Client wants to delete Google My Business Due to Bad Review
-
My client has received a bad review on Google and although has other good ones, wants to delete the current Google My Business page and open a new one. I disagree with this strategy but need some evidence to back it up. They are ranking well and so I don't want to upset the cart. I need reasons not to in terms of potentially harming rankings. Am I right that this could impact?
-
@al123al As someone who has worked in the online review world - I have the script for the "Cancel it all because I got a bad review"
Bad reviews are a good thing because:
- They add credibility to all your reviews b/c the profile won't look fake
- They give you a chance to tell your side of the story and showcase your commitment to your customers
- They signal to the wrong potential customer who would give you a headache, that you aren't the right person
- They signal to the right potential customer that you are the right person b/c they disagree with the reasoning
- They fill out the story and show the market what you do when things go wrong
People want to know what a business will do when things aren't perfect - We know that things won't always go right and a bad review gives you the opportunity to say, "Yes, this wasn't perfect but this is how I stepped up to fix the problem, it's too bad that the customer thought I provided X when I actually do Y."
Bad reviews are the result of expectations not being met, manage the expectation and you may not get the sale, but you won't end up with a Bad Review either.
For more about why a bad review is a good thing - https://www.marketapeel.agency/post/bad-reviews-are-a-good-thing
-
You can delete it from your GMB data. Try to remove all the data of the business and details. just like I did for Bud apk program.
-
Thanks, John! Kind of you to say. Reviews happen to be my favorite aspect of Local.
-
This is for real ....Miriam definitely you are rockstar
-
In addition to the other recommendations, I would advise you to have the business owner leave a response to the bad review.
1. It shows that the business is active.
2. If the customers that left the review happens to be real, it could potentially mend that relationship.
3. It could lessen the concerns of any potential customers who see the bad review and are put off by it.
-Andrew
-
Thanks to all.
-
Great topic, AL123al!
I agree with all of the posters who are stating that your client's approach isn't practical. I have a couple of resources I'd recommend you share with the client that should get him up-to-speed on this topic.
- First, show the client this article on the realities of review spam. It's real, and there are actions you can take. It takes persistence sometimes, but you've got to be hearty in business:
https://moz.com/blog/review-spam
- Then, show him this second article which details how to handle all types of reviews, from 1-star disasters, to 5-star treasures, to spam:
https://moz.com/blog/mastering-owner-response-quintet-google-my-business-reviews
If you get get the client to sit tight and read through both of those, he should walk away with a completely different (and much better) perspective on dealing with the reality of reviews.
End of the day, attempting to delete a GMB listing is not an answer. The listing could simply come back again, and your client's reputation will follow him wherever he goes. Much better to get the necessary education to deal with all forms of reviews, and move forward confidently.
-
LOL. Funny analogy, EGOL.
-
The client has really pushed his clients to write a Google review so think we are going to keep the GMB and push the bad review low. The review was a spam review from a "Local Guide" as the client has not got a record of this person's interaction with the company i.e. he never used their services. The client has flagged it with Google but nothing has been done.
Thanks
-
Not a good idea, I know it's hard to explain these types of things from an SEO point of view that the customer understands. You're going to lose all your good reviews that the business has gained. I'm also not sure if you're able to just create a new GMB once you mark the current one permanently closed without changing the NAP. I agree with SEOman10, work on getting some new positive reviews going.
Also, if the review was not left by a real customer can't you report it to Google or no?
-
Every business will get a few bad reviews. The Pope could be selling Bibles and get bad reviews from cranky customers or customers who blame the Pope when the package is lost on the mail.
The client probably has a nice business, is perfectly honest and does an excellent job. Don't worry about one review.
-
You're welcome!
-
I had to deal with several cases like this one in the past, one technique that got me good results was pretty simple.
I created an email campaign with the most trusted clients of my client, requesting their opinion on Google, was pretty successful so then, I even integrated Trustpilot in the equation.
- Buy some good looking email template
- Take your time to create a good content for the email
- _You could even offer some kind of PR service _
- Launch the campaign and remember is a game of numbers if you have a total 5 reviews in your site and you have a score of 3 get 1 point up will take you 5 new reviews with 5 stars
-
Thanks Joe for your insight.
-
Hi there,
To be honest, I don't even think this is an option for them. Deleting/removing the Google My Business account does not actually delete the page, it just removes you as the manager/owner but that will still be returned in local search results (see this Google Help Forum Post).
The only way I've seen people have any success with this was to mark the location as permanently closed (which I would not recommend here) or to contact Google Business support and ask them to delete the listing. The problem here is I don't think the Google Business support team is going to delete this listing for bad reviews, they are likely going to suggest (as SEOman suggested) you focus on building up positive reviews and responding to the negative reviews currently associated with the page.
-
Thanks. Yes my concern is that the person who left the bad review (and wasn't a real customer) would come back to the new GMB and do it all again.
-
I'm not too sure whether it's a ranking factor or not, there are varying opinions. I would say it's risky.
Additionally, I don't see what there is to be gained by deleting and recreating a profile that could just get another bad review, Also the person that gave you that bad review can come and leave another one!
I would work with some good customers and ask them to do reviews. Far more productive than trying to hide hide mistakes and Google will love good reviews to.
