Reach for the stars to boost SEO

With the majority of insurance customers now starting their purchasing journey online, search rankings are as important as ever to brokers. Improving - or even maintaining - those rankings can be a full time job, but there are effective, economical strategies you can employ which make a big difference. In this article, we take a look at how Google reviews impact local search results.

Why you urgently need Google reviews

The power of the customer testimonial cannot be underestimated in its influence on other potential customers. This is especially true online where a new study by BIA/Kelsey and ConStat revealed that 97% of people read reviews for local businesses and that these reviews influence the purchasing decisions for 93% of consumers.

Independent and peer-to-peer, it makes sense that online reviews are considered a trusted source of information. On a more technical level however, these same reviews also directly affect how your business - and your website - appear in Google's local search results.

What are local search results?

Local search results are shown by Google when people search for businesses near their location, particularly on mobile devices where location services are often enabled for use on map apps. For example, you’re likely to see local results if you search for "insurance broker", as Google will aim to show you a list of insurance brokers nearby, with their locations usually displayed on a map.

There's no way to request or pay for a better local organic ranking on Google, so in order to maximise how often customers see your business in their local search results, you need a strategy to optimise your Google business listing.

Harnessing the power of reviews

Google's local results are based primarily on relevance, physical distance and prominence. These factors are combined to help find the best match for a search query. "Prominence" here means how well known a business is and how it is perceived. One of the ways Google evaluates this is by checking how many reviews your business has and what your average customer rating is. In short, more reviews and positive ratings will improve a business's local ranking.

In our experience we have even found that for businesses operating in the same sector and located just a few doors away from each other, the business with more reviews is consistently displayed first in Google Maps results. In cases where there are numerous similar businesses within a close physical distance of each other, those businesses without reviews can even fail to appear on Google Maps results entirely.

Getting the most out of reviews

In today’s day and age, it's inevitable that some of your clients will review your products or services whether you want it or not. Even if reviews are not posted on your Google business listing, there are numerous websites such as Trust Pilot, Feefo and various social media sites where reviews can be submitted. To maximise the impact of your reviews and to manage them as effectively as possible, prompting your customers to leave reviews on your Google business listing should be your first priority.

Getting more reviews

Of course, actually getting the reviews from your customers can sometimes be a challenge in itself, but a recent survey revealed that 68% of consumers will leave a review if asked. If you don't already have one, put a strategy in place for asking both existing and new customers for a review following their purchase. The more quickly this is done following the purchase, the more likely you are to receive a review from them.

Our approach is to set up a dedicated Google review link that can be emailed to customers and displayed in a prominent position on their website, making it as easy as possible to leave a review. Clicking on this special link will take the customer directly to Google's review pages to leave their review, dramatically reducing the amount of leg work that you're asking your customer to do.

But what about negative reviews?

One of the reasons businesses can be reluctant about asking for online reviews is the fear of receiving a negative review. However, receiving the odd negative review is not the end of the world. Actively replying to negative reviews and looking to resolve a situation demonstrates to your potential new customers that you care about your clients. A recent report showed that 89% of consumers read businesses' responses to reviews, so you should take the opportunity to respond to negative reviews whenever possible as this will help you to win over customers as well as the search engines.

Finally, a word of caution: never be tempted to pay for reviews or offer product incentives in exchange for reviews. This goes against Google's terms of service and if you are found doing this, it can greatly harm your Google ranking.

If you're interested in setting up a dedicated Google reviews link for your business or would like us to help you optimise your Google business listing, please get in touch.

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