Reviews are an essential way of letting people know what they can expect from your product and your WooCommerce store. When provided by customers, they give a straightforward and usually impartial look at what your brand has to offer. You should make it as easy as possible for customers to review both your products and services for the following reasons.
They Represent Customers’ Perspectives
With very few exceptions, reviews of products and services tied to your brand come from customers who are engaged enough to take the time to write a review. This gives them more credibility with other customers reading the reviews, and it should also get your attention. Carefully consider what people say in reviews and use that feedback to better your products and service.
They Provide a Third Party Analysis
One of the reasons that customers put so much stock in reviews is because they usually come from people who do not have a financial stake in the company. This gives reviews the veneer of neutrality, as most people think they come from neutral third parties. While this isn’t always true, positive reviews from the outside can help your company grow.
They Increase Search Rankings
Customer reviews count as content, and they provide SEO just like everything else on the Internet. Every time somebody writes a review that uses a product name or a keyword that connects with your brand, they can boost your WooCommerce site’s SEO. Enough product reviews leads to higher search rankings.
They’re Great for Local SEO
In addition to being good for SEO in general, online reviews are terrific for generating local SEO results. If your business offers products and services to one specific region, most of your reviews will come from that region. Because review platforms tend to provide a user’s location, that generates local search results which will bring other people from that area to your website.
They Improve Off-Site Rankings
While having product reviews on your own site is great, you should expect that people will review your company and WooCommerce store on other sites as well. As long as you provide high-quality products and services, this is a good thing. It builds your brand reputation and provides an objective look at the strong points of your business, which increases off-site rankings.
They Increase Conversions
When a product has numerous customer reviews, that tells other potential buyers that the item is tried and true in many different homes and workplaces. That makes it more likely that the casual browser will turn into a determined buyer. Data bears out that customer reviews tend to have a positive impact on converting traffic into sales.
Reviews Increase Customer Engagement
Each and every review that comes in pertaining to your brand represents a point where the customers are engaging in what you have to offer. Customer engagement is an incredibly useful tool that helps improve marketing initiatives and the overall growth of a brand. Even reviews that are critical to your brand can become positive, because people don’t usually write critical reviews unless they have some engagement in wanting to see an issue fixed as soon as possible.
Boosted Consumer Loyalty
Customers become more loyal to a brand when they think critically about it for a while. Writing a review of a product or service gives them time to focus on your brand and let both you and the rest of the world know what they really think. This makes them more likely to recognize the brand in the future and have a strong emotional tie to it. By encouraging reviews from customers, you also encourage brand loyalty.
They Lead to More Reviews
Customer reviews in WooCommerce stores are self-perpetuating. The more reviews a product or service has, the more reviews it attracts in the future. This includes individual customer commentary as well as reviews written in response to other statements. For example, if one customer gives you an unfairly critical review, others who do like your services are more likely to come to your defense. These new reviews give you all the benefits listed above, and the positives grow exponentially.
To put it simply, you need customer reviews in order to become a major presence within your industry. You can reap these benefits whether these reviews cover a specific product, a group of services, or your company as a whole. The important things are to create an environment where customers have good reason to write reviews and to listen to what your customers tell you so you can give them even more of what they want.
