Customer reviews play an essential role in Google SEO, especially in local SEO. They directly influence the visibility of brands and businesses on Google, notably on Google Business Profile (GBP) and in Rich Snippets within search results.
Google considers:
- The number of reviews.
- The quality of reviews (in terms of ratings).
- The recency of reviews.
- Businesses' responses to reviews.
Thanks to Verified Reviews, a Google partner, your business benefits from an improvement in local search rankings and the opportunity to appear in highly advantageous positions, such as the Google review carousel.
The goal is to improve your online reputation and boost your organic rankings.
Google Business Profile (GBP)
The integration of Verified Reviews with Google Business Profile (GBP) allows you to collect reviews directly on your GBP. This profile is a key factor in local SEO!
Integrating Verified Reviews with a GBP profile can not only improve your positioning on Google but also provide a better user experience, increasing your chances of converting visitors into customers.
Rich Snippets
Rich Snippets are additional information displayed in Google search results. Thanks to Verified Reviews, your reviews can be displayed as star ratings within search results.
Rich Snippets build trust and transparency, boosting your visibility in SERPs and improving your traffic and click-through rates (CTR) on Google.
To enable Rich Snippets :
- Reviews must be collected through a Google-certified solution (like Verified Reviews).
- They must be properly marked with structured data for Google to recognize them as customer reviews.
Structured data is essential to optimize the display of customer reviews in Google search results and on your GBP. They allow Google to understand and clearly present your ratings and reviews! For Rich Snippets, they enable the display of additional elements like star ratings in SERPs (increasing visibility and click-through rates). For GBP, they ensure your reviews are correctly recognized and accurately displayed on your local profile.
Thanks to Verified Reviews, you benefit from the automatic implementation of the necessary types of structured data, such as JSON-LD markup.
Learn more via Google's documentation.
Integrating Reviews in Google Shopping
If you sell products via Google Shopping, reviews collected through Verified Reviews can also be displayed directly on the product page in Google Shopping results.
This allows you to display your product ratings directly in Google search.
As a result, you can improve your e-reputation, your click-through rate (CTR), and your product ranking, increasing both traffic and conversion rates.
Learn more about showing your reviews on Google Shopping.
Filtering and Displaying Reviews
Google primarily displays reviews based on their relevance, content, and publication date. Verified Reviews allows you to manage this dynamic by selecting specific reviews to highlight.
Additionally:
- You can respond to reviews on Google, which impacts your local ranking.
- Recent reviews often take priority in search results.
SEO Optimization - Practical Tips
Here are some tips to maximize the impact of customer reviews on your Google ranking with Verified Reviews:
Responding to a review is an excellent opportunity to include relevant SEO keywords. For example, if you run a children’s clothing store, mentioning terms like children’s clothes, quality, and quick customer service in your responses can improve visibility for those keywords.
You can use customer reviews in your content, integrating them into product pages via our widget, or into blogs and other marketing content. This enhances engagement and social proof.
Google core updates directly impact search results. The latest update on November 11, 2024, for example, brought significant changes to local rankings and the relevance criteria for customer reviews.
We recommend:
- Monitoring changes through the Google update status page.
- Working with solutions like Verified Reviews that continuously adapt to these changes to optimize SEO performance.
Learn more in the Google documentation.