Get more out of your customer reviews with our case studies, webinars and videos. Find the latest trends to promote your company in search and manage your online reputation.

Trustpilot Blog: Get Seen in Search

Reviews - Get Seen in Search

Boost SEO with trustpilot product reviews

Trustpilot’s easy to use Product Reviews SEO TrustBox widgets can push you to the top of organic search results and help you get Rich Snippet stars in just days, with a simple copy and paste of code. Here's how to get started.

No waiting around for months. No complex coding. The best solutions are often the simplest solutions.

The benefits of Product Reviews are just a few clicks away. Copying and pasting a code onto your site has never been this easy before.

## So, how does the Product Review TrustBox work?


Product review trustbox example

The first step to improve your SEO performance with Product Reviews is to add your Product Reviews TrustBox's schema markup (a simple code) to the applicable product page(s) of your website.

You can find out more about implementing the code [here](https://support.trustpilot.com/hc/en-us/articles/231993108-Get-review-snippets-using-product-review-TrustBoxes-).

From there, your Product Reviews will be indexed directly on your product pages, and displayed in the Product TrustBox. Within the next 30 days, Google should start noticing the fresh content on your site and begin indexing it. The high frequency of keyword-rich content in your Product Reviews will show Google that you are an authoritative website. 

Google loves fresh, relevant content like this. [That's why your product reviews can help:](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/get-seen-in-search/rich-snippets-stars-for-product-reviews-can-boost-seo):

- Boost your overall SEO performance
- Generate Review Snippets for your products in Google search
- Increase your keyword reach
- Increase your visibility and help you stand out from your competitors.

Islandsurf.com's product pages show up as rich snippet results in organic search

## The benefits of collecting Product Reviews


Royal mail product reviews trustbox

But for all of this to work, you'll need to start collecting Product Reviews. 

It’s simple to start using them alongside your service reviews. [Product reviews can help you](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/get-seen-in-search/how-to-use-seo-to-build-your-ecommerce-reputation):

- Create social proof to [increase conversions](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/customer-stories/ecommerce/ann-summers-uses-product-reviews-to-increase-sales-up-to-230) 
- Learn what customers truly think of your products
- Make customer-centric improvements to your products
- Add trust signals at key points of the buying journey.

## I already have my own product reviews – what can I do to boost my SEO performance?

If you're collecting your own Product Reviews, or collecting them via another review platform, you can [import your existing Product Reviews](https://support.trustpilot.com/hc/en-us/articles/215107148-Import-third-party-product-reviews-to-Trustpilot) to Trustpilot. 

The Product Reviews TrustBox will display your old Product Reviews as well as your new ones, collected using Trustpilot. You can gain SEO benefits and Review Snippets from both. 


Product review TrustBox on-site

So if you aren’t seeing any SEO benefits from your current review platform, you might want to look into [the importance of collecting reviews via a Google Review partner](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/trustpilot-customer-review-software).

If you'd like to find out more about transferring to Trustpilot to boost your SEO performance, or starting your Product Review collection on our platform, you can [request a free demo here](https://business.trustpilot.com/request-demo).

Alternatively, if you'd like to try our platform for free before you speak to any of our review experts, why not sign up for a free Trustpilot account below? It's quick and easy.

How to boost your SEO with Trustpilot's Product Review TrustBox

How to calculate Google Seller Ratings effect on Adwords CTR

How to calculate Google Seller Ratings effect on Google ads CTR

Google Seller Ratings can dramatically improve the ROI of your paid search campaigns by boosting CTR and lowering CPA. This article will show you how to calculate, track, and visualize how your ads perform with GSRs.

But how can you calculate the value of Google Seller Ratings?

The Google extension __can [boost your text ads’ click-through rate](https://instapage.com/blog/google-seller-ratings) by up to 10%__, which can make a big difference to any company battling with their competitors on Google ads.

For an optimized Google Ads campaign running with a decent budget, just increasing the CTR by 1% can generate a lot of money in additional revenue, and can also lead to significant savings when Google’s bill comes around.

In this article, Søren Sieg Jensen, Partner and CTO at Cykelpartner, will explain how to calculate the effect of Google Seller Ratings on Gooogle ads click-through rates. Additionally, f you'd like to learn more about how Cykelpartner used Trustpilot to reduce their CPA in Google ads, [check out their success story here.](https://business.trustpilot.com/customer-stories/health-sport/cykelpartner-reduces-google-ads-cpa-by-11-percent-with-trustpilot-reviews)

## So, what are Google Seller Ratings?

Google Seller Ratings (GSRs) is an automated Google Ads extension that was created to demonstrate that other people trust your business and have had a positive experience with you. It’s an essential component to any business that values an online search presence and has been known to improve performance.

Trustpilot for Google Seller Ratings

Google Seller Ratings Example 

Google Seller Ratings are displayed in text ads in Google ads, Search Network campaigns, and on Shopping Ads in Google Shopping.

[Find out more about Google Seller Ratings here](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/get-seen-in-search/why-wont-my-google-seller-ratings-show-up-and-4-other-gsr-questions).

## How effective can Google Seller Ratings be for your company?

A 10% increase in CTR is quite the increase, so the question is: can you achieve a whopping 10% CTR increase too? And how can you track it? What results can you expect to get?

We worked with Søren from Danish Cykelpartner.dk to calculate and track the impact of GSRs on Google ads.

In this practical how-to-guide, we'll show you how to calculate the impact of Google Seller Ratings on your Google ads' performance.

### 1. Ensure you have Google Seller Ratings

If you acquire Google Seller Ratings, reviews will show when you insert your domain address (no www.) below:

https://www.google.com/shopping/seller?q=YOURDOMAIN.COM .

Please note: This page will be blank until you qualify for Seller Ratings.

If you're unsure how to acquire Seller Ratings, [you might find this article helpful](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/get-seen-in-search/google-new-seller-ratings-threshold-100).

### 2. Select a campaign in Google ads

Billede-1

Campaign in Google Ads

Billede-2

Ads extensions in Google ads

## 4. Click on “Automated extensions” and look for “Seller Ratings”

Click “View: Automated extensions report” and look for “Seller Ratings”

Billede-3

Automated extensions in Google ads

Not all campaigns will have Seller Ratings. If you can’t find it in a campaign, please try and check another.

## 5. Data clean up: Separate ads with and without Seller Ratings

The overall campaign data contains a mix of data from ads with and without Seller Ratings, so you should use a spreadsheet to calculate any difference there might be between the two types of ads.

We provided a free template for you to use to calculate your GSR performance:

- [Excel file (download)](//assets.ctfassets.net/b7g9mrbfayuu/f6vqc8BqScQaEIwqCa6KK/5a6f58b12bc33d5b9e6da977eff88e43/Trustpilot___Cykelpartner_-_How_to_calculate_Google_Seller_Ratings_affect_on_Adwords_ads__1_.xlsx)

Place the data from your “Total – all ad groups” into the top row:

Separate ads with and without Seller Ratings

Data from total ad groups

Insert the “Seller Ratings” data into the Seller Ratings row.

Type the “Seller Ratings” data into the Seller Ratings row

Billede-5

Seller rating data 

Once these steps are completed, your spreadsheet will automatically calculate the performance of ads without Google Seller Ratings, the difference between the ads with and without Seller Ratings, and ultimately, the impact of Google Seller Ratings on your ads.

Please note: Our spreadsheet and how Google ads calculates CTR, CPC, Conversion Rate and CPA can differ slightly as the tools use different amounts of decimals when making the calculations. So please expect minor discrepancies when comparing your spreadsheet's results to the Google ads numbers.

### 6. First results

download (7)

The results

This Cykelpartner.dk campaign saw their click-through rate decrease by 4.45%, and their CPC increase by 7.04%. 

However, more importantly, their conversion rate jumped a massive 34.66%, resulting in a substantial overall 20.51% decrease in cost per conversion/acquisition (CPA) on the ads with Google Seller Ratings.

Ultimately Google Seller Ratings provided Cykelpartner.dk an average 11.42% decrease in CPA, which saved them more than €40.000/yearly. However, please note that every company's experience will be different.

### 7. Calculate your Google Ads performance

We strongly recommend entering data from five different campaigns to get an average which can be used to calculate the impact of your Google ads based on your yearly spend for that channel.

The spreadsheet should automatically calculate this if you input your yearly Google ads spend in the bottom of the spreadsheet.

Please note: If you see a positive number, it means that Google Seller Ratings are saving you money. If you see a negative number, then it means that the extension is costing you money.

## Accounting for differences in campaign results

Cykelpartner.dk saves +€40.000/yearly with Google Seller Ratings. But what if you have different results, or worse, negative results? 

