How to address reviews that show up in Google but come from a business's own website?
-
One of my clients has a competitor who has a fairly poor reputation based on reviews on Google and Yelp. But, this competitor allows people to review them on their own website, and their "4.8" rating based on 250+ "reviews" show up in search engine results. I assume they are using schema markup to encourage that. My question is whether there is anything we can do to report this to Google, or otherwise make sure the general public is not fooled by these reviews?
-
I think that if you want to call this vendor dishonest you need to delve deeply into how the Reviewability service works, learn enough about it that any reasonable person would consider you to be an expert on how their system works, and then come to a conclusion that is firm enough to present in court.
Many review services allow vendors to contest reviews, place reviews on hold while disputes are being settled, hand-pick the reviews that they will display on their website, show only reviews above a certain score, and more. These are frequently-employed practices that any vendor can adopt - if they subscribe to a review service or not.
It is always good to back your clients when you have solid information. In many instances, weasel hunts are best turned over to attorneys.
-
Thanks for the response. The competitor is using a service called Reviewability. On their policy page, they say that "The review may optionally then be posted to the subscriber's website." at the discretion of the subscriber. So they can post all the good reviews, and hide the others. http://reviewability.com/review-policy/
Given that policy, do you have any further thoughts on the matter?
-
Keep in mind that there are many different kinds of reviews. Each of them attract a different type of reviewer.
If your competitor is using a third-party review collection system - even if it is on their own site - the reviews that they receive might be legitimate. By that, a 4.8 out of 250 visitors says that they have done a good job.
Lots of the people who go straight to Yelp or Google+ could be trolls who run there and complain about anything. They might not even be customers. They might be evil competitors - or even evil clients.
So, it is important to consider the platform, the numbers, the methods before making any judgement.
-
Hi Ira,
It's a very good question and it is currently a way that companies are trying to "Cheat the system". From what I have experienced in the past, the company in question are just making the best of Schema as it is meant to be used. For this reason they are theoretically not doing anything wrong in Google's eyes.
If there reviews are genuine then there is no reason why they can not be used and your client is within their right to use the same tactic.
If you are genuinely worried that this client is doing something wrong or unethical/fraudulent I would give Google a call directly and raise it with one of the technical team. I would mention that you have seen the site using this and provide them with the example, just explain that you are thinking of using the technique but you wanted to check first that you are not doing anything wrong.
The team at Google on phone support are great and they have always been able to help with any questions I have had in the past.
I hope that helps, good luck finding a solution.
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 -
Review Schema Dropped Off A Cliff!?
Hello everyone, I recently implemented some review schema for my website which looked to be successful as my review stars were appearing in organic rankings with no problem! Yay! However... I've just checked in on where we are with these and they have literally dropped off a cliff and I have no idea why. See image attached with the graph that shows our reviews looking great in July/August then dropping off w/c 26th August. I literally have no idea why this has happened. The Schema Markup Tool shows no errors or issues with the markup either. Can anyone advise? 81Rv88Y
Reviews and Ratings | | Virginia-Girtz0 -
Paid review service stars in search ads - why is that allowed?
I'm looking at paid review services like Trustpilot, FeeFo and others. I'm told I can filter out bad reviews, which I can't do with my Google Certified Stores reviews. I'm struggling to understand why Google include these in the reviews it uses for the star ratings in search ads. I know it's a different thing, but surely these reviews are in breach of the rules that Google apply to their own "My Business" reviews? They talk about "Conflict of interest: Reviews are most valuable when they are honest and unbiased" here: https://support.google.com/business/answer/2622994?hl=en Does anyone have a take on whether Google will drop these as the momentum builds in collection of their own reviews? Thanks, Paul
Reviews and Ratings | | PaulS710 -
Ratings showing up in results
Hi.
Reviews and Ratings | | corn2015
What is required or how long doesi t take for local reviews to show up in search results for a local business? One of my clients is starting to get quite a few positive reviews but he wants to know how long before the star rating shows up in the results.ratings s0 -
Local Business: Chiropractic Services & Massage Services - HOW TO BRAND
Hello! I have a client who has a chiropractic business and has started offering massage services. Client has registered a DBA For the massage component of the business. Client doesn't want to cross contaminate reviews and doesn't know whether or not he should brand the two businesses in one name or separately. Currently client has inconsistent business listings for the business and is unsure of the proper way to brand and optimize for local search. Example would be: Chiropractic AAAA Dr. John B - Chiropractic AAAA Massage BODI Chiropractic AAAA & Massage BODI Background info: Main business is one entity and second is registered as DBA. Right now, Chiropractor is a sole practitioner. in the past has had other chiropractors working in the office. Has only 1 website promoting both services Both operate out of the same location. What is the best way to optimize for local search for both services and what is the best way to brand without cross contaminating reviews online. If recommendation is to target local search separately for the services, should the client has 2 websites since these services target 2 different industries. Your feedback is greatly appreciated.
Reviews and Ratings | | BrentV0 -
Combining reviews and duplicate content
We have some items in different colors or slightly different styles. For example if there is one series of helmets with almost same features and if we have many item pages we get reviews for each one seperate. We want to combine the reviews to increase our conversion rates. For example if style1 gets 5 reviews and style 2 gets1 review and style 3 has zero reviews combining them will help style 2 and style 3 conversion rates. Our review system cannot put all these reviews in one page. So if we combine reviews each page will have duplicate review content. Will this be bad for SEO?
Reviews and Ratings | | rbai0 -
Schema.org problems with reviews
Hey Mozzers, Has anyone had problems getting review data to appear in the SERP? Specifically, hotel package reviews. The site I work for sells packages and products, but I'm having off cases where the data is appearing if there is only 1 review present. As soon as it gets multiple reviews the snippet data is no longer showing up. The schema.org markup is testing fine in the structured data testing tool, and when I compare it against competitor sites where the data is appearing, I can't see the difference. I am by no means a veteran SEO, but this doesn't make any sense to me. Has anyone encountered a similar problem? I could really use some help here. One of the pages I am having difficulty with: www.tripcentral.ca/vacations-packages_mexico.html }
Reviews and Ratings | | tripcentral0 -
Google Local Reviews : Creating a Recipricol Reviewing Network
Hi All! I recently came across an invitation for a group on Facebook (created by an internet marketer likely trying to drum up business) that is designed to get a bunch of business professionals to leave reviews for each other (not knowing each other or having worked with one another in any way) in an attempt to build good review profiles on Google local for all. Obviously this is frowned upon, but is it actually dangerous at this point? Are there filters or methods Google has to identify and punish businesses for this type of activity? As someone who always tries to do the right thing, it makes my skin boil when the scammers in our industry use manipulative tactics like this and even more annoyed when they actually work! Look forward to any specific info you all have on this. -Ricky
Reviews and Ratings | | RickyShockley0