Online Reviews: What is good about them and what is bad about them

We’ve been receiving online reviews for a number of years and we are strong advocates of allowing your customers to voice their opinions about the services or products you provide. For example, if you were to search for ‘Total SEO reviews’ online, you will be able to see the number of independent review websites we are listed on. That being said, as with everything, there are certain things to consider when opening your business up to receiving reviews online, so we thought we would create an article detailing what we feel is good about online reviews and the not so good.

The Good

We’re pleased to say that from our experience, there are certainly more positive points than negative to receiving online reviews. Here are our main positive points:

1) They will make your business stand out – The online world is a competitive space for any business sector. As such, we all need to be doing what we can to stand out. By having impartial reviews online, your potential new customers will be able to thoroughly research about your business before committing, which is a good thing.

2) They give your customers a voice – If you rely on repeat business, then allowing your customers to voice their opinions online is important. You will need to potentially respond to them online, but by allowing and doing this, you show them you care which will hopefully lead to retaining that customer into the future.

3) Identify Issues – Honest feedback from your clients can be a great way to identify potential problems you may never have known about within your business so you can address and fix them.

4) SEO – Online reviews can be fantastic in boosting the position of your website in the search engines. By linking your website with highly ranked and respected review websites, this will give your domain more authority. Also, having a reviews page on another site means you are taking up more space online for particular keywords and phrases.

The Bad

Luckily, we haven’t experienced many bad points to allowing our customers to leave us online reviews, however, there are certain things that need to be considered before setting your profile up across a number of independent review websites, such as the following:

1) Negative reviews – The potential of receiving negative reviews online shouldn’t put you off from allowing your customers to leave online reviews. However, you need to be able to address the negative feedback and respond to it. If not, then negative reviews can have the potential to damage your business reputation.

2) Time & effort – Getting online reviews and managing the process can sometimes feel like a job in itself. You have to create the profiles on the review websites, let your customers know they can leave you an impartial review and then respond to any reviews left. This all takes up time. However, the benefits of receiving reviews will be worth putting time into this.

3) Cost – Not all review sites are free. For some of the best ones, you have to pay to be a full member and receive reviews. This all comes down to your expected ROI. We justify the cost because of the business we receive from customers who have decided to come to us because of the reviews they have read about us online. However, it is still something to consider.

In our opinion, the good far outweighs the bad when it comes to receiving reviews online. We would recommend you to allow your customers to leave a review, so potential new customers can find out about you and have that confidence before getting in touch. We hope this article helps you with deciding whether you want to allow your business to receive online reviews or not.