If you’re in the market for a reviews solution, you probably already know there are a lot of options out there. Creating your short list of the vendors usually starts by evaluating the websites, pricing and features of each solution.
But that doesn’t always give you the whole story.
Once you get on the phone for a demo, you will see the full picture. But you need to make sure you are asking the right questions.
This guide walks you through 5 questions you should ask your current reviews solution, or the vendors you are looking at for reviews.
It will help you discover some of the key differences between reviews companies.
Using it, you can make sure you’re asking the right questions and ultimately end up with the right reviews solution.
1. Do we own our review content?
You might think it’s obvious that you own the content of the reviews your business collect, however, there are reviews solutions that keep your review content for themselves.
This means they get the SEO benefits of your content, and you cannot take your reviews with you if you decide to switch vendors.
Your review content is incredibly valuable and you should own it.
When you are evaluating reviews solutions, make sure you go with a vendor that lets you own the content of your reviews.
2. Can we collect pictures with reviews?
Written reviews are great, reviews with images are even better.
Make sure that you go with a reviews solution that allows you to collect photos from your customers as well as written reviews.
The authentic images customers submit will increase your sales, with 77% of shoppers preferring customer photos over professional images.
3. Can we share reviews on Facebook? Twitter? Instagram?
If you can easily share reviews to social networks, you can increase your traffic and sales.
Make sure you go with a reviews solution that makes it easy to publish reviews on social networks.
Bonus points if they let your customers share the reviews they wrote.
Extra bonus points if they let you turn your reviews into ads on social.
4. How will our reviews affect our SEO?
Reviews can be a huge boost to your SEO, but only if you’re using a good reviews solution.
With the right vendor, you should see SEO benefits in both organic and paid search results.
Here are some more detailed questions to ask:
Will our reviews appear in Google searches?
If your reviews are indexed by Google, you will see a big lift in organic traffic because indexable reviews open you up to thousands of new keywords. Google loves fresh content generated by your customers, and this will be reflected in your search rank.
Will stars appear in my organic results?
A good reviews solution will offer you Rich Snippets which enables you to show stars in your organic search results.
Will stars appear in my Google Ads?
Google Seller Ratings and reviews in Google Product Listing Ads are crucial if you are spending money on Google Ads. Make sure you are getting a good return in your investment by going with a reviews solution that shows reviews & ratings in your ads.
Will reviews send traffic to my site?
When your reviews are hosted on an outside reviews site, your content is sending organic search traffic to their pages instead of your own. Go with a solution that hosts reviews on your site and increases your organic search traffic.
5. How can we track results?
A good reviews solution will show results — literally.
Choose a solution that has intelligent tracking and dashboards to show the ROI you’re getting from reviews.
A good dashboard will show you info like where your reviews are driving traffic from, how much money you’re making from your reviews as well as standard data like number of reviews and average star ratings.
The right reviews solution
There are dozens of reviews solutions out there, and the right one can depend on your industry, the size of your business and even your eCommerce platform.
But, if you make sure you’re choosing a solution that has good answers for the questions above, you’ll be in good hands.
