Does Google have to approve reviews
Google Ratings & Reviews Explainedby Phil Dossett, 01 Mar 2019 If it was just for informing your new website visitors of what past customers think of your quality products, how easy the website was to use, or how wonderfully you resolved problems, then displaying reviews and ratings on your website would be worth it. Show
Shopping online; assuming the flowers will be delivered, hoping that the shirt fits, praying the headphones will meet your expectations, takes a leap of trust from your customers the more they see you, engage with you or read positive reviews about you, the more they will trust your brand and your ability to deliver. CXL research showed that review stars in search engine results significantly improve click-through rates, by as much as 35%. Reviews provide that level of trust and confidence in fact, 63% of customers are more likely to make a purchase from a site which has user reviews. They may not take your word that you have outstanding service or that your product does what no one elses does, but they will be believe happy (or disgruntled) customers. So, while Customer Reviews are great for business in general theyre also very influential with Google. If your site shows on a Google results page with a 4 or 5-star rating, all other things being equal, its going to get more clicks than sites with no stars at all. Visitors will be heading your way with a positive impression of what you offer before they even click. Some businesses see anincrease in click through rate as much as 20-35% after implementing star ratings in their search results. Many SEO experts also believe that good star ratings and reviews will also help improve your search position, if only because people are more likely to click a result showing a star rating and therefore a higher click through rate and traffic volume will rank you higher with Google anyway. Product Reviews vs Seller ReviewsProduct review stars are different than seller ratings. Product review stars pertain to the products themselves while the seller review stars reflect a business standing. A product review typically reads something like I loved the solid craftsmanship of this product while a seller review is more likely Awesome company to deal with great customer service. The stars that display in Google Organic search results are almost always product reviews. How to Get Star Ratings in Google Organic Search ResultsTo get star ratings on your Google Search results listing you need to use schema.org markup or structured data. This is the code that google will read and interpret when indexing your website. It clearly labels your content and tells Google that your business name or phone number or review copy is exactly that and not just random words on a page. Adding review markup code to a product page will allow that product to show stars in search results. Note that there are two types of review schema markups available:
Writing Review Schema MarkupsYoull need to add markup code to a product page that will look something like this:
Product Name
4.5
out of 5
based on 32user ratings.
Check out the full list ofschema types here. Google gives their own rundown ofhow to use Review rich snippets here, plus look up other Content Types in their sidebar menu. There are several ways to write the review schema markup and get it on to your website:
After you have that code on a product page, you should:
Strangely, given its reputation for authenticity, Google is not requesting proof of accuracy of these review statements at present. Its likely that Google will change this stance eventually so we dont recommend falsifying review information. And dont use review rich snippets on your home page google deems this as an unnatural place to find a product review. How to Get Seller Ratings Stars on AdwordsSeller ratings are an automated extension type that showcases advertisers with high ratings. While we can get Product Rating stars in organic search results for free, bar the time and resources required for review collection and schema markup, until 2017 we had to subscribe to an aggregation service for Seller Rating stars to appear with Adwords. However, Google now bases seller ratings on several sources, including:
Before signing up to a service, make sure to check if the plan includes both Seller Ratings for Adwords, Google Shopping (PLAs) ratings and Product Reviews and only pay for what you need. Seller ratings will only show when a business has at least 150 unique reviews and a average rating of 3.5 stars or higher. Google Customer Reviews for FreeOnce installed in to your Checkout process, Google Customer Reviews will offer a survey opt-in that allows your customers to provide feedback about their shopping experience on your site. You stipulate a time allowance for shipping and Google automatically sends a survey email after the expected delivery. You can also add a Google Customer Reviews badge to your site helps which identifies your site with the Google brand and increases customer trust. Check whether your ecommerce platform likeMagento,ShopifyandBigCommercehas a preconfigured app to take care of the cart integration. Once enough ratings and feedback have been collected:
Google Customer Reviews vs Paid AggregatorsThe plus for Googles own Customer Review process is thatits freeand relatively easier to pin to your ecommerce checkout but you have little control over the message copy and design of their independent approach. The advantages of the subscription-based review aggregators are that they provide convenient and well-designedonsite review callouts and badges, withautomated email review request systems, plus thereputation and trustof their relevant businesses. Services can also cover Product reviews for organic search results. A paid Google-approved provider gives you more opportunity for automation and customisation and integration into your website with review and ratings callout display. Plus, the paid systems can work across multiple channels including Google, YouTube, Yahoo, Facebook, Bing and Twitter. They can be set to collect Seller Reviews, Product reviews and Local Reviews. Product Reviews for Service-based WebsitesNote, if you have a service based business you can get product reviews for free since youre not going to syndicate anything into Google Shopping. For example, finance companies can create service pages like personal loans, car finance, and home mortgages. Each of these service pages would act as their product reviews. Check if you have a Seller Rating
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