undefined
Skip to content
Moz logo Menu open Menu close
  • Products
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Pro Home
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Home
    • STAT
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Home
    • Compare SEO Products
    • Moz Data
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis
    • Keyword Explorer
    • Link Explorer
    • Competitive Research
    • MozBar
    • More Free SEO Tools
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO
    • SEO Learning Center
    • Moz Academy
    • SEO Q&A
    • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Agency Solutions
    • Enterprise Solutions
    • Small Business Solutions
    • Case Studies
    • The Moz Story
    • New Releases
  • Log in
  • Log out
  • Products
    • Moz Pro

      Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

    • Moz Local

      Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

    • STAT

      SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

    • Moz API

      Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

    • Compare SEO Products

      See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

    • Moz Data

      Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
    Moz Pro

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

    Learn more
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis

      Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

    • Keyword Explorer

      Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

    • Link Explorer

      Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

    • Competitive Research

      Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

    • MozBar

      See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

    • More Free SEO Tools

      Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
    Moz Pro

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

    Learn more
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO

      The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

    • SEO Learning Center

      Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

    • On-Demand Webinars

      Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

    • How-To Guides

      Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

    • Moz Academy

      Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

    • MozCon

      Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
    Moz API

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

    Find your plan
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Small Business Solutions

      Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

    • Agency Solutions

      Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

    • Enterprise Solutions

      Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

    • The Moz Story

      Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

    • Case Studies

      Explore how Moz drives ROI with a proven track record of success.

    • New Releases

      Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

    Surface actionable competitive intel
    New Feature

    Surface actionable competitive intel

    Learn More
  • Log in
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Dashboard
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Dashboard
    • Moz Academy
  • Avatar
    • Moz Home
    • Notifications
    • Account & Billing
    • Manage Users
    • Community Profile
    • My Q&A
    • My Videos
    • Log Out

The Moz Q&A Forum

  • Forum
  • Questions
  • Users
  • Ask the Community

Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

  1. Home
  2. Digital Marketing
  3. Branding
  4. Do review sites like consumer affairs negatively affect SERPs?

Moz Q&A is closed.

After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

Do review sites like consumer affairs negatively affect SERPs?

Branding
4
7
1.6k
Loading More Posts
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as question
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
  • Dynata_panel_marketing
    Dynata_panel_marketing last edited by Jul 12, 2016, 1:03 PM

    Hey all,

    So when googling the name of our site we see consumer affairs pop up around 5th with a 1 star rating. These negative reviews are mostly spammy (competitors, etc.) since we have an awesome support team that deals with all unhappy members very effectively. We reached out to CA and they came back asking for $10k+ (highway robbery) to "help us improve our rating."

    My question is: do poor ratings on review sites like these negatively affect your SERPs? And if so, how can we work to combat their effect?

    Thanks in advance,

    Roman

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
    • LoganRay
      LoganRay @Dynata_panel_marketing last edited by Jul 13, 2016, 3:20 PM Jul 13, 2016, 2:56 PM

      Roman,

      Here are my thoughts:

      1. Can we PM our followers on twitter or facebook and directly ask? As long as you stick to people you know would be a brand advocate for you, I don't see why not.

      2. Which medium is generally most successful? We've generally only done email, but primarily because that's how we communicate with them on a normal basis anyway.

      3. What if we tweeted something like: "we need your help, anyone that leaves an honest review on yelp will get _____ (money, gift card, appreciation, etc.) -  I know it's tempting and seems logical to make offers like that, but it violates Google's guidelines. Even if it's not for Google reviews, they might get wind of it and discount those reviews. Reviews are supposed to show a reflection of your business, not what you've offered in exchange for good reviews.

      4. Which review site is the best for improving reputation and SERP- google plus, yelp, bbb?  Those 3 are the top ones I'd stick to.

      5. Would you recommend sending people to consumer affairs to try to offset the bad rating or to just focus on all the other review sites and have them usurp consumer affairs' position? Definitely try to get some better ratings on CA to cancel out the bad.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • Dynata_panel_marketing
        Dynata_panel_marketing @PatrickDelehanty last edited by Jul 13, 2016, 1:38 PM Jul 13, 2016, 1:38 PM

        Patrick,

        Thank you for your response. I was hoping I could also get some input from you. So we're going to up our efforts for getting positive reviews. I was curious to know if you had any insight into what's acceptable practice and what isn't. For example:

        1. Can we PM our followers on twitter or facebook and directly ask?

        2. Which medium is generally most successful? Email, twitter, facebook

        3. What if we tweeted something like: "we need your help, anyone that leaves an honest review on yelp will get _____ (money, gift card, appreciation, etc.)

        4. Which review site is the best for improving reputation and SERP- google plus, yelp, bbb?

        5. Would you recommend sending people to consumer affairs to try to offset the bad rating or to just focus on all the other review sites and have them usurp consumer affairs' position?

        Thanks again for your help!

