Since the rollout of Google+ Local the complaints about missing reviews have risen dramatically in the forums. The issues that Google have had right along with losing reviews remain much the same and reviews can go missing for many of the same reasons:
- Marked as spam
- They are misplaced by Google briefly or for longer periods
- Users mark their review as private in the transition to PLus
- A listing has dupes and the review gets associated with the other listing
- A rating will show in the review count but not in the review corpus
But apparently something has changed. In conversations in the private forum Google noted the following high level points regarding spam that we could share and that may make life easier for some of you:
- car dealership reviews are usually, but not always, spammy
- Google will only allow one review per person per business
- Copy pasting the same review for multiple locations is also not allowed (Google will delete both instances of the review)
- Putting URLs in reviews will result in the review being marked as spam
So…great way to get reviews from particularly angry patrons removed, at least when they post on multiple locations.
Comment by Justin Seibert (26 comments) — July 30, 2012 @ 3:38 pm
@Justin
So you suggest “counseling” the angry ones to post the same review multiple times? Send them a special email?
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1945 comments) — July 30, 2012 @ 3:42 pm
@Mike – great idea! Actually, thinking of companies looking up such instances and reporting anything they find. There are probably some black hat extensions of this policy, too….
Comment by Justin Seibert (26 comments) — July 30, 2012 @ 3:50 pm
Mike,
Can you expound on what it is that singled car dealerships out for “spammy” reviews on G+?
I will be the first to tell you that I love this industry and feel we are often unfairly singled out, but I also know of several “agencies” that are preying on dealerships by using deceptive language like ‘review syndication.’ Any insight I can share would be greatly appreciated as always.
Ryan
Comment by Ryan Leslie (9 comments) — July 30, 2012 @ 4:32 pm
@Ryan
I can’t share with you the specifics of why Google thinks that most car dealership reviews are spammy. The details of the conversation were under NDA. I assume though that they have looked at a lot and have solid grounds for their understanding of the situation.
The ones that I have looked appear to be guilty of either the misuse of on site terminals to gather reviews or the use of third parties to post feedback cards as reviews.
Comment by Mike (2500 comments) — July 30, 2012 @ 4:49 pm
I’ve run into this a lot lately. I’ve gotten copies of the reviews my clients’ customers have submitted which I believe were caught in the spam algo. Is there any word on certain KWs (such as irrelevant brand name) raising red flags? e.g. “…They were really fast, they only took a two breaks for Gatorade…”.
I used to be in the car dealership industry and I can safely say that most of the reviews I saw were fake, except of course when they were on DealRater ; ). Another industry I’ve seen that gives car dealers a run for their money when it comes to fake reviews is legal services.
Comment by jesse (12 comments) — July 30, 2012 @ 5:06 pm
@Jessie
The algo captures a lot more reviews. The specifics of those things that trigger it are not yet totally obvious (other than the above items)….
Comment by Mike (2500 comments) — July 30, 2012 @ 5:13 pm
@Mike,
Thanks… Those are things that we strongly discourage with and I can positively confirm are being sold to dealers as a “solution” for Reputation Management.
As much as I hate to see dealers singled-out, I am glad to see Google is taking steps to curb some of the obvious abuse of G+ Reviews as a platform. Thanks again for such valuable information and for your willingness to share it here.
What do you think Google’s eye on dealers will mean for them? Do you expect to see lots of content removed, blacklisting etc? If that was part of the NDA I understand, but if not I’d really value your insight.
Comment by Ryan Leslie (9 comments) — July 30, 2012 @ 5:19 pm
@jesse,
Where was I supposed to send that check?
Comment by Ryan Leslie (9 comments) — July 30, 2012 @ 5:21 pm
@Ryan
Clearly Google has identified the industry as a source for low quality reviews and for now the results apparently have been to remove (and continue to remove) a large number of reviews … my own honda dealer went from 80 some down to 14 leaving a preponderance of negative reviews…. yet he persists.
Once Google moves fully to Plus the rules might change as it will be easier for them to enforce their guidelines.
Comment by Mike (2500 comments) — July 30, 2012 @ 5:26 pm
Mike:
From your comments it appears that Google is partially flagging reviews originating from the smb itself, no matter how its done. Is that accurate in general or does it only apply to auto dealers.
I suspect other smb’s of doing the same. In a couple of our businesses we have sporadically offered a lap top for reviews done while customers are there. We’ve also suggested the customers could do them at home.
It seems to me we should no longer offer the option of having the review written on site.
That is fine. I’d just like clarity for our staff.
Comment by earlpearl (784 comments) — July 30, 2012 @ 5:45 pm
@Earl
I do not have enough data to categorically say that a review station won’t work. I think that it is more likely to trigger events that might be considered spammy but I don’t think that it in and of itself is the cause…. ie I think it would be ok if the users already had google accounts but creating a ton of google accounts on one machine is probably bad karma.
Comment by Mike (2500 comments) — July 30, 2012 @ 5:58 pm
Mike,
I’m in sync with the spammy reviews being nixed and the dupe reviews being removed and since no one or nothing is perfect, I’ll even cut Google some slack on temporarily losing a review on their massive data center dBms (but) what vexes me to no end is why if all other conditions are met, my clients G+ Local listing can’t successfully accept a legit review? After 3 attempts, I’ve still not been able to rectify this snafu, short of voo-doo ;0)
Comment by Neil (1 comments) — July 30, 2012 @ 7:14 pm
@Neil
What listing are you having trouble with?
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1945 comments) — July 31, 2012 @ 1:10 pm
We have had multiple clients attempting to post reviews about our law firm, but none of them appear on the “Google+” page for the firm. They all report that they can see the reviews when they are logged in, but the reviews are not visible to the public. Lame.
Comment by Ron (5 comments) — July 31, 2012 @ 2:17 pm
@Ron
Am curious, did they have accounts prior to posting?
Did you help them set up the accounts while in your office?
Has your listing lost many reviews to the spam filter in the past?
I would be interested in learning about the details of the situation.
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1945 comments) — July 31, 2012 @ 2:33 pm
Too funny on the only 1 review per business. I went to provide another review for my local pool supply company and saw that.
Google did allow me to edit the review I made 2 years ago and that’s what I did.
I wanted to add the link here but guess what… the review is not visible on Places+??? I logged into my account and the review is there, hummm…
If you Google – Willow Park Pools – you should see my review on the Places+ page.
Comment by Dennis (47 comments) — July 31, 2012 @ 2:35 pm
First time commenter on this blog. Good stuff. With most of Google’s updates there’s always businesses that receive the short end of the stick. However, Google+ for Busiensses seems to be an advanced form of Facebook biz pages in terms of customer engagement and interaction. I’d be interested to hear someone experience with G+ for Businesses. Best!
Comment by Michael (24 comments) — July 31, 2012 @ 3:47 pm
@Michael
It is still very early in the Google+ Local process. The current pages are just transplants from Places and most do not yet have full Google+ Business capability that they will have after the merge.
So for now they are just static pages upon which someone can (sometimes) leave a review.
