Local Search: Online Reviews In Local SEO

Local Search: Online Reviews In Local SEO

Local SEO is one of the most powerful levers for driving customers to your business. But while many factors influence local rankings, online reviews have become one of the most decisive. From reviewing volume to star ratings to response practices, reviews directly impact how search engines ranking business and customers' decisions on whether to choose. For instance, when a customer searches “near me,” the businesses that appear in Google’s coveted local peak aren’t chosen at random. Google looks at three factors: relevance, distance, and prominence. While distance is fixed, prominence is largely determined by signals like links, citations, and critical reviews. In fact, review signals make up about 9% of local pack/finder ranking factors, with high star ratings and a steady flow of reviews improving visibility. This means reviews not only influence whether a customer trusts your business, but also whether they see it in search results in the first place

About Online reviews, Hansen and Knott showed how to stay competitive, get ahead of comparison research, and win customers before they even walk into the store. Online reviews are a critical factor in determining how well local businesses perform in search results, directly influencing how businesses are perceived by potential customers and play a significant role in local search engine optimization (SEO).

What is Local SEO?

Local businesses rely on their online presence to thrive, with 97% users searching for local businesses online. Local SEO is search engine optimization for local marketing. Local SEO is the practice of optimizing a business’s online presence to attract more business from relevant local searches, which typically happen on Google and other search engines. For example, running a bakery in New York, local SEO helps the business appear in search results when someone searches for “bakery near me” or “best bakery in New York.”

Myths associated with local SEO

SEO involves a lot of guesswork. It doesn’t matter how loud the “experts” shout. Only the search engines know how their algorithm really work.

Myth #1: Organic search and local SEO are the same

Myth #2: Reviews are a “nice-to-have.”

Myth #3: How consumers discover businesses hasn’t changed much over the past few years

Myth #4: Consumers want the ‘best’, and they are willing to travel to get it

Myth #5: Print and online advertising drive in-person visits

Myth #6: Google prioritizes the best ranking businesses, regardless of whether or not they are local

Best Practices for Local Search

1. Verify Your Location

More than 70% of all searches go through Google, which means Google would often list verified results higher than those they’re unsure about. To verify your listing, verify by phone, email, or mail, review all information for accuracy or any last-minute changes, and remember not update the business name until the verification process is complete.

2. Add High-Quality Photos

Businesses with profiles featuring photos seeing 35% more click-throughs than profiles without images. Additionally, listings with photos receiving 42% more requests for driving directions. Best practices include optimizing all photos for both desktop and mobile devices, prioritize raking attractive pictured of your business, products, or services, and adding metadata to each image to boost ranking without making keywords directly visible.

3. Keep Google Business Profile (GBP) Up-To-Date

It has reported that 31% consumers are more likely to look at a local business’s GBP before visiting than they did before the pandemic. Information needed for your GBP listing includes your profile (name, website, business description, category, attributes, opening data, photos), place (address, service area), and visiting time (hours of operation, holiday hours).

4. Use Keywords

Location keywords are powerful, as 72% consumers searching for local businesses visit a business within 5 miles of their current location. To use keywords to your advantage, use keywords in your description anywhere, start with the service in the location, and use a keyword generator tool.

5. Increase & Manage Your Online Reviews

Reviews has huge impact on the decision to try a new business. Moreover, consumers are willing to travel farther and spend more to patronize a business with a higher rating. To increase your total number of reviews and average rating, ask for reviews via text, create a Google review link shortcut, and respond to both negative reviews and positive reviews. Using these local SEO best practices enables refining listings and attracting more local customers.

6. Respond To Reviews

Reputation management platform, you can begin to engage with reviewers to continuously improve your reputation