5 Reasons to Add User Generated Reviews to Your Site

User-generated content has changed the way companies do business forever. The top-down marketing of twenty years ago no longer works. Customers now expect interaction, community - and to be able to give their own opinion on products and services.

Here are five key reasons to consider integrating customer reviews into your website design:

1. It builds trust
Allowing customer reviews on your site shows an openness that users love. They'll see your site as fair, friendly and above all trustworthy.

Don't worry about negative reviews. Research by Keller Fay shows that the overwhelming majority of reviews are positive. However, a negative review also lends your site credibility - it shows you're listening to your customers and giving them a chance to speak.

2. It boosts your SEO
Google loves content like plants love water. The more content your site provides for the search engines, the better. Not only will you start ranking for a wider variety of keywords and phrases (known as "long tail" keywords), but you're more likely to attract natural links (which can improve your rankings significantly).

User generated content also helps you to overcome an eternal problem with building quality material - i.e. it can be very expensive. Hand over control to your customers and they'll do the job of creating content for you.

3. It's free market research
With user-generated reviews your customers are telling you what they think of your business and products - for free. No more expensive feedback reports or research. It means that you can react to criticism immediately - before it starts costing you sales.

4. It saves money
Not only do reviewed products outsell products with no customer reviews, they also result in reduced product returns. This can help you make big operational savings.

In addition, you'll save on customer support calls and queries. When your customers are asking and answering questions for you, it saves you a lot of time and resources.

5. It's what your customer wants
Today users don't just want reviews - they expect them. As shown by the success of companies like Amazon, customers adore reviews. They love to read them and in many cases they love to provide them. In fact, according to Deloitte and Touche, 82% of people who read reviews are directly influenced by them when it comes to choosing a product.

Reviews, particularly bad ones, help a customer decide which product is right for them. The importance of bad reviews is that by reading them a customer can decide if the negatives of a given product are something they can live with.

And of course - the more useful your company is for your users - the more likely you are to make sales.

About the Author

Oliver Pluckrose is the Head of Development for Online Business Solutions UK Limited (OBS Group) - a web design agency based in London. Formed in 1998, OBS Group's ethos has always been to provide simple, end user-driven website development for a sensible, fixed price.