Search engines now offer the option for individuals to rank their search results by ratings or reviews. This means that your customer responses could bring you business or conversely, take it away.With the wealth of information on the internet and the speed of sharing, it has never been more important to build a solid, visible reputation that can attract future customers and bring more traffic to your website and business.

Companies that have the most and best reviews show up higher in the search results. This means that as long as you’re encouraging your customers to leave reviews for your business, you will see an increase in your rankings naturally over time if most of them are positive. Not only will these reviews help your ranking but they will help build confidence in your company for new and returning customers.

The market is saturated with companies offering their products and services, often times claiming to be the best. Customers have learned to see-through these excessive claims and the internet has provided the perfect tool for individuals to leave their personal reviews and ratings. With so many options available, online reviews provide the social proof that encourages consumers to make buying decisions.

Reviews are a valuable asset to businesses across the board; they generate new content for potential customers and provide useful information that can help you get more traffic. Most importantly, reviews can address the doubts that potential customers feel while searching for a product or service. Customers want to know that what your business offers is worth the money, they also want to know that they can trust you as a company. Reviews in all forms, including video testimonials, star ratings, and online reviews, can lend themselves to your advantage. The more people vouch for your company the more people will trust you. The more people that trust you, the more people will make purchasing decisions, comfortable with the fact that your business has their best interest in mind.

Knowing reviews are so essential to success, it is important to keep different kinds of reviews in mind in order to better able to understand your customers.

If you’re ready to increase brand confidence, gain attention, increase click-through rates, and stand out from your competitors,star-rated customer reviews are key. Star ratings show up on Google when you carry out a search, but not all companies listed in search results have stars. This means that searchers tend to be drawn to the companies that do. These ratings give customers the reassurance that the company can be trusted. Star ratings have been named as the #1 initial factor consumers consider when judging a business. If your business doesn’t have any star ratings listed, you're going to lose out to your competitors that do.

Your company could have the best product or service in the world but without any reviews, most consumers will probably overlook your business. The average eye is naturally drawn to these star ratings, the more high ratings you accumulate, the more click-through rates will increase. Search engines positively identify when more potential customers visit your website, this will boost your ranking. So star ratings have both a direct and an indirect effect on your rankings.

Another effective review platform is video marketing through reviews and testimonials. Few businesses realize just how game-changing video testimonials can be. Video testimonials can drastically improve confidence and trust in your brand in a number of ways. One drastic benefit is that these videos can help to dispel customer fear. When customers are looking to make a purchase, there are a number of fears and doubts that can serve as a barrier for completing a sale.

Video testimonials from customers who were initially skeptical or doubtful about your business but were impressed by your service can be especially beneficial. These videos can offer authenticity, and potential customers will be able to relate to the fear of purchase.  

Keeping reviews and testimonials in mind while managing your business website is essential to optimizing your web presence and gaining new customers, while simultaneously keeping previous ones. It is important to familiarize yourself with different types of reviews and different locations of reviews so that you are better able to understand and respond to your customers.