How Search and Reviews Will Become More Visual and Immersive
Discover how search and reviews will become more visual and immersive and how businesses can leverage them to stay competitive.
Product reviews are critical to local businesses. However, reviews are taking a hit due to several factors. One reason is how “Search” and reviews are evolving. Damian Rollison, Director of Market Insights, SOCi, discusses how “Search” and reviews will become more visual and immersive and how businesses can leverage them.
As with so many aspects of our society, the COVID-19 pandemic greatly impacted the reviews consumers leave for businesses on online platforms like Google and Yelp. During the early days of the shutdown period in 2020, Google turned off the ability to leave new reviews for businesses entirely, acting out of caution during a time when reviews could be a source of misinformation about the availability of essential services. Though review functionality was turned back on after a few weeks, very few consumers were out and about during the shutdown period, leading to an extended period of low review activity.
A lot has happened since then, and today consumers have more or less returned to their pre-pandemic shopping activities. But reviews haven’t recovered. Google reviews of local businesses have grown in volume since the shutdown. But they now appear to have plateaued at levels of activity significantly below what was the case in the pre-pandemic period. According to SOCi’s 2022 State of Google Reviews report, businesses earned 56% fewer reviews in 2022 than in 2019.
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The interfaces for writing and reading local business reviews on Google have evolved significantly in recent months, with support for video as the latest addition.
(Source: Google/SOCi)
Short-form Video Reshuffles Consumer Attention From Traditional Reviews
The pandemic isn’t the sole cause of this downturn. Another major trend that emerged parallel to the pandemic was the rise of short-form video, spearheaded by TikTok. Google’s own internal research, unveiled earlier this year, shows that 40% of Gen Z users now prefer using TikTok or Instagram over Google Search and Maps when looking for a place to have lunch.
Short-form videos have become a highly popular resource for viewing recommendations of local businesses, at least in categories like food, travel, and entertainment, where a highly visual presentation makes sense. It may be some time before video recommendations are commonplace in other verticals less focused on visuals. But the trend has probably already taken away a share of consumer attention from traditional reviews, contributing to the downward trend.
At the same time, it’s far too early to predict the demise of the traditional review. Reviews of local businesses will probably become more of a multimedia experience themselves; in fact, Google has long allowed reviewers to add photos to reviews and recently launched support for videos. In recent months, Google has added more and more features to reviews, asking reviewers for input on specific products, meal types, and prices and displaying more structured info on review pages. Rather than backing off, Google is doubling down on reviews and looking for more ways to provide value to consumers.
The interfaces for writing and reading local business reviews on Google have evolved significantly in recent months, with support for video as the latest addition.
(Source: Google/SOCi)
This is part of a trend in search overall, where Google, undoubtedly inspired by the examples of platforms like TikTok and Instagram, has been pushing its interface to become more visually oriented. In fact, an even longer-term trend, going back to the early days of voice search, is still in play, with Google accepting voice inputs and providing voice outputs via Google Assistant. Overall, search is becoming multi-modal — increasingly able to accept inputs and produce outputs in various media formats to suit the convenience of searchers.
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Embrace More Immersive Experiences
Marketers need to understand these trends to remain competitive. Unfortunately, many multi-location companies and SMBs alike are still catching up with the priorities of review management at the local level. Multi-location brands, for example, only respond on average to about a third of the reviews they receive on Google. Yet research shows that review response greatly impacts the likelihood that consumers will choose your business over others. Businesses that respond to all of their reviews see a 16.4% advantage in conversions over businesses that don’t respond. What’s more, every 0.1-star increase in average rating improves conversion by 4.4%. Given that at least 89% of consumers read reviews before making a purchase decision, brand reputations must be built and maintained locally.
All of this indicates that reviews will be with us for a long time to come. But brands should also learn to embrace the more immersive, visually-oriented experiences pioneered by social platforms and increasingly utilized by Google and other traditional publishers. At some point in the not-so-distant future, brands may be able to respond with videos of their own to video recommendations uploaded by customers.
Already today, brand marketers are seeing success in promoting their products and services through optimized photo and video content in both search and social. A recent Facebook earnings call reported that 50% of the time spent on the world’s most popular social network is now spent watching video content.
This fall, Google launched a new shopping experience in its desktop and mobile search results that is heavily focused on photo content showcasing the product offerings of various retailers. To see this live, just search for any product with a phrase that starts with “shop,” such as “shop women’s boots.” The search page is utterly transformed, looking more like Google Images than the traditional ten-blue links.
The new Google shopping experience transforms the search results page into a visual-first experience.
(Source: Google / SOCi)
Also this year, Google Lens, the tool that lets users search using pictures or pointing their phone cameras at objects, was augmented with a feature called multi-search that lets users add text qualifiers to images. For example, you can upload a photo of a dress in blue and, with text qualifiers, ask Google to look for it in green.
These are just a few examples of the multi-modal future that awaits us in search and social, where any combination of media inputs and outputs will be possible. Marketers must think of pictures and videos not just as illustrative but also as part of a search optimization strategy. And they must stay up to date with developing consumer preferences for sharing information online.
How are you using the evolution of search and reviews to gain a competitive advantage? Share with us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Image Source: Shutterstock
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