Here are a few tips to ensure you’re tracking everything correctly:

- Have you looked across a representative number of campaigns for your account? For some, five campaigns is not enough as results can vary greatly and some might have a negative impact, but overall, it should be positive.
- Know your competitive environment. Do your competitors have better Seller Ratings and/or more reviews than you?
- Did your average ad position drop on ads with Seller Ratings? This can, of course, affect the ad performance.

### Making the most of Google Seller Ratings

Consumers have an abundance of choice today and this requires quick decision-making and adapting to a new consumer environment for businesses. If your competitors have better Google Seller Ratings or more reviews than you, they might be beating you to the sale. If that’s the case, the way to get ahead and get more reviews and a better rating is by improving your review collection, as well as your overall service.

Most businesses have an abundance of happy customers, but don’t proactively invite them to leave reviews. Collecting customer feedback through a Google Seller Rating [qualified review platform](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/trustpilot-customer-review-software) can make a huge difference.

Proactive collection will lead to a higher quantity of reviews. It also offers a better representation of your company. Remember, an unhappy customer will always find a way to make their voice heard, so it’s up to you to make sure you’re giving your happy customers a platform to share their experiences as well.

Reviews aren’t only beneficial for your potential customers – many of our clients have realized that reviews power benefits like Google Seller Ratings, which can accelerate click-through rates, conversions, and revenue. 

Reviews can also be used to improve traffic, on-page conversions, and build trust in all of your marketing campaigns. Google Seller Ratings are just the beginning!

To find out more about the power of reviews, check out Trustpilot's Complete Guide below.


Impact of GSRs on click-through rate

How to calculate the impact of Google Seller Ratings on your click-through-rate

wom vs seo main image

Trustpilot word of mouth and SEO guide

Word of mouth and SEO are more trustworthy alternatives to advertising, but which one is more effective? Take an in-depth look at some pros and cons for each

A recent ClickZ study found that a staggering 84% of millennials [don’t trust traditional advertising](https://www.clickz.com/84-percent-of-millennials-dont-trust-traditional-advertising/27030/ "84 percent of millennials don't trust traditional advertising") and a study by Credos found that favorable opinions of advertising have [dipped as low as 25%](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/6-ways-to-make-trust-your-essential-brand-differentiator "The value of a trustworthy brand reputation"). 

As traditional advertising becomes less and less effective, brands must turn to different ways of attracting new customers. Two of the most effective strategies available are SEO and word-of-mouth marketing because they also exist for the benefit of consumers, not just brands. 

Regardless of what brands are up to, Google’s goal is to [serve the most relevant results](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/why-does-google-care-if-your-business-has-online-reviews-in-2019?refresh=2020 "Why does Google care if your business has online reviews") for that searcher — and customers leave reviews to help other shoppers have better experiences. 

And while the main similarity between both marketing channels is that they share an organic quality that’s intuitive to consumers, there are many differences — and it can be challenging for brands to figure out which approach makes the most sense for them. 

## Help your target audience find you with good SEO

Did you know that 67.6% of clicks on the first page [come from the first five search results](https://www.impactplus.com/blog/seo-statistics#:~:text=70%25%20of%20marketers%20see%20SEO,their%20top%20inbound%20marketing%20priority. "31 SEO statistics for 2021 and what they tell us")? And that 53% of all of all trackable website traffic [comes from organic search](https://videos.brightedge.com/research-report/BrightEdge_ChannelReport2019_FINAL.pdf "Channel report 2019")? That represents a huge amount of market share you could be winning from your competitors by putting more of a focus on organic SEO. 

Brand visibility is one of the biggest benefits to SEO. And – unlike word-of-mouth – you’re not relying on others to get the word out about your brand. Google is typically the first place someone starts when they’re searching for a product or service, so the higher you are on the first page of search results, the more eyes you’re going to get on your site. Which [translates into more sales](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/why-seo-is-important-for-business/248101/#close "12 reasons why your business absolutely needs SEO") for your brand. 

There are a few added bonuses as well. Because user experience on your site is such an important factor for Google’s rankings, part of good SEO is improving your site experience so that you can rank well in search. This means a better experience for your site’s visitors, and [higher conversion rates](https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2018/03/29/ux-conversion-rates#:~:text=Video%20on%20Landing%20Pages,lot%20of%20text%20to%20absorb.&text=Studies%20show%20that%20using%20videos,a%20page%27s%20UX%20is%20improved. "6 powerful ways UX can affect your conversion rates") for you. 

SEO is brand awareness in its most effective form because if all goes to plan, your page will appear for searchers with the right buying intent. The higher you rank for exactly what they’re looking for, the better the chance they’ll land on your site. This is what makes SEO so valuable, even though it can seem complex and challenging. 

### Organic SEO builds trust with customers

One of the biggest things to remember about organic SEO – and this is both a pro and a con – is that results are not quick. It will take time. But as frustrating as this is, it also means that once you’re ranking well it’s challenging for your competitors to come in and take your spot.

Consumers aren’t stupid. Organic SEO builds so much trust with them because they understand that it’s in Google’s best interests to show them the best search result for that specific search term. Ranking well in search helps them find your business in a quick and natural way, without them feeling like they’re being marketed to. 

## Let your happiest customers do the talking for you

There are many different types of word-of-mouth marketing. Essentially, anything that has your customers talking about your brand is word-of-mouth. This can include influencer marketing, customer reviews, and even old school face-to-face conversations. 

Just like with organic SEO, the stats around word-of-mouth are pretty compelling. 74% of consumers [identify word-of-mouth as a key influencer](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.adweek.com/performance-marketing/ogilvy-cannes-study-behold-the-power-of-word-of-mouth/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1620229454681000&usg=AOvVaw3-PBeHN5Dj4JweQACyRN5i "Behold the power of word of mouth") in their purchasing decision and 85% of website visitors [find visual user-generated content more influential](https://www.adweek.com/performance-marketing/why-consumers-share-user-generated-content-infographic/ "Why consumers share user-generated content") than brand photos or videos. And that’s just the beginning in terms of [word-of-mouth’s effectiveness](https://www.getambassador.com/blog/word-of-mouth-marketing-statistics "40+ word of mouth statistics you should know"). 

Reviews are one of the easiest ways to implement a word-of-mouth marketing strategy, especially if you’re [automating review invitations](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/review-invitations "Review invitations | product features") every time someone makes a purchase. This ensures that you have a lot of [user-generated content](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/a-beginner-guide-to-building-brand-loyalty-with-user-generated-content "A beginner's guide to building brand loyalty with user-generated content") to highlight throughout your customer journey and that your mix of customer reviews are an accurate representation of how your customers feel. 

The biggest benefit to collecting reviews is that they have a wide range of uses for your business. Showcasing them throughout your customer journey can [seriously improve your conversion rates](https://business.trustpilot.com/customer-stories/ecommerce/ann-summers-uses-product-reviews-to-increase-sales-up-to-230 "How Ann Summers used product reviews to increase sales by 230%"). They contain powerful consumer insights that can help you [improve your customer experience and increase your revenue](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/turning-reviews-into-revenue-how-to-get-insights-from-your-feedback "Turning reviews into real revenue with consumer insights"). And they’re a great way to [build your online reputation](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/4-reasons-why-every-business-needs-online-reputation-management "4 reasons why every business needs an online reputation strategy"). 

One main factor that differentiates word-of-mouth from SEO is that you can see results pretty quickly. When you’re looking at reviews and conversion rates, all you need to do is A/B test pages on your site after adding reviews and within a few weeks you should be able to see what your new conversion rates are. 

### Word-of-mouth marketing and SEO go hand-in-hand

But there’s one more big impact reviews can have on your business that might surprise you. Reviews can actually [improve your SEO](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/browsers-to-buyers/the-complete-guide-to-reviews "The complete guide to marketing with customer reviews"). Although these two strategies may not seem to have much in common, they’re more connected than you might think. 


Islandsurf.com rich snippets

One of the biggest impacts reviews can have on SEO is [qualifying you for rich snippets](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/get-seen-in-search/rich-snippets-stars-for-product-reviews-can-boost-seo "How to improve your organic SEO with rich snippets") in search by including product reviews on your site. And rich snippets don’t just make your site look nice in SERPs – they [can increase your organic traffic by 30%](https://searchengineland.com/seo-featured-snippets-leads-big-gains-236212 "SEO for featured snippets") and [increase your revenue from organic traffic](https://www.perficient.com/insights/research-hub/featured-snippets-guide "Featured snippets resource center") by 677%.

## Word-of-mouth strengthens all of your marketing and advertising

Although SEO and word-of-mouth have many differences, the one thing they have in common is that both of them help you build trust for your brand with new shoppers more authentically than advertising does. So – if you’ve been asking yourself if word of mouth is better than SEO – to build trust with your customers, SEO and word-of-mouth actually work best hand-in-hand. 

