As marketers and SEO professionals, we all know how deflating it can be to see that your site isn’t ranking well. But, what can be even more frustrating is trying to figure out why so many review sites are outranking you for important keywords. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be this way. With the right tactics, you can drive more traffic to your site and win against customer review sites.
Here are the two most effective tactics for when a customer review site outranks you:
This first strategy is to take advantage of the fact that this customer review site is already appearing high up in the Google ranking for the same keywords that you’re trying to target. From the perspective of the search engine, the review site is the most helpful for people’s searches. By consistently appearing at the top of the review site, you can start to drive traffic to your site and piggyback off the existing success of the review site.
Ask your customers to write reviews on that site and work on being the most visible company on that customer review page. Then, new traffic may get redirected from the customer review site over to your website. For Demandwell, we have been working on our G2 page, and it has become a significant source of organic traffic (and even new leads).
The other tactic is to publish SEO-optimized content surrounding the keyword you’re targeting to demonstrate to Google that your site is the authority in this space. Relevant content is one of the most powerful SEO ranking factors that can impact where the Google algorithm places your site. To achieve this goal, you’re going to need to build truly effective content. We’re not just talking about a page or two but an entire library of information that is helpful, practical, and truly specific to your industry. In the end, you’re an expert in this field, and you know this category far better than a customer review site, which is busy trying to rank well for all kinds of different software.
Set your site apart by focusing exclusively on your industry and the niche your product or service is in. Stick to your SEO strategy and stay consistent with content production. Make sure that your content is better than what the review sites are producing and that it has more breadth and depth, which are two crucial differentiators Google will look for when comparing your site to review sites.
You’ve got two options if you want to outrank a customer review site. The first is to achieve high performance on the review site itself. This can be a clever workaround to take full advantage of a review site’s existing SEO success. The second strategy is establishing yourself as an authority in your field by executing your SEO strategy. Both strategies are viable, and it is up to you to focus on what is within reach and how to best contribute to your bottom line.
