Reviews are one of the most important aspects of your e-commerce site, yet according to ClickZ a full 65 percent of the top e-commerce websites don't allow customer reviews. Reviews essentially sell your product for you, because consumers are much more likely buy your products if others can vouch for them. Perhaps even more importantly, reviews are a critical aspect of SEO for e-commerce websites.
SEO
Reviews continually add fresh content to your product page, having a huge impact on SEO. The more reviews your product page has, the more likely Google is to feature your product page in search results. The highest converting SEO traffic is traffic that lands directly on your product page, making it critical that you build SEO on this part of your website in particular.
User-Generated Content
Google loves user-generated content, and factors it heavily into search rankings. Reviews create a wealth of user-generated content, which dramatically improves your chances of landing on the first page of search results. Additionally, reviews can make your company seem more credible and encourages potential customers to make a purchase. Encourage customers to review products on your website simply by asking them on social media, face-to-face, on the phone and through email.
Adding Reviews to Your Website
Blazonco's Admin tool makes adding product reviews to your website easy with the Products Add-On. Just go to Product Reviews option on the Configure page and select “Yes.” With one-click, your SEO and the quality of your product pages will be drastically improved. If you don't have a website through Blazonco, ask your webmaster how to add reviews.
Negative Reviews
Nervous about negative reviews, complaints, and pissed-off customers? It may be counter-intuitive, but some research shows that the vast majority of reviews are positive. However, negative reviews can also help you identify and reach out to unhappy consumers. Calling a customer to discuss why they gave a terrible review for your product can lead to a conversation that gives you valuable feedback. Just as with responding to negative feedback on social media, starting a dialogue can even help you win the customer back.
Third-Party Review Websites
In addition to reviews on your website, Yelp and other popular review sites can also be great for business and SEO. Fill out your business's profile, link to your website, and monitor reviews to identify customers that have a complaint whom you may need to reach out to. Just don't try to beat the system and post positive reviews about yourself. Websites such as Yelp have algorithms to weed out reviews that are overly promotional, and if anyone finds out this can damage your credibility. If you see negative reviews on websites such as Ripoff Report, Pissed Consumer or Scam Informer, get in touch with the consumer who posted the review and try to remedy the problem. You might even be able to convince them to remove the review after you have remedied the problem.