The real measure of the product can not be made until all of the pages have fully been upgraded and we start seeing how Google uses the data.
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1945 comments) — July 31, 2012 @ 4:11 pm
I would estimate that at least 100 businesses we work with lost reviews right after the change-over to G+ Local. This happened a lot in the past (to the same degree – we’d have hundreds of businesses lose tons of reviews all at once) but they always came back within a month at worst. As of today, we haven’t seen any return.
The patterns I can point out is that most of them are in the insurance industry – has Google marked this industry as spammy too? Also, a great majority of the reviews were “asked for” so it’s likely that the user had only posted that 1 review. Do you think Google is starting to filter reviews if they notice the business has a lot of reviews from users who have only posted 1 review? I hope not because I know a lot of users are willing to leave a review when asked, but they don’t always necessarily plan on going onto Google in the future and reviewing tons of other businesses (thus, just the 1 review).
Asking for reviews is something Google wants businesses to do, right? If so, I would expect that it would undoubtedly result in a lot of profiles with just 1 review attached to them.
Comment by Joy Hawkins (36 comments) — July 31, 2012 @ 4:23 pm
@Joy
Google has said to me that a single review reviewer is NOT a reason for a review to be marked as spam. So it is likely some other attribute of the reviews that pushed them under the bus. The algo seems to have been tightened down quite a bit. Whenever that happens Google always throws a few too many babies out with the bath water. At that seems to definitely be the case here.
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1945 comments) — July 31, 2012 @ 4:31 pm
Uhhhhm; sounds like “on site terminals to gather reviews” might not be a good idea for car dealerships… or any other businesses for that matter. I always thought providing the ability for someone to provide a review (even on-site) was ok for Google, but not ok for Yelp. This kind of thing can be abused, but not every car dealer is a bad apple. Nonetheless, I do understand where Google is coming from.
Comment by Andy Kuiper (232 comments) — July 31, 2012 @ 4:32 pm
From my experience and seeing some reviews publish and others not, this looks like a technical glitch which is being wrongly assumed to be a filter. These is too much inconsistency, it needs a fix but first recognition of the problem has to happen.
Comment by tony (15 comments) — August 1, 2012 @ 7:53 am
Just to add to my last response, I’ve managed to get a review which went into this twilight zone status, published. I’d love to know exactly what i did but it involved deleting adding again, tweaking the entry ie removing a fullstop so it was different, drilling down into google plus local sub section to edit from there. I just persevered, got lucky and the review showed eventually and surprisingly, have tried to make happen again but not clear what element pushed it out, anyone else had success when sitting in this non visible status?
Comment by tony (15 comments) — August 2, 2012 @ 6:58 am
Pleased to hear Google is finally catching on to Car Dealerships – they incentivize their sales people to get reviews. Obviously that is open to abuse.
Comment by Rob (43 comments) — August 2, 2012 @ 7:28 am
@tony
I think what looks like a technical glitch is a very persnickety and not very well developed length and language algo. I would love to see the before and after wording of the review that you finally got published.
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1945 comments) — August 2, 2012 @ 7:28 am
I find it odd that there doesn’t seem to be a problem with bringing in 3rd party reviews (city search, yahoo, insidergages etc) yet they struggle with their own technologies?
Reminds me of my days at Pepsi, as good of a company as they are, if they were only organized, god only knows how much “more” money they could make!
Comment by Dennis (47 comments) — August 2, 2012 @ 7:43 am
I had 9 high quality reviews: only 2 left on a scraped listing with wrong information. I don’t know at what point you suggest the masses storm the castle. I am way past that point myself. I am no longer directing reviews to Google Places. It is worthless.
Comment by Stan Denman (3 comments) — August 2, 2012 @ 6:06 pm
@ Mike
I purposely made no material change to the text, just removed a fullstop (maybe added one) to ensure the review was different. Additional Things I’ve also done which may help others frustrated is…
Add more reviews with same profile, this can on occasion push out a previous review, look to get the business with the twilight zone review reviewed by another person/profile, this could get the older review live, use the google plus share option (not sure if this helps on not).
avoiding cut and paste
Also have found testing with a new account has more success than with an existing account ?!
I’d be interested in others who are just as frustrated trying these any of these steps to see how they get on, maybe my sometimes success was a fluke (plus I do feel its sooo inconsistent and getting worse)
Obviously in the real world no reviews are going to succeed if it doesnt happen easily
As mike says there is also potential spam algo problems to further muddy the waters but I’ve definitely seen evidence this is glitching and the amount of feedback of client customers hitting the same pergatory issue where they are just writing a nice review (end user reviews tend to have no spam content from my experience as they talk from the personal level ie “Frank was great today and I would happily recommend…) and just pressing publish, leads me to believe its broken, especially on existing accounts, which is where most of these reviews will be placed
Comment by tony (15 comments) — August 3, 2012 @ 4:19 am
I have been having reviews removed from my google+ listing at the rate of 2 per month for about 4 months. These were not spammy and I am not in the car business. I know that only one reviewer put in 2 reviews (I did 2 jobs for him) but none of the others were duplicated or had any reason to be deleted. All of my reviews were 5 stars (or 3/3). I have also heard from 2 customers that they put up a reviews but they never appeared on my site. Question#1: could a competetor be able to have my reviews flagged? Question #2: How do i get these reviews back. I would never ask a customer to do another review because gOOGLE MESSED UP.
Comment by Johnny_O (1 comments) — August 6, 2012 @ 10:28 am
On Thursday, June 2nd I went home with 36 Google reviews (I had 48 when Google + Local launched) and a score of 20. When I came to work Friday morning we had 12 reviews and a score of 0! We are a car dealership and we do ask our customers to leave reviews for us and provide them with the link to our Google+ Local page. We have never published a customers review and do not ask them to do so while in our dealership (i.e. – review kiosk). Why is Google targeting car dealerships for ‘spammy’ reviews? Why did ALL of our good reviews get pulled and none of the negative one? From what I have read in the forums, it also appears that now that Google has “pulled” these reviews I will never get them back. Why do you hate car dealerships Google?
Comment by Steve Davis (4 comments) — August 6, 2012 @ 1:30 pm
Oops, I meant Thursday August 2nd. Sorry.
Comment by Steve Davis (4 comments) — August 6, 2012 @ 1:33 pm
Major Disappearing Review “Act” – Now you see `em & now you don`t!~
We had 157 reviews & now Google has removed all but two………………….. so here it is August 6th and I`m really hoping that someone will be able to share some insight as to what is going on here????
We work extremely hard to achieve excellent reviews and its very frustrating to see this…………….
Thank you,
Ken Beam
Marketing Director
Douglas Volkswagen
Summit NJ
Comment by Ken Beam (5 comments) — August 6, 2012 @ 4:32 pm
@Ken & Steve
Google said: “car dealership reviews are usually, but not always, spammy”. That means that they have data in their hands that indicates wide spread abuse in your industry. While either of you may not have violated review protocols many in your industry have and it has brought the “wrath of god” down upon the lot of you.
1)They clearly want to send a message to the whole industry to stop inappropriate review gathering practices.
