Reviews have a direct influence on the decision to buy. Not only users pay attention to them, but also search engines, which improve or deteriorate the position of the site depending on the quantity and quality of the reviews. Here is how to deal with negative reviews, so that they do not lower your ranking in search engines.
Why Is Feedback Important for SEO?
When an Internet user makes a purchase decision or looks for a reliable website offering online slots for real money, he usually studies the reviews of the product. At the same time, search engines pay attention to reviews. Their algorithms understand the content of reviews. For example, Panda – Google’s algorithm – lowers positions in search results for sites of companies which have received negative reviews, wherever they have been left. Moreover, this algorithm pays particular attention to reports of financial disputes, where the buyer has not received a refund, or has been paid back, but not in a timely manner.
The presence of a “Reviews” section on the site has a positive effect on behavioral factors. If the reviews are really useful and trustworthy, users study them and stay on the site, which has a good effect on its ranking in search engines.
That said, reviews are additional content with keywords that are naturally generated on the site. In addition, if users, when leaving a review on a third-party site, point to the company’s website, it dilutes its link mass with natural links, which also benefits SEO.
If the site has reviews, you can add them to the snippet in the search engine results.
The presence of reviews on the site opens up the possibility of using them in the design of the snippet, which the search engine will show to users along with the name of your store. This method increases the number of clicks on the link.
If a user who makes a search engine query in the “brand+review” scenario reads a good review about a company, his next step will be to visit the site. In addition, such reviews warm the souls of executives, but negative reviews become a problem. And that problem needs to be solved.
Real, Ordered, Trolling: What Negative Reviews Can Be
All negative reviews on the Internet can be divided into three types:
- It’s left by a person who actually used a service or bought a product. Usually such messages contain a lot of details: description, photos, videos, screenshots, date, and time of purchase.
- The user doesn’t go to the dialogue and refuses to tell the date of purchase. He doesn’t want to solve the problem, it’s more important for him to vent his aggression. The main goal is to ruin the company’s reputation. Usually such reviews are written by competitors or former employees. Often these reviews mention the name of another store which “has no problems at all”.
- “Trolls” make strange claims about product design, make fun of the brand and insult its employees. They enjoy the verbal altercation. Trolling is often done by ordinary people who want to draw attention to themselves. They are often not even customers of the company.
Negative reviews of the company are also necessary. First, a series of only positive reviews alerts the potential client because it’s impossible to please everyone. Second, criticism can sometimes be constructive and point the company to potential points of growth. But what if there are many negative reviews?
Everything Under Control: How to Work With Negativity
The first thing that comes to a manager’s mind when he sees negative feedback about his product is to remove it. But this is the wrong tactic. Practice shows that it’s not the negative feedback itself that hurts the company’s reputation, but the wrong reaction to it or the lack of response.
These rules will help you deal with negative feedback:
- Always respond. Feedback is extremely important. You can use it to solve a problem and turn a negative into a positive. By responding to comments, you let potential customers know you care about their opinions.
- Respond quickly. It’s better to respond quickly to a negative comment, so that the author doesn’t spread the feedback to other sites. Try to find out the details of what happened, look for ways to solve the problem, offer options. The client needs to see your commitment to resolve the conflict.
- Resolve the problem, not write it off. Often on sites and in social networks you can see template responses to negative comments from customers. Such responses only evoke negative emotions. People understand that the representative of the company doesn’t conduct any real work with them, but simply leaves a carbon copy reply. It’s important to work on a specific claim and show your desire to become better. This will be appreciated by other users of the site as well.
- Don’t go into negativity. When people are in the power of emotion, they don’t always manage to control themselves. At this point, they can behave very unkindly, and sometimes downright rude. No need to respond in the same manner, your task is to behave correctly and remain calm. That is how you will show professionalism, which will help preserve your reputation and not lose the client. Contact the customer and resolve their issue in personal correspondence or over the phone.
- Give discounts and gifts. Gifts, discounts, and compensation are a great way to minimize customer negativity. Offer him a comforting gift or a good discount on your services.
Response scheme for negative feedback:
- Greet the customer by name.
- Introduce yourself: State your name and title, and mention your company.
- Thank them for their feedback.
- Apologize for the inconvenience and explain the reason for the negative feedback.
- Find out all the details: the date the product or service was delivered, the city, etc.
- Find out from your colleagues the true reasons for what happened. Find out who is to blame for the situation.
- Tell the customer how you fixed the problem. Or explain that your company is not to blame.
- Offer compensation, a gift, or a discount.
How to Search for Negative Reviews Online
There are two main ways to find negative feedback about yourself:
- In the first case, you search for reviews yourself through a search engine. Usually users post them on various forums, marketplaces, review sites, social networks and online stores
- Usually it’s enough to study the first ten links in the search engine to understand the mood of the audience. Of course, such work requires a lot of time and attention.
To cope with it faster and easier, you can use a specialized service. Here are just a few of such tools: Google Alerts, Babkee, Brand Analytics, YouScan, and IQBuzz.
Each of these services has its own peculiarities: some are suitable for large companies that are interested in tracking a large amount of feedback on a daily basis, while others are suitable for small, young firms.
Reviews are an important part of reputational marketing and SEO. So you have to learn to calmly accept negative feedback and know how to handle it.