If I were a business owner I’d print off this article and put it on my refridgerator and on my mirror and in my car. I’d buy you a gift. I’d hire you.

But most of all I’d take action and implement what you recommend.

The more reviews the better. The more you get them online the more you can print them off and use them for direct mail, instore, as postcards, as posters, as emails on newsletters etc.

I believe that is cases like this, it may turn our to add credibility to a site to have some, but not hundreds of review.
Also a few bad ones means that that the reviews for your company are real.

Thanks for the guidelines, looking to read more on this…

So true…training and retraining until it is part of the culture seems critical. If it takes my one jeweler almost a year to “get it”, how long will it take 15 remote locations? Do they have a method currently for collecting emails? Is there a way to integrate it into the checkout?

It will be an interesting story. Would love to hear how you make out.

Thanks for your insight! You have identified the intrinsic conflict of interest that exists in the review world which I am hoping has become obvious to those reading the series.

It is my observation, though, that Google has in fact already devalued reviews. Not so much by marking down their importance as by adding new additional variables for ranking. My experience is that reviews provide an initial “bump” particularly if a business listing has been “quiet” but that there is little increase in value after that first little benefit. Ranking does not continue to improve as more and more reviews come in….

But as you point out, and the case stuides point out is that consumers trust reviews, at least in aggregate and they do influence where to buy strongly.

Reviews, however, are much more than just a ranking factor in the Search results, they are also a ranking factor in the real business world. Published opinions, whether justified or not, can drive a multitude of customers through your doors or cause prospects to mercilessly shun you. For this reason, businesses (and SEOs) need to get the whole review process right. Reviews published online are likely to exist forever and they will influence a business long after their impact on Search rankings fades.

For this reason alone, we all need to remain totally transparent and white hat. Those who are not may positively influence their Search rankings today, but find themselves making headlines tomorrow as the people who faked or bought reviews. And by then, the SEO company that put the scheme together will be long gone.

I look forward to the rest of your research and analysis of reviews and the review process!

So there must be a balance – with few reviews the business is at risk of being affected by one customer having a bad day, but over-doing it with way more reviews than is normal in an industry could be counter-productive.

I wonder though, if being “too” proactive might have consequences of its own. IE by having 10 or 20 or 30x more reviews than the nearest competitor whether it might become counterproductive either from the user perspective or the search engine perspective.

I love this statement from your post:

“But most businesses live in a world where the only person that is motivated to write the review is the one in a hundred or the one in five hundred that was just so pissed off about something that they just had to tell the world. The loyal customers that come in to the shop, day in and day out never think to sing your praises as they have just grown accustomed to great service and friendly staff.”

That’s exactly why businesses need to be proactive (and transparent) in handling their online reviews.

I look forward to the rest of this series!

that’s a great point. How would you posit the idea as a principle? Or does it make more sense to include that idea in the Process category?