2)The reviews may or may not be gone. Google always attempts to refine these broad stroke algos and not penalize real reviewers (they don’t much care about businesses). As the algo gets better trained some might come back.
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1945 comments) — August 6, 2012 @ 4:42 pm
Thanks for the insight, Mike and we will cross our fingers that they get this sorted out. Ken, sounds like we should talk!
Comment by Steve Davis (4 comments) — August 6, 2012 @ 5:11 pm
Hey Mike,
So you`re claiming that this is Google`s most recent answer to this “Review-Issue”???????
Ok ok……….. well let me ask you something……… why now??? What changed with Google in the last week or two that caused this???
One more questioned…….. do you actually work for Google?????
Thanks,
Ken-
Comment by Ken Beam (5 comments) — August 6, 2012 @ 5:21 pm
@Ken
I am not quite sure what you are asking me.
I am claiming that it is an answer that Google noted that I could share. I am not a Google employee but am in regular contact with them.
As to why now, I assume that you are asking “why me now”. This issue has been going on in the forums for the past few months. I assume that the filter doesn’t hit every listing at the same time. As Google changes the filter, it then works its way through the reviews until it got to your listing.
I am trying to bring Google’s attention to this issue and have communicated to them regularly the problems that this has caused. I have also started consolidating the complaints into a single thread on the forum so that it would be easier for Google to monitor and respond. I would suggest that you add your voice to the chorus.
Not solutions any one of them but perhaps steps in the right direction.
It appears that you are not happy with my response. I would point out that shooting the messenger or impugning his integrity is rarely going to get you points in heaven.
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1945 comments) — August 6, 2012 @ 5:43 pm
@ Mike – No no……………..lol………………….you`re taking this wrong! I`m very happy with your answer…………. and thank you very much!
Comment by Ken Beam (5 comments) — August 6, 2012 @ 5:48 pm
@Ken
Ah… you are lucky. I was just getting ready to train the spam filter to better recognize your posts.
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1945 comments) — August 6, 2012 @ 5:52 pm
Interesting, but of of no help to my loss of 80% of my google places reviews for no reason. IMO you should not be suggesting that smbs solicit client reviews to google places. I wish that I had not taken that advice.
Comment by standenman (1 comments) — August 7, 2012 @ 10:26 pm
@standenman
There is a reason. We just can’t be sure what it is.
How are you or your clients worse off now that asked clients for reviews and lost some?
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1945 comments) — August 7, 2012 @ 10:31 pm
Hi Mike,
Can you please email me directly or call me at 908-522-7300 x118….. as I have a few personal questions???
Thanks Mike,
Ken Beam
Marketing Director
Douglas Auto Group
Comment by Ken Beam (5 comments) — August 8, 2012 @ 2:55 pm
@ tony & mike
I was able to get a review published for about 30 seconds that previously wasn’t showing. I posted the details on this Google Forum thread.
Comment by Joy Hawkins (36 comments) — August 8, 2012 @ 4:28 pm
I noticed that the companies I reviewed over the years that are not currently showing up had the name of the owner or an employee in the review. When you’re signed into your account you can see which of your reviews are posted and which reviews are not. See if they have anything in common … like someones full name. Would love to get your take on this Mike.
Aloha, Bob Sommer
Comment by Mauibob (8 comments) — August 12, 2012 @ 12:35 am
@Bob
There are clearly semantic and language rules that result in the removal reviews. I think that length is also a consideration. I don’t think name and of itself is cause but perhaps in combination with some other factors. Let me know what else you find…
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1945 comments) — August 12, 2012 @ 10:41 am
My businesses local page is not showing the most recent positive reviews! The negative review that was left is up there for sure, but nothing positive. Patients have even emailed after they left a review and when I go to the page, nothing is there.
https://plus.google.com/117744431547136353489/about?hl=en
Comment by Irfan Khan (1 comments) — August 12, 2012 @ 1:10 pm
Thanks Mike. I did find a similar issue with a very short review that I wrote. It was removed.
On another note, I just completed a test. I found two of my reviews that were not showing up, and I removed the “Full Name” from the review. In both cases the review showed up immediately. This could be do removing their “full names” from the review or it could be due to me just paying attention to the review by editing and re-uploading it.
It does make sense that Google would not want to see an individual, by name, defaced in a review. And, even though I praised both owners, this could be something Google is paying attention to. I have a feeling there’s something to this. Any additional thoughts? Has anyone else tested this? Are you getting similar results?
Comment by Mauibob (8 comments) — August 12, 2012 @ 3:58 pm
I had a review that wasn’t showing and it did have the first name of the owner in it. The name of the business was “Danny Franchino State Farm Insurance” and my review referenced Danny. I have another review that shows fine that references the owner’s name (Linda Buquet) but this business does not have the owner’s name in the title – https://plus.google.com/113358377118440631404/about.
I got my review for Danny to show by re-posting it on my cell phone. So I’m wondering if that could be it? The other times I edited it and tried to get it to show were all on a computer.
Comment by Joy Hawkins (36 comments) — August 12, 2012 @ 4:26 pm
Thanks for the link Joy!
(FYI just merged last night with hidden address even though supposedly the merge option is not available for lowly home based business people like me yet. Shhh…)
I wondered about the name thing. I’ve seen missing reviews listed as examples in the Places forum that seemed to excessively repeat the service provider’s name that just looked really fake to me – so made me wonder if name repetition OR how names were used in sentences wouldn’t trip a filter in some cases.
Comment by Linda Buquet (293 comments) — August 12, 2012 @ 7:47 pm
One particular client (a lawyer) is on a review drive and many of his clients are posting to google+ for the first time and their reviews are not showing. This is very sad. I look forward to a fix if google has one in the works.
Comment by scott (37 comments) — August 12, 2012 @ 8:14 pm
My guess is if you’re lawyer client is trying to get reviews for his business and his clients are using his full name in the review … this might be causing the filter to trip. It’s hard to describe the services of a lawyer without using his/her name. Then again, using a name in a review may not be an issue at all. Time will tell … and so will a little testing.
Comment by Mauibob (8 comments) — August 12, 2012 @ 8:56 pm
I look forward to a fix if google has one in the works.
You assume that they think it broken and there is a problem. They coded it this way. Usually Google will admit to technical errors and bugs but in this case, it appears to me that this is just a new spam abatement algo. It may get better trained and throw away less good stuff but it has been doing its thing for several months and the only public word from Google is: The engineers are looking at it.
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1945 comments) — August 12, 2012 @ 8:58 pm
That is a bummer for our clients who are posting legitimate reviews that disappear. But that is a fair point Mike.
Comment by scott (37 comments) — August 12, 2012 @ 9:04 pm
Can you please share with me again, how/where you removed the owner`s name or company name(?) then reposted it??? This doesn’t seem possible? The customers are writing these reviews about your service so forth and you are telling me that you are able to edit the review the customer wrote and re-posting it?
Or are you talking about something else??? Because to my knowledge when a customer writes a review we DO NOT have the ability to alter it. Unless you are writing the review for the customer??? Please kindly clarify??
