Over the past years, online reviews have produced a new structure of communication and marketing. This definitely linked the breach between plain tittle-tattle and a viral form of feedback that can create a big impact for businesses. The significance of online reviews for businesses is truly surprising – from boost of brand awareness to an increase of profit overall, sooner or later.

For business owners, it always feels great when you read great reviews online and scored a high rating from your customers. The feeling is awesome and it makes you even more driven to provide great service or quality products etc.  But if it’s the other way around, that could be bad for your business. If this is the case, how do you respond to this situation if you’re a business owner?

Essentially, online reviews are vital to any company that wishes to keep control of its reputation online. Reviews and online ratings have pretty much created a big impact in online marketing ever since the worldwide web became known to almost every household member (even grandma knows how to shop online). Online reviews basically allow businesses to hold, positive and dynamic participation from customers. It also gives consumers a strong foundation to generate a great bond with those businesses. Keeping control of this matter is vital and it really pays off.

If your business has quite a lot of good online reviews, it can definitely help make your business more important in the eyes of search engines. Sites like Bing Places, YELP, and Google Places for business, when you have several reviews on these following sites, then its great sign for you. You have to take note that the goal of a search engine is to show the most valuable content possible for an online reader, based on what they are looking for. Practically, search engines distinguish that online users are likely to read product or service, and local business reviews, and that is the reason why they find it irresistible to display them as well. You will frequently be compensated when it comes to appearing in localized search results if you have online customer reviews for your business.

Here are major reasons why customer online reviews are important to businesses, especially to small and midsize companies:

• Improved Sales – First and foremost, this is what all is about in business – profits! It’s the biggest reason why online reviews are essential to businesses. It eventually increases sales by giving consumers the information they could do with to make the decision to acquire a product or service from a business.

• Understanding what the Customer Wants and to Serve Them Even Better – These reviews are capable of telling you whether you are doing an excellent job or what you are doing wrong and how to improve your service.

• Reviews Generate More Reviews – It appears to persuade other online readers and visitors to give their own views when a business, product or service has already received good reviews online. If other readers can perceive the number of reviews about a particular business, it is convincing enough to give new visitors the confidence to leave their own evaluation on that particular product or service.

• Boost Search Rankings –It does not only create a healthier relationship between businesses and its consumers; but they work towards improving your websites ranking on search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo! and a lot more.

Others:

• Higher Keyword Content
• Allow Consumers to Have a Voice and Create Consumer Loyalty
• Create Consumer Engagement

Do online reviews matter? Share your comments today.