For most brands, it’s worth focusing on these two strategies instead of funneling all of your budget into advertising that might come across as – well – exactly that. It might be tempting to look at this cynically and see these two strategies as no better than advertising. After all, you’re still just trying to sell a product or service at the end of the day. But that couldn’t be further than the truth. 

Focusing on these two strategies forces you to actually focus on what your customers need  – helping Google show your brand to people who are actually looking for your product, and ensuring your customer experience is so good that your customer reviews can convert new customers. 

The key is to make it easier for customers who are already looking for your products — not to try and sell your business to the people who aren’t. 


Is word of mouth better than SEO? A side by side look at more trustworthy advertising alternatives

importance of reviews and Google for ecommerce

Online reviews are a great and easy way to increase traffic, improve PPC and SEO results, build your online reputation, eliminate doubt and increase customer confidence.

Online reviews can serve as a guide to consumers during the customer journey and the decision-making process. Today, 92% of consumers read online reviews, and word of mouth remains the most popular method of recommendation for consumers.

But with billions of brands available online, it’s important for eCommerce businesses to choose and implement the correct digital strategy in order to gain as much online visibility as possible, and ensure visitors turn into customers.

In this article, we'll discuss how your business can benefit from displaying stars in search, and how important customer feedback is in today’s competitive landscape.

## The importance of online reviews

Online reviews are a great and easy way to increase traffic, improve PPC and SEO results, build your online reputation, eliminate doubt, as well as increase customer confidence.

But what makes stars in search so powerful?

Online reviews appearing in search results affect the way browsers find and view your business. The nature of the reviews naturally determine whether or not the shopper is going to engage with your brand.

Depending on how you collect reviews, you’ll have review snippets stars display on organic search results, and stars show up as part of your Google Seller Ratings on Google Ads, which can have positive impacts on click-through rates and traffic.

Example of Review Snippet Stars From Product Reviews

Example of Rich Snippet Stars

Example of Review Snippet Stars

Example of Google Seller Ratings

In 2018, Moz attributed 13% of traffic value to online reviews (review quantity, review diversity, etc.), making customer feedback the 5th most important ranking factor.

Claiming feedback and reviews and managing them correctly with a Google review partner such as Trustpilot can directly impact your search performance. According to Moz, stars displayed in search have become necessary to any eCommerce company’s success, helping each and every one of them turn more quality traffic into revenue.

## How your business can gain more visibility in search results

### Collecting product and service reviews

Collecting product and service reviews for your eCommerce site has never been easier! With a third-party review collection service like Trustpilot, gathering customer feedback and working towards boosting your visibility on search engines is .

If you’ve already started collecting reviews, you can import them into your Trustpilot Account to manage and view all your previous and current reviews in one place.

If you do not have any customer feedback yet, and would like to start your review journey today; simply upload a csv file to invite past customers to reviews your products.

Once this is done, it’s time to activate our Automatic Feedback Service; allowing you to optimise your review collection process as much as possible.

To showcase your reviews in search resuls, you'll have to add your customer feedback to your website. Simply install our SEO TrustBoxes to feed review data to Google in order to maximise your paid and organic search benefits.

### Gaining Google Seller Ratings with Trustpilot reviews

[Google Seller Rating](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/get-seen-in-search/why-wont-my-google-seller-ratings-show-up-and-4-other-gsr-questions) (GSR) is an automated Google Ads extension that demonstrates other people’s trust in your brand. 

Essentially, it’s a star rating system that displays under the headline and URL of your PPC ad. 

The bottom ad has Seller ratings, the top one doesn’t. Which one would you click?

download (4)

Well, a whopping [64.6%](https://www.spyfu.com/blog/google-ads-tutorial/) of people click on Google Seller Ratings Ads when they are looking to buy an item online.

According to Google, using reviews to achieve Google Seller Ratings could help your business increase its click-through rate by 10% on average, and therefore improve your quality score and reduce your cost-per-click.

But how can your business achieve Google Seller Ratings to showcase reviews directly on the search engine results page?

There are a few criterias to qualify for this ad extension and see positive results on your search engine performance. However, please note that these criteria do not guarantee anything. Only Google controls Google, and the Google algorithm can adjust at any time.

Here are the current Google regulations in order to gain Google Seller Ratings:

- At least 100 verified service reviews
- Collected in the last 12 months 
- In one market
- Minimum average star rating of 3.5/5

Google Seller Ratings allow you to build trust earlier in the funnel, making it easier for customers to choose between you and your competitors. 

### Boosting your SEO performance with Review Snippets

Rich Snippets are the markup of your content with ‘structured data’ that allow search engines to better understand and index this information. This schema markup, generated by product reviews only, is what helps you stand out in organic listings.

The rating and the number of stars show useful additional information that will encourage browsers to trust your business earlier in the customer journey.

Example of Review Snippets from Product reviews

download (5)

Example of Review Snippets achieved Trustpilot’s TrustBoxes

In order to qualify for Review Snippet Stars, it’s required to use Aggregate Rating to mark-up your web page for product reviews.

[Review Snippets can help boost your SEO](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/get-seen-in-search/rich-snippets-stars-for-product-reviews-can-boost-seo) and optimise your click-through rate, constantly driving quality traffic to your eCommerce site.

### Why stars in search can improve your marketing performance

Building an online presence has become one of the hardest things to achieve when trying to market an eCommerce website.

Customer reviews are a simple and great way to achieve it. Collecting user-generated content helps keep your website’s content fresh and updated, impacting your SEO performance.

By acquiring stars in search - Google Seller Ratings or Review Snippets - in Google search results page, you’re building transparency, trust and customer confidence earlier in the funnel, pushing browsers to choose you over any of your competitors, and therefore dramatically increasing your click-through and conversion rates whilst lowering your cost-per-click.

Did you know that Trustpilot business profiles appear in ~0.15% of all Google searches? To find out more about how we can help you boost your online visibility, check out our Complete Guide To Reviews below.


Read Trustpilot's Complete Guide To Reviews

How your eCommerce business can benefit from stars in search

google adwords trustpilot blog

google ads trustpilot blog

Customized Google Ads campaigns will help you do better at reaching the right people and get closer to true personalized marketing

Customization might not be true personalization, but a better Google Ads strategy will still help you reach your very best customers!

## Why customized and personalized marketing are essential to every business’ growth

Personalized marketing should be a focus for all marketers out there. By collecting relevant data, it’s possible to create personal interactions and experiences with dynamic content and product recommendations based on purchase history and shopping behavior.

With Google Ads, the tailored experience you can offer users isn’t true personalization (since Google is protective of user data) – but it’s just as important in order to target the right people at the right time.

It’s important for businesses to know if someone’s visited their website 5 times in the last 30 days, what device their target audience uses the most, what items consumers keep adding to their cart, or what keywords they search for – all these aspects could be just as beneficial for marketers as knowing the user’s gender, specific age, ethnicity or other demographics.

## Less is more when targeting in Google Ads

The most common mistake when using Google Ads to customize your marketing is to optimize for terms that are too broad. A funeral business paying for the keyword “dead” without thinking further could be losing all their Ads budget to teenagers searching for “Is Justin Bieber dead?”

It all comes down to understanding how keywords and searches work, and how to use negative search terms. Once you fully master Google Ads and know what results you want from your digital marketing efforts, you’ll see that doing less is actually doing more! This is really important for a good Google Ads strategy.

Start by targeting more narrow than you usually would in a Google Ads campaign.
Is most of your business’ revenue coming from mobile devices? Start by targeting these. If 90% of your customers are women, target women only. If your main customers are between 24 and 29 years old, then direct your campaign to this age group only, and exclude everyone else.

If the biggest part of your campaign shows results in only three cities, don’t set your campaign for the whole country. Don’t waste your money targeting other ages, geographic areas, genders or devices just because your company may have these target groups set in your overall digital marketing strategy.

## More narrow keywords with higher buying intent gets you closer to personalized marketing

Along with more narrow targeting, you should also go deeper if you want to create great personalization and better experiences using data from Google Ads. Having one keyword that correlates well with your ad and landing page (used both in your title and description) is a great first step. If Nike sneakers are what you want to campaign around, don’t just go with “sneakers”, but be more specific and go with an exact match, like: “Nike Air Max Sneakers”. Your target group will, on the one hand, be very limited and specific – but on the other hand, the bid for this certain keyword is probably cheaper and the intent behind the search term is certainly higher.

Working with single-category keywords such as “shoes” is not as common in Google Ads – only about 5% of eCommerce businesses are large enough to find profit in this technique.

