“Engagement”, THE trend shaping today's web design and development landscape, would be “powerless” if it wasn't teamed up with: an open, honest and customer-centric approach.
And you can efficiently approach your customers and get them to engage with your brand only if you “hand them the microphone”: if you allow them to “publicly” praise or criticize your brand.
How? By creating the context for them to express themselves in!
It takes courage (for not all those reviews will put your brand in a good light) and it takes vision.
Why vision? For it proves that you are aware of all the benefits that your business will get from such type of user-generated content: both added value for your brand and SEO benefits.
Now let's see how precisely customer reviews impact your business:
SEO BENEFITS:
Customer Reviews Boost Your SERP Ranking
It's pretty logical if you just think about it for a few seconds: the content that these reviews “enrich” your website with will appear in text format in the HTML code, thus easing search engines' job to reach it and scan it.
This type of content is easily “accessible”, one of Google's top favorite words these days, remember? So, think “indexation”, think “text format”, think “accessibly” and: do the math yourself!
Customer Reviews Help You Identify The Right Long-Tail Keywords
No need to stress the long-tail keywords' “superiority” over the general, overly competitive keywords, right?
But how do you pick the “key” long-tail keywords? This is the question!
Well, you take some time to read your customer reviews! As easy as that!
They're usually “loaded” with specific phrases that your customers use for expressing their admiration or dissatisfaction with your products/services.
Invest some time in analyzing the words and phrases that your customers use in their reviews and you'll identify the right long-tail keywords to “fuel” your whole SEO strategy with.
Customer Reviews Help You Gain Your Authoritative Voice
It's a whole “combo” of reviews-centered factors that turns your brand into an authority in your niche:
- the interaction going on your website
- all the buzz from your social media accounts
- your customers' high level of confidence in your brand
To cut it short: Google won't remain indifferent to all this “talking about your brand” going on online and will soon start perceiving your website as an authority.
Customer Reviews Fuel Your Site With Valuable Content
Content is king and constantly churning out fresh, unique content can turn into a major challenge now and then, don't you agree?
We sure can empathize with you: we too, are constantly striving to craft new, high-quality content for our Toronto web design company's clients.
Well, how about that: by enabling customer reviews on your site you actually “authorize” your customers to lend you a hand with your content marketing efforts!
As they write down their unique reviews they'll actually take some of the “quality content-producing burden” off your shoulders!
Say hello to a new “wave” of organic traffic!
Customer Reviews Fuel Your Site With “Unique” Content
You do know how much Google hates it when same content is used and overused on multiple websites, don't you?
In this respect, the content included in the customer reviews on your website is utterly valuable due to its uniqueness, as well. You won't find two customers describing their experiences with your brand the same way.
“In a similar way”, maybe, but never “the same way”.
Customer Reviews Boost Your Local SEO Efforts
And it's no magic: since both the name of your business and its location will obviously get mentioned in your customers' reviews, these reviews will automatically turn into the most reliable factors for Google to rely on when “localizing your website”.
Guess who'll be improving his/her website's local ranking this way?
Now let's move on to the next benefit!
BUSINESS BENEFITS:
Customer Reviews Help You Build Trust
Let your existing customers attract new customers!
This is probably one of the most straightforward ways of generating business: you set the proper context for your existing customers to go public about their experiences after using your products and they'll practically send out an “invitation” to other customers to “join their community”.
It's human nature that people trust other people rather than companies, so let your customers build trust around you brand and attract prospects through their own reviews.
Allow them to do that by incorporating customer reviews into your website!
Customer Reviews Increase Your Website's CTR
Reviews have been influencing websites' CTR in SERP ever since Google allowed developers to include review data in their ad copy.
So, it's easily predictable that users will click on those site links, appearing in their search entries, that display reviews, too.
Customer Reviews Signal The Issues You Need To Focus On
Bad reviews, too, make a great resource for you to "exploit".
How come?
They help you identify your products'/services' weak points. They point out to you the issues that you need to improve or change for meeting your customers' expectations.
Instead of ignoring negative feedback, turn it into an advantage: see how you can fix the signaled issues, whether they're products or customer services-related.
Instead of covering up bad reviews, “dazzle away” your customers with honesty: display this non-appreciative feedback on your Drupal website!
While you rush in to fix the highlighted issues, you'll be also reinforcing trust in your customers: no one's that naive to trust a brand showing up exclusively highly-appreciative reviews, don't you agree?
SMO BENEFITS:
Customer Reviews Enrich Your Site With Content With Viral Potential
Here is how you can boost this user-generated content's viral potential: you just link your website to your social media account.
Then, the good reviews uploaded on your Drupal site will stand all the chances to go viral!
Customer Reviews Lead to Confidence, Leading to Social Acceptance
Once your website's content starts to go viral on your social media accounts, it will be just a matter of time till you're granted “social acceptance” from your customers/followers.
Reviews lead to sharing, to liking and to confidence. And it's your customers' confidence that will help you build your own community on social media.
And loyal communities sure are brands' most valuable “assets”, right?
And here we are, at the end of our list of benefits that your business can reap from enabling customer reviews on your Drupal website. We consider them to be more than “tempting”, but how about you?
We look forward to hearing/reading your own thoughts about allowing customers to upload their reviews, good or bad, on one's site!
