hey guys, i’ve run a shoe store and i’ve got display imported from facebook and other sources via plugins like fera ai and was wondering if having reviews displayed on your website helps with SEO? is it better to be photos or videos or just text would do the job?
Hey @sorenaalex Welcome to Shopify Community can you please share the Website URL
Yes, I redeem that having reviews on your website significantly helps SEO. Text reviews provide the most SEO value because they contain keywords and unique content that search engines can index. Photos and videos improve trust and conversions but don’t directly boost SEO. The best strategy is to use text reviews alongside photos or videos.
Hi @sorenaalex. Having product and service reviews is highly beneficial for SEO, as long as they are from real users.
While text reviews are often sufficient, videos are much more effective at building customer trust. They act as engaging touchpoints that encourage users to make a purchase, thereby boosting your SEO even further.
Hope this helps 
tbh the SEO benefit of reviews is mostly indirect. text reviews help because they add fresh keyword-rich content to your product pages that google can crawl, and if you’ve got review schema set up you can get those star ratings showing in search results which boosts click-through rate. photos and videos don’t directly help SEO since google can’t really “read” them the same way.
but the bigger win from photo and video reviews is conversion, not SEO. for shoes especially, people want to see what they actually look like on real feet, not just studio shots. a single photo review from a real customer showing the fit can do more for your conversion rate than a dozen text reviews. so imo prioritize getting photo reviews even if the SEO angle is more about the text.
Hi there @sorenaalex
Reviews are definitely a big help. While they might not magically boost your ranking to #1 overnight, they do help SEO in a more “indirect” way. When customers see real reviews, especially with photos, they tend to stay on your page much longer to read them. This increased “time on site” signals to Google that your store is helpful and trustworthy, which gradually improves your SEO over time.
For a shoe store specifically, text maybe great for Google to read keywords, but photos and videos are the real winners for conversions. People want to see how the shoes actually fit and look on real feet! I’d suggest a mix of both: keep the text for the search engines, and encourage customers to post photos to build that “real-life” trust that keeps people on your site longer.
Shortly answer your question: Yes it does help SEO but it helps more to building trust and boosting conversion rate because fresh and user-generated reviews add unique content to your product pages. This can keep them updated and provide additional context around your products.
Text review will be very helpful and valuable for SEO because search engine (also AI engine) can easily crawl and understand the content
Photo and video reviews are better for conversion because they provide visual proofs that can get customers to make quicker purchasing decision
For shoe store, you can encourage text review and photo feedback of customers wearing the shoes.
If you’re looking to improve your overall SEO beyond reviews, tools like SEOWILL can help optimize product pages, metadata, and structured content to complement the trust and fresh content that reviews provide.
Reviews can help, but I wouldn’t expect the review widget itself to suddenly improve rankings. The useful part is the actual customer text because it adds unique product-specific content that wasn’t written by you. Photos/videos are great for conversion and trust, but they aren’t automatically better for SEO than a few genuine, descriptive text reviews.
Hi @sorenaalex
I hope you’re doing well,
Reviews can definitely be helpful, especially when they add fresh, relevant content to your product pages. Text reviews are useful for giving search engines more context, while photo and video reviews can add value for shoppers and potentially improve engagement and conversions. I’d use a mix if your review app supports it rather than focusing on one format.