Define the different campaigns based on the intent of the user; if he or she is a new customer or a returning one, for example. To continue with the shoe example, your Ads will perform better by being more defined: try to add color, size, brand name or product category (as well as some more budget!) – to get more spot-on results.


Marten barkfeld quote

Morten Barkfeld quote

## Be aware of your different margins in Google Ads campaigns

Your gross margins are probably one of the most important things to take into consideration when planning your Google Ads strategy.

If you have products with wildly different gross margins, say 25% vs 75% – you should not have these in the same campaign. The granularity is important here, in terms of different gross margins, products, and categories.

If you have to cut down on your Google Ads' budget, you don’t want to mess up the products with the highest gross margins.

## Get to know your “eCommerce economics”

If you’re selling clothes, you probably know that a lot of people tend to order the same item in different sizes, and simply return the ones that don’t fit – making “intentional returns”. If you’re in electronics, on the other hand – the return rate is only around 5%.

Return and shipping rates are important costs to track. Include them when you set your ROI target for your Google Ads. You should also consider what you must pay in lost sales and orders you cannot fulfill for some reason – if the product wasn’t in stock, for example.

Whenever someone clicks one of your ads in Google, you will be charged, even if the purchase is never completed or if you have to send the customer their money back.

Based on these different factors, Keywordio has developed an algorithm called “eCommerce economics”. The algorithm determines your ideal return on investment from your Google Ads. You should never base your sales on the things that don’t come through all the way! By answering questions about your margins, returns and shipping costs, as well as the cost of any lost sales, the algorithm calculates your ideal ROI on each product. There’s a lot of parameters to understand here, but when you do – it’s possible to control your Google Ads down to your most profitable keywords or product.

Personalization and customization both allow you to create better user experiences, boost customer confidence throughout the journey, and improve customer satisfaction! Add third-party validation like Trustpilot reviews in the user journey, and your conversions will skyrocket.

Find out how Trustpilot reviews could help you business, download your free copy of our Complete Guide below!


__Author Bio__

Jonas Hagströmer Theodorsson, Co-Owner and Business Developer Global eCommerce at [Keywordio](http://www.keywordio.com/).

How to customize your marketing for a better Google Ads strategy

SEO Brand image

Trustpilot Rich Snippets Guide

Rich Snippets Stars are ratings and reviews for your company that show off your online reputation and overall quality of business to potential customers. These yellow stars help your website standout in Google's SERPs and increase your CTR.

Yes, good SEO takes effort – and websites who make the effort are likely to benefit in the long run – but there are some tools that can boost your site’s organic traffic in incredibly simple ways. 

Rich Snippets are a little-known SEO hack that can really boost results for your business in organic search. Best of all, what you need in order to qualify for them is really easy to implement, so if you’re a busy marketer looking for a quick and effective win – this one’s for you. 

## First up, what are Rich Snippets?

Simply put, Rich Snippets are those helpful star ratings you sometimes see under organic search results. 

According to [Google’s developer site](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/review-snippet "Review Snippet - Google search central"), a Rich Snippet is a short excerpt of a review or rating from a trusted review website, most commonly displayed as an average of the aggregate rating scores from many reviewers. 

Basically, when Google finds [structured data](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/guides/intro-structured-data "Understand how structured data works") from your reviews or ratings on your website, they’re able to display your site content as a [rich result](https://search.google.com/test/rich-results "Rich results test") — which enhances your listings’ appearance in organic search, and tends to drive a lot more traffic. 

Here’s an example of Rich Snippets in action:


Review snippets are a certain type of rich result that improves organic SEO

IslandSurf.com rich snippets

Having their star rating and quantity of reviews visible right in search results helps [IslandSurf.com](https://www.islandersoutfitter.com/ "Islanders Outfitter") get potential customers to their site faster by removing the need to research their [brand reputation](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/6-ways-to-make-trust-your-essential-brand-differentiator "The value of a trustworthy brand reputation"). 

Before shoppers even click on the link, they know upfront that the business has a solid rating and therefore can be trusted with their hard-earned money. This gives them a better idea of what kind of experience they’ll have with the company, and increases the odds that they’ll click on that result. 

In fact, studies show that having Rich Snippets visible on your search listings can drive [20-30% more organic traffic](https://www.perficient.com/insights/research-hub/featured-snippets-guide "Featured snippets resource center"), and generate [677% more revenue from organic traffic](https://searchengineland.com/seo-featured-snippets-leads-big-gains-236212 "SEO for featured snippets"). 

Now that the SEO value of these rich results is clear, the question becomes — 

## How do I get Rich Snippets on my product pages in organic search?

It’s most common to think of paid listings when you’re thinking about stars showing up in search results, but many people don’t realize that collecting product reviews can help you qualify for Rich Snippets in organic search. 

Once you’ve started collecting and displaying product reviews through a [product review widget](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/product-reviews "Product reviews") with valid structured data, it’s time to tell Google to re-crawl your product pages. 

Depending on how many products you sell on your site, it may make sense to have Google crawl your most popular products first. Here’s what you’ll need to do: 
- Log in to your Google Search Console and select your website.
- In the Inspect any URL in "your site's name" field, enter the URL of the page that contains the TrustBox.
- Once the URL data has been retrieved, click Request Indexing.
Repeat this process for all the URLs that contain the same TrustBox.


URL inspector

URL Inspector

If you get a message that says "URL is not on Google", click the Test Live URL button to find out why Google can't crawl your page.

Once Google has indexed your pages, your review snippets should begin to appear in their search results. 

You can also use this [handy tool](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9012289?hl=en "URL Inspection Tool") to test your URLs and troubleshoot your results.

## Getting the most organic traffic out of your Rich Snippets 

Once you’ve qualified for Rich Snippets, [Google Search Console](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://searchengineland.com/google-search-console-adds-review-snippets-performance-enhancement-and-testing-reports-328925&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1615911866525000&usg=AOvVaw3KhAQ3et4CgnhHPCEkkpYX "Google Search Console") provides some really helpful tools to give you insight on how well those pages are performing, and help you debug any issues on pages where the reviews aren’t showing in the search results just yet. 

Google's Review Snippet Enhancement Report

Review snippet enhancement report 

The [Review Snippet Enhancement Report](https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2020/02/review-snippets#:~:text=it%20to%20production.-,Review%20snippet%20Enhancement%20report,markup%20implemented%20on%20your%20site. "New reports for review snippets in Google Console") shows you errors, warnings, and valid pages for markup implemented on your site. It’s extremely helpful in not only identifying errors, but showing you how to fix them so you can enjoy the benefits of review snippets on all of your qualifying pages. 

Review snippets performance report 

You can also uncover more details about your Rich Snippet performance in Google Search Console’s [Performance Report](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7576553 "Performance report (Search Console Help) "). There, you can uncover how well your Rich Snippets are performing in search in terms of impressions, clicks, and CTR — and delve deeper into even more parameters and metrics. 

## Ready to earn Rich Snippets on your search listings?

The many benefits of Rich Snippets all begin with choosing a trustworthy product review provider with valid structured data. It’s not hard to do — our [TrustBox widgets](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/trustbox-widgets "Trustpilot widgets") and [eCommerce integrations](https://business.trustpilot.com/partners/type/apps "Trustpilot Ecommerce integrations") let you make your product review data discoverable to search engines in just a few clicks. 

If your review statistics meet [Google’s requirements](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/review-snippet "Review Snippet - Google"), your product pages will start showing up with star ratings in search results in no time.  

Can’t get enough of this stuff? Don’t miss [The complete guide to marketing with customer reviews: 2021 update](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/browsers-to-buyers/the-complete-guide-to-reviews "The complete guide to marketing with customer reviews") for even more ways to improve your organic search performance with your customer reviews.  

### Useful links

* [Google structured data testing tool](https://search.google.com/structured-data/testing-tool/u/0/)
* [Review Snippet FAQ](https://support.trustpilot.com/hc/en-us/articles/227922808-How-to-Guide-Get-Rich-Snippets-for-SEO-With-Service-Review-TrustBoxes#frequently-questions)
* [Trustpilot reviews guidelines](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/reviews#guidelines)
* [Spammy Structured Markup Penalty and Recovery – Use Schema Markup With Caution](http://searchengineland.com/spammy-structured-markup-penalty-recovery-use-schema-markup-caution-223289)
* [Google drops product Review Snippets from airline pricing websites](http://searchengineland.com/google-drops-price-rich-snippets-airline-pricing-web-sites-248737)
* [How-to Guide: Get Review Snippets for SEO With Service Review TrustBoxes](https://support.trustpilot.com/hc/en-us/articles/227922808)

How to improve your organic SEO with Rich Snippets

SEO best practices to boost your sales

To help you improve your eCommerce SEO, we’ve put together these 5 best practices that will increase your visibility on search engines, improve your consumers’ experiences, and boost your sales for good.

