Post on 10-May-2015
description
How to Guide: Using Seller Ratings,
Stars & Reviews to Improve Online Conversions
Contents• Introduction to the different types of seller ratings, stars and
reviews• Stars in organic listings (Schema)• Google reviews (Local listings)• PPC seller reviews and stars• 3rd party seller rating services• Research - 3rd party review service by sector• Comparison of packages and costs
An Introduction to the Different Types of
Seller Ratings, Stars & Reviews
Ecommerce Product Ratings (seller reviews)
Service Reviews & Ratings
Why are Stars & Reviews Important?
There are many benefits including;
• Improve click through rate (CTR)65% of online consumers in Europe say that star reviews are important when choosing a site. (Infas Survey, 2012)
• Improve 'trust' value
European respondents report the lowest levels of trust in all but one advertising/messaging format—consumer opinions posted online, which was among the lowest reported at 64 per cent. (Nielsen Global Trust in Marketing Survey 2012)
• Improve conversion rateResearch shows that conversion rates increase by an average of 23.1% when shops display star reviews. (ECC Survey, 2012)
Nielsen study Reveals That Consumers Trust Online Reviews
“Consumer Trust” by Media TypeUSA, Europe & Global
Ratings in the Search Engine Results
Bottom of page
Organic listings (Schema)
PPC - Stars 3rd party seller reviews
Google Local Reviews
The Knowledge Graph
Comparison of the Different Techniques
Organic results –
star ratings
Google reviews & star ratings
PPC ads – star ratings
Source Your web page Google+ Local page – customer reviews
Third party review service
How do you get it?
You use Schema to mark-up of your pages
Customers can add a review of your business (when
logged into Google)
Google automatically adds
the stars (if you qualify)
Where does it appear
Organic listing (you control)
Map/local listings Knowledge Graph
Local organic listing (automatically)
PPC ads (automatically)
Main Benefit Increase CTR and traffic
Increase CTR and traffic
Increase credibilityIncrease SEO rankings
Increase CTR and traffic
Increase Quality Score
Strategy to Increase Traffic VolumeObjective • Focus on attracting (primarily new) customers to your site.• Star ratings are known to help increase click through rate (CTR) therefore
will help increase traffic
Best techniques • Google reviews - If you are a local service then your Google reviews/stars
may show in:
– The Google + Local listings (associated with the map)– The Knowledge Graph (panel on the right of the listings)– Local organic results
• Organic (schema) - Stars in SEO rankings (Schema) – you mark-up your website and refer to 3rd party results or Google reviews
• PPC - Google will automatically display stars in PPC ads once you qualify, so invest in a 3rd party service to gain sufficient positive reviews
Strategy to Increase Customer Engagement
Objective• Focus on attracting loyal customers and building relationships
• Increase trust and sales by customers choosing products/services with high ratings
Best techniques• Google reviews on your Google+ Local pages. As this is the best way to
communicate with customers and hear their feedback – as well as using it as an advertising platform.
• 3rd party reviews associated with your product or service pages - as this will build trust and encourage engagement/sales
Stars in the Organic Listings (Schema)
What is Schema & Why is it Important?
What is Schema?• “Schema mark-up is simply a set of HTML tags known as “schemas” that
you can add to your web pages to give search engines a better idea of what the page is presenting.” (lucidsitedesigns.com)
• It is a protocol agreed by the 3 main search engines so that webmasters could give additional information to the search engines - See Schema.org
• There are schemas for a variety of different things including books, movies, recipes, TV series, images, songs, videos, events, & much more.
• Schema is also known as “structured data” or “rich snippets”
Why is Schema important for your SEO?• Helps search engines by telling them what you offer your customers.• It is user-friendly and therefore encourages visitors to click through to
your website. • Google includes user engagement criteria, such as click through rates
and bounce rates, in its search algorithm; so increased interaction from Schema can indirectly help rankings
What ‘Types’ of Schema Can You Use?
• Creative works: CreativeWork, Book, Movie, MusicRecording, Recipe, TVSeries (and lots more)
• Embedded non-text objects: AudioObject, ImageObject, VideoObject
• Event• Health and medical types: notes on the health and medical
types under MedicalEntity.• Organization• Person• Place, LocalBusiness, Restaurant ...• Product, Offer, AggregateOffer• Review, AggregateRating
For examples see the next slide.
Examples of Schema (in organic results)
Google Reviews
Google+ Local PagesSetting up your Local Listing• Google offers businesses free “Local listings” normally associated with the map• These Listings have had various names over the years (e.g. Business or Places) but these are
now called Google + Local• Once you have set-up (or adopted a pre-existing) Local listing you can amend it by adding
text, photos and videos
Getting your reviews• You can also encourage your customers to add their reviews• This is an easy and free way to get star ratings (using a score out of 5 based on customer
reviews)• It may also help drive customers to the store, as addresses are always displayed.• Local reviews are believed to help your SEO (if you have more than 5 reviews)• You do have the right to reply e.g. for unfair negative comments
Local listings and reviews in the search results• If you search in Google for a brand or store; the local store or office will dominant over the
brand or group results. • This is due to the “Google Venice update”, which favours local results over national ones
(even when you do not type in the location into the search phrase)• Local listings are normally shown at the top of the page, so good star reviews may mean
greater clicks than competitors (in the other Local listings and also the organic listings, which are often further down)
• You may also show the rating in your organic results and if you have the “Knowledge Graph”
Local Search Results for [restaurants]
Google+ Local Review Link
Knowledge Graph• Local search results dominate
the brand or group results , even though the location was not typed in (this is due to the Venice update, which favours local results).
