I agree with you regarding producing a quality website, but you should be aware that getting reviews has a lot to do with rankings. It’s not the silver bullet it used to be, but it’s still a major part of the algo.

I read the original article. Lots of depth and breakdowns with regard to types of businesses, demographics as to age and sex, and many other attributes.

IMHO, reviews are so critical, yet should be seen in the entire context of a business’s visibility on the web. They have their place, which is important, but not the only issue; in fact well seen on your infographic: http://www.blumenthals.com/index.php?web-equity-infographic

As for me….my first priority is high rankings. Several anecdotal incidents speak to the issues of rankings, and reviews/referrals;

1. I was reviewing activity about a website wherein I have an operating partner. When we improved his Google rankings for several critical keywords from less than #1 ranking (probably 2 or 3 to #1 we tripled traffic to the website and conversions . Tripled That is a significant difference.

2. I was on the phone with a potential customer. The person had a lot of skepticism about the service based on prior experiences. He went to our Google Places Record and read a lot of glowing reviews.

Per his comments he is coming in to purchase in 3 days. (We’ll see).

He probably wouldn’t have seen the reviews for that business if it wasn’t ranked #1 and that the review volume stood out. The commentary in the reviews were startlingly different than his prior experience and the basis for his skepticism.

Both are very important, but I’d get a quality website up and get high rankings as a top priority above managing the review process.

(of course if you have both high rankings and miserable miserable reviews–> you are up sh!ts creek)