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How to Improve Local SEO for Your WordPress Website

Local search engine optimization (SEO) is all about optimizing your business website for local searches. In other words, you are trying to rank for the searches around your locality, town, or city. Most people who look for products and services online often search for businesses that are within their locality. So customers are more likely to do business with stores or brands that show up first on search engines.

That said, local SEO is unique in that search engines like Google use different sets of ranking factors to display search results. That’s why if you randomly type keywords such as “coffee shop” or “grocery store,” Google will display or suggest businesses within your area.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the local SEO ranking factors to guide you as you optimize your WordPress website and Google my business reviews.

Local SEO Ranking Factors

Local SEO uses geo qualifiers to better match users to their location-sensitive queries, such as ‘near me’ or ‘nearby’.

surrounding Google my business profiles for Local SEO WordPress

surrounding Google my business profiles for Local SEO WordPress

Local SEO has grown considerably over the last few years, and it covers everything from keyword research, Map Pack ranking, and local organic ranking, to off-page SEO. Here, you can still go into the finer details to optimize for local voice searchers while maximizing Google and Yelp suggestions. All these aspects matter, but you always want first to pay attention to the major ranking factors. Here are some of them:

Google My Business Profile

Google My Business (GMB) is the holy grail of local SEO of WordPress website. Here, consistency is key, so you always want to match all the details on your GMB profile with those on your business website. Similarly, all the business details across the web, whether on social media or other websites, should match. These include your business name, physical address, phone number, opening and closing hours, directions, etc.

Google result page review section for Local SEO WordPress

Google result page review section for Local SEO WordPress

That said, consistency narrows down to the finer details; for example, if you list your address using “Avenue” or “street,” always stick to this formatting. Avoid mixing it up with abbreviations like “Ave.,” or “St.” This confuses the Google algorithm and may have a negative impact when ranking your GMB profile.

Last but not least is to fill in every data you can until your profile is 100% complete. How you fill in the profile also matters. You want to strategically use keywords in sections such as category, services, and business description. Also, keep every crucial piece of data updated and always be honest. Do not list products or services you don’t offer and be keen to update if closed during holidays or special events to avoid misleading customers.

Online Reviews

According to a recent study by Moz, Google reviews were the second most important ranking factor impacting local search results, i.e., just after GMB elements. However, bad reviews were shown to hurt local SEO of your WordPress website, while genuine and positive reviews were linked to higher rankings.

locations near me search box for Local SEO WordPress

locations near me search box for Local SEO WordPress

Another important takeaway is that a business owner’s response to the reviews can help build trust with consumers. So, responding to negative and positive reviews and engaging customers is key to ranking for local searches. That also means knowing how to ask for reviews without being a turn-off is quite crucial in today’s business landscape.

The key to success is to first work on your customer experience, partly by polishing your offerings and learning how to connect emphatically with distressed customers. Knowing when and how to ask for feedback will also boost your odds of getting quality reviews.

Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP) Citations

Google and other search engines use NAP citations to confirm that your business information is correct. When these citations appear in various places across the internet; Google will confirm and verify your business info. So, having consistent NAPs on several reputed websites will make your WordPress website more trustworthy and visible to prospects and customers.

Other Local SEO Factors to Consider

Besides focusing on GMB profiles, online reviews, and NAP citations, you also want to focus on local keyword research, content strategy, and link building. Typically, all the other aspects of SEO will apply, and you may need to break them down into on-page and off-page SEO.

Using relevant images and videos and creating valuable content for local users is a great way to attract their attention. You will also have to prioritize site experience by working on-site speed and navigation. Additionally, optimize your site for mobile to boost conversion and retention.

And regardless of the business type, you can choose to go creative by leveraging the power of local SEO WP plugins. Some of these plugins will help you implement schema and structured data on your WordPress site.

Final Thoughts

In today’s digital world, businesses need to evolve and keep up to pace with current market trends. The high level of competition has seen several businesses look for ways to safeguard their competitive advantage. For many, enhancing their Local SEO strategies has helped drive traffic in their region, boosting conversion and revenue.

