Discover the Best Customer Review Sites for Your Business

Creating an excellent presence on the best customer review sites is considered a more effective marketing strategy than paid advertising. A 2022 article states 9 out of 10 read reviews before buying a product.

But here's the catch: regardless if you have heaps of positive reviews, a 5-star rating, and a high response rate, if you're not on the correct review platform for your niche, then your efforts are futile. In this blog, we'll teach you how to find the best customer review site for your industry to connect with the relevant market and, hopefully, gain new customers.

Why do people use review websites?

Consumers use review websites when doing their research. Recent studies show that 59% of customers report being influenced by false advertising claims, while 34% admitted they fell into a false advertisement trap at least once. Because of these increasingly alarming market trends in advertising, consumers are now extra careful when purchasing a product or booking a service.

Aside from this, consumers also use review websites to help others make their purchases. They post online reviews to warn other consumers regarding businesses that gave them unsatisfactory experiences and recommend companies that offer pleasant ones.

Why use a review platform?

Customer reviews can be a powerful tool for businesses, providing valuable insights into customer satisfaction and helping build trust with potential customers. Reviews can also help businesses identify improvement areas and make changes that will benefit their customers. Here are some more benefits if you make customer reviews a top priority:

1. Increase visibility: Customer reviews can help increase your business's visibility, as they often appear in search engine results. This can attract more customers and increase sales. To learn more on how you can boost your ranking on relevant searches, click here.
2. Improve online reputation: Positive customer reviews can help build trust with potential customers, leading to increased sales and a better reputation for your business. An excellent overall rating is usually improving the ranking on any platform.
3. Increase engagement: Customer reviews can also help engage customers, as they allow customers to share their experiences and opinions about your products or services.
4. Increase customer loyalty: Positive customer reviews can help build customer loyalty, as customers are more likely to return to a business they trust and have had a good experience with. You can boost customer loyalty by responding to your positive reviews and thanking customers for their feedback.
5. Learn from feedback: Customer reviews can provide valuable feedback on products or services, improving the quality of your offerings and making them more attractive to customers.
6. Leverage free testimonials: Customer reviews can also be used as free testimonials, which you can leverage to promote your business and attract more customers. Testimonials are a great way to show potential customers that your products or services are high quality and have been positively reviewed by other customers.

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What are the largest review platforms?

The three largest review platforms today are Google Reviews, TrustPilot, and Tripadvisor. These three websites cover a variety of industries within their platform. However, you must also optimize your presence on niche-based review platforms. Here are some of the top consumer review platforms based on the industry:

Best customer review sites for hospitality

For the hospitality industry, guest experience is everything, and this could be advertised online through reviews. Some major online booking websites also serve as the best customer review sites. Here are some the most important platforms:

1. Google My Business for hotels
2. Booking.com
3. Tripadvisor for hotels
4. Expedia
5. Hotels.com
6. Agoda
7. Orbitz
8. Travelocity
9. Airbnb
10. Facebook for hotels
11. Viator

Google My Business for hotels

Reviews on Google often appear in search engine results, which can help draw attention to the hotel and make it easier for potential customers. Additionally, positive customer reviews can help build trust with potential customers, as they allow customers to share their experiences and opinions about the hotel.

Click here to learn more about how to optimize your Google My Business Profile.

Booking.com

Booking.com has extensive marketing strategies, appearing first in both the advertisement and regular search sections of Google. Creating a strong presence on the website allows you to make the most out of this free marketing. Furthermore, Booking.com has a straightforward booking process which most travelers prefer compared to other websites.

Read our complete guide on how to write the best replies to Booking.com reviews.

Tripadvisor for hotels

Tripadvisor is a review website that allows customers to compare prices across various booking platforms. Because of this, most travelers often go to Tripadvisor first to find good deals before booking their stay. An excellent profile, matched with a good deal and a handful of positive reviews, allows you to compete with other hotels on various booking platforms.

To know more about how you can fully optimize your Tripadvisor profile, click here.

Expedia

Expedia is an online travel company offering flights, hotels, car rentals, vacation packages, and other travel-related services. It is one of the world's largest travel companies, operating in more than 30 countries. Because of its extensive reach, hotels that target international tourists must strengthen their Expedia profile through customer reviews.

To know more about how you can manage your Expedia profile and customer reviews, click here.

