Lately, the crisis of trust has led software directories to be prospected by potential customers more often than before. Buyers no longer just look for high ranking software on the major search engines, but rather also prefer to check the experience and other details on specialized platforms.
Why do software review platforms become popular?
The first reason is the large number of solutions available for each category. Today, we have hundreds of thousands of solutions ready, from SaaS to desktop, mobile to IoT, for various purposes: internal operations, automatization, marketing and many more.
Each solution comes with various features that may or may not meet the needs of companies therefore, manual search for the right solution started to become cumbersome. In the past the first and only option was to hire an IT consultant to help in selecting the right solution.
Now, software directories can list the solutions by using specific filters and algorithms that will help the buyer reduce drastically the search range.
Buyers want to check customer reviews, what experience they’ve had with the company and if it is trustworthy. A software review platform validates customer reviews and provides a rating score. Reviews are a major player in earning trust among potential buyers.
Most software review platforms have comparison tools, buyers are able to compare one software with another, according to some initially established criteria. Everything is done with a few clicks.
Software review platforms often publish different charts, trends, insights and reports for different software categories; Unfortunately, some of these reports are also influenced by sponsorship therefore we do recommend being careful when reading these articles and from what sources.
How are software solutions ranked on these platforms?
Most of the time, when a software is submitted to a directory, such as a software review platform, a manual evaluation is performed by one of their employees prior approval. Manual evaluation usually refers to checking the details of the submission, such as: the website, verifying the contact details, and some platforms check their visibility on the internet if they are not already a well-known brand. Being an approved software in a software directory, especially the most important ones, such as: Awardo, [capterra.com]Capterra, Crozdesk, G2, [softwareadvice.com]Software Advice, TrustRadius, etc. by default it raises a sort of level of trust or initial rank that also are well received by search engines. Depending on the platform from which you publish the software, the approval rate may be higher or lower, depending on their conditions.
The most important part from which a software will be ranked higher on a directory is the review part. Quality reviews are ahead of quantity, but both are indirectly connected by an algorithm to provide an accurate score. The score will dictate the position of the software on a certain category and the position where it will be displayed will dictate the number of impressions. Therefore, the visibility of the software on a directory is strongly connected with the earned review score. Unfortunately, there are situations on some platforms where the position of a solution is influenced by sponsorship, but major platforms mention this to buyers and they can always filter by removing sponsorship/featured listings.
Another complementary criteria on the basis of which a software can be well ranked is the completion of as many details as possible in the software profile. With no doubt a complete profile is better than a partial one with important details missing (s.a. Pricing, Support details, etc.).
As a buyer, what is the best review platform to look for software?
After providing the above information, the questions arise which platform is best to start looking for the right software. In my opinion, there is no “best” software review platform out there on the internet, the most appropriate way of searching for a software is to go on all major ones mentioned above in this article. Try searching the internet for other software review platforms and use their search and comparison tools to see what you get. Exploring all major platforms will help you find a more accurate and shorter list of the right software.
Author: Dan Stefan, CEO Awardo
Dan Stefan, CEO, Awardo