Thanks!!!!
Comment by Ken Beam (5 comments) — August 12, 2012 @ 9:40 pm
@Ken
Either they wrote a review themselves of a business and were rewriting their own review or they were working hand in hand with a reviewer to do so. There is no ability for a listing owner to change a review on their own.
@All
The algo is likely more complex than a single variable…
For example IP address in and of itself is unlikely to trigger the filter but in combination with other variables it is likely to. For example if a particular machine or network is used to create a lot of accounts then the creation of reviews on that machine/network might be suspect.
As to name, it might be one variable in a semantic analysis of the content but not in and of itself. It might occur in the context of an analysis of the sentiment, the repetition of keywords, the length etc that Google had determined were characteristic of spammy reviews.
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1945 comments) — August 13, 2012 @ 7:42 am
I think there might be something to the theory about having a person’s name as one of the triggers (I’m sure Mike is right and there isn’t just 1 variable). I just saw this person posting in the forum that this review doesn’t show and it lists a first name a couple times as well…
https://plus.google.com/u/0/100499700251355075851/posts/cavxMaMvKYq
Comment by Joy Hawkins (36 comments) — August 13, 2012 @ 2:07 pm
I don’t think using a first name only or a last name only is causing the filter to trigger. It looks like the trigger is tripped if you use a person’s full name. I’ve also seen a lot of reviews where this is not an issue. I just found it kind of odd that when I removed the full names from two of my reviews (and only addressed the person who served me by their first name only), they were both visible on Google almost immediately.
Comment by Mauibob (8 comments) — August 13, 2012 @ 2:24 pm
@Mike
I have read many of the comments on this thread and see that alot are having this same issue. I am with a Car Dealership and we had 100 reviews and a week and a half ago, we were left with only 3 bad reviews! Bad ones:-( It was like they took all the good reviews and threw them away…it really stinks. We did ask our customers to write us a review but I didnt think that was wrong? I’m just confused because everyone is saying how horrible it is to ask customers to write one. We ask EVERYONE, they could write a good or bad review we never know until they write it, I dont understand why that would be bad. It appears that now that the customer has to have a Google+ account in order to write a review? Is that correct?
On the other side, I ALWAYS read reviews about places/products before i try/buy and now I dont know if I am reading all the reviews or just the “bad” or “good” ones that Google picked. I have to search harder to find reviews also which stinks because I used to be able to just search the item or place and it would pop up.
Thanks for helping us out on this issue!
TIA,
Kristina
Comment by Kristina Partin (2 comments) — August 13, 2012 @ 2:43 pm
@Kristina
I am curious did you ask and have the clients do the reviews while on your premises?
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1945 comments) — August 13, 2012 @ 2:51 pm
@ Mike
Yes we did…we had an Ipad that was passed around the dealership in Service and Sales. We asked if they wanted to write a review when they were finished and most said No, But over the past year and a half we got 100 reviews…I think our total reviews before Google deleted them was 103.
Comment by Kristina Partin (2 comments) — August 13, 2012 @ 3:03 pm
@Mike – do you think you could get Google to confirm if the IP address is now a factor? I know I read on your blog before (http://blumenthals.com/blog/2011/12/06/google-places-onsite-review-stations-aok-with-google/) that it wasn’t.
Personally, I don’t think it’s fair to business owners to think that having reviews left onsite is okay (since Google was encouraging it according to your post) when it will cause them to disappear in the future. If something has changed and having onsite review stations is now a bad idea, it’d be really nice if they could at least give us a heads up.
Comment by Joy Hawkins (36 comments) — August 13, 2012 @ 3:16 pm
The five most common review mistakes that will get a review removed include:
1. Fake Reviews
2. Fake Accounts
3. Multiple Reviews Uploaded From the Same Computer
4. Google Review on Multiple Websites including your own Website
5. Offering a Reward for Writing a Review
This last offense could even get you in trouble with the FTC.
Kristina: For the time being I would encourage you to direct your customers to review your business on Dealerrater, Edmonds Citysearch and Yelp.
The first two sites are specific to the auto business. Citysearch is great because the reviews left here are shared on multiple other sites and Yelp because they are the primary review site for Bing and Apple. I would stop sending your customers to Google until this is corrected and I would stop asking them to review your business from the same location.
Comment by Mauibob (8 comments) — August 13, 2012 @ 3:29 pm
I would agree with Mauibob except for on #4 (Google Review on Multiple Websites including your own Website). I’ve seen tons of highly respected people in this industry say the opposite (that it’s a great idea to list reviews on your website). Mike, I’m curious what your thoughts are on this?
@Bob – what made you conclude this?
Comment by Joy Hawkins (36 comments) — August 13, 2012 @ 3:48 pm
Hi Joy:
Here’s what Google has to say about Reviews on Multiple Websites. Many people are not aware of this.
http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=187622
Removal of Google Places Reviews
“Don’t use reviews for advertising or post the same or similar reviews across multiple places.”
If you have a review on Google and you decide to share it any where else … even on your own website, they have the power to remove it. This is typical of all the review sites … but it is not true with the social networks.
Let me suggest that you gather both reviews and testimonials. Reviews are a one time only thing. Once a review goes on a review site, don’t touch it.
On the other hand, if you get a testimonial from your customer directly, you can use that testimonial on your own website, on all of your social networks including Facebook, etc., on a separate webpage you create just for your testimonials, in your emails, in your blog, in an RSS feed and more. Just don’t do that with reviews on Google or the other review sites. Their stance is this. If someone write a review on our site, we own it.
Comment by Mauibob (8 comments) — August 13, 2012 @ 4:04 pm
[...] you he is a very, very smart guy with tremendous insight on this topic. Here is a link to his post: Google+ Local And Review Issues | Understanding Google Places & Local Search According to Mike, Google has labeled car dealers as having particularly "spammy" [...]
Pingback by Google Reviews Disappeared!?!?!? What's the deal? — August 13, 2012 @ 5:22 pm
@Joy
Last time I asked for a reconfirmation they would not answer me either way.
I think duplicate content in reviews is an issue.
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1945 comments) — August 13, 2012 @ 5:41 pm
“post the same or similar reviews across multiple places” – Doesn’t this mean you don’t post the same review for more than 1 business on Google (Example: you post a review for a spa and then the exact same review for another spa)? That’s how I always interpreted it.
Comment by Joy Hawkins (36 comments) — August 13, 2012 @ 7:06 pm
@Joy
That’s how I would interpret the rule but I have seen evidence that Google can spot duplicate reviews and nukes the dupes.. when Tripadvisor was arguing with Google, they stopped bringing in Tripadvisor reviews and replaced them with Travelpod(?) reviews. Which were exact duplicates as they were syndicated. They obviously could tell.
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1945 comments) — August 13, 2012 @ 7:37 pm
Google is not the only review site that treats reviews this way. Most all of the major sites “own” the reviews customers write about “your” business. It’s how they roll. It’s in their terms of use.
