Providing online ratings and reviews of your products and services can benefit everyone. For business owners they can enhance your credibility and even increase conversion rates. From a customer’s standpoint, ratings and reviews aren’t a sales pitch, they’re an honest opinion or experience.
Online Customer Reviews – The New Word of Mouth
Don’t we all wish we got all of our business from word of mouth? This is one of the most influential forms of marketing and the least expensive. So why not add this influence, with increased customer engagement, into your online presence? These days the internet allows conversations to spread quickly across a vast audience. With the added trust in another consumer’s review, this makes online ratings and reviews an extremely powerful factor in a consumer’s purchasing decision.
Benefits to Your Consumers
Ordinary consumers are given a voice through online review options. They are invited to share their experience, good or bad, with more than just friends and family. For someone looking to make a purchase, a good review can help solve an apprehension. A review can also build trust between business owners and consumers.
Benefits for E-Commerce
For a business, online ratings and reviews provide nearly unbeatable market research. With direct feedback from customers, merchants can better understand the opinions of their consumers about their products and services. A business owner can now monitor customer satisfaction and are given the chance to address any issues.
Honest and critical reviews can also help a business owner better understand the needs of their customers. It can also give them an opportunity to provide a personal touch to their online store.
Benefits to Your SEO
Ratings and reviews are also a piece of your optimization efforts. Not only do recent testimonials on your site provide fresh content, but reviews on third-party sites can drive traffic to your website. Reviews on these sites can also build rapport by making your business more relevant and visible on these types of search engines. Other benefits to your SEO include:
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Reviews tend to be keyword rich
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New and unique content about your business
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Improved rankings
With a rapid increase in internet use, word of mouth marketing has also evolved. Giving your customers a voice and empowering them with the ability to share their experiences benefits everyone involved.
