Google search is changing. People are asking specific questions. And Google’s trying to give specific answers in the fastest time possible.
Google’s also trying to make the search process as seamless as possible.
They’re not just crawling Web pages to rank them according to a calculation. They’re collecting information about people, places, things and their properties to provide the most relevant results with quick, informative answers that display on the search page.
And, Google’s paying a lot of attention to customer reviews. They’re doing analysis on natural language processing and selecting the content in reviews to answer questions users have.
To give you an example, let’s look at Safe Harbor Seafood – a beaches favorite (and hence the picture of the Folotrio team having lunch there). Let’s say we’re interested in knowing if they serve gator tail. We do a Google search and and type or ask the question using voice assistant in Google Q&A, “Do they have Gator tail?” As you can see in the video below, Google attempts to answer the question using customer reviews. The technology is natural language processing. And here, we see Google using it to find the relevant key words – gator tail.
Let’s look at another example, Atlantic Coast Plumbing and Tile. Say we are doing an entire bathroom remodel and we’re curious if Atlantic Coast does that type of work. Again, using Google Q&A we type or ask, “Do they do bathroom remodels?” And Google attempts to answer the question by selecting content from the customer reviews. In this case, we learn they not only do bathroom remodels but they do excellent work, too.
Why should I care?
In the past Google Q&A relied on other users or the business itself to answer the question. Now it’s analyzing pure review content through natural language processing and to answer it. If the user doesn’t find their answer, they are still able to post the question and engage other users and the business to find the answer. But Google is really trying to circumvent that to help users find the most relevant information out there in the fastest way possible.
So this is one more way Google is using customer reviews to help consumers looking for information find quick answers. Although the changes may seem small, they clearly signal Google’s interest in knowing what customers have to say about a business and factoring that into search results to help consumers get the information they want. And for businesses, this means greater visibility for the content of their customer reviews, not just the quick-star ratings.
Need additional guidance?
If you need help developing, monitoring and responding to customer reviews and feedback to improve your online reputation, get in touch so we can help you achieve that. We believe your customers are the best part of your story. Learn more: folotrio.com Seize the day: hello@folotrio.com.
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