Here’s an example from Tripadvisor.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/help/postingandediting
This is why you “do not” want to copy and paste reviews from these sites anywhere else. The review sites can share it because they own it (sites like Citysearch do this all the time) but you can’t.
This is why it’s important to generate reviews on the review websites and testimonials for use everywhere else.
Comment by Mauibob (8 comments) — August 13, 2012 @ 8:05 pm
I am having a very similar problem to many in this thread. I have had 2 patients in the past month do new reviews for me on their Google plus accounts. Neither one of them is showing up under my reviews. My review count still stands at three the same as it has been over the past six months. I have been in contact with these patients and they can see the reviews on their Google plus accounts and they are not posted as private and they do not contain any links. They are straight up valid reviews just like the rest of the other three we have.
Comment by Kevin (17 comments) — August 17, 2012 @ 4:12 pm
We had many reviews taken away from our google+ page (real honest positive reviews from patients), only to be replaced with fake negative reviews. My vote is for a class action lawsuit. I am getting tired of google changing the rules, damaging my professional reputation, and costing us business.
It is absurd that our only recourse against false negative reviews is to respond publicly to them only to have our responses not show on many platforms (mobile, tablet, some pc’s etc).
Our google+ page is located here for reference:
https://plus.google.com/113894741231952860322/about?hl=en
Our official website can be found here:
Torrington Eyecare Official Website
Comment by Erick Sirignano, O.D. (1 comments) — August 19, 2012 @ 9:35 pm
It seem as though this problem is not getting better, in fact, it looks like it is continuing to decline. I am seeing more and more business owners getting so frustrated that they are leaving Google altogether. Is there any light at the end of the tunnel? Any chance that we may get some additional information at SMX east in October?
Comment by Ryan (19 comments) — August 22, 2012 @ 3:06 pm
@Ryan – I agree. I have seen zero improvement in the last month.
Comment by Joy Hawkins (36 comments) — August 22, 2012 @ 3:18 pm
Is there a certain way for a reviewer to delete their previous review if they want to write another one and try to get around the filter? One of our clients said he would write a new review for us and see if he could get it to show on our page, but Google only allows 1 review per person, per place. If anybody knows if its even possible to delete a review you have written please let me know so I can let him know.
Comment by Ty (2 comments) — August 24, 2012 @ 9:58 am
Am getting the same problem with Google, a lot of my customers can not seem to leave me a review on my Google+ account.
Comment by Michael Mitchell (1 comments) — August 26, 2012 @ 4:42 am
I noticed that Dick Hanna Honda who lost over 200 great Google reviews, had a rating of 3/30 last week with only 20 reviews. Google eliminated all of their 3 reviews and only kept the 1 reviews on their listing. Today they have 93 reviews with a 21/30 rating. It seems as though Google is trying to make things right again.
Comment by Mauibob (8 comments) — August 28, 2012 @ 5:47 pm
I have been told for months now that people cannot post a review to my google places. Although a few have gone though? I am told that ther reviews are accepted and the reviewer sees it on their computer (perhaps in their cache?). But it does not show on any other computers? I cannot5 find a reason or a fix for this problem. All of the posters joined whatever is neede now to post. Any suggestions?
Comment by gil (1 comments) — August 29, 2012 @ 6:20 pm
Gil
What you are seeing is the affect of Google’s review spam filter. It shows to the original poster but to no one else. That is what this whole post is about. There is no fix at this point.
This behavior has particularly affected Car Dealers AND dentists.
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1945 comments) — August 29, 2012 @ 8:46 pm
If my client gathers reviews of his business on a short survey, am I allowed, as his agency, to post these reviews of +Local? Or must the actual customer do
the posting?
Comment by DJensen (1 comments) — September 6, 2012 @ 5:21 pm
@DJ
Either/both would be considered a violation by Google.
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1945 comments) — September 6, 2012 @ 5:42 pm
I suspect this is a nasty way to promote Google+. Desperate business owner asks more people to sign up for Google+ and write reviews. The harder they make for a good review to stick, the more desperate the business owner is. This goes so against free speech. If Google is not going to accept a review it must provide an explanation to the reviewer.
Comment by oracle10 (1 comments) — September 12, 2012 @ 4:05 am
Hi Mike,
I am having a similar problem with this profile:
https://plus.google.com/108921783791847178445/about?gl=us&hl=en
There are at least 4 recent reviews not showing up that the clients can see. None of the above reasons should be triggering the filter. Is there an approval period or can the frequency interval of the reviews (too many posted around the same time) trigger the filter?
I love the blog… Thanks for all your help!
Comment by Bryan (8 comments) — September 12, 2012 @ 10:14 pm
Bryan
These are not the only reasons. These are just the ones we know. I curious did you send your clients an email asking them to review you?
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1945 comments) — September 12, 2012 @ 10:35 pm
Well it was actually a client of mine, but from what I understand he called 5 or 6 recent clients on the same day and asked them to post the reviews. That is why I thought the flood of reviews may have raised a red flag.
Comment by Bryan (8 comments) — September 12, 2012 @ 10:49 pm
@Bryan
Yes, it does appear that rapid review collection is a signal that Google is looking for in identifying spam.
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1945 comments) — September 13, 2012 @ 11:03 am
We would like to understand why google has not removed a review on our site which is from a third party, completely false, and unrelated to our work, and when we have patients who are happy to leave nice reviews, the reviews are up on our site for 1 or 2 days and then dissappear. We don’t know what to do, there is no one to talk to, can you help us?
Comment by sharon haas (1 comments) — September 13, 2012 @ 11:41 pm
@sharon
Without seeing the review and assessing whether it complies with Google’s terms of service it would be impossible to say.
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1945 comments) — September 14, 2012 @ 4:43 am
Hi Mike,
My head is spinning I have read and read on reviews, if anything I’m more confused than ever. I just have one question. Are workstations allowed in dealerships? I know a few years ago it was. Has that changed? We are interested in setting up a workstation in the dealership but we want to make sure it would be worth the time and money.
I appreciate your feedback.
Thanks,
Ann
Comment by Ann (3 comments) — September 14, 2012 @ 1:32 pm
@ann
There is no rule against the workstation but if not handled with a range of specific limitations most reviews will not be shown.
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1945 comments) — September 14, 2012 @ 3:07 pm
Hi Mike,
we are having problems as well. On the one hand ALL of the reviews, we know about, are visible on our google+ local page. But ALL of our comments, we made to the reviews (surely logged in as the business owner), disapperead – and we commented them ALL in a nice way.
Does anybody know about that problems or does anybody have a solution?
Here is our goolge+ locale page:
Thanks a lot for your help!
Michael
Comment by Michael (24 comments) — September 17, 2012 @ 5:43 am
The link to the page disapperead, sorry.
Here it is again:
https://plus.google.com/112177886662876541488/about?gl=de&hl=de
Comment by Michael (24 comments) — September 17, 2012 @ 5:45 am
@Michael
This happens when the listing has been claimed into more than one account and the other account holder is viewed as the dominant holder by the system. You should see if you can ascertain which other Google account the listing is in and remove it. Even if you can’t sometimes just resaving the listing within the account you have can sometimes give you dominance back.
