Harnessing Reviews to Grow Your Solar Business
The Power of Reviews in Digital Marketing
Customer reviews are a crucial component of your digital marketing services. Positive reviews not only build trust with potential customers but also influence search engine algorithms, contributing to better local SEO services. While a computer cannot 100% understand the tone of a review, it can identify phrases that can help your business match a searcher’s query. To learn more about these keyword phrases, check out our blog on how to grow SEO here.
- According to a study by BrightLocal, 87% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses, and businesses with more reviews and higher ratings tend to rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Encourage Detailed, Human Reviews
- Encouraging customers to leave detailed and human reviews can significantly impact your business. Detailed reviews provide valuable information and can highlight specific aspects of your services, such as responsive web design, ecommerce website development, or social media marketing.
- To encourage more reviews, consider asking satisfied customers to share their experiences or offering small incentives for leaving a review. This process gets easier over time when you improve service quality.
Here is a good example of a review that accomplishes this:
Looking at the image above, we can see that this review is clearly made by a human. This is because the customer clearly mentions what he likes about the commercial realtor, rather than a general summary of his services. While this is a different niche than the solar industry, it can still apply to your solar company simply because human characteristics are universal.
If you want to view more examples of these reviews, check out our website for Bruce Norwood today.
Responding to Reviews
- Responding to reviews, whether positive or negative, shows that you value customer feedback and are committed to improving your services. Addressing negative reviews with professionalism and a desire to resolve issues can turn dissatisfied customers into loyal ones. This practice also shows transparency and accountability, growing your business's credibility.
- A very important thing to mention here is that human responses to reviews are necessary. If an online system of auto-generated responses is used, Google Search Engine will be able to recognize the phrase repetition and potentially regard your business as spam. This could hurt your brand awareness.
- Here is an example of a bad response:
- The problem here, especially the highlighted part, is that it isn’t client specific. Rather, it closes the conversation by saying that they will improve for the future without recognizing the issue the client experienced. This will reflect poorly on your business because it frustrates the client more.
- It is important to phrase your responses in a way that encourages further communication. Asking further questions that demonstrate taking action, such as inquiring what specific process frustrated the customer, allows for mutual benefit, improvement opportunity, as well as closure between both parties.
Data Analytics to Watch
- To measure the impact of reviews on your business growth, track metrics such as the number of reviews, average rating, and customer sentiment. Tools like Google Analytics can help monitor how review pages influence website traffic and user engagement. Pay attention to metrics like organic traffic, bounce rate, and conversion rate to understand how reviews contribute to your overall online marketing strategies.
Impact on SEO and Online Presence
- Reviews contribute to your overall SEO best practices by providing fresh, user-generated content that search engines value. Reviews containing relevant keywords that are relevant to your solar business, like “solar agency in __” or “why should I go solar” can improve your website’s visibility. This usually happens naturally, since if your services are of high quality, your customers will naturally want to talk about what specifically helped them. Additionally, Google considers the quantity and quality of reviews in its ranking algorithm, making reviews a vital aspect of your SEO optimization tips.
Final Tips
- Incorporating customer reviews into your digital marketing strategy is a powerful way to grow your solar business. By encouraging detailed, human reviews and responding to them effectively, you can enhance your online presence, build trust with potential customers, and improve your SEO performance.
- Our last tip to give you is that these processes can and should be applied to social media. Even if it’s just liking some comments, basic responses to reviews, or helping dissatisfied customers, it really helps your algorithm performance. Additionally, it can also help your website performance if the page does well and your socials are connected.
Works Cited
BrightLocal. “Local Consumer Review Survey 2023: Everything You Need to Know.” BrightLocal, 14 Mar. 2023, www.brightlocal.com/research/local-consumer-review-survey/. Accessed 9 Aug. 2024.
Ahrefs. “How to Use Reviews to Improve Your SEO.” Ahrefs, 5 June 2023, ahrefs.com/blog/reviews-seo/. Accessed 9 Aug. 2024.
