There is no denying that reviews play a huge in customer’s purchase decision. It’s so crucial
that people often overlook the good products just because it doesn’t have any review and
they don’t want to take any risk. E-commerce websites, such as Amazon, provide users the
option to filter the results as per average customer review rating and most of the customers
consider it in their purchasing decision. It makes sense since nobody wants to receive bad
items, after waiting for 3-4 days. Here is why customer reviews matter for SEO and your overall digital marketing campaign.

Studies have shown that approx 84% of people trust online reviews as much as personal
recommendations. And that is the reason why it works like a charm. But what about the
reviews for the local business? Do people really pay attention to it or they just go to the site that
is at the top of the search engine result page.

A recent study by BrightLocal revealed that customers prefer a business that has an average rating of 3 stars. And if it is above 3 stars then the click through rates increase up to 25%. The more reviews a business has, the more customers they will get as people generally prefer popular businesses as compared to the new ones, because taking risk is not something we as humans like to do, very often.

So if you own a local business, it is highly recommended that you try to get as many positive
reviews as possible. In general,  the product or service if they are asked to. Since very few businesses ask for reviews, the selected few who do, reap all of the benefits.

Google has just added some new features to its Google My Business dashboard. Some of them were much awaited while some others are a pleasant surprise. All the new features will not only make it easier for the business owners to manage their accounts but also will provide them the ability to include more analytical data.

Return Customers / Popular Times

This is one of the most awaited features. It was a hefty task to know the exact numbers of return visitors and unique visitors on the site, but now you will be able to see it in graphical format. It will also show you the busiest time so you can make changes accordingly.

Link to Your Restaurant Menu

This new feature is going to dramatically escalate the number of visitors you get to your
website. If you are a restaurant, you can now add the link to your menu directly on the
knowledge panel. However, you can only add one link, so make sure you have your menu
listed on a single page.

Link to Your Services

Just like the restaurant menu, you can now add link to your service page directly on the
knowledge panel.

Get 18 Months of Insight Data

You can now download up to 18 months of Google My Business insights data into a spreadsheet. Anyone with a single or bulk account will have access to it and thus will be able to modify their strategies based on the data.
The Google knowledge panel has eventually become a business’s home page and more and more customers prefer it, rather than going to the business’ website. It makes sense since it is more convenient to get all the information required on the SERP itself.