Keywords In Reviews?

[NormH]

Do you feel that keywords in Google reviews (or responses from the business) have any real benefit? I know that keywords in a review are often highlighted when they're the same as the searcher's, and that might have a tiny effect on CTR, but other than that, anything? It doesn't help ranking on Maps and it doesn't affect which reviews are shown in search results or anything like that, does it?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Garrett Sussman]

Hey Norm,

While I haven't seen anything definitive when it comes to the impact of keywords in reviews, it's hard not to expect them to have an impact.

This already happens on third party review sites like TripAdvisor.

Additionally, from Brian Barwig's review snippet research, he found:

"Google was highlighting keywords in the [review] snippets. Many of the keywords were directly related to the query, though some were not."

Hope that helps!

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks Garrett!

Hi Norm. Check out the top graph in this study. (Under "Reviews are the new link alternative?")
It says keywords/location in reviews correlate with high rankings a few times near the top.

Local SEO Ranking Factors Study 2017 - Local SEO Guide

 

[Eric Rohrback]

It's not just keywords, it's topics. So the more relevant the review is to the search, the better the page will perform. Think of reviews as you would for site content. Obviously I'm not saying tell people what keywords and terms to use in their review, but the more descriptive a review is, the more it helps.

It's another content source that links your business to the topic the user is searching. That's why longer and more descriptive reviews are better than simply leaving a star rating.

So if you're leaving a review for another business, help them out and actually talk about your experience with them.

 

[Greg Schueler]

Keywords in the reviews seem to have a high impact. Not so much in the replies, but that is expected as that could be taken advantage of.

 

[DMG]

I feel like there may be something to this. Does anyone have a definitive case study showcasing certain keywords ranking in the 3 pak because of keywords naturally occurring in the Google reviews?

 

[Colan Nielsen]

You can refer to the local SEO guide study that Linda linked to in an earlier post on this thread.



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[DMG]

You can refer to the local SEO guide study that Linda linked to in an earlier post on this thread.



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Hi Colan, thanks for your input. Although a credible document (especially when it's cited by Linda), it's not a detailed case study.

I realize it's tough to isolate just one single SEO variable, but that's what I'm aiming for.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

That's the only study that I know of that has quantitative analysis on keywords in reviews and how that correlates with ranking in the three pack.



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