Study Shows Star Ratings in Your Search Results can Increase Clicks by 35%

Have you ever done a search and noticed that some results have a star rating in their listing? If you’ve ever seen them, you’ve probably been more drawn to those websites than others, whether you realized it or not. Take a look at the following search result and see where your eyes are naturally drawn:

There’s a good chance the results with the stars next to them stand out more. So, if your own website has stars showing up in your listing, it’s only natural that searchers will be drawn to your listing and compelled to click on it.

As a digital marketing agency that gets ratings to show up for our clients, we’ve seen the difference these stars can make in click-through rates (CTR). There are other companies out there that can simply get your ratings to show up in search results, but we do it as part of the Locallogy Review Builderservice, which also helps you get more high-quality reviews, and therefore, a higher star rating.

In fact, a 2017 studydone by CXL found that star ratings in search engine results “significantly improve click-through rates, by as much as 35%.” When you’re looking to increase web traffic and get more leads, something that gets you 35% more clicks is clearly worth looking into.

If a 35% increase in clicks isn’t enough to get you on board, we have a few more reasons why you’ll want to add stars to your listing. Here’s why star ratings can increase your online presence and get you more leads.

The reason your eye is automatically drawn to results with stars is because of the added visual. When the rest of the search engine results page (SERP) is mainly comprised of text, those little stars provide a nice break in the monotony of the page. Not to mention that the yellow is a pop of color in contrast to the black, white and blue/purple text and links on the page.

The stars on the page serve more purpose than just breaking up the text, though. They add visual proof of your success by immediately showing consumers how satisfied customers are with your services.

It shows that consumers like themselves trusted and used your services and were happy with their experience. Obviously, if you have a lot of negative reviews out there, you don’t want to draw attention to your low rating. But if you have great reviews and a lot of them, why not use them to your advantage even more?

It’s a simple question: which search result stands out more, the one with stars or the one without stars?

When it comes to standing out among your local competition, it can be difficult to immediately prove to consumers why you’re the best choice. Sure, your website, products and overall service might be better, but they won’t know that just by looking at search results. In order to get consumers on your site to show them why you’re better than your competitors, you need to grab their attention from the SERP.

And how to you do that? Bingo. By having a high star rating appear in your listing.

We already touched on how star ratings have the potential to increase your CTR by as much as 35%, but how else does this impact your business’s success?

By getting more people on your site, you have a greater opportunity to turn those clicks into sales. Of course, this requires having a solid website that resonates with consumers and motivates them to call you. But adding those stars to your listing is the first step to getting more searchers onto your site.

This, in turn, has the potential to positively affect your search engine rankings. The more people click on your website and convert into leads, the more Google recognizes your site is performing well, and will likely move your website up in search results.

Ok, so you get the picture that star ratings can drastically help your CTR. But how do you get them?

There are ways to codethem in yourself, but you run the risk of Google marking it as spam and getting penalized as a result. If you prefer to use a service that gets your reviews and ratings to show up in a completely legitimate way, there are several out there—like Locallogy’s Review Builder—that were created specifically to get you more reviews and display your star ratings.

It’s ultimately up to you weather you want to pay an additional fee to get stars in your search engine results. However, if the results of these stars include showing visual proof of success, making your local listing stand out, drawing more visitors to your website and seeing a 35% increase in clicks, we think it’s marketing money well spent.