5 star review for website

[casper434]

I have been considering adding a 5 star review capability to my website. Are there any good ones that I can add with either html or javascript? I do not have a wordpress site. Any experience with increased conversion rates with such a capability? Also, do any have the capability to show up in google search results?

[loopyal]

Valery's idea sounds better for you.

Rather than ratings, get testimonials and make them rank by adding a link to the testimonials page from the front page of the site, get it into some bookmark sites, add a facebook Like button, maybe a G+ button and get links from a few other relevant places. Be sure to set up the page title, description and content correctly.

The best part of this solution is that it is much easier to get set up and working - you probably already have some good testimonials, and if you don't, then use Steve's idea of following up and asking for a testimonial. If you have a free report to offer them, that will be good, otherwise, just ask for their help.

[loopyal]

The followup is a great idea.

It can be next to impossible to get people to rate - or even like - something

If you can make it worth their time, it is more achievable, but still not easy

[icecarats]

Brett -

You've probably already down the road on this but just thought I'd chime in, that most of the review services (e.g. PowerReviews/Buzzilions/etc.) are really geared toward ecommerce. I know for a fact that they help conversion on products based on past experience, but they're not really appropriate for realtors. The fact you're in Canada is unfortunately even worse, since Canada of course often gets the short end of the traffic stick for this kind of thing. There's www.rate-my-agent.com but to be frank, it looks pretty unappealing (you're not there, don't worry!). Even ResellerRatings doesn't really have a realtor section.

One could argue that this is a crisistunity, and that all it'll take is someone like you to make a great, social media enabled, non-scummy review site, but based on my past experience Real Estate is one of the shark tanks of SEO. This might be something worth kicking back to RE/Max and seeing if they want to manage it, but I doubt they'll bite on it (what if there's a bad review?). It also might take an outsider to do it, since as a Realtor you may not be considered a trustworthy source.

Only thing I can think of is have a testimonials page and give it some link juice from your other pages. Then at least it'll show up for 'brett cairns reviews' and 'brett cairns testimonials' etc. Maybe if your customers have websites (if you do commercial business) get them to link to you perhaps. It's sad really that the real estate industry as a whole has invested a lot of money into SEO/internet marketing but there still aren't really any 'killer apps' that service it.

[casper434]

thanks Steve - makes sense but Yelp is not used in our area and it has virtually no visibility. While google place pages do they are regularly being merged with other similar but unrelated businesses and my colleagues and I are close to deleting them given all of the problems. I will give some thought to some other platform.

[SteveGerencser]

In that case I would move the reviews off your site. Get them on Yelp and Google. At least that way you have an opportunity to drive traffic to the site. I would post a few testimonials on the site though.

[casper434]

Thanks for the inputs. In terms of the 5 star / review issue I was focused on the service that I provide and having it rated by clients. New clients sometimes ask where they can go to see reviews.

[kdaly100]

Hi Brett

I had a very quick look at your site (if this is the one you are talking about) I think that for real estate you really aren't going to get buyers to give ratings for properties.  From looking at your site I would think a conversion is getting people to buy or sell (buy I guess is preferable).  I also think the perfect conversion for you is the phone call or email and your email form is buried a few scrolls down I think that it takes quite a few clicks to get to the properties.

Rather than a five star rating I would restructure your site to get buyers and sellers to the information quickly.  I don't think the site is currently doing this.

You have a lot of good information and data on the site that could be presented really well and drive the desired conversion.  I would think about simplifying and work out a conversion channel for people coming to the site so that you move them to the property and then the conversion you want phone / email / contact.

hope this helps....

Kieran

[SteveGerencser]

There are microformats for reviews and those can show up in the SERPs which 'may' increase CTRs. We use them on pretty much every ecommerce site we set up.

Integrating reviews in to a static site could be a PITA to do well, but there are dozens of javascript 5 star scripts out there if you want to play with them.

The next question though is how do you intend to get people to rate your products? If you thought driving traffic to your site was tough, try getting them to come back and rate something. We have a built in script with one of our stores that automatically emails people 10 days after their order ships. It's a quick touch to make sure that they are thrilled with their purchase and then encourages them to come back and rate what they bought. A quicklink is in the email to take them right to the voting spot and we offer a coupon for doing it.