The Impact of Google Reviews on Consumer Decision-Making: Insights and Trends

Google search plays an important role in all three phases of the buyer’s journey — awareness, consideration, and decision. What started as a mere search engine has now become a source of trustworthy information. 

Consumers consider Google a reliable source of information. That’s why we place so much emphasis on building trust using Google Business Listings.

More than 50% of consumers say that they use Google to find a new brand, and 59% of shoppers use Google to research a product before they make a purchase. This clearly highlights the fact that Google searches, and in turn Google reviews, play a central role in the buyer’s journey.

How Google Reviews Influence Consumer Behaviour

But how does this help your local business expand and become more profitable?

This graph shows why you should have a sharp focus on building a reputation via Google reviews.

Let’s break this down for easier understanding:

  • In the mid-2000s, Google was just another search engine that people used to find all kinds of products. 

The relative search volume for the terms “best” and “cheap” did not show much variation during this time. Notably, “near me” searches are practically absent!

  • With the growing reputation of Google, the search term “best” sees a healthy increase. At the same time “cheap” sees a sizable decline. 

This points to the fact that consumers warmed up to the idea of using Google for researching high-value purchases.

  • “Near me” searches start to grow at an astonishing rate 2016 onwards.
  • Coming to the present day, “cheap” has a relatively low volume while “best” and “near me” searches dominate.

What do these trends mean? 

These trends validate that consumers are increasingly using Google to find local businesses. At the same time, they are using Google to check a business’s reputation and help them figure out the best quality option. 

Google search ranking and listings are more important than ever. Especially for local businesses looking to increase volumes and revenue.

Building Trust and Addressing Negative Reviews

Not all reviews are created equal. 

While you can encourage consumers to post reviews, it takes a lot to offset each negative review due to the negativity bias.  

The negativity bias means that unpleasant reviews will have a far higher weightage compared to the positive ones. This can have a significant impact when consumers are considering your brand.

The good news is that much of this can be mitigated by simply replying to the negative reviews. First, you need to figure out how you can help the consumer resolve the issues. You can then reply to the review, which creates a proactive image. 

The following pointers can help you reply to negative reviews:

  • Reply to negative reviews with a crisp explanation of how you addressed the issue and made it right for the consumer.
  • Reply as soon as possible. Even if you have not figured out the solution, informing the customer that you are working on it and will reach out to them goes a long way.
  • If you receive repeated reviews about the same problem, you need to specify the changes you made to prevent it from happening again. This assures future prospects that they will not face the same issue.
  • Even if the consumer is making unreasonable demands, consider meeting those demands a marketing cost.

Final Words

Online reputation is a major factor influencing purchase decisions, especially for local businesses. 

Good Google reviews and ratings are non-negotiable when you are looking to grow your business. Most consumers will not even consider a brand with relatively low ratings.

Insights into consumer decision-making trends are necessary to understand the market. But overall reputation management is a little more complicated.

You need actionable insights for proper reputation management. Your brand’s reputation is affected by multiple factors. At least limited automation is required to tackle reputation management.

Using softwares such as SingleInterface, which offer well-thought-out reputation management features, can help your local business create a positive reputation and top search rankings.

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