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
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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
-
Do the clickable images on pages are bad that they will increase bounce rate and distract users?
Hi Moz community, I'm trying to get some helpful answers on this. We are planning to employ clickable images on our website pages which opens in new tab if users click on them. This is to make sure that they can see the large screenshots of our product. I wonder will this increase the bounce rate and drop the rankings. Please share your experience and guidance on this. Thanks
Conversion Rate Optimization | | vtmoz0 -
Google-powered search bar suddenly returning totally different results than usual - User Intent?
Our website has a Google powered search bar and for some popular keywords it has always returned the same results but for the past week it has been returning totally different and nonsensical results with the previous top 2 entries now on the 2nd and 4th pages of the results. It seems to be mixing up two separate keywords which the same user may search for but which both mean two very different things. Is this a User Intent issue do you think? Anyone know if there's anything we can do to stop it? I'm guessing not...
Conversion Rate Optimization | | missus0 -
How To Rank Landing Pages In The SERPs
Hi, am hoping someone can give me a little advice.. We have created an Ebook for a client, which we will ‘hide’ behind a landing page for the purpose of collecting email addresses in return for a link to the Ebook. We are thinking of using Unbounce landing pages, integrated with Mailchimp. The problem however is that I’m assuming it will not be possible for Unbounce landing pages to rank well in the SERPs.. which is essential. The obvious solution would be to write a blog post detailing the contents of the Ebook, and then to ‘SEO’ this post.. this however will not provide a positive user experience as below; Visitor lands on blog post Visitor then has to click through to Ubounce landing page (very similar content) Visitor completes form to download Ebook My question is; What’s the best way to rank a direct landing page in the SERP’s, whilst providing the best possible user experience (less steps)? Many thanks in advance, your time is appreciated 🙂 Lee.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Webpresence0 -
Time spent downloading a page increased drasticly
Hi Guys, We have found increased "Time spend downloading a page" drastically. Our website: www.learnenglishindublin.com Our company is located in Ireland, so we moved our servers from US to Ireland at the beginning of December. Also before increasing 'Time spend downloading a page" I did: I have installed plugins JCH Optimize (plugin is optimizing CSS and Javascripts [merging them]) I have installed ScriptsDown - which is moving all scripts to bottom of site. Pingdom tools shows that site is loading average of 2.7 secs. Pages are cached. Gzip is used. Our SEO rankings dropped from 1 page to 2 page. We have gone up in Google Maps search. Image sizes are about 1.7MB Any idea how things have actually gotten worse after this “improvement”? Thanks, Olivia increased.jpg
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Olivia_led0 -
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 -
Ranking at 8, 9, & 15... Is this self-cannibalisation?
@ 8 is a blog about a youtube video review a customer made of the product. Blog title includes keyword @ 9 is the product page itself and includes a rich snippet video @ 15 is a blog about the product by an independent professional in the field - again the blog title contains the keyword. The page I want to rank highest is the product page which is currently at position 9. If it were you would you delete the keyword from the blog titles? Or is that just going to lose me those blog results and do little/nothing for the product page. Thanks EDIT: I should have said... both blog pages link to the product page and the keyword is the anchor.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Brocberry0 -
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 -
Why does Google only show the review stars for some listings in the Places results
I have a client who shows up in the Places results for his targeted keyword phrase, but one of his competitors' listing shows 5 gold stars next to the reviews which causes him to stand out visually. I was under the impression that at one time the stars only showed for listings that had official Google reviews, but the other listings in the results also have "Google Reviews" but no stars.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | joshualfink0