Once upon a time, high-quality page content and links were all retailers needed to be first in search. With rising mobile usage and the explosion of social networks, consumers are now looking to fresh, relevant content, such as local business reviews to decide where to dine and shop. Link farms, SEO hacking, fake news and fake reviews had also been distorting search results. In 2015, in an effort to better the user experience, Google began to change, and has continued to tweak, their search algorithm to boost pages that are “mobile friendly” and that spotlight customer reviews.
Crowdsourcing giants such as Yelp often rise to the top, as their reviews demonstrably increase clicks. But fuel retailers rarely benefit, as these generic review sites are typically a morass of negativity when it comes to gas stations and provide little of the important information, such as updated fuel prices and amenities, that consumers need.
“Bottom line, if you want to appear prominently in Google’s search results, it is critical to have user reviews and design for mobile first,” says Joshua Herzig-Marx, VP of Product at GasBuddy. Herzig-Marx comes to GasBuddy from Google where he worked on their retail and commerce Partnerships team.
As per digital location management specialists Yext, retailers must capitalize on the opportunity to deliver current, authentic content—particularly reviews—to an audience that is clearly paying attention. As demonstrated by the millions of monthly user-generation interactions (nearly three million each day), GasBuddy can enable fuel retailers to gain valuable insight into the customer experience, help elevate their position in search results, and build a presence on third-party sites and establish a modern, digital relationship between them and their customers.
This post is sponsored by GasBuddy