Product reviews and ratings are essential to increasing traffic on your website. According to Consumer Reports, 90% of users read online customer reviews before buying a product. Graham Charlton of Econsultancy said that user reviews go a long way to improving SEO: “Search engine spiders like unique content that is regularly updated, and user reviews are a great way to attract more content.” Reviews increase clickthroughs and long-tail targeting, and potential buyers now take reviews into consideration at the very beginning of a search. Because many agree that user-generated content is key to online marketing, it is remarkable that businesses often neglect this aspect of their marketing strategies. For example, the Harvard Business Review reported that 70% of corporations disregarded the negative comments users tweeted about their products. Leveraging customer reviews Image: KnowTechie Once you’ve started accumulating customer reviews, there are various ways of leveraging them in your favor. Consider asking customers the question, “Was this review helpful?” Amazon uses the information it gathers from this question to highlight the three most helpful reviews of a given product. Other ways of leveraging reviews are by using charts to show the breakdown of positive and negative reviews, asking for specific details in the reviews, and using your reviews in PPC advertising, as well as in offline advertising. Companies can also hire a third-party review provider, such as Revoo, Bazaarvoice, or Yotpo. Using tools like Linkpop, you can curate social media reviews to highlight them better. Yotpo’s features help companies grow their…Customer reviews & ratings are essential to boost website traffic