So to succeed in local SEO, you want to mix and match the strategies we’ve highlighted above until you find what works best for your WordPress Website. But first, work on your GMB profile, manage your online reviews, and ensure consistency with your NAP citations.

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10 Best WordPress Plugins to Display Customer Reviews on Your Site

Have you ever used the internet to read reviews of products before you buy them?

Obviously, right?

From products, to blockbusters, to hotel reviews, the internet has given everyone a voice to share their feedback on just about anything. So, this has made reviews and ratings become a crucial part of modern life. And any business owner or entrepreneur should never overlook this aspect of branding and customer services.

Today’s article will take a look at 10 essential WordPress customer review and rating plugins to help you add beautiful reviews widget to your website and ultimately boost your online revenue.

Now dive in and find the best!

1. Google Places Reviews Pro WordPress Plugin

Google Places Reviews Pro WordPress Plugin

Social proof is a powerful part of any business website. Right?

You want to build credibility on the Internet but don’t know how.

You want customers to buy your products in a matter of seconds but don’t know how.

No need to worry! Google Places Reviews Pro WordPress plugin from Ninja Team is another essential customer review plugin you need since it helps you display your business reviews and rating on your website.

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Some of main features that I like about this plugin include:

  • Showcase Your Business Profile Brightly
  • Display Your Business Reviews In Body Or Widget
  • Provide Multi-option Reviews Widget
  • Attract More Reviews For Local Business
  • Improve Your Website Google Ranking
  • Ensure The Most Recent Reviews Are Positive

Once install successfully on your website, you can automatically pull in reviews from the Google service and then choose where to display them on your site.

The benefit of displaying these user generated reviews directly on your website is that they provide vital social proof, while also helping to establish the reliability and credibility of your business.

Ninja Google ReviewsSo, this handy WordPress Google review plugin can improve your conversion rates in a long way, helping you to generate more sales, leads, and profits from your website.

If you want to improve the credibility and trust of your website, then displaying user-generated reviews from the Google Places service is a great way to do so.

With this super useful WordPress review plugin, you can display a wide variety of reviews to show the strength of your brand on your WordPress website.

If you want to monetize your blog by making your own product review system, be sure to check out the best WordPress review themes.

2. Yelp Reviews Pro for WordPress

Yelp Reviews Pro for WordPress

You’re running your business and want to build trust with your customers, and you don’t know what is the ideal way to do that? Right?

So, reviews are an excellent way to gain trust with visitors to your website. They help validate your business and provide valuable information to potential clients.

Among superb WP customer review plugins available on the market, Yelp Reviews Pro developed by Ninja Team is a perfect WordPress review plugin for your business and it’s worth your investment.

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Yelp Reviews Pro for WordPress helps you display your business profile and reviews or business listings from Yelp to your website/ blog with shortcodes or widget. It’s very simple to use.

  • Some of the main features I like about this plugin include:
  • Enables you to pull data from Yelp through its API.
  • Add Yelp reviews to WordPress using widgets.
  • Store your Yelp reviews within the WordPress database.

After successful installation and activation, you need to get a Yelp API Key.

Yelp Reviews Pro for WordPress

Then, you configure the plugin settings and add the Yelp Reviews Widget. Using the Yelp Reviews widget is no different than any other widget.

Now, let’s go ahead and choose which business’ reviews the widget will display. Technically, you can use the widget to show reviews from any Yelp business, but you’ll obviously want to display yours, right?

Yelp Reviews Pro

Also, you can display 2 columns with detailed information of any particular businesses.

Yelp Reviews Pro for WordPress

If you want to give your business reputation a shot in the arm, we highly recommend this wonderful WordPress review plugin and Yelp Reviews Widget will be your next secret weapon.

3. WP Product Review Pro

WP Product Review Pro

WP Product Review is the next amazing WordPress customer review plugin that lets you add good-looking reviews to your posts and products. It’s a must-have tool for those who own an online store, magazines and news sites, or simply review websites.

