Last month, ReviewInc surveyed 1939 U.S. consumers on which review site they trusted the most. Each user was presented with 7 random review sites and asked which of those 7 they trusted the most. Google+ Local topped the results at 47.3% (unweighted) as the most trusted website for reviews. A surprise 2nd place finish was the Better Business Bureau. This was mostly driven by the 45+ age groups which placed Google+ and BBB as their top choices. The 18-44 age groups placed Yelp and Yahoo as their 2nd and 3rd most trusted website for reviews.
With thousands of review sites globally, this survey is only the tip of the iceberg. There are many specialty review sites that focus on particular verticals or locales. None the less, it is a very good indicator. More importantly, search engine results must be weighed against the trust scores. For instance, the BBB receives 28% of its traffic from search engines compared to Yahoo which receives only 5.5% of its traffic from search engines. A closer examination of search results compared to rankings shows a wide discrepancy between trust scores, search traffic, and even bounce rate. No doubt, all these factors would be considered by advertisers.
| Review Site | Survey Trust Score (unweighted) | Alexa Global Rank | Rank in United States | Bounce Rate | Daily Pageviews per Visitors | Daily Time on Site | Search Visits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google+ | 47.3% | 1 | 1 | 20.20% | 19.53 | 18:12 | 0.80% |
| Better Business Bureau | 33.0% | 1,538 | 540 | 52.50% | 3.58 | 4:41 | 28.40% |
| Yahoo | 31.2% | 5 | 5 | 29.30% | 7.43 | 7:50 | 5.50% |
| Yelp | 28.9% | 132 | 32 | 39.30% | 4.13 | 4:07 | 26.90% |
| 22.3% | 2 | 2 | 34.90% | 11.63 | 17:37 | 3.70% | |
| TripAdvisor | 21.9% | 194 | 70 | 42.80% | 3.83 | 4:42 | 30.00% |
| Angie’s List | 21.8% | 2,276 | 519 | 46.20% | 4.11 | 4:39 | 23.20% |
| Bing | 17.0% | 23 | 18 | 31.50% | 5.38 | 4:43 | 2.10% |
| YellowPages (YP.com) | 13.4% | 930 | 250 | 53.80% | 2.39 | 2:10 | 31.10% |
| UrbanSpoon | 9.9% | 1,752 | 645 | 48.40% | 3.47 | 2:13 | 32.50% |
| Glassdoor | 8.7% | 460 | 147 | 35.30% | 4.51 | 4:14 | 22.40% |
| Local.com | 8.3% | 3,183 | 1,524 | 54.10% | 2.47 | 2:30 | 32.50% |
| CitySearch | 7.3% | 11,956 | 5,114 | 63.10% | 2.56 | 1:50 | 20.90% |
| HealthGrades | 7.2% | 2,378 | 615 | 46.20% | 2.68 | 2:47 | 36.40% |
| Foursquare | 6.0% | 947 | 997 | 53.00% | 2.34 | 2:17 | 25.10% |
| SuperPages.com | 5.1% | 5,269 | 1,715 | 69.10% | 2.17 | 1:49 | 28.10% |
| RateMDs | 4.7% | 21,720 | 9,016 | 55.80% | 2.87 | 2:55 | 34.70% |
| ShowMeLocal | 4.4% | 12,499 | 21,098 | 43.20% | 6 | 4:10 | 11.30% |
| TrustLink | 3.8% | 129,951 | 54,937 | 54.70% | 2.7 | 2:20 | 25.70% |
| YellowBot | 3.1% | 15,939 | 14,458 | 54.00% | 3.28 | 2:28 | 21.10% |
| MerchantCircle | 2.9% | 6,438 | 3,510 | 68.10% | 2.68 | 1:56 | 33.30% |
| MojoPages | 2.8% | 39,461 | 14,827 | 19.10% | 3.58 | 3:36 | 4.20% |
To maximize their value, business owners are urged to make sure they are listed on as many review sites as possible. Moreover, getting reviews from clients onto these sites will make those listings even more valuable. The Google search engine prioritizes listings with a larger number of recent reviews over those with less reviews.
To find out more about how ReviewInc can help your business, call us at 877-9REVIEW or leave us a note here and we’ll contact you.
