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.

    What is your Brand Authority?
    Moz

    What is your Brand Authority?

    Check yours now
  • 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.

    • SEO Q&A

      Insights & discussions from an SEO community of 500,000+.

    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. SEO Tactics
  3. Image & Video Optimization
  4. Genuine Reciprocal Google Places Reviews, is that OK?

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.

Genuine Reciprocal Google Places Reviews, is that OK?

Image & Video Optimization
4
10
2.1k
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.
  • Rosewood
    Rosewood last edited by May 23, 2012, 5:17 PM

    I have a client who works with other businesses, is it OK to have reciprocal reviews going on, they would be genuine reviews both both sides as they work for each other.

    Is that OK?

    Is it best for my client to use the Google Account that holds their Google Places page for doing the reviews?

    Or should they have a separate account for writing reviews, not associated with their business?

    I would appreciate your thoughts on this please?

    Many thanks

    Leo

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • MiriamEllis
      MiriamEllis Subject Expert @MiriamEllis last edited by May 24, 2012, 12:39 AM May 24, 2012, 12:39 AM

      And one of the chief difficulties between the local business crowd and Google arises, I believe, from Google's founding mindset of secretiveness. While understandably essential to protecting their mystery algo, it's quite another matter to publish such critical data about real local businesses while keep one hand behind one's back. I don't believe I've ever had a local business owner tell me, "I love Google." They know Google is important, but they don't love them.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • AlanBleiweiss
        AlanBleiweiss @MiriamEllis last edited by May 24, 2012, 12:14 AM May 24, 2012, 12:14 AM

        Google is less clear most likely because they're still mostly stuck in the belief that they shouldn't reveal clarity and expect site owners to figure it out.  Which inevitably leads, every year, to more and more "what used to be acceptable isn't" complaints.

        Except some tactics never were acceptable and Google's just now getting around to addressing some that they previously never considered or never got a chance to.

        My latest effort is all about "does this look natural".  That of course, is then filtered through "does this look natural as Google views things in their algorithmic attempt to emulate a human's perspective.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • MiriamEllis
          MiriamEllis Subject Expert @MiriamEllis last edited by May 24, 2012, 12:07 AM May 24, 2012, 12:07 AM

          I find that Google's review policies are sort of normal, in that they are similar to the policies of others, but Yelp's are sometimes off in a corner by themselves. For example, here's a line from Yelp's TOS:

          Violate our Content Guidelines, for example, by writing a fake or defamatory review, trading reviews with other businesses, or compensating someone or being compensated to write or remove a review;

          (emphasis mine)

          So, Yelp would explicitly frown on the hypothetical strategy Leo has put forward, whereas, Google is less clear on this. Interesting stuff.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • AlanBleiweiss
            AlanBleiweiss @MiriamEllis last edited by May 24, 2012, 12:05 AM May 24, 2012, 12:05 AM

            yeah it's annoying that Yelp specifically states it's against their TOS to actively solicit reviews this way, yet they are perfectly happy if you display their "We ❤ Yelp" stickers all over the place.

            And oddly, places like the BBB's stand-alone "Trust-Link" reviews site is the exact opposite. They encourage business owners to seek reviews.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • EGOL
              EGOL @MiriamEllis last edited by May 23, 2012, 11:54 PM May 23, 2012, 11:54 PM

              Thanks for this information.

              I have seen "leave a review about your transaction at......." on some of documents that I have received.

              Better check the terms of use anytime a person wants to do this.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • MiriamEllis
                MiriamEllis Subject Expert @EGOL last edited by May 23, 2012, 11:50 PM May 23, 2012, 11:49 PM

                Hey Egol,

                If for Google, yes. For others (read Yelp) this is a weird no-no. Nice to see you here today!

                EGOL AlanBleiweiss MiriamEllis 5 Replies Last reply May 24, 2012, 12:39 AM Reply Quote 1
                • MiriamEllis
                  MiriamEllis Subject Expert last edited by May 23, 2012, 11:48 PM May 23, 2012, 11:47 PM

                  Hi Leo,

                  I second Alan's very well-stated concerns on this. Google has this habit of letting things get by them for months or even years, but it's my opinion that they are quick to spot odd looking activity when they actually take the time to look. I believe what you are considering could look odd.

