How many times have you chosen to purchase a product based on it’s reviews? More often than not, online reviews are providing honest insight into which can deter or persuade future clientele. This is also true when one is deciding which business to work with or purchase from. There are huge indicators which can throw off your page rank, as well as those reading your reviews that you will want to be aware of.
Recent Reviews
It is not always quantity over quality when it comes to the age of your reviews. If you have reviews that are over 6 months old, it can be a cause for concern. A lack of recent online reviews is not something the general consumer particularly likes to see. It could bring up questions that can ultimately lose the trust of your potential customers; has Management or employees changed? Why were you getting reviews and now you’re not?
Search Engines are also looking for your reviews and search based on recent activity. Outdated reviews will be overlooked and this can actually drop your page rank. Consistent and frequent posts will rate higher in search results such as Google and Yelp. You could be losing business because your competitor has been placed above you due to their more recent reviews.
Spam Reviews
Yelp has been one of the more popular places to leave reviews for businesses. In order to prevent people from creating spam accounts and leaving fake reviews, Yelp likes to see that an individual user is leaving several reviews and consistently using their platform. If a user leaves only one or two reviews, Yelp can end up removing it due to inactivity. Yelp values the opinions of its users and wants to make sure that you are not going in, creating 300 email accounts, leaving one review from each account and then walking away. They put more weight on customers who are using their platform regularly.
With the importance of online reviews increasing, you will want to make sure that you pay attention to the frequency and credibility of the accounts leaving reviews. Not only does your SEO count on it, but your potential customers rely on it when deciding which company to move forward with.
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