If those two efforts fail, then you can try filing a report via the Google for Business Help Page Fix a Problem troubleshooters.
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1945 comments) — September 17, 2012 @ 8:35 am
We have started to have clients whose places listing has disappeared to be replaced by their Google+ page and the Google+ page appears in the Places dashboard. The listing disappears for a few days completely before reappearing anybody have the same?
Comment by Rob (43 comments) — September 17, 2012 @ 8:46 am
@Rob
Are you saying that the Google+ page is now verified and it occurred automatically?
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1945 comments) — September 17, 2012 @ 9:06 am
Hi Mike,
After talking to the Account Manager it did not happen automatically the + Page was verified and operating correctly. The Places page disappeared (including reviews etc) now the + Page is showing reviews, coupons, pics and video from Places listing and the Google + now appears to be reporting through the Places dashboard. If you click the “see your listing on Google maps” in the Places Dashboard it takes you to the Google+ page.
Thanks!
Comment by Rob (43 comments) — September 17, 2012 @ 10:52 am
@Mike
Thanks for your quick answer, but the listing is definitely not claimed into more than one account.
As i guess now, – from a quick check -, that responds to reviews are not shown at all, means even at other places, where I do know, that responds from the business owners were made, the responds do not show up.
Or can you see some reponses to reviews in some other places?
Thanks a lot!
Comment by Michael (24 comments) — September 17, 2012 @ 11:27 am
@Michael
Responses are in fact showing. See: https://plus.google.com/103156080483607740278/about?hl=en I just added a response on one of the newest reviews.
Usually when this occurs, there is another account lurking that you are unaware of that has previously claimed the listing. Is the listing a G+ Local page or one of the newly merged G+ Page for business?
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1945 comments) — September 17, 2012 @ 11:50 am
@Mike
– I was hoping for a “bug” …
Ok, i can see your response to the review. That is good for you, bit does noht make me happy over here
Our listing, I was referring to, is a G+ local page.
We do have a G+ page for business too, but this page is not yet merged with the G+ local page.
Comment by Michael (24 comments) — September 17, 2012 @ 11:57 am
@Micahel
Yes it is a bug… a bug where if the listing has been claimed into more than one email account, Google gets confused as to which is the priority account that has the privilege of responding to reviews.
You can try going into your Places dashboard and doing a “null edit” of the listing… ie going into the edit screen and resubmitting the listing without changing anything… or by changing some small thing in the description, waiting 72-96 hours and see if you can respond.
If not you need to file a report via the Google for Business Help Fix a Problem forms.
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1945 comments) — September 17, 2012 @ 12:04 pm
@Mike
I did, as you suggested, made some minimal changes to the business listing and resubmitted. Now I will wait, hope and see …
I was looking through “Google for business Help”, but I could not find the correct form. Have you got a link for me, please?
Sorry for taking your time again.
Have a wonderful Monday!
Comment by Michael (24 comments) — September 17, 2012 @ 12:12 pm
@Rob
This is normal behavior when you verify (and merge) the G+Page.
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1945 comments) — September 17, 2012 @ 12:30 pm
Hi Mike,
Per your response below. Can you tell me where I can find more information regarding specific limitations and ways to make workstations work within my dealership.
“There is no rule against the workstation but if not handled with a range of specific limitations most reviews will not be shown.”
I appreciate your help.
Ann
Comment by Ann (3 comments) — September 17, 2012 @ 4:27 pm
Hi Ann:
I strongly suggest against setting up a workstation at your dealership for customers to review your business. Here’s why.
1. Your customer could feel intimidated into writing a positive review if you ask them to write it while they’re still on the lot. This might sound like a good idea at first, but it will dramatically reduce your ability to generate referrals and recommendations.
2. Your customer is not going to feel comfortable signing in to their account from your location with their username and password. If they receive spam or have their identify stolen, they’re going to blame you whether you were the cause of their problem or not.
3. I believe that Google and the other search engines see customer reviews coming from the business location as untrustworthy. If they haven’t penalized a business for this yet, they certainly can in the future. I would not take that risk. There is a better way to get great reviews from your customers and keep bad reviews from showing up on the Internet without doing this.
Comment by Bob Sommers (14 comments) — September 17, 2012 @ 6:55 pm
Jeff here at madproaudio. I am still shocked all our reviews are gone. Even if you go to the BBB.ORG you will see very in depth reviews written as we genuinly spoil our customers from start to finish. So seeing years of reviews completely deleted by Google has really stressed us out. There were many consumers that mentioned that they automatically wanted to shop with us because of the wonderful things they read about us. Our business has actually gone down too as we must start all over and we are no longer asking consumers to write a review on google.
Anyone responds, you can email me directly madproaudio@ hotmail I would like to see a real solution from google as I believe they have outraged countless businesses.
For the record. Until they did this awful thing to our business and many others like ours, I actually thought highly of google. They are losing people in droves now due to this!!!
Comment by Jeffery (3 comments) — September 19, 2012 @ 3:19 am
I am experiencing the same issue following my Google Places / + merge. All of the reviews for my client’s dental practice have vanished. Additionally, several patients have reviewed the practice on Google since the merger and those don’t show either.
Page is https://plus.google.com/116966005792848927195/about?hl=en
The only review that I see is the one I left her (she’s my dentist as well) and I think I’m only seeing that because it’s under my own Google account.
Any additional thoughts or help are greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
Comment by scott m. (2 comments) — September 23, 2012 @ 8:55 am
@Scott M
Additional thoughts?
It should be clear that Google has decided that many more reviews are to be filtered and in certain industries like yours and the auto industry this filtering will be more aggressive.
Until such time as Google changes their thinking it will be difficult for anyone in those industries to get too many reviews.
That being said, you should be able to get a review every month or two and that is in fact all you really need. Any more than that and they will likely disappear.
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1945 comments) — September 23, 2012 @ 9:12 am
Thanks for the insights
Comment by scott m. (2 comments) — September 23, 2012 @ 10:09 am
The latest observations about the difference between Google + business and the old Google places. 90% of my clients who switched to Google + lost almost all their reviews, and new ones are getting filtered. I would say about 75%. On the other hand clients with the old Google places have no problem what so ever. Wow… wow, wow. Is this a progress by Google? I tell all my clients DO NOT OPEN CAN OF WORMS, DO NOT CLAIM GOOGLE +
Also I get a call from some of my clients that as soon as the reviews were filtered they are getting calls from Google trying to sell ad-word express. Is this a pure coincidence or….
Comment by Greg (41 comments) — October 15, 2012 @ 5:52 pm
I work extremely hard at my healing practice to have clients very happy with my work. My success is dependent on referrals. In the past I simply kept testimonials in a binder, but my SEO advised it was best to have happy clients provide reviews. A great many have and I have a 30/30 score…each one was heartfelt and truthful; I have the files to prove it. But recently Google deleted a review posted a year ago…it contained no fancy footwork, no efforts to use keywords, etc…it was simply a happy client explaining how their fears disappeared after my treatment.