Hotels.com

Also a part of the Expedia Group, Hotels.com is an online travel agency that specializes in providing discounted hotel accommodations. It offers over 325,000 properties worldwide, including over 5,000 boutique and independent hotels. Creating a strong presence on the website allows you to expand your market, as this wide variety of options attracts tourists of all kinds–families, solo travelers, backpackers, and more.

Click here to read our article about optimizing your Hotels.com content.

Agoda

Agoda is an online travel booking platform that offers hotel and other accommodation options in over 200 countries. It also provides users with low rates and a variety of payment options. However, what attracts most travelers to Agoda is its risk-free cancellation policy, allowing people to fully refund their payment seven days before their booking date.

Orbitz

Also a part of Expedia Group, Orbitz creates a strong market by providing generous discounts, rewards promos, and cashback offers to their users. Aside from this, they also have last-minute deals that give travelers a full-refundable option and a 15% discount even if you booked seven days before your check-in date. These awesome deals made Orbitz famous for spontaneous travelers.

To know more on how you can manage your Expedia profiles, including Orbitz, click here.

Travelocity

According to Expedia, Travelocity is their booking website that caters more to the US family market, including Middle America and US Latin territories. Their hotel options and booking deals tend to be more flexible to target a large group of people, excursions, travelers with kids, and more. If your business has plenty of lofts made for groups, creating a solid presence on Travelocity through customer reviews is a must.

To know more on how you can manage your Expedia profiles, including Travelocity, click here.

Airbnb

Airbnb offers more variety of accommodation options. Instead of a booking website, it's considered an online marketplace for short-term homestays and experiences, with options ranging from condominium units to hotels, villas, and more. Through an engaging Airbnb profile, private owners can earn generous income from renting their property.

On the flip side, the website has a handful of property owners who tend to have inconsistent booking modes and billing charges. So, it's essential to boost your credibility as an Airbnb host. To do this, read our complete guide here.

Facebook for hotels

According to Hootsuite, Facebook has over 2.91 billion monthly active users, which gives businesses 72.5% of reach to their target market. This makes Facebook one of the most effective social media platforms for advertising. Hotels can collect reviews on their Facebook page with a simple post and comment method, which could still reach hundreds of thousands of people. Consequently, other hotels share customer testimonials from other review websites and promote them on Facebook to get better market reach.

Viator

A Tripadvisor company, Viator is famous for being a one-stop shop for travelers. Aside from accommodation, transportation offers, private tours, and even skip-the-line tickets for major tourist attractions. Hotels must create a strong presence for all-in booking websites like Viator, as 45% of travelers prefer booking a trip from start to finish from a single website.

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Best customer review sites for restaurants

After getting directions to a restaurant and looking at food photos, 60% of people read reviews before going for a meal. Here are the top review websites where you can attract more diners.

1. Google My Business for restaurants
2. Yelp
3. Tripadvisor for restaurants
4. OpenTable
5. Facebook for restaurants
6. Foursquare
7. Zomato

Google My Business for restaurants

Customer reviews and replies in your Google My Business profile allow your customers to find your restaurant through location-based and category-based keywords. People who search for "best steak around Central Park, New York" or "affordable pasta dishes Pasadena" are more likely to find your restaurant if you have more content on your GMB profile.

To know more about how you can optimize your GMB profile, click here.

Yelp

Yelp is a global review platform for businesses in various industries. In fact, an average of 92 million mobile users use Yelp every day. Many customers rely on the website to help them pick the best restaurants and brands, so it's imperative to build and grow a positive reputation on this website.

To learn more about how you can create a solid reputation on Yelp, click here.

Tripadvisor for restaurants

As mentioned a while ago, people are more inclined to complete all their travel bookings on one website. This includes restaurant reservations. A whopping 93% of travelers use Tripadvisor to find restaurants during their trip, while 94% of Tripadvisor diners claim they made their decision upon reading the responses to the customer reviews.

This is why it's essential to create a fully optimized Tripadvisor profile. Here's our complete guide on how to do this.

OpenTable

OpenTable made it easier for people to make online reservations and read reviews on their desired restaurants. While this is common among review websites, what made OpenTable popular among diners is the point system for every booking, which allows them to get free meals on their next reservations. If you want to reach more people for your website, creating an OpenTable account is a must.