Having a good eCommerce SEO strategy means ongoing maintenance of both your website and your content, which can get challenging at times. 

So to help you improve your eCommerce SEO, we’ve put together these 5 best practices that will increase your visibility on search engines, improve your consumers’ experiences, and boost your sales for good.

## SEO best practices to power your business forward

### 1. Extensive keyword research is a must

Keyword research allows you to find trends and search terms that people enter on search engines and ensures you create the right type of content to improve your chances of being visible on search engine results page (SERPS).

If you’ve never thought about your eCommerce SEO keyword strategy before, here’s a step by step guide on how to do your keyword research properly:

1. List all important topics that are relevant to your business.
2. Find keywords that match those topics.
3. Research related search terms on search engines
4. Pick a bunch of short keywords as well as longer ones (e.g. ‘coffee cups’ vs. ‘coffee cups with lids’)
5. See how your competitors rank for those keywords
6. Use a keyword tool like [Keyword Planner](https://ads.google.com/intl/en_uk/home/tools/keyword-planner/) to cut down the list based on the average number of searches per keyword.

Your final list of keywords can be used to optimise your site’s pages. You’ll use them to make your titles, copy, and images more relevant and most of all, more visible on search engines. You’ll learn how to optimise your pages with keywords in the next section...

### 2. Your product pages need to be optimised

Improving your eCommerce SEO means ranking for your products pages too! 

One of the best ways to do this if you have an eCommerce shop, is to optimise each and every product page. If you’re unsure where to start, we put together this list of ‘essentials’ in order for your product pages to be fully search engine optimised:

- __Don’t forget your images:__ One of the best and simplest ways to optimise your images is to add ‘alt’ tags (keywords that describe what is represented) to each photo. You can also name your images with keywords.

- __Use keywords in your titles:__ Use your product keywords in your product titles. If you’re trying to optimise your ‘suitcase’ product page, add this keyword to your page title. For example, Igloo Coolers uses keywords for the product, features, and design in their titles, which is likely to boost their SEO efforts:

optimise your product pages for seo 

- __Write quality content and include long-tail keywords in your copy:__ Long-tail keywords are phrases made of 3 or more keywords. When included in your copy, they can help drive a lot of traffic. One way to find popular long-tail keywords is to start typing your keyword into Google. Below, is an example of a long-tail keyword search for the keyword ‘coffee cups’:


find out what people search on google

Of course, if you followed step 1, you have a library of keywords you’d like to use.


- __Use relevant URLs:__ You might not think that a keyword-rich URL can make you jump to #1 on Google, but including keywords that are relevant to your eCommerce site or product can still help you considerably and is something that can easily be done.

### 3. Don’t underestimate the power of user experience

[Great user experience is important](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/5-reasons-why-customer-experience-is-the-pulse-of-every-business) to maintain customer satisfaction, but it’s also essential to good eCommerce SEO. Google is constantly trying to provide the best content out there to its users, and to ensure that your eCommerce site is optimised, you need to guarantee that it provides the best user experience.

We put this list together to help you create ever improving experiences for everyone, and improve your eCommerce SEO:

- __Remove all duplicate content:__ Duplicate content can severely affect your eCommerce SEO. [Siteliner](http://www.siteliner.com/) can help you identify your duplicate product pages and remove them.

- __Don’t forget the three-click rule:__ This is a web design rule suggesting that a user should be able to find any information they need within your website in no more than 3 clicks. This keeps your site simple and organised and helps Google read your website’s content better and understand its hierarchy. If it’s correctly done, this can improve your overall site’s ranking.

- __Improve your website speed:__ A slow load time will hurt you on Google, as loading speed has recently become a [search ranking factor](https://yoast.com/page-speed-ranking-factor/). The [GooglePageSpeed](https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/) tools can help you cut down your loading time, which will also improve your sales, as [47%](https://www.akamai.com/us/en/about/news/) of users expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less.

- __Make sure your mobile site is functional:__ A fully responsive website design is  a must, especially in the eCommerce industry, where [67%](https://www.internetsearchinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/seo-tips-for-ecommerce-websites.jpg) of shoppers are more likely to make a purchase on a mobile-friendly website. And with[ Google moving more sites to mobile-first indexing](https://searchengineland.com/google-move-sites-mobile-first-index-within-next-several-weeks-292660), you better make sure yours is responsive if you want to retain customers whilst boosting your SEO rankings!

### 4. Interactive content is key

[Regularly updated content is really important](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/creating-relevant-content-throughout-the-customer-journey) in order for you to continue to rank well in Google’s listings. Optimising your eCommerce SEO with fresh content can be challenging, but by adding more interactive content to your site, you’re making sure that your content is regularly, and most of all automatically, updated. Here’s a list of interactive content recommendations that will ensure your website’s content stays updated and therefore SEO-optimised.

- __Customer reviews can help you:__ If you don’t have any reviews, you might want to consider a review collection and management strategy. Why? Because reviews will boost your SEO whilst creating fresh, relevant content, and building trust with consumers.

Example of on-site Trustpilot customer reviews

on-site Trustpilot customer reviews

- __Social media shares are great:__ This helps produce constant interactions on your site. Social proof, like social media shares, is used by Google to indicate the value of your pages. 

- __Live chats help too:__ Having a live chat indicates that your eCommerce shop is ready to engage with consumers on a deeper level, which will help increase your customer interactions, and your sales too. Google can detect this, which will help boost your eCommerce SEO efforts. 

LookFantastic offers a live chat on all pages

### 5. Good links (really) matter

Good content is important, we can all agree on this. But today, backlinks are still [more valued](https://backlinko.com/search-engine-ranking) by Google.

Some of you might know how challenging it is to get good quality links. No matter what your eCommerce shop sells, you can write great content that people will want to link to. There is no ‘boring’ industry. However, that doesn’t mean it’ll be easy. 

It’s up to you to choose whether or not you will write about your products, or about other topics - related to your industry. The latter’s advantage is that you can probably write a lot more content, about a lot more different topics. A great brand using this technique is Red Bull:


Redbull content strategy

The brand chooses *not* to write about their energy drinks. Instead, they write about things that their audience could be interested in: adventures, travels, challenges, sports, and more.

This will help you gain backlinks and social links, and ‘tell’ Google that your content is valuable enough to spark interest, which will improve your site’s overall ranking.

If you’re already doing something similar, here’s another technique to boost your backlinks...

Looking at your competitors’ backlinks can help you make a difference. By knowing where your competitors get their inbound links from, you can put a list of sites to approach for natural backlinks to your own content. 

For example, if your eCommerce shop sells beauty products, why not find out what sites link to other online beauty stores? This should help you identify sites that are interested in your industry and the type of content you write, and therefore build your backlink strategy in order to improve your eCommerce SEO.

You can use [Monitor Backlinks](https://monitorbacklinks.com/), which is a free tool, or [Majestic](https://majestic.com/) if you wish to invest in a more in-depth SEO tool. 

We’d like to remind you that we *do not* recommend using any Black Hat SEO techniques (like buying backlinks) to boost your eCommerce SEO as these could seriously harm your rankings and website.

These 5 SEO best practices should help you improve your eCommerce site’s overall ranking on search engines. We hope you found this article insightful, and we’d love to know what else helped your business boost its SEO.

Tell us what worked for you! Tweet us at @Trustpilot using #onTheBlog, or download a free copy of our Complete Guide to Reviews below.


5 eCommerce SEO best practices that will boost your sales for good

Glasses on pink background

Learning from the google experts

Ever wondered how online reviews can help you become the star of Google SERPs for both organic and paid search marketing? This article holds the answers to all of your questions!

That's why we asked digital marketing experts from Home Logic, Evosite, and of course our internal experts at Trustpilot, to share their thoughts on the crucial role of online reviews in search marketing. 

Let's dive in. 

Google has such a massive impact on the digital marketing industry, yet many companies, particularly eCommerce companies, aren’t optimising their search strategies and incorporating Google in their business strategy.

Our established panel of experts have provided a wide range of advice that any company can incorporate to start seeing better results in their search visibility, traffic conversions, and paid search campaigns.

## Reviews will improve your search marketing performance

*__Ash Rama, Global Head of Training at Trustpilot__*

Collecting reviews is an easy way to create fresh content every day, improve your on *and* [off-page SEO](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/get-seen-in-search/why-does-google-care-if-your-business-has-online-reviews-in-2019), and build a reputation using your customers’ authentic voice. 