                  It's perfectly fine for a business owner to use his Places account to leave reviews of businesses with which he has enjoyed transactions, but I, personally, would steer clear of making some sort of organized, reciprocal effort out of this. In Google's dream world (and Yelp's, etc.) reviews are a spontaneous and voluntary action on the part of the customer. They are not the outcome of an organized deal. That being said, I do understand how critical reviews have become, including their number and quality, to the visible reputation and bottom line of so many businesses and it's truly tempting to team up with other business owners who are grappling with this powerful and still-relatively-new monster to give business a boost in a tough economy. In the long run, though, I think the worry probably wouldn't be worth the potential benefits. At least, it wouldn't for me.

                  Thanks for asking such a good question.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • EGOL
                    EGOL last edited by May 23, 2012, 7:34 PM May 23, 2012, 7:34 PM

                    Ask customers to do it.  Print on receipts, mailings, email footer, etc.

                    MiriamEllis 1 Reply Last reply May 23, 2012, 11:49 PM Reply Quote 0
                    • AlanBleiweiss
                      AlanBleiweiss last edited by May 23, 2012, 11:48 PM May 23, 2012, 6:05 PM

                      The danger of reciprocal reviews is being flagged because they're potentially unnatural.  So if there's a one to one parity (every business that reviews another business gets a review by every one of those businesses), that's a serious concern to avoid happening. Same goes for reciprocal reviews that are always the same (4 stars each way, for example).  Too easily spotted as suspicious.

                      Also, if there's a concerted effort and "conspiracy" to get reviews generated (a bunch of companies join a pool of companies to "agree to review each other"), that could lead to unnatural results.  So it's a very cautious process to even consider.

                      The other issue is - if a business that participates only or mostly only reviews other businesses in that group, that's highly suspect.  Reviews should be spread out across a wide swath of other businesses NOT in the group, and every participant would need to have their own set of reviews to other outside businesses so no unnatural pattern emerges.

                      Other than that, it's perfectly valid to review other businesses when you've genuinely done business with them.

                      It's also perfectly valid for an official business account to review other businesses, since they're business to business transactions.  And thus, no need to have a separate account just for the sake of reviews.  (All reviews should be from an account that has a holistic profile regarding the activity on the account.  It shouldn't be mostly, or all reviews and no other activity).

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                      • 1 / 1
                      1 out of 10
                      • First post
                        1/10
                        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

                      • ismgadmin

                        Does google index html5 tracks (captions) for videos?

                        If we add the <track> tag next to a html5 video, with a Web Video Text Tracks Format (WebVTT) file for video subtitles / captions will google visit that and index it?

                        Image & Video Optimization | Oct 1, 2019, 3:54 PM | ismgadmin
                        0
                      • conversal

                        Best way to manage multiple Google My Business accounts as a marketing agency?

                        As marketing agency we have for each client a Google My Business account. This means that we have more than 100 Google My Business accounts. We know that GA has a limit of 100 analytics accounts (free version),  but is there a limit in Google My Business too? For now, we have created multiple accounts that own different Google My Business accounts of our clients. Can I just change all the different e-mail accounts of  our marketing agency and change it to one? So we can manage all the Google My Business accounts of our clients in one e-mail account?

                        Image & Video Optimization | Apr 7, 2024, 10:29 AM | conversal
                        0
                      • Prime85

                        How to Merge or Add YouTube account to Google Account

                        Hello Everyone. We have a YouTube account that has been around for many years. We also have a separate google account that we use for webmaster/analytics/adwords/mybusiness etc... We just noticed that our YouTube account is not linked to this same account that the rest of our business uses for all other Google services. Is there any way to add our existing YouTube account to our existing Google Account?  We don't want to re-upload everything onto a new channel as we'd like to preserve the age of the videos plus the views and comments. Anyone know how to accomplish what I have in mind? Thanks in advance!

