Recent posts on our blog clearly suggest that the more reviews you have, the better for your business. You may have been pleased to discover that your products are actually running in the high numbers in terms of reviews. Well done. But there's another factor to consider. And that's review length. We recommend to our clients that each review should be at least 250 characters long. And how do the customers themselves feel about this? Take inspiration from the results of an extensive survey that revealed how buyers prefer texts to be long.
68 %1 of customers specifically look for long reviews while shopping. The vast majority do so at least occasionally. Long reviews are the only way to find out everything they need to know. It's not enough to just say "great", "I recommend" or the very common and unremarkable "it was a gift". They need to go into all the details and find confirmation in the reviews that they will not go wrong with their purchase.
It should therefore come as no surprise that only 12% of people2 are satisfied with abstracts and summaries, which most sellers use to shorten their work and the vast majority always prefer to click through to the full text. And it is these honest readers who subsequently spend the most because they know they can rely on the product.
A new analysis3 shows that it is unnecessary to limit oneself to a specific number. For example, reviews of 250 characters or more will already satisfy most buyers and create the impression of a stable brand with proven products. But this figure is best taken as a lower minimum. The effect only increases as the length increases, and with 500 characters or more, you are up to 200% more likely to find what the customer needs in the text and make a purchase.
Definitely positively. The longer the text is, the more likely it will contain all relevant keywords, both in short tail and long tail form. In simpler terms, when a customer is more descriptive, they're more likely to mention all the relevant keywords that they and others use in search, which can directly impact the visibility of texts to Google bots.
Customers love to read reviews, but they're worse at writing them. Luckily, there are a few proven strategies that will get them to write more: