How To Increase Traffic By Adding Google Rating Stars
September 28. 2019
The Internet is a marvelous place! It helps people rise to fame overnight, it allows us to shop month’s worth of groceries in a couple of minutes and it helps businesses reach a wider audience. If you are a business owner who is currently trying to expand the scope of your services and increase online traffic, you shouldn’t stray too far looking for the perfect solution. If you are confident enough in the quality of your products/services, you should add Google rating stars option. And if you are wondering how to increase traffic by adding Google rating stars, you needn’t conduct extensive research on the topic.
Our WP Full Care team is here to solve your dilemma by tackling three important points – how the Google rating system works, why it’s important for increasing traffic and how you too can get your stars. Let’s begin.
What is there to know about the Google star rating system
What started out in 2010 as ad space at the top of the search results for those companies that paid Google Shopping is now a somewhat improved system. Now, the star ratings are expanded to organic search results, as well. Today, the organic search results system works by using rich snippets – a form of data that Google uses to obtain important pieces of information and show it as a preview under the search results.
How do rich snippets differ from plain old snippets? The adjective ‘rich’ serves to describe the added pieces of information that appear in rich snippets as opposed to regular snippets. And the rating stars are only a part of the rich snippets. They help you get more information, they look nicer, and they help your website stand out. There’s nothing like getting all that information just by glancing at the screen.
Now that you know the background behind the Google star rating system, you are ready to hear how it can help you increase website traffic. Some studies show that adding Google stars can help you improve your click-through rate by as much as 10%! Quite a staggering number. And that’s just for paid ad space! It is believed that with organic search results as well, the click-through rate can be improved by much more than that. Who knows – you might become the next successful company that uses WordPress and the Google star rating system.
How to increase traffic by adding Google rating stars
Knowing the story behind the rating system is not enough – not until you find out the importance of using it. Imagine searching for the best local movers in your area. You are seeing a bunch of names with links next to them. Then, suddenly, you see one that stands out. That one has bright yellow stars next to it and you are seeing a lot of them. Immediately, that company will stand out from a plethora of those that don’t have Google rating stars next to their name.
And that’s just the power of the sheer presence of stars! Imagine what would happen if you got a bunch of positive reviews and testimonials! That would allow your company to have a top-star rating. You would spark interest which will earn more exposure for your business and engage your visitors.
As if all of this weren’t enough, the increased engagement will help your site rank better on Google Results pages. And we all know how important it is to boost the SEO of your website and help it have a better position on Google. Luckily, after a while, Google rating stars will help you do just that!
How to earn your rating
You were able to see why it pays off to earn Google rating stars. But nothing that’s good comes without a bit of effort (or a lot of it) and the same certainly applies here. Google won’t let just any organic search results to show Google stars – that privilege has to be earned! Now that you know how to increase traffic by adding Google rating stars, there’s only just one little thing left for you to do – earn them!
You’ll have to show real reviews on your website
If you want for Google to show your star rating for organic search results, relying on reviews on third-party websites won’t be enough. It’s a pre-requisite for you to show real customer testimonials on your website. Whether you decide to use a plugin that will make it easy for your customers to write a review directly on your website or you take a screenshot of reviews on third-party websites and post them on your website is completely up to you. Just think of the message you are trying to convey.
Leave behind structured data if you want to increase traffic by adding Google rating stars
How can you let Google know which reviews on your site are relevant? By adding structured data from plain text. The great thing about using a WordPress site is that there is a useful and free SEO Structured Data Schema. This plugin will let you edit site-wide data, such as your logo, hours, etc. When you implement it correctly, structured data increases your chances of Google showing relevant information about your website in SERPs (search engine results pages) through rich snippets.
Remember that all good things inevitably take time
It did take you a little bit of patience to learn how to increase traffic by adding Google rating stars but it will take you some more patience to start seeing the results. As long as you follow the steps listed above, the stars should be next to your website’s name in as little as a week. Once the stars show, it just a matter of time before you start seeing increased traffic. And that will come with a lot of benefits for your business. We think that having a bit of patience is a small price to pay for all the good that’s about to come. Don’t you agree?