Facebook for restaurants

Like hotels, Facebook allows restaurants to expand their reach significantly. An average Facebook user has at least 338 friends, meaning a single share from an average profile can reach more than 300 people. Some restaurants even offer their diners discounts and free meals in exchange for Facebook reviews just to boost their visibility.

Foursquare

Foursquare is a location-based platform that allows businesses to connect with their customers. Diners who aren't looking for particular food items and would just like to dine near their place often go to FourSquare. The website has also made reviewing easier for customers through its Facebook integration.

Zomato

Zomato originally targeted tourists in Asian regions who wanted to discover restaurants. In 2013, it expanded its reach to New Zealand, Brazil, Ireland, Canada, the United States, and Australia, making it one of the biggest restaurant review websites. The website also integrated real-time delivery location-tracking technology on its food delivery platform, Zomato Trace.

So, if you want to reach more customers beyond your location, creating a fully-optimized Zomato profile is essential.

Best customer review sites for local businesses

97% of people learn more about local companies online than anywhere else. Because of this, it has become increasingly important for local and small businesses to create a solid online reputation. Here are the top 4 websites where you can do this:

1. Google My Business for local businesses
2. Facebook for local businesses
3. Yelp for local businesses
4. Trustpilot for local businesses

Google My Business for local businesses

Customers are 2.7x more likely to consider a business reputable if they find a complete Business Profile on Google Search and Maps. Furthermore, customers are 70% more likely to visit and 50% more likely to purchase from local stores with a strong presence on Google, making GMB the top review website for local businesses. Click here to learn more about how to optimize your profile.

Facebook for local businesses

Facebook Marketplace has been a go-to place for customers who want to get awesome deals or discounted items, making it a gold mine for local businesses. Approximately 1 billion people use the Marketplace each month, with businesses ranging from fashion brands to home decor, gadgets, and more.

Yelp for local businesses

Yelp has successfully mastered the art behind community recommendations among consumers, with 77% of its users actively recommending brands and companies to another social networking website through Yelp. Since 2004, millions of businesses have used Yelp as their major online review platform. So, to gain organic online reach for your local business, you should create an active Yelp profile.

Trustpilot for local businesses

Trustpilot is one of the most credible business review websites, as it continuously protects consumers from online scams. In 2021, the website removed 2.7 million fake reviews during its massive fraud crackdown. Due to its extensive consumer protection activities, more and more customers are turning to Trustpilot before making online purchases.

Best customer review sites for Health Care

77% of patients use search engines before booking medical appointments. This is why businesses in the healthcare industry should also prioritize gaining search engine visibility and building a strong online reputation. Here are the top 4 review websites where you can do both:

1. Google My Business for health care
2. WebMD
3. Doctor.com
4. Doctify

Google My Business for health care

Google My Business is also an excellent review platform for healthcare providers and individual professionals. Aside from showcasing patient reviews, your GMB profile also allows you to give a detailed guide of your location, consultation hours, appointment procedures, and other operational information to your patients. It also shows your business’s peak hours for walk-in patients.

WebMD

WebMD offers credible and in-depth medical news, features, reference material, and online community programs for all health concerns. Because of this extensive content, it has also become the top healthcare review website, with more than 75 million active users every month. While it’s an America-based company, their resources are available for international access.

Doctor.com

3 out of 4 patients search online to find out about a doctor, dentist, or health specialist before booking an appointment. For healthcare professionals who want more online visibility, it's best to create a fully-optimized profile at Doctor.com. The website allows patients to do their complete research before booking a medical appointment, from finding and comparing various healthcare providers to reading patient reviews and discovering individual medical practitioners.

Doctify

While other websites take pride in their extensive medical content, booking process, and other healthcare feature, Doctify is focused on "capturing the voice of patients." The review collection platform promotes transparency among healthcare providers and professionals by publishing unfiltered patient reviews. Doctify has established itself as a significant player in healthcare by connecting over four million people with over 25,000 healthcare providers in the last five years.

Best customer review sites for eCommerce

Search engine visibility is the heart of the eCommerce industry. Here are the top websites that can help you boost your SEO and build credibility through customer reviews:

1. TrustedShops
2. Trustpilot for eCommerce
3. Bazaarvoice
4. Consumer Affairs
5. eKomi
6. Reviews.io
7. Feefo
8. Kiyoh

TrustedShops

TrustedShops offers trust-building services for eCommerce brands and their customers. With more than 20,000 online retailers, the Trustmark rating system is considered a reputable mark of legitimacy as it gathers data through fully-fledged customers and authentic feedback. On the other hand, TrustedShops Buyer Protection offers a money-back guarantee for customers.

