Understanding Google My Business & Local Search
Google+ Local And Review Issues
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
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Comments
160 Comments
@ 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.
@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 (https://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.
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.
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?
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.
[…] 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" […]
@Joy
Last time I asked for a reconfirmation they would not answer me either way.
I think duplicate content in reviews is an issue.
“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.
@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.
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.
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.
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
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?
@Ryan – I agree. I have seen zero improvement in the last month.
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.
Am getting the same problem with Google, a lot of my customers can not seem to leave me a review on my Google+ account.
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.
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?
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.
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?
@DJ
Either/both would be considered a violation by Google.
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.
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!
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?
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.
@Bryan
Yes, it does appear that rapid review collection is a signal that Google is looking for in identifying spam.
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?
@sharon
Without seeing the review and assessing whether it complies with Google’s terms of service it would be impossible to say.
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
@ann
There is no rule against the workstation but if not handled with a range of specific limitations most reviews will not be shown.
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
@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.
The link to the page disapperead, sorry.
Here it is again:
https://plus.google.com/112177886662876541488/about?gl=de&hl=de
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?
@Rob
Are you saying that the Google+ page is now verified and it occurred automatically?
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!
@Rob
This is normal behavior when you verify (and merge) the G+Page.
@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!
@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?
@Mike
Ok, i can see your response to the review. That is good for you, bit does noht make me happy over here 😉 – I was hoping for a “bug” …
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.
@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.
@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!
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
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.
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!!!
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.
@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.
Thanks for the insights
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….
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!”
@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.
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.
So what are the red flags that Google looks for when filtering? Or is this top secret information.
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.
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?
@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.
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.
@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.
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.
@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.
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