Although the business landscape has changed due to recent events, statistics surrounding buyers’ perspective on online reviews have not shifted. Reviews have and will continue to be of high value to businesses. At the end of the day, our customers are our best salespeople. Often we can get caught up with trying to come up with clever marketing strategies and funnels, but we forget that our customers can truly be our most valuable assets. Improving your local SEO is essentially being a torch-bearer of your customers’ experiences. Let them be your voice. 

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO is a search engine optimization strategy that helps your business be more visible in local search results on Google. (Source) The goal for all companies is to be among the first results that your customers see when they search for businesses like yours in their area. Local SEO is a part of the equation in order to accomplish this goal.

In this year alone, 84% of shoppers now read online reviews. (Source) 70% of consumers say helpful online reviews are one of their primary reasons for visiting the site. (Source) In other words, raving reviews from customer-generated content are the front window displays to your business’ virtual store doors.

Marketers and business-owners alike may understand the troubles that can come with trying to improve their local SEO. We understand that struggle and have found these three tactics to be highly successful in transforming your local SEO.

Utilize customer reviews to attract your ideal target audience.

Word of mouth marketing is simply listening to your customers and maximizing their feedback. Nielsen reports that 92% of consumers believe suggestions from friends and family more than advertising. Additionally, 74% of consumers identify word of mouth as a key influence in their purchasing decisions. (Source) 

Word of mouth marketing will always be superior to any form of advertisements or outbound marketing strategy. One of the best ways to garner word of mouth is to utilize feedback requests such as the first party landing page ReviewPush offers. 

Leverage Keywords from User-Generated Content.

User-Generated Content (UGC) is any form of content – blog posts, images, videos, etc. – generated and shared online by users who aren’t paid to voice their viewpoint. UGCs are rich with relevant keywords on platforms such as Facebook, TripAdvisor, and Google which Google’s algorithm loves.

Looking at your reviews for consistent words or phrases can often highlight how your customers found your webpage in the first place. Furthermore, you can leverage keywords commonly found in your online reviews to incorporate throughout your business’ website in the form of FAQs, social media posts, and more. 

Create a Reviews Landing Page.

There are a few valuable things Google keeps an eye out for when deciding where to rank pages in its search queries. The top item on that list is high-quality content. Pages that are relevant, useful, and help searchers find the solutions they are looking for will be ranked higher than others. The more relevant a page is, the more times people will return, which indicates to Google that it’s a useful page. 

Customer reviews are one of the most relevant snippets of content you have about your business. They aren’t shiny, deceptive marketing scripts with the main goal of selling your product. Instead, they are messages sent from local community members with no hidden agenda. To maximize the results of this method, create a dedicated landing page that features embedded reviews like our customer CPR Cell Phone Repair did. The result of CPR Cell Phone Repair utilizing this strategy was a 700% increase in network reviews over a year!

We can’t overstate the importance of word of mouth marketing and its value to improving your local SEO. Regardless of how technology changes, people prefer the opinions of other consumers over the distributor. And who can blame them? Trust is grown through connection. Connect with your satisfied customers and be promoters of their cares by listening to their virtual feedback. Champion them so that they in turn champion you and your local business.

Lee McNiel