        Roman

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • Dynata_panel_marketing
          Dynata_panel_marketing @LoganRay last edited by Jul 13, 2016, 1:37 PM Jul 13, 2016, 1:37 PM

          Logan,

          Thanks for your response. So we're going to up our efforts for getting positive reviews. I was curious to know if you had any insight into what's acceptable practice and what isn't. For example:

          1. Can we PM our followers on twitter or facebook and directly ask?

          2. Which medium is generally most successful? Email, twitter, facebook

          3. What if we tweeted something like: "we need your help, anyone that leaves an honest review on yelp will get _____ (money, gift card, appreciation, etc.)

          4. Which review site is the best for improving reputation and SERP- google plus, yelp, bbb?

          5. Would you recommend sending people to consumer affairs to try to offset the bad rating or to just focus on all the other review sites and have them usurp consumer affairs' position?

          Thanks again for your help!

          Roman

          LoganRay 1 Reply Last reply Jul 13, 2016, 2:56 PM Reply Quote 0
          • Bigb06
            Bigb06 last edited by Jul 12, 2016, 4:09 PM Jul 12, 2016, 4:09 PM

            Hello,

            You may respond to ALL negative reviews and encourage your customers to post reviews on this site. And try to get a lot of reviews from trusted sources like Yelp, Google Local, ... You can also use service like GetFiveStars to improve your rankings and get rich snippet for your home page or product page.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • LoganRay
              LoganRay last edited by Jul 12, 2016, 2:50 PM Jul 12, 2016, 2:36 PM

              Hi Roman,

              According to Google's Search Quality Raters Guidelines, third party reviews can have a negative impact on your organic visibility. Google is actively pursuing reputation information from third party sites and factoring that into the way they determine the "best results" for a query.

              The best thing you can do to curb this, and hopefully improve your overall ratings, is to get some new good reviews to overpower the bad ones. My suggestion would be to start by picking a handful of customers you know have been happy with your products/services and reach out to them. If you've (or the client if you're not in-house) got some staff internally that interact with these customers, have them do it. People are much more likely to be responsive if they're asked by someone whom they've dealt with before. The message should be very candid, but not canned, people see right through that.

              And as Patrick mentioned, always follow up on bad reviews. The only thing worse than a bad review, is one that goes unaddressed.

              Hope that's helpful!

              Dynata_panel_marketing 1 Reply Last reply Jul 13, 2016, 1:37 PM Reply Quote 1
              • PatrickDelehanty
                PatrickDelehanty last edited by Jul 12, 2016, 1:44 PM Jul 12, 2016, 1:44 PM

                Hi there

                While it may not hurt you in a lower search ranking, it will hurt you in the user's eyes. What I would suggest doing is adding a review feature to your website, focus on Yelp! or Google Reviews, and certifications like the BBB or other relevant industry certifications. These are usually where Google and other search engines will pull from and they are usually harder to manipulate. I would focus on reviews there and getting established on those sites.

                Also, whether a legit review is good or bad, always follow up, thank the person, and see where you could be of more service. It's a good look for your brand and company when doing so.

                Let me know if you have any other questions or comments, good luck!
                Patrick

                Dynata_panel_marketing 1 Reply Last reply Jul 13, 2016, 1:38 PM Reply Quote 1
                • 1 / 1
                1 out of 7
                • First post
                  1/7
                  Last post

                Got a burning SEO question?

                Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                Start my free trial


                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.

                • See all categories

                Related Questions

                • benesmartin

                  Different Font of Meta Titles in SERP

                  Hi there, Does anyone know how they managed to get a different font in the meta title on this page, directly in SERP? www seorestart cz It's even differently in the source code of the page (try to google it with "site:" operator). I thought CSS has now power over this and I couldn't find anything else what might be the trick. Thanks for any answer. Cheers,
                  Martin

                  Branding | Jun 29, 2018, 9:44 AM | benesmartin
                  0
                • Bush_JSM

                  Negative Keywords for SEO

                  Hi Mozzers, I have a client that has a totally legit retail business and they are getting lots of traffic organically that is adult in nature and totally off subject. The reason for this is their domain name contains keywords which while work well for their brand, when reordered and couple with a another keyword (such as picture or image) they get traffic for searches that have nothing to do with them and are pretty awful in nature. If this was Adwords I'd add a negative in of course but how can I stop bad traffic coming to the site organically? Any ideas? Cheers B 🙂

                  Branding | May 5, 2016, 2:16 PM | Bush_JSM
                  0
                • Alaniz

                  Site Architecture for Sub-Brands

                  I am working on launching a few industry specific sub-brands for our marketing agency and am trying to figure out the best way to deliver a tailored user experience using subfolders instead of subdomains, if this is indeed the best option... Since I am trying to provide separate experiences, I looking at housing microsites in sub-folders - say /technology or /medical.  Each with its own navigation, home page, and industry specific content/blog/portfolio.  A couple things I am considering: Will my microsite "home pages" and site pages rank as well in a sub-folder versus if they were actually the primary pages on their own sub-domain? Will separate Wordpress and theme installs and separate primary navigations have any affect on SEO if they are in sub-folders of the same site? Thanks in advance for any input.  I really appreciate it!

