The relationship between Google Reviews and SEO?
-
I have recently started working with a client with bad reviews on Google (2.1/5). Apart from the fact consumers are likely to see these reviews and decide against buying the service the company offers (causing a decrease in traffic), are there any other negative effects on the SEO?
-
I'm going to have to disagree with 411. According to Google's Search Raters Guidelines document that was released last year, they're taking into account your site/company's overall reputation. This means they're not only looking at Google Reviews, but third party review/reputation sites as well. It's part of their initiative to improve the quality of results. It doesn't matter how many links you have or how good your site structure and on-page SEO is if the service or product you provide is terrible and gets bad reviews everywhere you look.
For a summary of what's in these guidelines, check out this summary: https://moz.com/blog/google-search-quality-raters-guidelines. The whole guidelines document is worth reading, but be sure to check out the Reputation section and the 5 clues of what makes a page low quality in this post.
-
Very helpful. Thanks very much!
-
Direct negative effects - very unlikely. But have in mind that bad reviews lead to low click-through rate and lower traffic, which according to many sources has a negative impact on SEO.
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
-
Structured data - reviews & aggregateRating
Hi all, We recently implemented structured data for reviews, specifically aggregateRating, on a few of our pages as a test. An example page is: https://www.vouchedfor.co.uk/financial-advisor-ifa/cambridge/01740-duncan-hannay-robertson Initially, this seemed to work well and we could see the star ratings and review number showing in Google search results. However, now it seems to have disappeared. Search console and the testing tool seem to suggest the structured data looks fine - when I posted this in the webmasters forum, the response I got was that it was because we're trying to mark what google deems a 'person' as a 'local business', which triggers their spam warning. And you can't have reviews for a person, apparently. I guess we're unique in that we're a review platform for professional advisers (for example, financial advisers). So whilst the profile is for a person, it's also a business - the reviews are for the professional services clients receive. Feels unfair to be penalised just because Google hasn't thought of our use case! We'd love to be able to showcase our review content, but feels like we're running out of ideas here. If anyone has any ideas for how we can make this work, it would be hugely appreciated!!
Reviews and Ratings | | Eric_S0 -
Do Product Ratings or Reviews Improve Google Rankings?
The is a lot of info on the web about how business reviews/ratings improve local search result rankings. However do product ratings or reviews improve PDP/PLP/Homepage (not local) rankings?
Reviews and Ratings | | rigelcable0 -
Delete Google Business Listing
Hi there, I'm trying to delete a Google business address but need to know that this will not effect the other apps linked to my google business profile (analytics for example). Do these work independently? I dont really want to delete the profile but the company I work for feel the review section will be detrimental. Thanks!
Reviews and Ratings | | KateOBrien1 -
Google Merchant XML don`t allow price variations, so I have two options
Hi guys I have a question about google merchant set up: Products on my website have a single URL with the material option. Each material has a different price for the same product. Ex: A Winter Coat, if it is leather the price is $100 if it is fabric is $80 if it is on Nylon $60.
Reviews and Ratings | | Tiedemann_Anselm
Google Merchant XML dont allow price variations, so I have two options1) Create only one entry for product and chose one price. When the user arrives on the page he can choose other material and prices. MXL ExProduct: Winter Coat, price 60, Product: www.store.com/winter-coat2) Create a single entry on the XML for each product/material variant. Ex:Product 1: Winter Coat Leather, price 100, www.store.com/winter-coat?q=leatherProduct 2: Winter Coat Fabric, price 80, www.store.com/winter-coat?q=fabric Product 3: Winter Coat Nylon, price 60, www.store.com/winter-coat?q=nylonWhich one its better for SEO? On option 2 Google can punish me for duplicate products?Thanks0 -
I can not see my google seller ratings anymore. Any ideas?
I used to be able to see google seller ratings of my sites at
Reviews and Ratings | | lcourse
https://www.google.com/shopping/seller?q=example.com Now I just see it for sites with a couple of hundred reviews.
Is there still any other URL or other way how I can see the seller ratings that google collected so far for my sites (even if I did not reach the threshold of 200 ratings in last 12 months)?0 -
Accessing and Displaying Google Reviews (Url and Structured Data Markup)
Hi, I have a Google+ Page for my business that has 25 Google reviews written by customers, of which I am rather proud that it is an aggregate of 4.9 🙂 I would like to brag more about this on my website and also like it to show up as Structured Data in as many organic results as possible (it shows up on local searches, not a problem). However, I cannot find anything resembling a permanent link to the reviews (other than the about page) on Google... Any clues ? Also, I would like to start including the Google review stars within any other structured data markup that I add to the website (such as a BusinessEvent for example) - But the FAQ's on Google seem to imply that the reviews and aggregates must be on my website and nothing seems to say that I may use the Google reviews or aggregate in my markup. Can anyone point me in the right direction please ?
Reviews and Ratings | | wicko0 -
Google Plus Reviews
Hi, I am working with a brick and motor store and trying to figure out the best ways to obtain Google plus reviews. Personally speaking I think the best way to receive a review is at checkout. Checkout can take about 10-15 min and would be a great time to ask for a review. However, I run into a problem with logistics in obtaining the review and needed help deciding which option to choose or if another option existed? Option: 1. Ask the customer to give a review on our companies Google account? However, this leads to multiple reviews from a single entity, which I would only assume is not a correct way to obtain reviews. 2. Ask the customer to sign in to their Google account. This can be a little invasive and I do not want to turn the customer away from a sale. Am I missing another alternative? Any help would be great, thanks!
Reviews and Ratings | | Mike.NW0 -
Yelp Review From My Customer Removed
Hi, A customer of mine told me she created a yelp account just to give me a review. She's a good customer and wanted to show me her appreciation. I thanked her for taking the trouble. About a week later, I see that her review was marked as "not recommended." This was a legitimate review made by a real customer. I'm angry that it was removed for no reason. I noticed a competitor of mine has 18 yelp reviews and all of them show up just fine. I also noticed that this same competitor is paying for ads from Yelp. A couple of years ago, another customer reviewed me on yelp and it was also labeled as "not recommended." So I now have 2 "not recommended" reviews on Yelp that, if you ask me, imply that my reviews are fake. After Yelp and Yahoo merged, I lost the 14 Yahoo reviews I had obtained from customers over the last six years. I have also noticed over the years, that whenever I need to sign into my Yelp business account to update the data, it's locked until some pushy sales person calls and asks to speak to me in order to try to sell me ads on Yelp. Anyone else hate Yelp? They're obviously not really interested in making sure reviews are "real," they're just interested in selling expensive ads.
Reviews and Ratings | | Ophelia6191