{"id":216274,"date":"2024-03-21T12:00:04","date_gmt":"2024-03-21T19:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bruceclay.com\/?p=216274"},"modified":"2024-03-21T15:52:58","modified_gmt":"2024-03-21T22:52:58","slug":"types-ecommerce-product-reviews-for-seo-conversions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bruceclay.com\/blog\/types-ecommerce-product-reviews-for-seo-conversions\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Types of E-commerce Product Reviews for SEO + Conversions"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nPeople rely on other people’s experiences and recommendations about the product they want to buy. And, reviews can play a role in the success of an SEO program.<\/p>\n
Because they play such an important role, it\u2019s key for e-commerce sites to get this piece right.<\/p>\n
That said, there are three areas to pay attention to when it comes to product reviews, SEO and conversions:<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll go over these in more detail next. Use the links to jump to a section:<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n While it can be scary letting people have free reign to discuss your products (and it can hit closer to home if you are also the manufacturer of those products), ultimately, it can boost conversions.<\/p>\n This is true even when there are negative reviews. One study by Bazaarvoice<\/a> found that (60%) say negative reviews are just as important in their decision to buy because they contain more pros and cons than positive reviews.<\/p>\n Another study by Spiegel Research Center<\/a> found that \u201cthe purchase likelihood for a product with five reviews is 270% greater than the purchase likelihood of a product with no reviews.\u201d<\/p>\n And yet another example is a study<\/a> that found user-generated content like product reviews more than doubled the conversion rate for certain types of goods.<\/p>\n That same study found that organic traffic grew over nine months simply by adding in customer reviews.<\/p>\n So encourage your customers to leave reviews after they buy something. Or consider other ways to get online reviews like sending samples of a product in exchange for honest reviews, like Petco did<\/a>.<\/p>\n In that campaign, Petco experienced an 80% boost in organic traffic, in addition to a lift in conversions.<\/p>\n Then, make sure reviews are displayed prominently on your product page by showing star ratings and testimonials.<\/p>\n You can check out how Zappos.com handles star ratings at the top of their product pages, and then the customer reviews at the bottom of the pages, which is a common way e-commerce sites approach it:<\/p>\n Part of incorporating reviews well means using structured data to help search engines better understand those reviews.<\/p>\n Using the right schema can also enhance a product page\u2019s search results listing, which can make it more compelling for someone to click through to a website.<\/p>\n You can learn more about \u201cproduct\u201d schema from Google\u2019s help file here<\/a> or on Schema.org here<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Product reviews on e-commerce platforms now feature another aspect: in-depth product reviews.<\/p>\n Over the past several years, Google has taken steps to curb such content, ranking only high-quality reviews higher.<\/p>\n In 2022, Google launched its reviews system<\/a> to \u201cbetter reward high-quality reviews, which is content that provides insightful analysis and original research and is written by experts or enthusiasts who know the topic well.\u201d<\/p>\n Google continues:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe reviews system works to ensure that people see reviews that share in-depth research, rather than thin content that simply summarizes a bunch of products, services, or other things.<\/p>\n This system of reviews was developed to assess first-party content such as articles, blogs, pages, or any other type of standalone piece that provides recommendations, opinions or analyses without considering third-party reviews such as those left by users on product and service pages.<\/p>\n Reviews can address specific topics or compare products directly against each other. They may even offer ranked lists. Reviews can be about any topic. There can be reviews of products such as laptops or winter jackets, pieces of media such as movies or video games, or services and businesses such as restaurants or fashion brands.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/em><\/p>\n How does this impact e-commerce sites? A couple of ways.<\/p>\n First, if you are creating your own product reviews on your website, take care to follow Google\u2019s recommendations for creating great product reviews<\/a>. You can also check out its Search Quality Rater Guidelines<\/a> for more information on what makes a quality review.<\/p>\n Secondly, if you have partnerships where people may be writing reviews about your products, like influencer partnerships, for example, know that the quality of those reviews will impact their rankings, which can ultimately impact your conversions.<\/p>\n A little training in this area for either scenario can ensure everyone involved protects the credibility of the reviews and keeps them performing well.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n It’s important to respond to reviews, especially if they\u2019re bad. This shows your customers that you care about their opinions and that you’re there to help.<\/p>\n Bazaarvoice data (linked earlier) shows:<\/p>\n Product review management can build trust. And trust is important to Google. The general sentiment towards your brand could potentially be a trust signal with Google.<\/p>\n We had a client that seemed to be doing nearly everything right with their SEO program. However, their online sentiment was entirely negative \u2013 they had bad reviews that were left unmanaged and a bad rating with the BBB.<\/p>\n We believe this poisoned their brand and their trust factor. I discussed this previously in an article on sentiment being an SEO trust signal<\/a>.<\/p>\n1. Product Reviews from User-Generated Content<\/h2>\n
2. In-Depth Product Reviews<\/h2>\n
3. Product Review Management<\/h2>\n
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