Do Online Reviews Increase Search Engine Rankings?
-
Do the mere presence of reviews on product pages increase a page's ranking or standing in the SERPs?
I'm not referring to driving more traffic with a product page because there's more content, long tail keywords, more updates to the page as reviews roll in, etc.
Has there been any study around whether a product page began ranking better by simply adding review functionality?
-
Thanks for the response Everett. I'm definitely not looking to game the system with empty or fake reviews, that wouldn't be an issue with what I'm working on.
It sounds like your rant you described could fall into what I'm thinking about. With everything else being equal but Page A has review functionality while Page B doesn't, does Page A rank better on that sole difference. One might think so, but like you said, once reviews start rolling in on Page A the weight would definitely (well, at least most likely) swing it's way.
Nate
-
Nwhite1,
To my knowledge there hasn't been any published study regarding the first-order effect of improved rankings after the inclusion of ratings on a product page.
My guess, and that's all it is, would be that the mere presence of them in-and-of itself would not improve rankings, but there would be several second-order effects, such as those you and the other responses have mentioned. Attempting to game the system by putting up empty reviews or fake reviews just to have something on the page could land you in hot water. Google has been working on the empty review page problem for awhile.
Local business page listings and Google Shopping results are totally different animals though, and the above statement does not apply there:
http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-rank-well-in-google-products-search-a-big-list-of-places-to-get-reviewsI had half a rant on here about machine learning algorithms and how anything from the color of your background to the placement of your home button in the nav could theoretically affect rankings these days, but it seems like you may be after more factual, tested information, not more theories and ideas. The "fact" is I have never seen nor heard of a study that proves the mere existence of product reviews on a product page in-and-of themselves improves rankings, nor can I think of a way to test this without involving a myriad of second-order effects.
-
I believe yes. If you have multiple product reviews that are easily accessible (maybe a link at the top that will shoot you down to the bottom of the pg where the reviews are) to a user that just appeared on your product page, then it could improve visitor performance and decrease bounce rates. I think simply improving the quality of your page with real, legitimate customer reviews, will increase that pages rankings in the SERPs due to an improved perceived value by the search engines.
Do Bounce Rates increase rankings? Search reps say "YES" - http://www.seo-theory.com/2012/03/02/the-late-great-bounce-rate-debate/
-
Hello,
I'm not sure whether you will rank better in SERPs for including product reviews on your pages but I am sure that if you tag the reviews with properly using microformats and get rich snippets to appear for your pages in SERPs, you are certain to increase click through from SERPs.
This post explains my point in more detail http://www.seomoz.org/blog/schema-examples
Logically though, I'd expect that the reviews would keep your page fresh and add to the relevant content on that page, which should increase rankings in turn.
I hope this helps.
Elias
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Ranking Drops
Hi I'm seeing a few category pages drop out of Google for certain keywords but not others, I'm trying to work out why & see if this correlates to a drop in conversion Organic Traffic isnt down, but conversion is so I'm trying to identify where its coming from - a lot has come from the homepage, but we have also lost a lot of positions across the site. has anyone noticed any google updates in Jan? Example of the page https://www.key.co.uk/en/key/shelving-racking Keywords lost in top 10 UK Google: <colgroup><col width="199"></colgroup>
Conversion Rate Optimization | | BeckyKey
| racking shelving |
| shelving racking |
| racking shelves |
| industrial shelving unit |
| racking storage |
| shelf racking |
| shelving units industrial |
| industrial pallet racking |
| shelf racking system |0 -
Hotel Booking Engine Selection
Hi there! There´s a subject that comes to my mind every now and then, something which we always thought as a subject to discuss in a forum like moz´s: Hotel Booking engines, conversion codes, and overall user experience related to them. In these days, we are trying to help one of our clients to select the best booking engine SEO wise, but basically really oriented in measuring conversions and conversions funnels, and with confirmed excellent overall user experience. We are sick and tired on having booking engines which will “magically” change url once we get into the process of booking, this brings enormous doubts for the user who doesn´t really know where the hell is he putting his money (booking) hence, a very bad user experience. Not really sure we like iframes either, as we believe Google will not be able to access any data from the booking process once the iframe appears as we lose all control and also the possibility to handle conversion funnels or reading anything inside this frame. Usually we have also problems “losing” adwords conversion and analytics codes which we have to check periodically getting into the booking engine and making trial acquisitions which are time consuming and boring… then when detected the fault, claim the supplier to re load codes again, as they have being "lost" (once again), probably in some irresponsable update of the booking engine. Some Hotel Booking Engine Brands are “Google Hotel Finder” friendly (partners?), others, on the other hand, are completely ignored by Google and just OTA´s prices are displayed and offered by means of Google Hotel Finder, not showing official hotel rates and not even giving the possibility of making reservations using the “official” website. Adding to this, we usually find naïve programming issues with infinite problems when changing languages, different currencies, trying to go back to your previous selections, no wonder why booking is having his day in this so competitive market. Any good and thoroughly checked suggestions? Thanks in advance! Claudio Heilborn @ MD Marketing Digital Spain
Conversion Rate Optimization | | ClaudioHeilborn0 -
Review Functionality Plugins for eCommerce. Which are the best and most cost effective?
