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

Premium Package - Feefo Package

Best Pick

Best Pick

Recommended ‘All-Round’ Package: TRUSTPILOT Lite

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.