Choosing to collect Product reviews on a trusted third-party platform like Trustpilot can also lead to Product Reviews Review Snippets in organic search.

If your brand has an active presence and profile page on Trustpilot (which is in the top 1% of the most visited sites in the world, giving it an impressive domain authority), it's highly likely that your profile will be displayed at the top of search results, complete with shiny gold [Review Snippets](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/get-seen-in-search/google-rich-snippet-update-what-it-means-for-businesses).

Reviews can also optimise your PPC campaigns by powering [Google Seller Ratings](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/get-seen-in-search/why-wont-my-google-seller-ratings-show-up-and-4-other-gsr-questions) (GSRs).

Google Seller Ratings appear in paid ads, and are a powerful tool to boost your campaigns across Google and Bing. GSRs help boost your conversion rate and lower your bounce rate. 

Bonus: Your reviews can also appear in Google Shopping, which helps shorten the decision-making time for a consumer looking to make a purchase.

## Turning traffic into revenue with reviews

*__Charlie Clark, Digital Marketing Manager at Home Logic and owner of [Minty Digital](https://www.mintydigital.com/)__*

[Home Logic](https://www.homelogic.co.uk/) is a home solutions company whose mission is to bring innovative, eco-friendly and cost effective energy saving solutions to the homes of the UK.

Charlie was working hard to improve traffic, sales, and brand reputation for the organisation when he decided to invest in Trustpilot.

With over billions of websites on the internet, it’s crucial to implement the correct digital strategy to boost your online visibility. But ensuring you’re visible from a search perspective is only the first step towards a viable search strategy.

[92%](https://www.vendasta.com/blog/50-stats-you-need-to-know-about-online-reviews) of consumers now read online reviews, and more than [80%](https://www.vendasta.com/blog/50-stats-you-need-to-know-about-online-reviews) of people trust reviews as much as personal recommendation. With competition getting tougher than ever, it’s essential to give a professional, trustworthy and reliable image to potential buyers.

Social proof led Home Logic to better marketing. Customer feedback helped the business increase click-through rate by 20%, and their latest PPC competitor campaign saw a 90% conversion rate increase thanks to Google Seller Ratings!

Example of Home Logic Google Seller Ratings

Google Seller Ratings from Home Logic company

GSRs significantly lowered Home Logic’s cost per conversion, and online reviews helped the company’s website reach Google’s first page.

Their overall organic traffic also saw a 412% uplift YoY, helping Home Logic reach over £250,000 of revenue in Q1, compared to £300,000 in the whole of 2016.

## Being successful in the world of digital

*__Aran Reeks, Head of Client Strategy & Tom Sangers, Head of Search at Evosite__*

[Evosite](https://www.evosite.co.uk/) is a digital agency specialised in eCommerce, conversion rate optimisation, business systems integration, web design, and development. Aran Reeks and Tom Sangers traveled to London from Taunton to share unique insights to help you succeed in the world of digital.

This year, the UK will become the first country in the world where half of all advertising spend goes on digital media. It’s clear that the digital realm takes first priority for companies and spend is likely to increase as the years pass by.

Search is now worth £3.77 billion, and in this new digital era, it’s getting harder and harder for companies to set their objectives and optimise their websites to achieve them.

To drive more conversions with optimised paid search campaigns, you’ll need to understand your customers and their needs in order to create relevant campaigns. This starts with analysing your data, understanding your audience’s behaviour, and finding new insights.

This data will help you personalise your ads (by location, demographics, age, gender, income or interests) to stand out from competitors.

The Evosite digital experts also recommend sticking to PPC’s best practices like mobile bid adjustment, ad extensions, test ads running, location targeting, negative keywords, and review extensions.

But optimising paid search isn’t enough to grow revenue. To transform new traffic into sales, you also need to make sure your user experience is close to perfection.

It’s getting tougher to keep the user’s attention, which is why your website should be entirely optimised. Keep visitors focused long enough to convert them.

Reduce uncertainty, uncover areas of weakness on your website, and improve customer experience to stay ahead of competition and grow revenue.

By keeping your customers happy and satisfied, you’re more likely to see them return, spend more and recommend your business to others.

*So where does optimisation start?*

Evosite advise reviewing all of your account's history, including all keywords, adverts, impressions, and clicks to identify where you can make improvements to your ROI.

And as digital continues to take over, consumers are proactively looking for reviews. Third-party validation has become essential, which is why collecting reviews is a good way to appease consumers who have taken up a new way of making a purchase decision, while also improving your search and paid search performance.

If this sounds of interest, you can learn more about reviews and SEO by checking out our complete guide to reviews below:

Becoming a Google Star with online reviews: learning from the experts

google seller ratings questions trustpilot 2020

Ever wonder how to earn Google Seller Ratings and make sure they show up to boost your CTR in paid search results? This article answers all of your questions about GSRs and more.  

If you’ve ever typed into Google’s search bar, you’ve seen Google Seller Ratings in action. In essence, it’s a star rating that displays underneath the URL on your Google Ads. While most often associated with eCommerce companies, any company with a digital presence can take advantage of Google Seller Ratings. Take a look at the example below, on how a mortgage broker can have GSRs display on their search ads.

example-of-google-seller-rating

Google has said that the seller ratings extension benefits both searchers and businesses, as it increases click-through rate by [10%](https://adwords.googleblog.com/2011/04/5-simple-ways-to-improve-your-adwords.html) on average which can lead to a higher quality score.

GSRs just made your job a bit easier!

So, how do you get GSRs to display in your search ads? That’s just one of the major questions we’ll be tackling here.

### Google Seller Ratings – August 2020 Update

In August 2020, Google [made some changes to the Google Seller Ratings requirements](https://developers.google.com/merchant-review-feeds/publisherguideline). Here's what businesses should know and follow before trying to earn Google Seller Ratings:

- __Businesses are not allowed to offer their customers financial incentives__ to write reviews of any kind. This includes anything from free samples, gift cards, discounts on future purchases, to anything of monetary value.
- __Each business eligible for seller ratings must have a page that is public__, visible, and discoverable via search engines with all reviews shown. For example, the business pages should be included in the sitemap shared with search engines.
- __Customers must have completed their review within 90 days__ of receiving an invitation from the retailer.
- __Your listing must only display reviews collected through your current review platform__, and only these are eligible for submission to the Google feed. If you imported reviews before the 1st of July 2020, this change will not affect you.
- __Businesses are not able to remove or moderate their reviews (from current or previous provider)__. However, reviews from the current provider may be flagged and will be removed if the content contains hateful, violent, or inappropriate content, advertising or spam, is off-topic, or contains conflicts of interest.

If you have any other questions about Google Seller Ratings and how to acquire them, keep on reading!


### Question #1: How can I get Google Seller Ratings?

[As of November 2018](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/get-seen-in-search/google-new-seller-ratings-threshold-100), Google is now displaying Seller Ratings on a per-country basis to better reflect your customers’ experience in a specific country. Google has also lowered the Seller Ratings threshold of reviews required to 100 per country, instead of 150 global reviews. The reviews from users in a particular country will only contribute to the company’s rating in that country.

To collect Seller Ratings, you will need to maintain a high standard of service, so that __your average review score is above 3.5/5__. 

Next, you’ll need to be collecting enough reviews. You will need to have __at least 100 reviews in the last 12 months in a given country__, for your business to be eligible for GSR in that country. This means that you need to send invitations to your customers to invite them to review your services. 



### Question #2: Why aren’t my Google Seller Ratings showing?

There are a couple of reasons why your Google Ratings aren’t showing up. Because Seller Ratings is an automated ad extension, you can’t set them up or have any control over whether or not they show.

To make sure you’ve ticked all the boxes that factor into GSRs, here’s a handy list to keep in mind.

* Do you have more than 100 unique reviews per country from a review platform?
* Have they all been written in the past 12 months?
* Do you have an average score of 3.5 stars out of 5, or above?


__Tip: Still not showing?__

Note - a recent Google update recently opened up GSRs globally. Previously, GSRs was limited to specific domains but this is no longer the case!

We can also help you [check](https://www.google.com/shopping/seller?q=[domain.com) if Google has added the reviews to their Merchant review page.

Now that you know why your Seller Ratings aren’t showing, the next step is to learn why your Google stars might not show up every time you search for them.

### Question #3 Why do Google Seller Ratings show up only sometimes on the same search terms, and how often can I expect it to show?

Sometimes Google Seller Ratings don’t show with your ads. And sometimes they do. Don’t panic, that doesn’t necessarily mean that something is wrong.

You’ve already made sure that your ads were optimised by ticking all the boxes on the above list, so let’s go through what could be happening…

* Google is determining the best time to show the extension based on the intent of the query.
* The search engine will also take into consideration the recency of the search, as well as the cached results
* If someone searches the same keyword over and over again to check their extensions, both paid and organic results will be affected, and the extension will not always appear as Google shows them only a certain number of times.


