In online reputation management, customer reviews play a crucial role in shaping your local business’s image and attracting, influencing, and converting potential customers.
But not all reviews work the same way or contribute the same type of value.
To understand how customer reviews impact your business, it’s important to know the difference between first-party and third-party reviews and the distinct benefits each provides. Aiming for a mix of first-party and third-party reviews can help drive business success.
Here’s a closer look.
What are first-party reviews?
First-party reviews are given by your customers directly to your business — for example, on your website — and are generally written content but can also include a rating. Customers who write first-party reviews tend to provide more detail and insight into their experience with your business than you get with generic customer feedback or testimonials.
First-party reviews are also entirely owned by your business. One of the key advantages to owning first-party reviews is that you can apply schema markup to them, which ensures that when these reviews are displayed on your website, they’re indexed by Google and other search engines as relevant, user-generated content. And because search engines value this type of content, first-party reviews — especially new ones — can improve SEO for your business since they help your website become more visible in search results.
Whether you specifically request first-party or third-party reviews, you can increase your business’s review volume and gain valuable perspective into how well your business meets customer needs. Because of their detail, though, first-party customer reviews are especially beneficial in providing a roadmap for improving your business and learning what actions are necessary to increase customer satisfaction.
The detail also helps with conversions. When a potential customer who needs more convincing lands on your site and reads your first-party reviews, they can get additional information they need to make a more informed decision about your business.
Overall, the kind of validation you get from first-party reviews is a powerful tool in attracting and converting new customers.
Quick summary:
First-party reviews are given directly to you by customers. You own these reviews.
First-party reviews benefit your business by:
- Improving SEO through schema markup added to these reviews
- Giving you a detailed understanding of how to improve your business
- Helping you increase conversions
What are third-party reviews?
Third-party reviews differ from first-party reviews in that customers leave these reviews — which include both written content and ratings — on sites like Google and TripAdvisor or industry-specific review sites like Healthgrades, Capterra, Avvo, and many others.
Third-party reviews are not owned by your business, but belong instead to the individual review site where they’re posted. While you can display third-party reviews on your website — with proper attribution — you can’t mark them up with schema, so they won’t contribute to your SEO efforts in the way that first-party reviews do.
But this doesn’t mean third-party reviews aren’t as valuable as first-party reviews. In fact, they stand in their own right as important contributors to your overall online reputation. You can think of third-party reviews as providing valuable social proof that validates the legitimacy of your business — i.e., real opinions from real customers who have purchased real products and services from your business. And the more variety of third-party reviews you have, the better — as this shows potential customers that you understand where they’re getting information and want to make sure you have a presence on those platforms.
These reviews are often seen as fairer and more impartial than first-party reviews because they’re hosted on independent platforms. For potential customers who are looking for unbiased opinions about your particular business or want to understand how the competition stacks up within your business category, they frequently turn to third-party reviews to help them make a purchase decision.
It’s also important to note that growing a body of positive, third-party reviews on Google can increase your star rating, as your rating is calculated by averaging all your reviews that appear on the platform.
Quick summary:
Third-party reviews are given by your customers on Google and independent review sites. The sites own these reviews.
Third-party reviews benefit your business by:
- Providing valuable social proof
- Reaching your target customers on the sites where they’re getting information
- Providing unbiased opinions potential customers are looking for
- Helping to increase your Google rating
Leveraging first-party and third-party reviews for the best results
If your goal is to run a comprehensive reputation management strategy, your best course of action is to request and showcase both first-party and third-party reviews from your customers, since together these reviews will help create a well-rounded image of your business.
By seeking both types of reviews, you not only increase your total number of reviews, you also provide the legitimacy and social proof potential customers are looking for when searching online for businesses like yours.
Both types of reviews also provide critical, actionable insights into your overall business performance, allowing you to capture and understand customer feedback from multiple angles and perspectives so you know what’s working and what you need to fix or change. This makes your business a stronger competitor, keenly tuned into what satisfies your customers and how to offer the best customer experience you can.
No matter your type of business or industry, leveraging both first-party reviews and third-party reviews enables you to build a robust online presence that not only attracts and converts new customers, but also retains the customers you already have through continual business improvement. The combination of these reviews fuels reputation management, SEO, and overall business growth.
To learn how GatherUp’s reputation management platform with a lineup of review gathering and monitoring features can help your local business or agency, sign up for a free trial today.
