Your company’s online presence is a key part of establishing a good reputation and maintaining your brand recognition. A comprehensive local SEO strategy is crucial in building a strong online presence. Maintaining your Google Business Profile, cultivating online reviews, and seeking ratings from real customers should all be elements of that strategy. Here’s a look at how customer reviews impact your business’ local SEO rankings.
Reviews & Ratings Impact Google Maps’ SEO
The average number of reviews for a business’ listing has a strong impact on its performance in local SEO for Google Maps. The more reviews your company has, the higher your ranking is likely to be on Google Maps. This means that when customers search for local businesses offering products and services like yours, you can increase your chances of showing up at the top of that list by increasing your positive reviews and ratings.
Distance
Per Google, the three ranking factors they use for Google Business Profiles are relevance, prominence, and distance. Most people want to go to the closest business location that offers the services or products they need, and Google is more likely to show results for businesses that are between 2-10 miles away from the user’s location while searching. However, cultivating a certain number of Google reviews can make your business an outlier—Google will sometimes include businesses between 10-50 miles away in their results if the business has a good enough reputation.
Local Pack Rankings
Reviews can also impact your Local Pack rankings on desktop searches. In general, businesses that have a greater number of reviews will have a better chance of being ranked in the top three on Local Pack (desktop), especially if their average rating is over 4.1.
Improve the number and quality of your company’s Google reviews with help from our team at Leverage Marketing. We specialize in local SEO and review and reputation management in Michigan. Contact us today at (616) 377-4392 or schedule a free strategy session online.