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With WP Product Review, you’re able to display your customers’ opinions about the products you review. Users can rate features, leave comments on the review, and even mark others’ comments as useful or not.

You can earn customers’ trust by using WP Review Pro’s Google Places Reviews integration. By using this integration, you can import and embed reviews from Google to your website instantly.

WP Product Review

What’s more, embedding Facebook Reviews on your website is a breeze with WP Review Pro. Simply enter your Facebook app credentials and start importing any Facebook reviews in a matter of seconds.

Plus, this great WordPress review plugin takes the review section of your website to the next level by allowing users to evaluate features and products with comments. You can even include user reviews and ratings in the total review score of the product.

WP Review Pro

Overall, this wonderful WordPress customer review plugin is a very friendly, quick, and nice way to show awesome reviews on your website.

4. Handsome Testimonial

Handsome Testimonial

Have you ever bought something through online shops? Any doubts or considerations about credibility of that shop before clicking “order” button to make the right choice?

So, what can you do?

All you need to do is take a look at customers’ feedback, sample images or comments before making any purchase. Period. Easy stuff !

Therefore, testimonials are vital in gaining trust with potential customers. Right?

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That is the reason why Handsome Testimonials by Ristretto Apps lets you easily display attractive and eye-catching testimonials on your site that earn your customer’s trust.

Handsome Testimonials

With this WordPress testimonials plugin, we wanted to enable a user to create a beautiful testimonial with no customization at all.

This reviews and testimonials WordPress plugin will enable your existing clients to leave their feedback and persuade the potential ones that your business is worthy of dependence and loyalty.

All settings are saved in an auto-generated shortcode that you can then insert anywhere in your site. Widgets are also supported, and you can use the shortcode within a widget if you want.

Envato Plugins Banner

To conclude, this great WP testimonials plugin will be the best choice to synthesize a great number of positive testimonials that might be the crucial point to convert hesitant buyers into loyal customers.

5. WP Customer Reviews

WP Customer Reviews

You’re in search of a plugin to help you collect WordPress customer reviews at your site?

WP Customer Reviews is the right tool to help you do that. This WordPress Customer Reviews plugin allows you to collect customers reviews as well as create your own product reviews.

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By default, the reviews appear below your page content. But by using shortcodes, you can get them to appear anywhere in your post. Shortcodes also help with many aspects of display such as recent reviews or the number of reviews on one page.

WordPress Customer Reviews

WordPress Customer Reviews

Also, this customer review plugin allows you to customize the review form shown to users and comes with a how to use page with detailed instructions.

6. Rich Reviews

Rich Reviews

The next free WordPress customer review plugin worth checking out is Rich Reviews. It uses shortcodes to help you showcase reviews on any page or post, or just about anywhere on your site.

The key feature of Rich Reviews is to allow users to submit their own reviews of your products and services, which you can then choose to moderate and display as you expect.

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Rich Reviews

From the plugin’s settings, you can control many things. For instance, you can enable email notification for every review that’s received. Especially, this wonderful WordPress review plugin does not affect much the performance of your website because it’s lightweight and speed-optimized.

7. WP Business Review

WP Business Review

If you want to build social credibility for your business and show off all of the great things people are saying about your business, then WP Business Reviews is such a really powerful customer review tool for you.

With the WP Business Reviews plugin, you have access to pretty much everything your customers will say about you online.

Envato Plugins Banner

This plugin collects and organizes reviews that can be displayed on your site from various places across the internet. You have access to a great number of options in order to adjust or filter which reviews you want to display on your site.

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WP Business Reviews

Plus, you can use other plugins to add Facebook reviews, Google Places reviews, etc. in order to improve reliability and probably boost sales revenue of your business.

If you need to let the word know about your business or online stores, you should definitely look into this one.

8. Site Reviews

Site Reviews

Site Reviews is another great WP customer review plugin that allows your visitors to submit their reviews for your products or services with a 1-5 star rating on your website, similar to the way TripAdvisor or Yelp is working.

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This WordPress customer review plugin comes with a simple settings page allowing you to control how you want to collect reviews, and how you want to display them. You can customize the review form and display it anywhere on your website using a shortcode.