__Tip:__ Check whether or not your extension is showing from a different device or a different IP address. If it shows, you know you have Google Seller Ratings, and Google is determining whether or not to show them.

### Question #4 How do I make my Google Seller Ratings show more often?

Seller Ratings don’t always appear regularly, but you can take steps to make them more likely to appear with your Search Network ads.

Google has provided [additional tips](https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/7233787) to increase your chances of having GSRs show up in your ads. A fairly obvious tip is to be a great business so your reviews are not only high but also so customers will be encouraged to leave reviews about the great experience they had at any point in their buying journey.

But they also encourage to keep your business name and URL consistent across the websites where your reviews live. Google aggregate reviews from multiple sources to power GSRs so be sure that your URL and name is consistent across review sites and that Google isn’t accidentally aggregating the wrong reviews or ignoring your reviews.

### Question #5 How do I track my GSR performance?

You can track your traffic attributed to GSR by going into your Google Ads account and checking your Automated Extension Report.

This report tracks all data that comes from any Google Ads extension you might have. Based on the results, you can see how often the Seller Ratings show as well as the ad groups they correspond to.

example-of-gsr-report

You’ll find more great examples of GSR reports [here](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/use-google-seller-ratings-beat-competition/127795/).

Tracking your results will allow you understand the performance of your ads with and without extension, and compare click-through rate and cost.

Now that Google isn’t a mystery anymore, set up your Seller Rating Extension today and leverage your user-generated content to grow your business’s visibility and trust on search engines.

If you'd like to find out more about the importance of reviews to improve your visibility in search, give our Complete Guide to Reviews a read below!

How to earn Google Seller Ratings following the August 2020 update

New google shopping announcements

With Google’s new Google Shopping announcements, retailers are going to have to find new ways to stand out from other listings to sell products directly on Google Shopping. Here's how reviews can help.

So it came as no surprise when in April, Google announced that [it’s now free to sell on Google](https://blog.google/products/shopping/its-now-free-to-sell-on-google/), making it easier for retailers to gain visibility and sell on Google Shopping.

## What is Google Shopping and how does it work?

For those of you who might not be familiar with [Google Shopping](https://support.google.com/faqs/answer/2987537?hl=en), it enables users to view product information from merchants that is updated on a regular basis by the merchants. Online retailers, who are part of the Google Merchant network, submit feeds containing product information to Google Shopping, and pay each time someone clicks to their website or makes a purchase directly from their site. But following Google’s April announcement, this has now changed.



Google Shopping explained

## It’s now free to sell on Google

Since April, the US Google shopping tabs primarily consist of free listings, helping retailers get more visibility and better connect with consumers, whether or not they already advertise on Google. 

This change has meant that smaller businesses have had more exposure during the coronavirus pandemic, given them a greater chance of successfully selling online.

The changes aren’t live globally yet. This was announced in April 2020 for the US market, and will be expanded globally by the end of the year. 



Show your product in free listings on Google

## Google has also removed commission fees

In July, Google also announced that [‘Buy on Google’ is now commission-free](https://blog.google/products/shopping/buy-on-google-is-zero-commission/). By removing commission fees, Google has lowered the cost of doing business online, and brands no longer have to pay a fee for purchases made through Google Shopping. This new announcement makes it even easier for retailers to sell directly on the platform. 


Buy on Google no commission

Google also announced two new integrations, with Paypal and Shopify, meaning retailers and consumers now have more payment options when selling or shopping on Google Shopping. If a retailer wants to sell directly on Google, they can get started even faster and continue using the tools that already work well on their website.


## What these changes mean for retailers, and how reviews can help

eCommerce businesses usually measure their performance through website traffic, click-through rates and on-site conversions. With Google’s new announcement, retailers are going to have to find new ways to stand out from other listings to sell products directly on Google Shopping. 

This year, we observed an [11% decline in trust globally](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/4-things-every-business-owner-should-know-about-the-state-of-reviews), with only 71% of people admitting they trust consumer brands. This only proves how challenging it can be to build trust and credibility through a Google shopping listing, especially when consumers don’t visit your website or social channels. 

[Trusted Google Reviews Partners like Trustpilot](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/features/review-seo) allow retailers to have their online reviews displayed directly on their product listings on Google Shopping. That’s important because today, [89% of global consumers check online reviews](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/the-critical-role-of-reviews-in-internet-trust) as part of their online buying journey, and 49% of global consumers consider positive reviews one of their top 3 purchase influences. Showcasing a trust signal such as your rating or reviews can help you differentiate yourself from other competitors in Google Shopping.

So how can you start displaying your Trustpilot reviews on your free product listings in Google?

An eCommerce website can get rated when using one of the review services that makes you [qualified for Google Seller Ratings](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/get-seen-in-search/google-new-seller-ratings-threshold-100). If qualified, your Trustpilot rating will automatically appear in Google Shopping without any action required from your side.

Being as transparent as possible helps consumers make more informed decisions, and helps boost consumer trust in businesses. You can find out more about the importance of trust signals to boost conversions in Google Shopping [here](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/why-and-how-social-proof-influences-consumers), or request a free demo below to learn how Trustpilot can help you collect and showcase your reviews in Google shopping.

What the new Google Shopping updates mean for reviews

Trustpilot location reviews why they're so important

Your company's locations can now rank higher in search results, because they're backed by the credibility of a review platform trusted by consumers and businesses around the world.

Mobile devices are designed to point us towards local businesses, and Google and Bing are well aware of online shoppers’ locations, which is why search engines are starting to prioritise local results. In this article, we’ll cover what local search is, why it is important, and how Trustpilot and location reviews could help you stand out from your competitors.

## Why location search is important

Local search can be extremely competitive, but there are many ways for multi-location businesses and franchises to stand out today. This can be done by either optimising your webpage, appearing in the Knowledge graph, or using products such as [location reviews](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/location-reviews), which can help deliver a steady stream of customer reviews.

Even though eCommerce has demonstrated its importance in 2020, local search is still growing fast. Today, [61%](https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/data/shopping-preference-statistics/) would rather shop from brands that also have a physical location than ones that are available online only. In fact, according to Google, “near me” searches are becoming a prevalent factor in how we all make our purchasing decisions. [Google explains](https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/near-me-searches/):

“You might typically associate a ‘near me’ search with something like ‘restaurants near me’ or ‘gas stations near me’, but we’re seeing growth in ‘near me’ searches for very specific items, from ‘cowboy boots near me,’ to ‘where to get a facial near me,’ and ‘tarragon near me.’”

If we look at [Google Trends](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=near%20me), we can observe that "near me" searches have gone up by over 500% in the past five years. [Forrester](https://marketingland.com/reports-digital-especially-mobile-driving-trillions-offline-retail-spending-207037) predicted that by 2021, mobile would be driving $1.4 trillion in local sales in the U.S. We all know from personal experience how frequently we use our phones, which - this is no secret - track our location in order to show us the most relevant and local search results. 


Location reviews infographic Google Trustpilot

Today’s consumers are trying to buy from more local stores, in a desire to help out local businesses. And although eCommerce is continuing to grow, 90% of worldwide retail sales still take place in physical stores, according to [a Deloitte report](https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/consumer-industrial-products/cip-2018-global-powers-retailing.pdf). But for physical stores to compete with the convenience and endless aisle assortment offered online, meaningful customer experiences and brand engagement is crucial.

## How to stand out from the crowd

Did you know that [97%](https://www.brightlocal.com/research/local-consumer-review-survey/) of consumers go online to find local businesses, and [76%](https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/data/mobile-location-searches-to-store-visit-data/) of people who search on their smartphones for something nearby usually visit a business within a day?

If you are not present in the first two pages of local search results, your chances of being visible to consumers are extremely low, and so are your chances of getting new offline customers through Google. 

So how can consumers find you in this highly competitive environment? And how do you stay on top of local search results?

Businesses with multiple physical locations, or even franchises, should start thinking about current consumer trends, and how they can adapt to the new digital rules of shoppers’ behaviour today. Here’s a list of things you could do to improve your ranking:

- Make your site mobile-friendly and responsive to make it easier for consumers to search your store. Google loves mobile-friendly sites and gives them priority in search results. 
- Add schema markups for your [organisation](https://schema.org/Organization) or [local businesses](https://schema.org/LocalBusiness). This helps search engines understand your information better, and helps provide Google with enough information to include your local businesses into the Knowledge graph. 
- Create a URL structure with different pages for different locations. This makes it easier for search engines to gather relevant information, including the NAP (name, address, and phone number) for each location, as well as working hours. Don’t forget to list your branches on Google my Business too.
- Use review platforms to your advantage. According to a Canvas8 report, today, 89% of consumers report checking reviews before making purchases, whether online or offline. Some open review platforms such as Trustpilot can connect you with your customers, and more importantly promote their experience. Collecting location reviews is always a great way to share your reputation online.


