Understanding Google My Business & Local Search
New Google Support Option Offers A Form to Contest Reviews
One option in the new Contact Us process that appears to be an improvement is elevating a form to contest reviews.
The form, previously buried, has in the recent past sent a review removal request into the queued email response system and typically generated a human and intelligent response. This contrasts with the pissing in the ocean review flagging process typically encouraged.
In the field asking for content of the inappropriate review, one might actually be able to add a comment.
In addition to a form to contest reviews there is now an obvious option to ask for them to be moved from one listing to another. Moving reviews previously had a help page but no action associated with it. In this new context the process for resolution is clear.
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Comments
14 Comments
This is good news. At least Google seems to be making baby-steps. Thanks for the scoop. I’d be interested in hearing if you’ve tested this out, Mike. (I certainly will.)
This is a ray of sunshine in an otherwise turbulent and uncertain sea of change that Google has unleashed upon the Internet. You know, after this whole Memories Pizza fiasco in Indiana, these new review management options are going to be seen as a Godsend, especially if Google puts in an official Google Form or equivalent that really lets the business owner detail the reviews in question. A bonus? Phone support, if even from India. There is something about actual human interaction that can help to ease the nerves of people and get them to see Google as more of a help, rather than a hindrance (read: Skynet).
Thanks for the post, Mike!
Phil
This form is the descendent of a form that was buried on the “remove a bad snippet” page and I have used it on a regular basis successfully for subtler review issues that the minions missed.
turbulent and uncertain sea of change that Google has unleashed upon the Internet
Google’s whole business philosophy is antithetical to a normal business relationship with the outside world.
Thinking like “release early and iterate often”, their testing protocol of using the real world to see if their new products actually work or cause more problems, their willingness to deep six products that only scale to hundreds of millions of $ rather than billions all make them appear erratic and unpredictable and even fickle.
But this sort of thinking is baked into their very essence and makes what seems like chaos to any normal business the status quo.
Thus a business has a choice. Live with the chaos or not. Most decide to live with it as the pay off is so large… that being said it is also necessary to take a somewhat zen like approach to Google otherwise you will be in a constant state of dismay.
I’ll be happy when I can rat out the ones who ‘build’ their own set of reviews – there is so much of that going on it makes a mockery of the whole system. Yelp is too militant and Google is too lax 😉
Andy
It is frustrating.
Although I think Google has more to lose than Yelp when they nuke reviews. Their algos are still too imprecise to tighten it down too much otherwise a lot of good reviews get thrown out.
As with most google changes on the local side, they never or rarely seem to loudly broadcast the changes. Mike: You are often the news source for changes…as with this one.
I caught and reported an interesting Google review phenomena on my Google + page: https://plus.google.com/111190898924390669688/posts/4Jr6gs7VpuF
In that case a popular DC local food blog put up 69 reviews of different restaurants, all seemingly done in a single day.
It now appears MOST aren’t visible in the Google+ reviews of the various restaurants, though you can see them if you visit the google + page of the reviewing group: Bitches Who Brunch: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+Bitcheswhobrunch1/reviews
That is a weird glitch or circumstance. When I’ve written a review that google won’t show….I can see it when I go to my google + page….but if I visit the same page with a different account..I can’t see it.
Why is google making these reviews visible on a google+ page when they are not showing them on the review pages for the businesses??????
As you referenced above, Google has its own way of operating and seems to escape scrutiny or widespread attack for when its ways of operating are so different from every other entity.
How did these guys get to be so powerful and be capable of operating in a way that noone else can approach?????
@dave
What your review is experiencing is the spam filter. You can see it but no one else can.
“@dave
What your review is experiencing is the spam filter. You can see it but no one else can.”
I understand that, Mike. What surprised me is I can read the 69 reviews on the bitches who brunch G+ page, but most of them aren’t visible on the different restaurant sites. The vast majority of them aren’t visible.
Google policy on reviews says you can’t use them to advertise, and you can’t write reviews that are repetitive, among other policies.
The bitches reviews all start the same way with a letter grade of a restaurant, (albeit different grades) and they all end the same way, with a reference to read their review site.
I imagine google took them down as they violate the above policies with regard to repetition….and advertising.
Its just that they remain visible to the public. A glitch???
In any case that google did mass take down most of these 69 reviews seemingly all done in one day….and that they put this form for complaining more specifically on reviews, maybe they are putting more emphasis on a filter????
Who knows.
Thank you Mike for publishing this. I have to say that I have been very impressed with the progress the Google local group has made over the last 18 months in the area of support.
You’d have to assume that ever decesion they make on how to manage the Google My Business service has to be run through a complicated approval and implementation process that includes the legal department. the Lobbyist and then all the operation and finance groups.
So while all things are relative, and many of us have great frustrations with the Local service, in my limited view, I have seen really good progress. This recent change is huge, and I look forward to seeing how it works.
Totally agree with you Mike. They have made great progress!
Many don’t realize or think about how many layers of approval and how many different departments need to be involved when they make some of these changes. So it’s great you mentioned that part too!
baby steps…but in a great direction….nice find here Mike!
🙂
Mike – I echo the sentiment of the others. I depend on you for the latest on local, and I thank you for delivering it in such a consumable format.
If the ability to better manage reviews is, in fact, improved, I think it will be a great “selling point” when talking the the local businesses in my area. Could be exactly the motivation they need.
Thanks again. Keep up the good work!
This is a really great article, and very helpful for someone who consults marketing for small businesses. Does anyone know if Google has announced any changes to the amount of SEO provided, or given preference to, content on Google owned services, like these reviews?
That being said, it’s a difficult balance for black hat SEO company who spam Reviews with farce recaps of service for a company and Google to encourage the use of their products….all of them.
There’s something to be said for those businesses, though, that take their Google Reviews seriously, as opposed to those who ignore “The Google” and everything that comes with it.
Thank you for the post Mike! Great blog!
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