Recently a competitor who has never been a client wrote a 2 line review that all 18 reviews of my business were ‘fakes’ and Google let that through! I wrote to Google and they said that a review questioning the validity of other reviews with no comment on my actual services was just fine! However, I had flagged it as inappropriate so someone at Google had some common sense and it was removed.
I know that my clients, from all over Ontario and Quebec, have tried to leave reviews and been disappointed. I have stopped wasting their time and mine in suggesting that instead of a written testimonial, they could leave a Google review. Now I accept the written testimonials and put them in my binders…I get a warm feeling when I read them over and over as the years go by.
Google reviews are becoming nothing more than Google’s opinion about what is and is not useful to readers…more corporatocracy in action to control us. This review system as it stands is more useless than Google Adwords.
They need to let reviews be posted and if the business flags as inappropriate then remove. They need to presume that people reading the reviews are smart enough to spot spammers, etc. They have indeed now thrown many good reviews out with the bathwater and I will no longer waste my time suggesting people use Google+ reviews to share the word about my work.
As one client commented, “it is an insult that I took my time to provide my opinion and some jackass in some office somewhere essentially called my review a fabrication and filtered it out!”
Comment by Grace (3 comments) — October 17, 2012 @ 9:30 am
@greg
you are confusing correlation with causation. The fact that the new review filter rolled out at the same time as G+ is coincidental. Yes, the review filter is more rigorous now but it has nothing to do with whether a Google+ listing has been verified or not.
@Grace
You should read Asking for Reviews (Post Google Apocalypse) where I address your point directly.
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1945 comments) — October 22, 2012 @ 12:10 pm
I would like to know what sites Google is pulling More review from. I located 4-5 of them some are not even working properly. Anyone knows a list of those sites that I can include my site.
Comment by Timucin (1 comments) — October 24, 2012 @ 10:05 am
So what are the red flags that Google looks for when filtering? Or is this top secret information.
Comment by Alex Torres (2 comments) — November 2, 2012 @ 2:57 pm
Alex
There are the ones that have been stated by Google as reasons for takedown: URLs in the review, duplicate review content, reviews from owners or managers.
There are a range of other more complicated signals that we are not yet totally clear on that seem to function in concert so it is difficult to parse them specifically. Recently created accounts, accounts created on the same machines used for account management, certain industries, inordinate numbers of reviews, certain forms of solicitation like review stations all seem to have a negative impact.
Reviews from mobile users, reviews from long time reviewers seem to have greater success being shown.
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1945 comments) — November 2, 2012 @ 3:13 pm
Mike:
Do you think the reviews that new Google Plus users are writing today will one day show up on Google … or do you think it’s a waste of time, at least for the time being, to ask new users to leave their review on Google Plus unless they’re writing their review as a mobile user?
Comment by Bob Sommers (14 comments) — November 2, 2012 @ 3:37 pm
@Bob
It is absolutely NOT a waste of time unless you do not want to follow some simple rules. If what you have been doing is not working then what you are doing is wrong. I have clients that are successfully getting reviews.
See Review Apocalypse for some ways to make it work and to set expectations correctly.
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1945 comments) — November 2, 2012 @ 3:57 pm
Mike:
What percent of new Google Plus users “who are following the rules” are getting their reviews to show up for more than a few days? What is the difference between those who are accessing Google Plus via their computers and mobile phones? Thanks Mike.
Comment by Bob Sommers (14 comments) — November 2, 2012 @ 4:26 pm
@Bob
I have no idea the % of new users that are getting their reviews up. From what I have seen, not too many. So what?
You want to avoid sending new users to Google. Only have users who have been with Google+ for a while leave reviews at Google. Have new users leave reviews elsewhere.
Google trusts that mobile users on their own phones have just interacted with a business and is more likely to accept the review.
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1945 comments) — November 2, 2012 @ 4:32 pm
Mike,
in my experience, Google reviews are an utter waste of time and depending on what field you are in, requesting a review and then coaching the client on how to write it so that Google will be satisfied will leave a bad taste in their mouth for sure.
I have a 30/30, and have many people who say they would like to offer a testimonial…many report their testimonial not ever showing up. Now I send clients to Yelp, to natural magazines as letters to the editor, etc. etc.
I wish someone would start a class action lawsuit against Google, because their policy is subjective, damaging to those of us who deserve the promotion and it makes no sense to anyone. A happy client should be able to leave a review from the heart and not have to worry that Google might not find it truthful or legitimate based on some airy-fairy whim-of-the-day.
Banning my reviews means that Google is interfering with my right to generate clients and advertise my skills. It is clearly favoring some companies over others and culling inappropriately.
Not a single client who wanted to leave a review for me even had knowledge of keywords, url’s and all that stuff that Bob said would cause a review to be culled…they just wanted to leave a bit of their story.
Comment by Grace (3 comments) — November 2, 2012 @ 4:48 pm
@Grace
Note my comment above:
You want to avoid sending new users to Google. Only have users who have been with Google+ for a while leave reviews at Google. Have new users leave reviews elsewhere.
Give the client a list of places where they can leave reviews including Citysearch, Insiderpages, Yelp, Yahoo and Google. Let the customer pick depending on where THEY are the most comfortable. That will increase the likelihood of a review showing up at any given site INCLUDING Google and Yelp.
BTW Google is fully and completely protected be federal law so your lawsuit idea will not go far.
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1945 comments) — November 2, 2012 @ 4:58 pm
Since Google is such a pain. What review sites do you recomened sending customers to for SEO purposes?
Comment by alex torres (2 comments) — November 2, 2012 @ 5:02 pm
Alex
See my above responses and my article Asking for Reviews (Post Google Apocalypse)
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1945 comments) — November 2, 2012 @ 5:21 pm
I think grace is spot on. I have had all my reviews not show up (at least 8 or 9) in the last few months. Whats the point of having a review center if you cant write a review, and google is not helping us here.
Comment by caz (3 comments) — November 3, 2012 @ 9:29 am
MIke said that “you should be able to get a review every month or two” i have had none of my reviews posted in four months it is disappointing to have those reviews wasted.
Comment by caz (3 comments) — November 3, 2012 @ 9:38 am
Can someone tell me where are all the reviews that have been written lately for me gone. Will they ever show up on my page.also what is wrong with all the reviews that have been written for me.
Comment by caz (3 comments) — November 3, 2012 @ 9:42 am
The dash board and stats are reading old Google places. What about the new Google + ? It seems that for new clients, who have a Google + only the dash board is no longer working. Do I need to have both?
Comment by Greg (41 comments) — November 10, 2012 @ 11:59 am
I have been managing google places listings and adwords campaigns for over 5 years now.
Something glitchy has happened to the algo starting in Summer 2012. All 8 businesses I manage lost reviews over the summer, my restuarants gained reviews from zagat. For months before that the reviews would come and go randomly seemed to be as they upgraded their website. They used to restore reviews if you reported it, that stopped over the summer.
Calls to tech support on adwords and google are confusing… I was told by the last woman to delete my listing and start over? Reporting my issues doesn’t work, I am officially frustrated!
