We just recently discovered this new feature in the wild. Google is Displaying a snippet of a review that it deems relevant to the search term. Below you can see it in the 3 pack which is the first page of the google search results. What does this matter? Well for 1 you get an additional line of text to get noticed vs the other listings. 2 it draws more attention with the additional icon. 3 it highlights data regarding the search term. All in all I bet you see a nice click through bump when you have these displaying.
Here you can see that they are also showing this type of snippet inside google maps as well.
It will be interesting if you can get this type of review snippet to show when running google adwords with location extension on so that your ad shows in the 3 pack like this:
This continues to show that google is putting more focus on reviews, their actual content and relevance to the search. My prediction is that keywords in your reviews will be a bigger ranking signal in the months and years to come. Its harder for SEO’s to “optimize” the actual review text.
What should you do?
Get more reviews.
But, I would also start trying to influence the words that are in your reviews now.
How?
When you are asking for feedback perhaps ask for a review about the persons “x service” like if you are a Cosmetic Dentist perhaps asking for a review about their “cosmetic dentistry” service or their “dental Implant” vs just a review about their service. Or perhaps the client or patient is from a neighboring town, then you could ask them for feedback on how it was as a person from “town x” finding a new dentist.
I predict that rankings will change in the 3 pack based on these terms, and that you will be able to rank in surrounding towns with enough reviews that mention that town. Not to mention that Google knows where people live and that data will likely start to influence the rankings of listings with their reviews.
I think that google will get a lot better about using the data they all ready have in smarted ways to stop SEO’s from gaming the system.
Reviews should be consistent, you want 4+ stars really 4.8+ and to have no less than 10 now for trust but really if you don’t have hundreds you will soon become irrelevant as a business.
Thoughts? Comment below.
