Imagine for a minute that you are a small online retailer of sunglasses. You don't have a brick-and-mortar store, but you offer all the traditional brands that customers would purchase either online or in-store, all at a great price. When a customer is looking to purchase a certain brand of sunglasses and types the brand name into Google, what are the chances that your website beats out Amazon, Wal-Mart, Target and other major online retailers?

It all comes down to those stars that appear under your website's Google AdWords displays – known as Google Seller Ratings (GSRs). These ratings come from reviews left directly on Google, or through a Google-approved third-party review aggregation site like Trustpilot. GSRs have the potential to not only increase your click-through rates by 17 percent, but also bring down cost-per-click (CPC) rates and add trustworthiness to the text ads you pay for through Google AdWords.

In this slideshow, Jonathan Hinz, director of strategic partnerships and business development at Trustpilot, offers six tips to help you improve your GSRs and get your business noticed above the competition.