Business Reviews: 2 Types And Why Your Business Needs Them

Almost all consumers are looking online and at companies' reviews and ratings prior to making a purchase.

Consumers tend to use mobile search to their advantage at the start of their purchase funnel, and for local searches of this particular type, Google will provide reviews at the very top of the search engine results.

For instance, if you type in “brewery” in the Google search bar, the search results will show a map, in addition to ratings and reviews for breweries in your local area. If you perform a specific search for a specific brewery, the majority of the first-page results will include ratings and review pages, such as Google, Yelp, Facebook, TripAdvisor, Beer Advocate, Zomato, etc.

These are considered third-party reviews that are on websites that we do not control or own. Individuals believe in the accurate and veracity of that content. Believe it or not, 80 percent of Americans put their trust in some level of reviews and ratings as much as they put their trust in recommends from family and friends.

Third-party reviews are integral due to the fact that they help generate foot traffic. Regardless of how great of a marketer you are, if a prospect sees a 3.2 average when they locate you in a Google search, you are not very likely to convert that individual to a customer.

There is also a second kind of review that is just as integral as the first one: first-party reviews. These reviews are reviews that are present on your own website. They have been very common on e-commerce sites for years and years, but they are now becoming popular on restaurant, retail, and professional service websites.  

You are going to see more first-party reviews due to the fact that they assist in convincing customers later in the funnel by simply endorsing their purchasing decision in making your company the finalist.

And, when these first-party reviews are present, Google will rank them more prominently than the aforementioned third-party reviews. For example, in a local search for Denny’s in Perris, California. You can see how locations.dennys.com will come up first in the search results before anything else. This is mobile-formatting, local landing page that consists of first-party reviews that are gathered from Denny’s customers utilizing the reviews platform from Yext.

Both first- and third-party reviews are increasingly important due to the fact that they provide consumers information shortcuts to making the purchasing decisions that they need to make in a noisy, crowded, and competitive landscape.

If you would like to learn more, don’t hesitate to contact us at WebDetail.