Tuesday 20 June 2017

Online Reputation: Effective Impact on Consumers and Local SEO

In the present age of digitalization, almost all the people throughout the world admit that their purchasing decisions are greatly influenced by the reviews they read online. While companies, who have already taken care of this would surely relish maximum profits, organizations, who are yet to implement this tactic are simply missing out on potential business.



Online Reputation Management (ORM) is a distinct technique that aims at improving your brand’s name in the market by mustering positive appraisals and suppressing the negative criticisms. The entire notion is of much significance because it has the capability of affecting:

  • Your local search engine rankings.
  • Relevant search results that consumers actually click on.
  • Buying decisions of the larger segments of the population.

Thus, we can fairly conclude that the ORM services are an important part of any local SEO policy just like on-page optimization and link building.

In the following discussion, let us explore how online reviews impact the purchasing decisions of modern-day consumers and how they stand critical for local SEO campaigns.

Consumers and Online Reviews

After a customer has figured out his needs and the ways by which they can be fulfilled, he proceeds on reading the online reviews with a hope to select an ideal business. One substantial thing that every entrepreneur must realize is that the reputation of his company on the virtual landscape could directly impact his bottom line.

A recent survey has clearly manifested that  90% of consumers read online reviews before making a purchase. 67% of the customers read at least five to six appraisals before they form a definite opinion about the concerned business. The same study also showed that 86% of consumers made up or changed their mind, depending on the positive or negative reviews that they got hold of.

Thus, we can certainly understand that from the perspective of a consumer, any kind of reviews found on the Internet are of utmost significance and have the ability to steer their buying decisions, either for better or worse.

Local SEO and Online Reviews

Well, if you think that online reviews matter only to the consumers, you are absolutely wrong. They are valuable even for a local SEO marketing company. The top-notch SEO professionals have agreed that a company’s online reputation is a part of their overall strategy. Research has shown that all the appraisals of the virtual world could impact one’s visibility on the search engine result pages (SERPs) and allow his organization to outperform all the competitors. Positive reputation is sure to drive more traffic, convert more customers, and increase sales by rousing trust through reliability.

Now that you are aware of the importance of online reviews and how they affect both consumers and SEO, it is the time that you start managing your online reputation more earnestly.