• Google automatically uses local results in the organic results.
• You need good ratings to see the star in the organic results
• The stars make your listing stand out, it conveys trust and encourages click throughs.
• Brands need to ensure that each store has a local listing with good reviews.
• You can set-up a Google + page in addition to your Google Local page.
• This is Google’s social media platform (with elements that are similar to Facebook and Twitter).
• You can encourage customers to follow you.• You can post updates which followers will see – they can comment
and share these.• This includes text, photos and videos posts.• It’s a great way to build business-customer relationships• Helps with SEO as links on Google Plus pages are [follow] links and
these page can build up their own authority• You are more likely to have a “Knowledge Graph” for your
brand/company name if you have an active Google + account
Separate Google+ Page
Google+ Page
PPC Seller Reviews (Stars)
PPC Seller Reviews & Stars
• These stars and online seller reviews are given to your products by your customers.
• This allows prospective and returning customers to see at a glance the impartial 'rating' of a product.
• Google automatically ads these to your PPC ads using the collated data from the 3rd party review sites .
• You only get stars shown under specific circumstances (see below).• Stars can help increase the click through rate (CTR) on your ad
increasing traffic and your AdWords Quality Score.
AdWords Review Link – Collated Data From a Number of Review Sites
When Will Google Show PPC Stars?
• The reviews are from independent or third party services
• Google collates these reviews (based on customer reviews collected from one or more of these services)
• You must have at least 30 unique reviews, from the past 12 months
• A composite rating of 3.5 stars or higher
• At least 10 reviews must be in the customer’s Google interface language
New AdWords Review Extensions
This is a new feature which Google will be introducing in the near future. Use positive reviews to help increase click through rates.
• Must provide a direct quote or key point summary.• Review must be about the company, not a product.• Recent review – no older than 12 months.• Need permission from reference source.• 67 character limit.
3rd Party Seller Rating Services
What are Third Party Review Service Providers?
• Third party seller rating services actively contact your customers on your behalf to collect their feedback regarding the different products and services they have received.
• This feedback is posted online and can be displayed alongside your product or service.
• The information is also used by Google to collate reviews
Research - 3rd Party Review Service by Sector
Research methodologyTo help you decide which 3rd party review service you should consider, we have done a little bit of research to help you with the decision-making process.
• We began by searching for ten different keywords per category. These categories were computer & consumer goods, travel & tourism, autos and health & beauty.
• We did this to identify if the industry has a bearing as to what review source they used.
• We then took the top two review sources, based on the number of reviews.
• The results were then collated by identifying the average number of reviews per review source and site.
• This allowed us to determine:– the most popular with businesses in that sector– the highest number of reviews (approximately).
Computer & Consumer Goods
Travel & Tourism
Autos
Health & Beauty
The Results
What Does This Tell Us?
From the results we can see that;
• Trustpilot is the most popular review service provider.• Feefo is not as popular but delivers a high number of reviews.• Reevoo delivers a high number of reviews but is not very popular.• Reviewcentre.co.uk is popular but doesn’t deliver a high volume of
reviews. • Shopzilla (uses Bitzrate) delivers an average number of reviews
and is generally quite popular.
Comparison of Packages & Costs
Service OverviewTrustpilot
Feefo Reevoo1 ReviewCentre.co.uk2
i.reviews.co.uk
Shopzilla Ciao UK3
Minimum Monthly Cost
£75.00 £99.00
£499 N/A Free Free CPC
Number of Reviews a Month
Up to 300 a month
Up to 200 a month
Custom N/A 30 Variable4 Variable4
Key Notes:1- Reevoo is one of the most expensive review service providers and this accounts for the lack of popularity.2 - reviewcentre.co.uk is independent and does not offer merchant support.3 - Ciao is part of the LeGuide Group and is better suited to those looking for international reviews. You get access to Ciao, Dooyoo, Webmerchand and Choozen.4 - Depends on the number of transactions
Recommended Lower Cost Option: i.Review.co.uk
Best Pick
Summary & Recommendations• Define your objectives, then you can determine the best strategy to
achieve those goals.• Two main routes to obtain stars and reviews
– Google reviews – 3rd party service
• Where the stars or reviews might be displayed– Google Local Page plus; local listings associated with the map, Knowledge Graph, local organic
listing– On your website– In your organic listings (Schema)– PPC ads (automatically or using review extension)
• Find mechanisms to encourage customers to leave Google reviews (consider incentives, request reviews etc.)
• Use third party services to increase engagement on your site and to get “automatic stars” in the PPC ads
• Recommended 3rd party services– Low budget i.review.co.uk– Medium budget/most popular = Trustpilot– Consider industry specific sites such as Tripadvisor
• Google reviews offers the right to reply – if you have negative feedback, deal with the issue, apologise and explain what you have done to avoid it happening again.