Hi Mozzers! Let me give you a bit of background for my question. I currently look after two eCommerce sites and naturally I want to get them using reviews for products for customer interaction / content and rich snippets. I am basically looking for a cost effective plugin that can plugin to our CMS system that can give us review functionality and will be compatible with rich snippets. At the moment we use Disqus for the blog commenting system and i've heard this can be used for product reviews. Any ideas would be great. At the moment our client is holding back due to 'lack of funds' so the most cost effective measures would be appreciated. Cheers,
Conversion Rate Optimization | | SEOAndy0 -
Non-branded search before branded search in Google Analytics
A lot of organic search phrases contain branded terms. Does Google Analytics provide a possibility to track wheteher the first interactor with the website is due to a non-branded search term? Example: On monday someone search for 'online shoes' and on thursday this visitor search for 'shoestore.com'. Ist it possible in the Thursday report in Google Analytics to see that this visitor has first arrived on the site with the search term 'online shoes'? The same question can be asked for direct/none traffic. is it possible to see whether these visits ca be attributed to an organic search term?
Conversion Rate Optimization | | xicero0 -
How do I get Google to rank the right page?
My site ranks #1 for Arabic Interpreting on Google UK. This great, but it's ranking my home page rather than the my specific Arabic Interpreting page. The home page shouldn't really rank for this term as it has very little connection with this exact term. This means that while the site ranks great, the conversion is pretty much zero. How can I get Google to rank the page I've optimised for this term? I know the ranking will no doubt slip but may the conversions will be better. Can you help please?
Conversion Rate Optimization | | GlobalLingo0 -
Huge Increase in Search Traffic - Expected Drop in Conversions?
We've recently implemented a successful strategy whereby we've increased non-branded organic search traffic by over 50%. We started with our niche products and secured those rankings and then expanded the program to include local results. Rev is up, trans# is up, but conversion rate dropped. Here is the question...is there an acceptable ratio between the percentage growth in visits and the percentage decrease in conversions?
Conversion Rate Optimization | | NaHoku1 -
Reviewing my Adwords Strategy
Before I started working on Organic SEO, I did Adwords. Being that I am entirely self-taught with adwords, I am concerned that about what I might not know. From time to time I have looked for outside advice, but I never got very far. It seemed that I would be talking to a salesman, someone who knew less than me, or someone who was horrified that I had 7,500 tracked words. So I am presenting my methods here for comment. Each keyword I have used is placed into an exact match campaign, phrase match campaign, and broad match campaign. Exact match gets the highest bid, broad match the lowest. Every week, I cull new keywords from phrase and broad results. I also create negative keywords each week based on searches that are obviously not looking for my products. Over time, I get very few searches triggered from broad matches. Keywords are kept in ad groups that generally have less than 6 keywords. Acceptable conversion costs are decided based on product category. I have made an assumption that first position adwords results are too expensive (idiots overpay for them). I automatically reduce my bid 10% on any ad that has an average position of greater than 1.5. I automatically reduce my bid 10% on any ad that has a conversion cost greater than my target. I delete keyword that have a CTR below 1%. I generally require 300 clicks to make a determination. All ads have been endlessly split tested to the point I don’t split test them much now. I judged ads for both click through rate and conversion rate. End result: After 4 years of doing this, conversion costs are below target costs. Not sure what else I could do to improve it, but looking for ideas. Management of the system is pretty easy now, as well. Anything I am missing?
Conversion Rate Optimization | | EugeneF0 -
Would a feed of reviews from Tripadvisor be duplicate content?
I have a hotel directory. I am thinking of adding a feed that takes reviews of hotels from Tripadvisor and puts them on my site. I know that Google are cracking down on duplicate content with the Panda update. Would these reviews be seen as duplicate content and could it harm my site if I do this?
Conversion Rate Optimization | | mascotmike1