I own a day spa in San Rafael I have always had a GOLDEN listing on google and suddenly this month it was crushed. I verified my business listing on google+ and my google places listing disappeared. Also, clicks plumitted as soon as we verifyed our google+ listing.
The G+ local verification process linked our google places account. When we verified two businesses all hell broke loose. Now my shiney listing is in complete shambles I have contemplated deleting it and starting over……. My new restaurant had several great reviews that are all missing since the verification.
GOOGLE GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER! Don’t become yelp…..
Comment by Jessa (1 comments) — November 20, 2012 @ 4:11 am
We had a campaign to increase our Google reviews for our office. We know we should have had at least 40 reviews. Some were done in our office and others were done outside our office. Either way only 14 were ever reflected. Additionally as time went on, the reviews began to disappear and now we have only 9. Please help!
Comment by Keli Tointigh (1 comments) — November 28, 2012 @ 10:56 am
I have had customers calling me saying that they posted a review. I go and look and they are not there! Also some of them have been removed! Does anyone know why this is?! or if they have a number to google so i can call and see what is going on please and thank you!
Comment by Mariya (2 comments) — December 6, 2012 @ 3:04 pm
@mariya
The reviews get filtered and there is no number for Google.
Only advertising #
Good luck.
Comment by Greg (41 comments) — December 6, 2012 @ 7:37 pm
@greg,
Thank you! So there is no way to even know when someone post a review because they could of been removed correct?
Comment by Mariya (2 comments) — December 7, 2012 @ 10:33 am
Mariya,
I had my SEO look into this for me and he said:
(a) the reviewer must have already had a gmail account, not just signed up for one to leave a review
(b) reviewers with a non-gmail account will not be able to leave a review, ever
(c) Google limits reviews to 2 per month maximum
(d) Google often removes reviews…as far back as a year or two in fact
(e) Google review system is a waste of time…micro-managed by Google staff, it can never be a true representation of what a company’s customers/clients think about the services.
Many people are now using social media (Facebook and Linked-in) to generate reviews, likes and feedback for the public as too many have been burned by Google Reviews.
Personally, I have abandoned the practice of asking for Google Reviews…it’s time consuming for me and my client, it’s embarassing to have them culled out, it’s time consuming to have to explain what’s happening to the client…. you get the idea. In my experience (I always ask clients how they found me) only one of my many clients have ever looked up my 18 reviews.
Comment by Grace (3 comments) — December 7, 2012 @ 10:50 am
@Mariya
Your SEO is wrong about “(c) Google limits reviews to 2 per month maximum,” you can have more.
(e) Google review system is a waste of time… Not true, because Google relies on reviews to get more people to visit their site in order to generate more PPC. They are just slow to fix their filtering system.
This is my opinion, based on what I see so far.
Comment by Greg (41 comments) — December 7, 2012 @ 12:20 pm
To add some nuance to what Greg said which is correct, Google typically dials in things and then rebalances them after input and testing. It is more than likely that in the case of reviews, given the number of consumer complaints, that google will dial in the review filter to be less aggravating.
Grace if you would like to read some ideas on how Google reviews can be integrated in a total review process read this post.
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1945 comments) — December 7, 2012 @ 12:28 pm
Yes, even i am also suffering from same google reviews issues which is not being resolved even after 2-3 weeks from my complaints and even i also requested my clients that not to put that kind of reviews which shows spam and even i also checked reviews when they send me reviews and its not smap.
My profile is https://plus.google.com/118155186493193355754/posts
if you want to check
Comment by Vishal Sharma (1 comments) — December 10, 2012 @ 5:27 am
Jade has said leaving reviews at the business on your own mobile, logged into your +Profile and using their wi-fi or leaving them on your normal home computer are OK.
I have left test reviews from my own laptop, on my regular 2 ISP and Mobile WI-FI hotspot, for users with missing reviews with 100% success. Established +Profile, a few previous reviews, a number of Posts, professional and hobby, and about 200 Circled the Profile.
On my forum thread about review spam theories a recent post points to Android posts being effective, but his PC posts may be polluted by client activity.
Comment by Andrew Huskinson (63 comments) — December 13, 2012 @ 9:11 pm
All the comments here are from people trying to ‘game’ google to get higher rankings which is what Google is trying to stop. so go kick rocks.
Comment by Glenn (14 comments) — December 31, 2012 @ 4:56 am
How do I go about removing a “Review” that is slanderious, a lie, ,hurtful and makes claims that our company is involved in drugs and pornography? It was submitted more than 4 years ago by an ex-wife as far as I can figure but I am just looking at it now. We dont do to much on the Internet so never really looked. This review appears when you google our bussiness name. I would really apreciate a responce from someone at Google that can walk me through this.
Comment by Pat Cruse (1 comments) — January 4, 2013 @ 6:36 pm
@Pat
It is necessary to mark the review as inappropriate. Google will, sooner or later, look at it to see if it violates their terms of service. I should warn you that that not many reviews are taken down since their TOS are very limited and it would require that the review include hate speech, profanity or racism.
The best alternative is to put in place a review management process that gathers more reviews and pushes the old review off the page.
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1945 comments) — January 7, 2013 @ 9:46 am
I’m trying to leave a review for a place where I got my hair cut (and also a client of mine) and when I push the Review button nothing happens. It also won’t allow me to upload any pictures of her establishment. Does anyone know what might be the problem? It’s very annoying!
Thanks,
Kathy
Comment by Kathy B. (1 comments) — January 22, 2013 @ 4:19 pm
Issue we have as a small business is that when we ask customers to post reviews, they have to become Google+ members, which many who want to provide reviews for other customers, won’t because of the + requirment.
Then, from an owner’s standpoint it seems that their must be a limit to how many reviews a business can have as every time we get to 24 reviews, one gets reviewed and we are back to 23! Yet I see other companies with over 30 reviews.
And of course, where does someone find out any Google policy on the subject. You can’t call anyone or email to inquire. You try to fill out one of their canned forms that doesn’t help (only to be asked at the end “Was this info useful”!)
It would really be nice to have a phone# to call someone who speaks English or an email to inquire. It seems like they don’t want to hear from the “voice of the customer” and have gotten too big to care. Notice another big company (Pepsi) that finally needed to respond to a social media outcry to correct a beverage formula. Maybe, Google needs an outcry of critical mass to assist in correcting or at least providing an accountable channel for customers to get help!
If anyone can shed light on assisting us, we would appreciate. Thanks
Comment by Dave Wood (1 comments) — January 29, 2013 @ 3:44 pm
[...] year with the rollout of G+ Local, Google implemented a much more aggressive review filter. Many businesses, particularly in certain industries like [...]
Pingback by The Pendulum Swings On Google’s Review Spam Filtering As Google Relaxes Filter | Understanding Google Places & Local Search — January 31, 2013 @ 1:40 pm
The problem with Google+ reviews is it is too much to ask your customers to create accounts and join anything just to leave a review. Secondly, most people want to be somewhat anonymous when leaving a review.
Comment by lisa (6 comments) — February 6, 2013 @ 3:12 pm