What's the secret to climbing the TripAdvisor rankings? How do you get ahead of your competitors and increase your number of customers?
We dissected the Tripadvisor algorithm to better understand how it works and revealed everything in an amazing infographic.
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You might also like: how to use TripAdvisor to your business's advantage and increase your revenue.
See below for the full text of the infographic and other supporting content
What is the Tripadvisor ranking or popularity index?
It's how well your establishment is positioned compared to its competitors in the same region. To determine your ranking, TripAdvisor uses reviews left by your competitors.
Difference between Ranking and Scoring
The rating is the score your establishment has on the website, which can range from 1 to 5. This score is given by your customers when they rate your establishment.
Ranking refers to the position your business holds in relation to other competing establishments in the same area. Your score influences your ranking position. The higher the score, the better the ranking. This scoring logic is repeated on other platforms: see how to climb the rankings on review sites.
It works like this:
- Based on their experience at your establishment, customers rate it from 1 to 5. The average of these ratings corresponds to your establishment's score, also from 1 to 5.
- Your score is factored into the overall ranking of your establishment compared to other establishments in your region.
- The higher your grades and the more recent your evaluations, the better your ranking position will be.
- The ranking is calculated daily, based on all published opinions, including new reviews received that day.
Main factors influencing the ranking, according to TripAdvisor
These factors are: the quality, quantity, and recency of customer reviews received.
Quality (rating score)
TripAdvisor uses customer ratings to assess the quality of the experience at each establishment. The site prioritizes showing users those establishments with more 4 or 5-circle reviews.
Current events
Recent reviews are more valuable than older ones because they more accurately represent the current experience at an establishment. Older reviews still count, but the more time passes, the less impact they have on the ranking.
Amount
This refers to the number of recent reviews for the establishment. It only needs to have enough feedback to provide statistical significance and allow for a solid comparison with the competition.
Check this out: Want to appear in Google's local search results? Learn about the 3 main ranking factors that will help you achieve that.
Learning the rules of the game
This study, while not entirely conclusive, gives us an idea of how much each of these factors impacts the ranking. They identified the following:
- An extra point in the average review score will increase the ranking by an average of 321 positions.
- An extra review will increase the ranking by 1.5 positions.
This means that:
When calculating ranking positions, TripAdvisor considers an establishment's average review score 20,000 times more than the total number of reviews.
Therefore, if the average review score remains the same and you only increase the volume of reviews, you would need 2,144 new reviews to increase your rating by the same proportion as the average review score.
From this, we can assume that if you want to improve your TripAdvisor ranking, the "Quantity" factor is not as important as the "Quality" factor.
You only need to receive enough reviews for the algorithm to have a statistically relevant dataset, but you don't need to become obsessed with having more reviews than your competitors.
Other factors that impact the Tripadvisor Popularity Index
Quality of experience delivered
The experience you offer directly impacts the rating your establishment receives in reviews. Offering the best possible experience is the best way to get the highest ratings.
Performance compared to competitors
When a business rises in the rankings, establishments in nearby positions are directly affected. Your position may fall if a competing establishment in the same region is receiving better reviews than you. The opposite also applies.
Establishment response rate
Another study proved that hotels that responded to reviews were better positioned than those that did NOT respond. The study also states that these hotels received 12% more reviews and their ratings increased by an average of 0.12 stars. In this post, we show you how to respond to your reviews professionally.
Consistency in the establishment's performance
An establishment that frequently receives positive reviews will have a higher rating than an establishment with a similar number of good and bad reviews.
How to improve your establishment's ranking in TripAdvisor popularity
There are no shortcuts or secret formulas, it's just hard work!
In our opinion, the most effective strategy is to focus on customer experience to obtain the highest-rated reviews. Your focus should be on gaining more circles, not more reviews.
Although having recent reviews is very important, as they reflect the current experience of each establishment for TripAdvisor. Therefore, invest in a strategy to receive more reviews, but only enough to compare yourself with the competition. How much is "necessary"? TripAdvisor doesn't reveal that.
Checklist for a successful strategy to climb the TripAdvisor rankings
- Offer the best possible customer experience.
- Receive high-quality reviews.
- Maintain a relevant volume of recent reviews.
- Listen to your customers and read their reviews.
- Respond to as many reviews as you can.
- Improve what you already have.
- Use the tools that TripAdvisor offers for free to encourage your customers to review you: Express Reviews, reminder tools, partnerships , and widgets.
TripAdvisor is an important part of your business's online reputation strategy. But a strong online reputation isn't built solely on a TripAdvisor profile.