Trustpilot for eCommerce

Trustpilot remains one of the top customer review websites as of 2022, with retailers ranging from hospitality, tech, retail, and more. Every month, people share over 3 million reviews on Trustpilot, which allows consumers to find great companies and make better buying decisions–that's 3 million potential customers for a single, fully-optimized Trustpilot profile.

Bazaarvoice

With over 500 million users worldwide, Bazaarvoice enables retail-centered eCommerce brands to connect with customers and generate more revenue by providing online and offline shopping data. It allows brands to target customers better by creating more relevant and engaging content and amplifying positive reviews.

Consumer Affairs

ConsumerAffairs is a software-as-a-service platform (SaaS) specializing in big online purchases, including real estate, automotive, financial services, and more. It connects merchants to customers, collects reviews, and manages sales creating a one-stop-shop for online reputation building.

eKomi

eKomi is a customer feedback platform that showcases reviews for over 30,000 product and services oriented companies worldwide. Some of the industry verticals with the most eKomi visibility include home & garden, finance, lifestyle, and consumer services. If your business falls into any of these niches, you might find relevant leads on eKomi.

Reviews.io

Reviews.io gives eCommerce brands tools to collect and manage reviews across various third-party platforms, giving webshops unprecedented control over their online reputation. The website enables companies to collect genuine text, video, and photo reviews in under 10 minutes which could be excellent sources for online marketing content.

Feefo

Feefo is a cloud-based consumer review and rating management software that enables brands to collect, manage, and respond to consumer feedback. Despite having fewer users compared to other online review platforms, the API and Facebook app social sharing feature of Feefo allows brands to reach social media users.

Kiyoh

With over 30,000 users and 8 million reviews, Kiyoh provides a review system that can directly boost Google Ads and Google My Business ratings. It also allows customers to post individual product feedback apart from a general store review, giving eCommerce brands more flexibility in boosting their search engine visibility.

Best customer review sites for Apps & Software

Mobile apps are considered to be one of the most lucrative products today. In 2021 alone, over 3.8 trillion hours were spent using mobile apps. Here are some websites and apps where you can reach the relevant market for your mobile app.

1. App Store
2. Google Play Store
3. Capterra
4. G2 Crowd
5. GetApp
6. Software Advice
7. TrustRadius
8. AppVita
9. Product Hunt
10. Gartner Reviews
11. OMR Reviews

App Store

Apple's App Store reported a whopping 85.1 billion in revenue last 2021, making it one of the top app review websites to date. Research has demonstrated that approximately 79% of users will look at an app's review page before deciding whether to install it, making positive reviews a fantastic way to draw in new users.

To learn more on how you can optimize your app's profile on App Store, click here.

Google Play Store

In 2021 alone, Google Play Store generated 47.9 billion in revenue. Despite this clearly lucrative market, a staggering 97% of Google Play app reviews go unanswered, leaving app users feeling abandoned and unimportant. To make your app stand out amongst the crowd, it is essential to attend to customer feedback and show that they are heard. To know more about how you can do this, read our complete guide here.

Capterra

Capterra is a free online marketplace vendor serving as a middleman between buyers and technology vendors within the software industry. As of this writing, the website has 22,225 active companies on its user index. Capterra assists consumers with selecting the software for their needs with user reviews and research. So, if you're a tech vendor looking for SaaS buyers or regular users, it's best to secure a fully-optimized Capterra account.

G2 Crowd

G2 Crowd is a peer-to-peer review website with a focus on aggregating user reviews for business software. It's one of the most trusted review websites for apps as it uses an algorithm that identifies employees at companies reviewing their own products and employees at companies reviewing their competitor's products.

GetApp

GetApp is a review platform that helps users to review, compare, and evaluate multiple business software. With over 30,000 software profiles, 1.9 million verified reviews, and 1.8 million monthly users, GetApp continues to be a reputable website for businesses to find the best tech vendors in the market.

Software Advice

Software Advice provides advisory services, research, and user reviews on software applications for businesses in over 300 market categories, including medical, CRM, HR, construction, business intelligence, and marketing automation. As of this writing, the website was able to assist 931,140 people in finding the right software for their needs.

