How Google Reviews Impact Maps Pack and Organic Search Rankings
It matters to rank for both map pack and organic search rankings if you want to drive business. SEO strategies for your business should include ranking in both the Google Map Pack and the search engine results page.
Google reviews and map packs increase the amount and level of exposure that your business gets. It lets people know if you are doing the right thing and if you are, more people will get interested in your products and the services you offer.
If you haven’t heard about optimizing your Google reviews so that your organic search ranking and performance on the Google Map Pack will improve, you are on the right page.
This article will help you understand how your business will be rewarded by increasing the volume of your positive reviews.
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Customer Reviews and Its Benefits
More businesses are getting attention from positive reviews that customers leave on their website, social media pages, or on Google My Business. Wherever reviews are placed, it impacts the amount of traffic that a business receives on a specific platform that it uses to market digitally.
The more consumers go online to search for products and/or services they need, the more businesses need to work on the type of reviews that they get from their customers.
The worth of a business nowadays is impacted by insights from consumers. That is how Google reviews and map packs are relevant to any business.
These statistics from Dixa show how customer reviews have greatly impacted businesses in the past years:
- 93% of customers read online reviews before making a purchase.
- Customers will look at both positive and negative reviews of products and services.
- Experience and problems with products and/or services are what consumers look at in reviews.
- Consumers would also like to know how businesses respond to complaints.
- 97% of consumers in a survey said that customer reviews impact their buying decisions.
- 92% of consumers hesitate to make a purchase when there are no customer reviews.
What are the main benefits of customer reviews?
- Customer reviews that consumers access online carry as much credibility as a personal recommendation. Consumers trust high-quality and authentic reviews that they read on a business’s digital marketing platform.
- Customer reviews increase confidence and strengthen the purchasing decisions of consumers. Likewise, helps improve the credibility and reliability of a brand. Hence, increasing conversion rate, the number of loyal customers, and revenue.
- Customer reviews provide a direct line to customers and let a business know how to better improve a service or product to improve customer experience.
- Customer reviews allow businesses to appear higher in search engine rankings. In organic local searches, online customer reviews gain more weight, according to Qualtrics.
- Consistent positive reviews impact how a business will be seen online, how it will rank, and how it will gain targeted local traffic.
- Customer reviews impact GoogAZle Business Profile conversions, represented by how customers take action like clicking, calling, etc.
The following characteristics of customer reviews are the overall top factors in GBP conversion, according to Search Engine Journal:
- High Star Ratings.
- Positive Sentiment in Review Text.
- Quantity of Google Reviews
- The recency of Reviews.
- Presence of Owner Responses to Reviews.
- Quantity of Positive Review Attributes.
Google Reviews and the Google Map Pack
Google algorithms that determine ranking change several times every day. They make sure that ranking is tailored to provide the right pages for specific queries.” There are also what Google calls “Broad Core algorithm Updates” that affect the show results of millions of websites on the internet. Where do Google Review and map packs fit into the equation?
What is the Google Maps Pack? It is the most coveted position in Google’s local search results, also known as the “Google local pack” or the “Google 3 pack ranking”. It shows the most highly ranked businesses based on factors defined by Google algorithms which determine local rankings.
A Google Maps Pack features information that a user sees when searching for businesses online. The crucial information organically featured in a map pack includes but is not limited to:
- Google reviews and overall ratings
- A short business summary
- Location address
- Business hours
- Price range
- Featured photo
It is considered the online real estate of any business across any platform. It grabs as much as 44% of the total click on search engine results pages, according to Neil Patel.
Although the algorithms that determine how a business is ranked or featured in the Google Maps pack continue to evolve and can sometimes be unpredictable, leveraging customer reviews can increase the probability that a business will be featured in the Google Maps Pack.
Statistics show that online customer reviews significantly affect the credibility of a business. Online review statistics and trends for 2022 published by Review Trackers reported that “people don’t really trust businesses with lower than 4-star ratings. 80% of consumers say the star ratings they trust the most are 4.0, 4.5, and 5 stars.
The better reviews a business has, the more likely it will be featured in Google Maps Pack.
Google Reviews and Organic Search Rankings
When customers leave a great review online for a product or a service, it boosts their reputation and creates a powerful social proof that will attract and inspire other consumers. It becomes an instant voice that connects a business to those who matter the most or to an audience who will most likely convert into buying customers.
Positive reviews are an instant validation of a business’s trustworthiness. Google rewards businesses that have generated a lot of positive reviews by featuring them in the map pack when their products and/or services are searched. So, when customers perform a local search for a product and/or service they need, they will most likely click on the businesses that appear on the Google Map Pack.
Get Reviews Today
Now that you are aware of how positive customer reviews impact Google Map Packs and organic search, by all means, offer your best review-worthy products and services.
Inspire your customers to leave evaluations and visibly display banners, badges, or links to favored and positive customer reviews on your main digital marketing platforms, so potential customers can see them right away.
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Infintech Designs is a digital marketing agency that specializes in helping small and medium-sized businesses succeed online.
Located in New Orleans, Louisiana, we understand the importance of making sure your business gets seen by customers searching for you on Google or other search engines—and this can be done through an effective web design strategy and clever use of ads.
We want to help make it easier for people like yourself with limited resources to get started! Contact us now!