                  Branding | Jul 14, 2014, 7:31 AM | Alaniz
                  0
                • AaronDavis

                  What is the most appropriate way to invite writers and blogger to visit my hotel, in exchange for a review?

                  My client's own several hotels in Los Angeles. I thought it would be a good idea to ask writers and bloggers to visit the hotel, free of charge, in exchange for a review or write up. Of course, we want to be above board and up front with everything, including encouraging any review to be the truth and forthright, however I just not sure how best to ask them.  Sometimes I ramble on and have trouble getting to the point and I know its really important here. Does anyone have any advice here? Many thanks!

                  Branding | Jun 24, 2013, 4:38 PM | AaronDavis
                  0
                • valadas

                  Google auto-correct affecting one of my keywords

                  Hi there, I have a keyword "finao montreal" that used to rank 8 or 9 in Google serp. All of a sudden it dropped under the top 50 results, I was wondering why and I found out that Google now auto-corrects "finao montreal" to "final montreal". Finao is a well know brand of custom high-end photo albums and I find it strange that Google corrects it. Anyone has an idea on what to do with this situation? Is there a way to provide Google some feedback about the autocorrect?

                  Branding | Jan 4, 2013, 3:40 AM | valadas
                  0
                • nmedia

                  Brand Name searches: Low Click Through Rates in Google - What are your CTR in the SERPS for your Brandname?

                  Hello, Checking the Analytics part - Search Engine Optimization/ Queries - I found suprising results for my website: The website is no. 1 for my brand name but only has a 28% CTR on the brandname in the Google SERPS! Please see exactly what I mean here: http://screencast.com/t/GKjwliZ6GTF7 I'm looking for your experience of CTR of other websites in the same situation. Do you have similar low CTR? Some background info; The website is no1 for the brandname. Sitelinks are shown. Google Maps is shown on right. In the period are no adwords advertisments on my brand name as I know. I checked several times. I cant understand where 72% go after searching for my brandname. Thanks for sharing your experience. Best Regards Daria

                  Branding | Oct 24, 2012, 1:12 PM | nmedia
                  0
                • tass

                  How to get Google to link external review sites in Google Places

                  Hi, I have several company profiles in Google Places and Google Sites, I also have the same profiles for those companies in review sites like Yelp! and so on. I have seen that other sites have links on the bottom where Google points to those external review sites, but that doesn't happen for me yet, is there a way to tell Google that I have profiles on other review sites so they can link them or is it Google whenever they find them that will link them? Here's an example: http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=14126341780178539960&hl=en At the bottom you'll see that it says: Reviews from around the web Now this is one of mine: http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=12168877126282825032&hl=en Now how do I get that line at the bottom provided that I know there are reviews out there in other sites? Is there something I can do? Or is it all about Google doing it whenever they see fit? Thank you!

                  Branding | May 1, 2012, 3:54 PM | tass
                  0
                • monetize-266006

                  One big site or lots of little sites? Which is better for SEO and my business in general?

                  I realize there are some aspects of what I'm asking that only I can answer. With that said, I'm looking for some discussion about the pros / cons of each, and what are the most important factors that will push me one way or another. Let's say I have a company that has three products. One big brand, three little brands. Each of the little brands is focused on a particular sub-niche, all of which are in the general health & wellness niche. Either, I could create a large site for the big brand, with subsections for each product, and work hard on turning that domain into a goto site, with lots of articles, etc. The domain name for this one would be a made up word so I can fully control the search results. Or, another strategy would be to create smaller, "sniper" sites for each product, maybe even sites for each major search term that is interested in that product. These sites would have fewer articles. Descriptive, exact match domain names. Which is the best strategy? #1, #2, or a mixture of both? #1 seems legitimate, #2 seems a bit spammy. What are the pros and cons to each? Can anyone speak from experience about both these practices?

                  Branding | May 5, 2011, 6:36 PM | monetize-266006
                  0

                Get started with Moz Pro!

                Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                Start my free trial
                Products
                • Moz Pro
                • Moz Local
                • Moz API
                • Moz Data
                • STAT
                • Product Updates
                Moz Solutions
                • SMB Solutions
                • Agency Solutions
                • Enterprise Solutions
                Free SEO Tools
                • Domain Authority Checker
                • Link Explorer
                • Keyword Explorer
                • Competitive Research
                • Brand Authority Checker
                • Local Citation Checker
                • MozBar Extension
                • MozCast
                Resources
                • Blog
                • SEO Learning Center
                • Help Hub
                • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                • How-to Guides
                • Moz Academy
                • API Docs
                About Moz
                • About
                • Team
                • Careers
                • Contact
                Why Moz
                • Case Studies
                • Testimonials
                Get Involved
                • Become an Affiliate
                • MozCon
                • Webinars
                • Practical Marketer Series
                • MozPod
                Connect with us

                Contact the Help team

                Join our newsletter
                Moz logo
                © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                • Accessibility
                • Terms of Use
                • Privacy

                Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.