                        Image & Video Optimization | Mar 23, 2016, 4:43 AM | Prime85
                        0
                      • echo1

                        Google categories for local limousine service

                        I manage the Google places page for a SAB (local limousine company). The question is, should I add "taxi" and "airport shuttle service" as categories? I have listed only "limousine" and "car service' for now and I want to play it safe although those 2 are related to limo service. Sometimes people refer to limo service as "taxi service" or they are inquiring about prices for shuttle service to the airport and they end up booking the service quite often. Does Google look to our website to find these words in the content? Google Analytics show lots of people are finding us through those two keywords as well although you cannot find the word “taxi" on our website. The interesting thing is that when searching for "taxi + my zip code" the company shows up 4th on maps results and when searching for "shuttle service + my zip code”, the company shows up 2nd on local results and also 2nd in organic results. Is this enough to make me add these 2 categories? Second question is about the area served, does it make a difference (in rankings) if I choose “Distance from one location"over"List of areas served"? What happens is the red pin would be in a different location. If I choose "Distance from one location" the pin would be right in the center of the city (which I think it shouldn't matter anymore that much since the proximity to the centroid is not a ranking factor anymore). If “list of area” served is selected, (the city name will be chosen) then the pin would be about 5 miles West of the city center. Any thoughts will be appreciated. Thank you!

                        Image & Video Optimization | Apr 17, 2013, 4:40 PM | echo1
                        0
                      • Davidmez

                        Google maps displaying wrong image

                        Hi, I couldn't figure this out, how do i change image that shows up on the right side for maps results, do i change it in my Google places account ?(which i did and and its a first one)  or in Google plus, i just cant get it? Thanks for help.

                        Image & Video Optimization | Apr 12, 2013, 3:37 PM | Davidmez
                        0
                      • David_ODonnell

                        Google Places / Map Results CTR vs Top Organic Result

                        I have a client who is currently ranking close to the top of the Google Places results for a handful of important local keywords. They have a competitor who is pretty consistantly ranking in number #1 and #2 organic positions, above the Places results. Does anyone know the average click through rates for results similar to these? Do the #1 and #2 organic positions still outperform the lower placed Google Places (with side map) results when the search intent is very local? I just wonder if they are possibly in a better position as-is if people are more likely to use the map or places listings on the SERPs page, rather than click through to another site. Thanks 🙂

                        Image & Video Optimization | May 23, 2012, 4:25 PM | David_ODonnell
                        2
                      • djreich

                        Google Places - Shared Office Space

                        Howdy, A client of mine has a shared office space, where several other businesses share the exact same address, including the same suite number. I realize that this is likely one of the biggest issues holding them back in local/blended search results in their market, which is a very competitive one. (They do have a completely unique local phone number.) They have tons of citations -- way more citations than anyone else at the same address -- so they are definitely the most visible. They are ranking pretty well -- top of page two in organic results (overall top 10 organic if you exclude the places results) and top of page 3 in places results for some select local search terms. But obviously top of page one as a blended result is where we want to be. They have a lot of great content, a lot of quality links and citations. Out of all the competitors ranking ahead of them, a few do indeed deserve to be there, but most do not -- i.e. they have lower DA, PA, worse links, fewer links, no content / shit content compared to my client, and some even have incomplete Google profiles. I really think this could be the sole issue holding my client back from appearing in blended results on page one. What should we do? If I convince them to change their address, we'll have to update thousands of citations, many of which we don't have access to. In reality, we would be able to update some, but not all citations. This also could cause a short term rankings decline, and/or Google Places limbo for who knows how long! Is it possible to overcome this problem if they keep the same address? In a less competitive market I would think it's quite possible, but I'm not so sure in this case. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!
                        David

                        Image & Video Optimization | Feb 21, 2012, 8:45 PM | djreich
                        0
                      • NeilInFrance

                        Links from Google Books

                        Hi Interested in your views on this and any references to research on the subject Using Google Books recently I have discovered multiple citations of a web site I produced years ago in a whole load of publication. Really quite touching to find these 10 years afterwards I imagine that this must have a positive effect on search engine listings for this site. The site has really good listings still. Has any research or any announcement been made by Google about this. Pushing this a bit further ; An advertising hoarding has a web site address http:// ... would Google StreetView pick this up and could it be used as a signal too ? Neil PS No I don't sell adversing hoardings 😉

                        Image & Video Optimization | May 9, 2011, 1:09 AM | NeilInFrance
                        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
                      • 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.