You’ll need to get creative and pick some eye-catching backgrounds to display your reviews on. You could overlay the review onto a coloured background that reflects your brand or maybe a company image. The more visually appealing it is, the more likely people are to read it. 

To conclude

Leveraging customer reviews is a great way to build trust and encourage more conversions. Whichever way you choose to highlight your reviews, you’ll be helping to instil a sense of confidence within potential customers.