Explain to your client that resources are better spend on creating some new reviews and if you get enough good ones you can outweigh the bad ones to a large degree. Take a look around, you will see there is plenty of excellent brands that get bad reviews from time to time.
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
-
Is It Beneficial to 'Like' My Clients Google Reviews?
I have a client who is insisting that all of us in the office 'like' his positive reviews on Google. My boss & I are fine with doing this, but due to the industry the client works in, my staff is questioning doing this or not because they do not want to be associated with his company outside of work. Is there any SEO benefit to us liking his reviews or is this more for him to feel better that people are reading them? Does my staff have anything to worry about if they do 'like' his reviews?
Reviews and Ratings | | Justine.Hedge3 -
Not showing up in Google Local Pack despite being #1 ranked for keyword
Hey everyone, This has been an on-going problem that we've been having for a select location of ours. We've been #1 ranked for the keyword "dog groomers near me", however we don't show up in the Google Local Pack (top 3 locations box). We have a high 4.9 rating with 20+ ratings, and the other locations that DO show up have a 2.4 and 3.6 rating with less reviews! I've exhausted every resource and have even geo-tagged our specific photos on our landing pages. I'm not sure what to do anymore as we're already #1 ranked on every similar keyword. Thank you, Anthony
Reviews and Ratings | | anthonydegalbo0 -
PPC: How do we get our reviews into AdWords?
Hi there, I know that Google have sadly discontinued ratings extension in AdWords but does anyone know a get-around for this? If possible, we'd like to show off the good reviews we have from Google My Business' Knowledge Panel in our ads. We're an online product/service so I don't want to link GMB through the location extension if possible (it doesn't make sense for anyone to pay us a visit in real life). Is there a better way of linking our AdWords to our GMB or is there an alternative extension/ AdWords feature we can use to get review ratings in our ad? Thanks 🙂
Reviews and Ratings | | Fubra0 -
BazaarVoice Paginated Reviews Not Honoring Canonical & Indexing Multiple Pages
If there are enough reviews on a product page to warrant page 2, 3 etc, BazaarVoice appends the below snippets to each new page of reviews, which are then also indexed, despite BazaarVoice SEO settings that automate a canonical tag (seemingly since the differing reviews on each page are not similar enough to honor the canonical). <cite class="iUh30">?bvstate=pg:2/ct:r</cite> <cite class="iUh30">?bvstate=pg:3/ct:r</cite> It seems Target.com has found a way to hack the BV code to create a dedicated page to view all reviews: https://www.target.com/p/ultra-soft-fitted-sheet-300-thread-count-threshold-153/-/A-13973172?showOnlyReview=true While Ikea.com blocks it in the Robots file (defeats SEO value) - Noindex: */catalog/products/bvroute=Review Noindex: */catalog/products/bvtab Tons of brands apparently have the issue, and you can see more examples if you search "inurl:bvstate=pg" Anyone aware of a solution to this?
Reviews and Ratings | | Eroc2 -
Why does this business have an average of 4.8 and not 5?
I was doing some research today and came across a business that has 5 reviews, all 5 stars. For some reason, their average is showing as 4.8, instead of a perfect 5. Looking at some other businesses, I see one with 4 5-stars, 1 4-star, and 1 1-star. 25/6 = 4.1666666. That would round to 4.2, but Google lists them as 4.3. Is Google just bad at math, or are they using some other factor in calculating these averages?
Reviews and Ratings | | irapasternack1 -
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 -
Started using a 3rd Party Review Company for our Website. Do we need to show the reviews or is a widget (badge) with a link back to review company sufficient enough from an SEO ranking point of view?
Hi All, We have started to use a 3rd party review company and now have the choice of either implementing their re-supplied widgets (Java ) on our site showing customer reviews or use their an API to get this information. The widgets (Java) , would be loaded once the page is actually loaded so I am not sure how and if google will read this information if at all? If we use a widget then we won't be able to implement it with Schema.org although we will be able to use rich snippets to it will appear on any PPC (once we have had 30 reviews). If we go down the API route, it's more expensive for us but we can use the review schema.org for this. Does anyone have any experience of what works best for them ?.. We have a choice of having a widget showing latest reviews or just a badge (which is actually a link to the review site showing our reviews). From an SEO point of view, is one better than the other ? Does google actually read the content of the review or is the link back to the 3rd party review company sufficient enough to help with rankings etc. Am I correct in assuming that by linking to a 3rd party review company and showing our reviews on our site , this will help with rankings as even though the content in the reviews doesn't really say much ,. I did see it was a ranking factor on the survey but not sure how google uses this. ? I've read up some information on reviews etc but wondered what the general consensus was with what others found works best for them Any help greatly appreciated Pete
Reviews and Ratings | | PeteC120 -
Duplicate Google Plus Business Listings
Hi everyone, We have a client with duplicate Google Plus pages for two of their locations. The ones that are showing in search results for the most part are the ones we control, but we'd still like to report or delete the duplicates (which we do not control from our existing accounts). I used to notice the option to report a page as duplicate but no longer see that...any advice? Thanks!
Reviews and Ratings | | SUCCESSagency0