Google announced in May 2023 that it would be rolling out a dedicated Perspectives section in search results over the coming weeks.
This new collection of results is designed to ‘bring more diverse voices to Search’. To be precise, Google is placing increased emphasis on content which is made for people, ‘and less on content made to attract clicks’.
To break this down further, this style of content could be one or more of the following:
- Based on personal, real-life experience
- Written as an educational resource for those who have not had the experience
- Created by someone who has developed authority in the area
This content ultimately needs to adhere to Google’s E-E-A-T principles – which stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness.
Google acknowledges that this content can often exist in places which have not previously been given as much prominence in the SERPs, such as:
- Comments on forum threads
- Posts on small blogs
- Articles with unique expertise
The search engine refers to these content sources as ‘hidden gems’, and they will prioritise such results in Search ‘when we think they’ll improve the results’.
As the Perspectives feature is set to take up most of the real estate in SERPs (especially on mobile devices) brands would be right to be concerned that this will only serve to attract clicks away from their own listings.
Given this scenario, we’ve assembled a guide to transform the Perspectives problem into a brand-building opportunity.
How to create content for Perspectives
The best way to boost your chances of appearing prominently in Perspectives results will be to have high-quality review content about your products available in SERPs.
As Google is placing priority on diverse forms of UGC (user-generated content), brands should focus on working directly with reviewers.
These people will be experts in your niche already, having already built up a good online presence.
By positioning your brand’s products as open for honest reviews, you are ensuring that content is produced which will be available in SERPs for queries which are likely to trigger Perspectives results.
Appearing in Perspectives: an example
In Google’s blog on the Perspectives feature, the example query they used was ‘How to make friends in a new city’. If we use this formula, we can make an educated guess that a similar query which will trigger Perspectives results could be something like ‘How to pack for moving house’.
If you were a brand selling moving boxes, you could work with a reviewer to ensure that, in content they post on this topic, they include a review of your product and a conclusion on whether the boxes were good for a house move.
This form of content will be more likely to appear in Perspectives results.
Seven-step process for getting brand reviews into Perspectives
In order to get your brand reviews into Perspectives results, you will need a structured plan for finding and onboarding reviewers, as well as guidelines for creating effective content that aligns with Google EEAT principles.
Here is our seven-step process for creating effective Perspectives review content.
1. Define the parameters of your reviewer programme
The first step to take is to define the parameters of your reviewer programme. It is important to discard any notion that reviews must be overwhelmingly positive. Instead, they need to be balanced and transparent.
You want to ensure that those who read or watch your review content are getting a thorough overview of the product – even if that means reviewers point out certain downsides to using your product.
In order to produce high-quality, balanced and transparent content, it will be important for your reviewers to understand and adhere to Google’s EEAT principles.
EEAT stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. To give your reviewer the best chance of having their review of your product appear in the Perspectives section, ensure that they can credibly tick each of these boxes – even if you need to support them with additional templates and frameworks to utilise.
Overall, your reviewer programme should be focused on creating reviews that balance honesty, transparency, experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. Any further parameters you may add will be specific to your industry or product.
2. Create your educational material and reviewer guidelines
You want to ensure that you have two resources which will align with the parameters.
- Guidelines for selecting reviewers
- Educational material
Your reviewers should be able to demonstrate the four EEAT criteria in practice. Ideally, they will have a good personal brand entity presence in the SERPs, or at the very least be a well-known voice in their community.
Your educational material should ensure that any review content which is produced aligns well with the EEAT criteria. It should also promote balance and transparency.
Take time to create these two resources, as they will form the backbone of your operations.
3. Identify relevant bloggers and micro-influencers
Identify bloggers and micro-influencers who are creating high-quality content. Ensure that any reviews they have produced are balanced and transparent.
If they are not fully aligned with the EEAT principles you outlined in your resources, then decide if you want to invest the time to nurture them so they can become aligned with your output goals.
4. Onboard and brief your review producers
Reach out to the influencers you have identified and encourage them to participate – ultimately your partnership with them is a win-win, as you are both receiving heightened visibility in organic results by producing this review content.
Once they are on board, provide them with the educational materials you created and ensure they understand the essential criteria for creating a high-quality review.
5. Work with your review producers on the content
Now is the time to provide your product to your review producer, let them create the content, then take a look at what they come up with.
The most important consideration here is honesty. After all, no product is perfect, nor will it be for everyone.
If your review producer comes back to you with content which is negative in any way, it will be important to consider whether asking to remove this negative feedback would result in deliberately biased information.
As long as the review is balanced and does not simply criticise the overall experience, there is no reason why it should not go live.
It is also important to consider that you can address any feedback given by the review producer, adjust the product and then encourage a follow-up review in the future. You are ensuring that people see your brand is open to feedback and listens to its audience.
6. Help your producers to broadcast their review content
Your review producers will already have platforms they are present on, where they will post this content. However, there will be other sources where they can post shortened or adapted versions of the content.
For example, if your review producer has a good presence on Instagram and their blog, they will initially post there. However, you may identify other opportunities for the content to be posted.
Example
Let’s say your moving boxes company has set up a partnership with a lifestyle blogger who focuses on home improvement, and they have written about your product in a video and blog post about their own moving experience.
You may identify forum posts online which are gaining traction with people asking about tips for moving house, expressing frustration with poor quality boxes they have used from other brands, and so on.
This is a good opportunity for your review producer to post on these forums and provide an adapted version of their original review, talking about their own experience moving house and how your product (among other factors) made the move easier.
Just ensure your review producer is not posting duplicate content across multiple platforms – you want original pieces of content which work to interweave your brand entity with their entity and the tangential topics surrounding moving house.
As part of this strategy, you will also want your review producer to build up a presence on the forums so that they become recognisable in this community. This will help their own brand visibility, and they can highlight opportunities to write more review content about your brand as they go.
7. Leverage further UGC from the public
Google will no doubt review your brand entity and the level of audience engagement it is connected to. Therefore, it’s a good idea to leverage UGC from the public wherever you can on top of the core content your review producer is creating.
One way in which brands already do this is with their product reviews. You should continue working to encourage reviews on these pages, but there is more you can do now that you have a review producer working with you.
If you have, for example, an Instagram post which is reposting a video review from your review producer, and you have further comments from others who have used the product themselves, you will be giving this post a higher chance of appearing prominently in Perspectives.
You may wish to go a step further, asking your audience to share their tips on using your product, perhaps incentivising them to do so through a giveaway or similar.
It is important for you to encourage all UGC to be honest, creative and shareable. As a brand, you must encourage the terms of participation to have an undercurrent of transparency and fairness.
As with your review content, you want your UGC to represent real-life experience. Some people will have an overwhelmingly positive experience; others will have some constructive criticism. There will also be people who are not the right fit for your product.
All of this information should be encouraged, as you want Google to understand the full spectrum of genuine review content surrounding your product to boost your ranking opportunities in Perspectives.
Need help with your Perspectives SEO?
If you’re ready to kickstart your Perspectives SEO strategy, but need some help defining your influencer outreach, UGC programmes, reviewer guidelines or educational materials, we are here to help. Get in touch to find out how we can support your organic campaigns.
We also offer a limited number of Free Acquisitions Workshops for you to understand your current position in the search market and take away actionable insights to give your brand a boost.
