It’s all about Trust and Visibility

In the world of Digital Marketing, there are those who simply go with the flow, and there are others who stand above the crowd. As someone who has been in the business for over 13 years, one thing that I can tell you is that the field can be a bit overcrowded. Fortunately, there are a number of tools that you can use to find that something that sets you apart from everyone else. Seller Rating extensions are one of these tools.

What are seller ratings?

Seller ratings are a five-star based system that is used by Google to showcase a particular Seller’s rating.  They appear below the text in Product Listing Ads (PLAs). Seller ratings also show in Google Shopping. The whole idea behind Seller Ratings is for them to act as a reflection of the experiences that your customers have had in dealing with your business. A positive experience translates into positive feedback which, in turn, means that you will get a 4- or 5-star rating.

How to get Seller Ratings

So, where does Google get the data that it uses for Seller Ratings? The answer to this lies in online reviews. To get seller ratings, you first need to make sure that your customers are leaving (hopefully positive) feedback in strategic places across the internet. To be frank, any company that has not already been harnessing the amazing power of online reviews has probably been missing out on a vast potential for growth.

Google licenses seller rating companies

When we talk about online reviews, most people think about companies such as Yelp and TripAdvisor. The thing to note is that Google has licensed about 30 companies to syndicate the data that is used in online reviews (Yelp and TripAdvisor are not some of these companies). Google also gets the data that it uses for online reviews from Google Customer Reviews.

If you want to know more about star ratings and how to get them, we have previously written this comprehensive article covering the topic. Feel free to read AdWords Star Ratings to get more information! What we can say here is that most of the companies that are licensed to syndicate data for Seller Ratings will charge you for the service. However, Google Customer Reviews is free, so this should probably be your first port of call.

Why are Google Seller ratings an important tool against the competition?

We need to reiterate here that if you have not already been using Google Seller Ratings, then you have definitely been missing out on a vast potential for growth for your business. Google Seller ratings are an important tool against your competitors for the following reasons;

  1. They give you a 17% boost in performance in Google Ads:  Star Ratings, including Seller Ratings, are a great way through which you can boost the performance of your ads in Google Ads. Indeed, Google itself mentions in this blog post that online shoppers tend to gravitate towards merchants that showcase seller ratings in their ads. If you think those little stars have a minimum effect, then you would be sorely mistaken. Having Seller Ratings in your Google Ads can boost your CTR by as much as 17%!
  2. Seller Ratings increase your Ads’ visibility: Search engine optimization is all about visibility and having star rating extensions gives you that something extra that enables you to stand out from within the crowd. Fact of the matter is, people are much more likely to click on an ad that has seller ratings, as opposed to one that does not.
  3. They help increase people’s trust in your business: Knowing that others have already done business with you and have found the experience satisfactory enough to bother leaving positive feedback is one of the reasons why Seller Ratings tend to be so important. In a sense, they are a beacon of trust, removing that final impediment that stands as a barrier between your business and your potential customers.
  4. They are a quick reflection of online reviews: The importance of online reviews to businesses can never be overemphasized. With up to 90% of people referring to them before making purchases, it is clear that people put stock in the feedback that is left on the internet as a guide when making purchases. Star ratings are and quick and highly visible part of the online reviews process and they are an important way through which you can stay ahead of the competition.