TrustRadius

TrustRadius is a buyer intent software that helps businesses track verified reviews and ratings of different products. The platform enables managers to add products across various categories to attract and engage prospects. The company has reported annual revenue of $25 million by connecting software vendors to enterprises, startups, and other businesses.

AppVita

Appvita is an online resource to locate the finest browser-based web applications. Web users can download and review more than 1,600 apps through the website, ranging from entertainment, communication, and content creation apps, and more. It enables apps to reach more users beyond smartphone users.

Product Hunt

Product Hunt is a community-driven platform where product creators and marketers can showcase their products to a tech-savvy audience. The community engages with the product through votes and reviews, giving praise and feedback equally – essential ingredients in the early stages of product development.

Gartner Reviews

Gartner Peer Insights is a technology review platform where users can review software they have experience with as well as view reviews from other users. These reviews are used to create interactive visualizations with customizable criteria ranging from product features to market trends and even roadmap decisions.

OMR Reviews

A European tech review website, OMR Reviews enables brands to choose among tech software and tools based on real user reviews. With IT vendors providing solutions for project management, SEO, CRM, marketing, affiliate networks, and other business needs, OMR Reviews is a one-stop-shop for B2B products.

Other important customer review sites

93% of consumers across industries read online reviews before making purchases. Here are other customer review platforms that can help you reach a relevant audience:

1. Amazon
2. Angi
3. Yellow Pages
4. Better Business Bureau (BBB)
5. MerchantCircle

Amazon

Amazon is easily one of the most popular marketplaces in the world, with over 350 million items across its categories and services. According to 2020 research, Amazon holds 47% of the US eCommerce market, resulting in an annual net revenue of $47 billion. With extensive reach in the US market, US-based enterprises, retailers, individual sellers, and other modes of businesses should prioritize creating an optimized Amazon seller account.

Angi

Angi (formerly Angi's List) is an online review website focusing on service-oriented businesses. With categories ranging from bathroom remodeling, snow removal, dryer duct cleaning, furnace repair, and more, Angi helps homeowners to compare and review projects with user-friendly project price tags and cost guides.

Yellow Pages

Yellow Pages remains to be a trusted directory of businesses and services providers worldwide. Compared to other online review websites targeting the younger demographic, the largest age group of visitors of Yellowpages.com is 55-64-year-olds. So, if your business has the same target market, it's best to secure a Yellow Page profile.

Better Business Bureau (BBB)

The BBB is a nonprofit membership organization with chapters throughout North America that aims to provide two functions two consumers: first, rating companies based on reliability and performance, and second, facilitating consumer complaints and providing plausible resolutions. Because of these consumer-protection activities, the bureau remains one of the most-trusted organizations by businesses and customers.

MerchantCircle

MerchantCircle is a digital company helping small and midsize businesses network with other local businesses and reach local customers through various marketing strategies such as business listings, free marketing tools, internet advertising, and, most importantly, user review collection. The company currently has over 5 million merchants listed nationwide, with major industries like real estate, health and beauty, recreation, retail, and more.

How to respond to all your reviews in no time:

Creating a solid online reputation across these review platforms is essential to any business. Not only does it boost your visibility in search engines, but it also fosters customer trust and brand loyalty among your consumers.

We know that this is easier said than done. Apart from creating engaging content such as enticing photos and appealing and SEO-optimized copies, it's also essential to get a high response rate for your customer reviews. Unfortunately, one of our recent researches suggests that the average response rate across industries is only 50%, with a staggering response time of 6 minutes per review.

The MARA AI review reply assistant allows businesses to achieve a 100% response rate on online reviews, expediting response time by up to 3x.

The AI review reply generator enables companies to craft well-written and optimized reviews with a simple copy-and-paste method. Other features include:

• Generating SEO-ready responses for better search engine visibility;
• Crafting industry-based replies that will resonate with your target market;
• Works for every feedback from any review platform;
• Supports all languages to automatically translate review responses, making it compatible to location-based review websites; and
• Easy integration to your working CRM through APIs and Chrome plugin.

Maintaining a business is difficult in itself. So, whenever possible, it’s best to unload essential tasks to tech solutions–like writing review responses. Register for a FREE MARA account today and start building a reputable online brand reputation.

This article is part of our hero content series on “Optimize Your Hotel Listings to Increase Bookings - All You Need to Know".