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One of the first things that people do when searching for a product or service is go straight to the reviews to seek out social proof that the product or service is trusted by others. Older reviews carry much less weight with consumers. Shown by a recent study from Brightlocal,
69% of consumers today, believe that online reviews older then 3 months are no longer relevant.
This means it is crucial for your business to get new reviews continually, and that it gives potential customers an idea of your service or product currently. Consistency is the best friend to recency. You may have a couple recent reviews, but it may look odd to the potential customer if you don’t have a steady flow of reviews coming in. Recency and consistency are major factors that consumers consider when choosing a product or service online and here are a couple of major reasons why.
Trust
Having a steady flow of reviews over time will make your business and brand more trustworthy and instills confidence in potential customers searching for a product/service like yours. Even though it might seem like a good idea to just dedicate a month or two and ask all of your customers at once to leave a review, this will look obvious or suspicious to consumers. Incentivizing customers is something that might cross their mind. At that point they will likely discard your reviews and business altogether because of the perceived lack of integrity. This is why it’s imperative for your reviews to come in gradually.. daily, or weekly.
Relevance
After finding the business’s reviews one of the first things that potential buyers do is quickly find the date of review, and frequently focus on your most recent reviews. This is important for all businesses because things such as ownership can change, branding can change, business operations can change, and products and services are constantly evolving. Potential customers want to know your business today.
If your business only has a handful of aging reviews and your competitors have a large quantity of reviews and recent feedback, they will immediately seem more interesting to potential customers. Make sure you prioritize at least collecting a few new reviews each week.
Impact on Local SEO & Ranking
Review sites like Google and Facebook, have become much more sophisticated in the last couple years. Along with star rating, recency and consistency are two additional factors that play into the algorithms, and ultimately impact how you stack up to your competitors & who ranks higher. It should be no secret that user-generated content is one of the most valuable sales and marketing resources today. Consumers today want unbiased advice or recommendations. They want to know what people have to say about your business rather then what you say about your own business. Because of the unbiased, authenticity associated with this marketing content, the messages are often much more powerful.
Key Takeaway
“Ignoring what others think may be good advice for your personal life, but when it comes to your business, it needs to be tackled head-on.” -IMPACT Branding & Design
It’s crucial to get your employees and your team leaders motivated to making sure your sending out review request consistently, as its vital to growing (and even maintaining) your business!
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