Understanding Google My Business & Local Search
Category Archive For "Reviews"
FTC to Amerifreight – Failure to Disclose Review Incentives Against the Law
Update: it would appear that Amerifreight’s Google listing has been taken down. The FTC has, for the first time, successfully sued a company for incenting on line reviews and not declaring this material connection. According to Google reviewer mb2970s: mb1970s 7 months ago I was moving from Nashville to Albuquerque. This is the third …
Ever Wonder Why does Google show a 4.8 rating when I have all 5-star reviews?
I have gotten the question alot so I wrote an answer on the Local U Blog: Why does Google show a 4.8 rating when I have all 5-star reviews? The short answer: something like a Bayesian average. You’ll have to read the article at Local U to learn more.
Facebook Reviews Should Be a Part of Every SMB Review Plan
If you had any doubts as to whether Facebook has a place in your review strategy, news this past week from Bill Bean that Facebook reviews were now showing in the Google “Reviews from Around the Web” should put them to rest. I was curious how widespread this was and whether it was just a …
Google Dropping Review Shadow Box in Serp and Going Directly to Plus?
Yesterday while doing training I noticed that Google was dropping the review shadow box from the main search results and taking users directly to the business Plus page. Today others are noticing this as well. Nicolai Helling pointed the new behavior out on G+. As Nicolai mentioned and I agree this change “seems to be preparatory to release …
Making Hay While the Sh*t Flies – What Should Union Street Do Now?
The internet is a funny place. A world of opportunity and a world of pain. The Union Street Guest House is in the middle of a maelstrom of its own creation. One that if managed properly could serve them well over the long haul and if managed improperly could flag them for years. There’s no …
Yelp Coming Under Fire For Review Take Downs From Its Reviewers
Yelp is caught in the middle of the shit storm surrounding the hotel that recently was outed for fining wedding parties if they left bad reviews. Thousands of reviews have been posted there and thousands removed. Now though, many reviewers are targeting Yelp for their squelching of dissent and their ability to properly vet reviews. Yelp gave …
Yelp Reviewers – They May be Weird But Andrew Shotland Appreciates their Humor
By now most everyone has heard about the Union Street Guest House, recently outed for threatening a $500 fine if anyone in your wedding party left a bad review. The pile on has started. As of yesterday there were 161 reviews on their page there and most (146) were in response to the news article …
A Plug-in for Adding Google Reviews to Your WordPress Blog
Update: I just heard from David Deering about the plug-in’s use of Schema. Firstly the schema is not done correctly. More importantly however (which I suspected but didn’t investigate as I thought the schema was reserved for the paid version… mea culpa) marking up reviews and ratings that were created on another site actually goes against …
Reviewer Demographics – Facebook has more Women, Yelp has more Men
We live in a big country. There are differences in behaviors between men and women, rural and urban and regionally. This is as true on line as it is offline. Those who leave reviews are not a uniform lot nor are their preferred review sites. In my recent research as to which sites US internet users …
Where Do Consumers Leave Local Reviews? Facebook Now #2
TL;dr: Amongst consumers that leave reviews more than once per year, which sites do consumers prefer for leaving reviews? The answer might surprise you. Google is number one overall but Facebook made a strong showing and outpaced Yelp for the number two spot as a preferred site to leave reviews. Reviews have two sides: Where do people read them? …
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