## Mastering local search with Trustpilot reviews

To help local businesses stand out from the competition when lockdown comes to an end, we are introducing a new feature: [Location reviews](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/location-reviews). Location reviews are here to help multi-location businesses and franchises better manage their local branches’ reputation when stores reopen.

Web Manager at AutoMester

This product is completely free, so any business can set up Trustpilot location reviews to start ranking in relevant local search results now. But how does that work, you may ask? 

Well, all business profile pages on Trustpilot, free or paid, rank amongst top search results because of Trustpilot’s high page authority. This authority is earned through tens of millions of visits and reviews the platform gets each month, ranking it amongst the top 400 most visited websites in the world, [according to Alexa](https://www.alexa.com/topsites). 

Once you set up different locations on Trustpilot, you will automatically create different profile pages for each of your locations, and start collecting reviews for them. The more reviews you have, the higher your profile pages will rank on Google, because reviews provide a stream of fresh content and increase consumer traffic to the profile page. All of which is great for SEO.

Adding location widgets to your location pages will help optimise those pages with location metadata, telling search engines to include those pages in local results. In addition, widgets can also help you increase trust and conversion rates, [you can read more about that here](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/trustbox-widgets).

Marketing Manager at Omega Rental Cars Limited

If you’re interested in location reviews and would like to prepare your business for life after lockdown by starting to rank higher in local search results now, find out how to optimise your pages today to gain competitive advantage in a couple of weeks. Sign up for a free location reviews demo.

Using location reviews to stand out in search after lockdown

Why does Google care if your business has online reviews?

These days Google expects to see reviews about your business because they help search engines understand the quality of your product or service. This improves your off-page SEO, which can help you climb to the top of organic search results.

Maybe it’s because Amazon taught us to rely on ratings and reviews, or maybe it’s because we’ve always been social creatures, eager to hear about what others did when faced with similar decisions. 

Maybe it’s because Google tends to show us search results that feature reviews and ratings. 

Whatever the root cause, there’s no question that ratings and reviews help shoppers on their quest for the perfect purchase, or that they work wonders for businesses of just about any size.

Whether you need to improve your [online reputation](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/trustpilot-guide-to-social-media-reputation-management), create a [feedback loop with your customers](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/how-to-keep-existing-customers-happy-and-buying), step up your [user-generated content](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/4-great-examples-of-user-generated-content) game, or boost [on-site conversions](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/how-great-sites-convert-visitors-to-customers) — a review strategy can help with all of that. 

But perhaps the most underrated benefit of collecting reviews is that, when implemented properly, reviews can help Google better understand your site. That’s a huge win for organic SEO. 

Between more and more businesses emerging each day (who are, to say the least, also trying to stand out in organic search), and paid advertising becoming [less effective](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/can-online-reviews-revive-consumer-trust-in-advertising) in saturated markets, ranking well in organic search results is a true asset for any business.

When your potential customers are off consulting the internet for help making their next purchase, wouldn’t you want to put yourself right where they can see you?

## Reviews can help you rank higher in organic search results

Unlike paid advertising campaigns, which don't always [delight consumers](https://searchengineland.com/4-reasons-why-your-ad-is-fatiguing-206706), doing what you can to improve your organic Search Engine Results Page (SERP) ranking can really move the needle — with less risk of potential customers getting fed up with your brand.

If we had to quantify the importance of your organic search ranking, a staggering [91.5% of organic traffic](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-101/seo-statistics/) share goes to sites listed on the first page of results. Don’t shoot the messenger, but if you’re not ranking anywhere near the first page of results, you’re probably not getting seen in organic search.

Make no mistake. Ranking on the first page in Google SERPs is a challenge for businesses of all shapes and sizes, and it certainly doesn’t happen overnight. The good news is that other aspects of your broader marketing strategy, like review collection, [can do double duty to help you with organic SEO](https://velstar.co.uk/velstar-asks-trustpilot-how-do-reviews-impact-seo-and-why-do-they-matter/).

### How do we know that reviews and ratings are meaningful to *the powers that be* at Google in 2020?

According to [Moz's 2018 Local Search Ranking Factors](https://moz.com/local-search-ranking-factors), review signals like [quantity](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/3-reasons-why-you-really-need-to-get-more-reviews), velocity, and diversity came in as the 3rd most important factor in how Google ranks local businesses in its “Local Pack” SERP. Some sources consider review signals to be even more important in 2019. That’s a pretty big deal, especially if you do a lot of local business.

And if you’re not a brick and mortar business, the SEO community believes you’ll still see serious SEO benefits from gathering reviews. Common understanding is that Google uses them to derive [brand signals](https://moz.com/blog/the-next-generation-of-ranking-signals), which can boost your site’s domain authority and eventually your position in search.

Because Google’s goal is to serve up high quality and reputable results, they’re on the lookout brand signals that can help them separate the “brands” (who, among other indicators, have proof of a satisfied customer base) from the “generics” (the sites that Google classifies as having a poor user experience).  


Brand sites versus generics 

Simply put, Google appreciates when some of the guesswork around a website’s quality is done for them, so it’s a good idea to use independent (read: trusted) online platforms to gather reviews.

## The role of reviews in off-page SEO

In answering why Google cares about online reviews, we have to touch on the role reviews play in off-page SEO. As the name suggests, off-page SEO (also called off-site SEO) refers to the actions you take outside of your actual website to impact your rankings in organic search.

This is a high level look at how it works:

Off page SEO

Off-page SEO

By incorporating some off-page SEO techniques into your overall strategy — like building a presence on social media and third-party review platforms — you signal to Google that you’re a brand.

Most businesses have an on-page SEO strategy to help with organic search, but fewer are spending significant energy on off-page opportunities. Pulling some key levers for off-page SEO could be the competitive advantage your business needs to rise to the top of organic search results.

### Your presence on third-party review platforms can help you climb to the top of search 

When people search for reviews of your brand, what do they find? Business profile pages on Trustpilot tend to appear as a top search result, often with [Review Snippet stars](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/review-seo), and are backed by the credibility of a review platform built for people and businesses. 

But why do the Trustpilot profile pages tend to surface at the top of SERPs?

It all goes back to the concept of [domain authority](https://moz.com/learn/seo/domain-authority). We don’t mean to brag, but Trustpilot’s domain authority is strong. In fact, as of 2019, Trustpilot is among the top 1% of most visited sites in the world and 0.35% of all Google searches include a Trustpilot business profile page — and for some additional context, there are about [63,000 Google searches](https://seotribunal.com/blog/google-stats-and-facts/) every second of every day.

The more reviews you get, and the more you enrich the content on your business profile page (think: company contact information, mission statement, social media profiles), the more content you provide for both search engines to associate your brand with ours, and show your profile page at the top of search results. 


Third Party Review Platforms Can Help You Climb to Top Of Search Results

### Google changes. Reviews are likely here to stay. 

According to [Moz](https://moz.com/learn/seo/off-site-seo), off-site SEO-related factors like third-party reviews carry more than 50% of the ranking factor weight. Though search engines are constantly evolving, factors like relevance, trustworthiness, and authority will likely always play a role in a page’s ability to rank, and building up your online presence with reviews can help businesses crush all three of those criteria.

At the end of the day, you want both your customers and Google to think of you as a brand. You can make all the on-page SEO optimizations you want, but Google will still be looking out for your brand’s reputation on [third-party platforms](https://thenextweb.com/contributors/2018/02/26/can-independent-review-platforms-make-google-love-site/).



## An ever-improving brand reputation

Most businesses spend a lot of time optimizing their websites for what they think Google wants to see, but __what your customers want to see is still incredibly important__. When a person searches for reviews of your company, they’re looking for a neutral third-party source of information.

Profiles on third-party review sites like Trustpilot tend to rank highly thanks to their strong domain authority, helping them stand out in organic search. They’re a great way to highlight your reputation to potential customers.



Brand reputation on third party platforms helps SEO

Choosing to build your online presence on a platform that’s likely to appear at the top of search is an advantage. But choosing a review platform known for [transparency and openness](https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/330528) is the fast track to a brand reputation that consumers can not only easily find, but also easily trust.

If you want to learn more, here are some other useful links that will help you get started improving your organic search performance with online reviews.

Trustpilot is a leading online review platform. Ready to start showing off your reputation in search results? Click the banner below to learn more about the many ways we can help.


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