Publishing testimonials on your site that are from your Google + (or other review sites page)
-
Ive got a site with some good Google + Reviews and some other good reviews on other sites that id like to be able to publish on a testimonials page on our website, but im worried about being penalised for duplicate content. Any idea of the best way to get these reviews on to our website, i was thinking about placing the text in as an image, but id prefer to do something semantic if at all possible.
(I know that some review sites have javascript widgets you can use to pull in your reviews but for most of the sites we are reviewed on they dont)
-
Hi Sam!
It might be helpful to start with a little clarification here - in Local SEO, the term 'testimonials' tends to indicate direct-to-business owner content while the term 'reviews' typically indicates content that exists on a third party platform. In researching this topic, it would likely be better to search for 'reviews' rather than 'testimonials' as you are talking about third party reviews.
Mike Blumenthal wrote a great little post about this earlier this year:
http://blumenthals.com/blog/2014/04/24/using-google-reviews-on-your-website/
Hope it helps!
-
I would agree with everyone here that duplicate content isn't really an issue here. And it's really not the concern it once was. I personally would take a screen shot though, just to show where the original is for your audience. I also heard somewhere that you can't republish Yelp testimonials elsewhere, or maybe it was Google+, and have them still featured on the original source. So you may want to double check the rules around testimonials for those two sites.
-
If you're really worried about content duplication, I would do as you suggest, placing them as an image. Personally, I wouldn't lose sleep at night if I copied and pasted some reviews from my G+ Local.
(Former?) Google employee, Matt Cutts once posted a video claiming that duplicate content won't hurt you unless it's spammy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi-wkEeOKxM&feature=youtu.be
If you're still on the fence, what I would also suggest is to try asking the same question at Google's Webmaster Central Help Forum. I think you'd get a fairly definitive answer possibly from a Google employee like John Mueller.
-
Differently from (as an example) facebook, google + API doesn't provide a mean of extracting customer reviews. So programmatically you can't, given you rule out scraping them.
Manually you can do whatever you want.
As for content duplication, is a risk, but there's no such thing as content duplication penalization, when facing duplicate content google just make a choice, indexing one or another.
And to have google consider your content duplicate, you really need to copy everything, and have you page share the vast majority of the html with another page.
-
Having a testimonials page on your website is a great idea. It shows the clients going to your website that you are a good provider. I would think you could just place "Review from Google+" or "Review from Yelp" at the bottom of a comment.
Here is our testimonial page: http://www.essentialpest.com/testimonials/
We don't place reviews from other websites. The testimonials we have posted came from emails, letters, etc. - However, I would think that if you linked the word "Google+" from "Review from Google+" with a link to that review, it would just be proof that review does exist.
This may be useful to you. http://moz.com/blog/getting-reviews-the-right-way-for-local-businesses
Good luck!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
What is the problem with my site? Rankings are going down, not sure why.
Rankings for almost all the keywords are not improving and going down, not sure why. Can anyone please suggest me what's wrong with my site and what can i do to improve the overall performance of the site.I would really appreciate your help.
Reviews and Ratings | | Mr.Suren0 -
If I use schema markup for my google reviews, would it be smart to have Google review's on my home page?
Hello, Moz's I'm thinking about added scheme markup to show my google reviews. I have a 4.8 rating and 25 reviews. I'm thinking about added scheme markup to show my google reviews. I have a 4.8 rating and 25 reviews. My first question is: when people see that and then visit my site, would it be good to have the Google reviews on the home page? My second questions is: Is there any reason why I wouldn't want to add this to my site? None of my competition has done this, so I'm a little apprehensive? Thanks in advance 🙂
Reviews and Ratings | | MissThumann0 -
Snap Pack & Yelp/Angie's list Page authority
Hey gang, First off thank you for any advice. I know we are all busy trying to make our money so I really appreciate everyone who chimes in. Links to studies and articles are also much appreciated. So. I am by no mean an SEO expert, I prefer to dabble in outreach and authentic link building campaigns. So you can imagine my frustration when I pull off a successful campaign, get about 4 or 5 great real links, raise in organic, but don't budge on the maps. I have noticed something. 1. My competition's yelp page has a couple more reviews than me (btw it's a locksmith site, I know it's a rather spammy industry, I don't do black hat...) BUT their yelp Page Authority is like 46! Same thing with their angies list, BBB, etc etc. MINE IS 1 across the board. Now I know the internet is changing. There is usually no reason for a locksmith site to have a viral blog. Google is looking toward more Citation based authority for local ranking factors. (Or at least that's what they say, I feel like their algorithm is not yet advanced enough to catch all the spammers.) So I am going to have an ethics meeting with my company and make sure we are alwyas treating our customers fabulously as well as sometimes intentionally asking for a review, not just on google, but across all of our web 2.0 platforms. BUT How do I get MY page authority on these directories higher? By back linking to them? DO you guys think these companies actually had campaigns to get links to these directories? Did they just PBN em'? Am I stuck in 2013!? Much love guys.
Reviews and Ratings | | Meier0 -
Review of my site, just starting seo and looking for any tips
Hello, Just after advice for a website I've recently relaunched, started very basic seo. However having loads of pages it’s hard to dedicate the time to get the on-site seo completed. Question for Ecommence sites, do we really need to individually content on all pages? I've also start link building & will be setting up blog, Am debating which task too complete first Or maybe combination of them all. I think due to my dyslexia I keep putting the blog off as you can properly tell English is definitely not one of my strengths. Anyway am looking for advice not just on seo , design too, what your opinions ? I have good concept for marketing just learning the ways to implement it, my website sportingdesires dot com. I believe everyone desires some kind of sport or fitness activity, a hobby you enjoy... mine is football (soccer) hence why I started selling branded football merchandise and ventured into Rugby, Basketball and American football. Will be adding other sports, really need to impermanent a blog... all in good time I suppose. Sorry for my rambling please leave any feedback good or bad I promise I won’t hunt ya down (lol) in all serious am just looking for eyes from people it always help to get mixed reviews and opinions. If you’ve read this far well done and thanks ste
Reviews and Ratings | | sportingdesires0 -
Why are certain words formatted as bold in Google+ Reviews?
Hey guys, I noticed that certain words within reviews left on Google+ pages are being shown in bold text. The original reviews do not feature bold text, but when shown in snippets they appear. I attached a photo below for a college's G+ page. Any insight would be great! 0ZHfhnP
Reviews and Ratings | | TomBinga11250 -
Difference between Google Plus Page and Google Business Page
Hi, Just wondering the differences between a Google Plus Page, and a Google Business page please? Should I have both? Also, will reviews for the business automatically show on both pages.. as Im starting to guess this is not the case? Thank you for the time to respond.
Reviews and Ratings | | Ampweb0 -
Re Posting Reviews
I would like to re post a couple short client reviews on the home page of my site. The reviews are from avvo.com. What is the best way to accomplish this without getting flagged for duplicate content? Should I make an image containing the review text and then link it to the original review on avvo?
Reviews and Ratings | | eddiejsd0 -
How to Google Product Reviews?
Hello, I have a client that sells only 1 item. What will be the best way to start getting reviews? I thought about opening a placess account, so the reviews will also start showing on his Adwords campaign. Or can I get products reviews on google+ ? Thanks
Reviews and Ratings | | ogdcorp0