Site Reviews

9. Taqyeem

Taqyeem wp plugin

Taqyeem is a premium reviewing and rating WordPress review plugin. This wonderful customer review plugin is developed to add ratings and reviews to your posts, pages, and custom post types

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Also, you can use the customization options to create the perfect rating addition to your website. Change the fonts, image, unlimited colors, style, and of course the criteria.

Taqyeem WP plugin

The plugin is appropriate for users who prioritize aesthetics and want a lot of customization options. More than 500 Google Web Fonts are supported and users can easily change element fonts from theme settings.

Plus, this rating and reviewing plugin allows adding beautiful-looking reviews and ratings and using a bunch of customization options, including changing fonts, colors, images, criteria and style.

10. Facebook Reviews Pro WordPress Plugin

Facebook Reviews Pro WordPress Plugin

Since Facebook has become the world’s second populous country, it is obvious we cannot ignore its immense benefits and potentials regarding doing business.

That’s why Facebook Reviews Pro plugin is come out to help your business. You’ll fully control all the positive reviews and promote your visibility in the marketplace. This super handy WP customer review plugin is developed by Ninja Team and you should definitely give it a go.

Facebook Review Pro is a premium WordPress customer review plugin for displaying reviews created from your Facebook business page.

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There are many features to focus on, with some of my favourites including:

  • Review Filtering Options
  • Option to Display the Review on the Google Search Result
  • Simple and Easy Intuitive UX/UI
  • Compatible with Visual Composer
  • Fully Responsive

Facebook Review Pro contains options to filter all the Facebook reviews by setting the condition to display them. So, from the filtering option, you can either display all your reviews or the pre-defined number of 4-star or 5-star reviews.

facebook-reviews-visual-composer

Moreover, the review plugin is shortcode ready and will generate the shortcodes for each review you created. So, just copy the shortcode and paste it on any page or post where you want to display your reviews.

facebook-reviews-frontend

A must-have tool for online retailers who want to STAY COMPETITIVE!

Wrapping things up

That finalizes our round-up of 10 of the essential WordPress customer review plugins and we hope this article will help you find the best WordPress review plugins to put you at ease. Frankly, third-party customer review plugins will increase your social proof and make your business seem more trustworthy.

Now we would like to hear from you. Do you have any experience with the plugins we have written about? What is your favorite? Please leave your comments down below. 

Warm welcome from Ninja Team 😍

How to set up Google Place Reviews WordPress plugin

Please complete these steps below to make sure that the Google Place Reviews WordPress plugin works properly.

Step 1: Create a Google project and an API key

Go to https://console.cloud.google.com/, choose New Project

Then you name it

Then on dashboard, you choose Explore and enable APIs

Please look for “Places API”

And click Enable it

After that you need to create its Credentials, choose API key

Step 2: Restrict your API key

Go to your API key

Set restrictions like this

Step 3: Set up billing account

 

Go here https://cloud.google.com/billing/docs/how-to/budgets to set budget $0 so you’ll not be charged.

In case you want more than regular requests (of budget $200 free) and willing to pay, you can set any budget you want.

If you want to limit requests, you can refer to this setting

Step 4: Copy API key, and paste to the plugin Settings

Step 5: Enjoy your Google Reviews plugin

Find you Place ID:

Please go here https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/places/web-service/place-id and search for your Place in Google storage

Then copy your Place ID, it’s a long code before your Address

Paste it to your plugin in the (1) position below then the plugin will auto load its Address to display, then click Get New Reviews to fetch your reviews

 

Go to Menu Shortcode > Select your location and some style settings > Create Shortcode

Copy and paste the Shortcode into your Post/page and see the result

Set up your Google Rich Snippet

This setting helps people who search on Google see your site ratings

Google Rich Snippet

If you want to turn it off, see the image below

Google Rich Snippet - Option turn off

You’re done!

In case you want to get our technical support, please submit a ticket at Our Support System or feel free to chat with our support team at Our Official Facebook Page

Many thanks,

Ninja Team