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
-
Why would the review count be different between the Ad and the Organic result?
A client inquired about this after finding that their review count was different on their Google Ad that appeared in the map pack compared to their organic result right below it. I am stumped so any thoughts or reasoning as to why this is the case would be appreciated. See attached screenshot! Lptujep
Reviews and Ratings | | BrianAutoshopSEO0 -
Client has 2 locations across the street from each other, 1 of them doesn't show up in Google Maps anymore unless you type its specific branch name. Help
Client has 3 locations in NYC... 1 is on the east side
Reviews and Ratings | | jaimeurteaga
2 of them are a block apart on the west side (52nd & 51st street). When you search the business name, you only see 2 of the 3 listings - 1 on the East side and 1 of the 2 on the West side. On the West side only the one with more reviews shows up. The semi-hidden location still exists. You can find it if you type in the exact full name of the branch (it has the brand name + Midtown West vs its neighbor a block away that's brand name + Hell's Kitchen). Otherwise, it's invisible. The Hell's Kitchen location that appears has 3000+ reviews. The hidden one (Midtown West) has only 250+ reviews. In the past, all 3 would show up. How do we get all 3 to show up again, at the initial, zoomed out view?0 -
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 -
Paying for Reviews Penalty?
Hello, recently came across a company that has been paying people directly for reviews. I of course do not recommend this and realized the ethical implications and even the lawsuits that can come from this, but does Google have a manual penalty for fake reviews or do they just algorithmically discount ones that raise red flags? I have never really had to worry about this in the past. I know you can flag fake reviews to them on an individual basis, but does anyone have history of knowing specific situations where a company was manually punished for doing this? Just curious and I kind of wanted to give them strong documentation to knock it off. Thanks in advance.
Reviews and Ratings | | jeremyskillings0 -
Rich snippet not enabled, on aggregated review pages
We have a website where you can book on restaurants, and afterwards you can review the restaurant you visited. So we have this page: https://www.r2n.dk/restauranter/restaurant-bonjour-vietnam (We have one for each restaurant). English version https://www.r2n.dk/en/restauranter/restaurant-bonjour-vietnam The page is marked up in microData, and when I test the site in google structured data it shows no errors https://search.google.com/structured-data/testing-tool#url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.r2n.dk%2Frestauranter%2Frestaurant-bonjour-vietnam . But the page does not show up on google with a rich snippet (The review stars). I am thinking it might be one of the following things. Either it is because there is multiple "Restaurants" on the page, where the others appear in recommended restaurants, where we also marked them up as much as possible. Or else it could be because the reviews are hidden behind the "Anmeldelser"(Reviews) button, where they are retrieved via a ajax request, but if this was the case I don't get why this other site where the reviews does not appear is working fine: https://www.just-eat.dk/restaurants-bonjourvietnam Also it is a week since we finaly correctly implemented the structured data on the page, so I don't know if I should wait a longer time(Though the page has been cached by google multiple times since we updated the code)
Reviews and Ratings | | Christian_T0 -
Blocking Reviews by Blocking Words?
A client sent me an email this week, stating that you could block bad reviews on social media sites by "blocking" certain words from comments such as "I", "you", "them", "they"......she heard it at a conference from some other CEO's that had some problems with bad reviews. Essentially these CEO's blocked these words making the pages read only pages so no one could leave a review on social media sites. Now, I have never heard this tactic, nor think this is a good idea in any way shape or form. And I know that you can't block bad reviews from happening (without looking at the bigger picture and encouraging some look at internal processes and customer service). Has any one heard of this tactic? Or better, know of anywhere online that documents this idea of blocking words? I have to get back to her, but I have beaten the drum about how to acquire good reviews so much, I feel I am not getting through! Help! Thanks
Reviews and Ratings | | cschwartzel0 -
Too many reviews too quickly?
Is there any sort of guideline on this? Right now, we have very few google reviews. However, I've cross referenced a list of our happiest clients with people who have g+ accounts. There are at least 12 clients, I feel strongly would write us g+ reviews if I asked them to. I want to just get the word out today, but I'm worried if 8-12 reviews in a week would red flag us. I've heard that getting too many reviews to quickly can be a problem, but I'm thinking that more like 100 than 10, but I have no idea. Most of my competitors don't have any reviews, and the most any of them have is 10. I don't know if that matters at all either in terms of triggering a red flag. I'd appreciate whatever insight you all could give. Thanks, Ruben
Reviews and Ratings | | KempRugeLawGroup0 -
Google plus review - how to ask
I found a way (finally!) to find out which of my customers who have a gmail account have also a Google plus account. That helps a lot. We use to send handout reviews or video instructions about how to create a Google plus account...and it didn't go to well. Now that we know they have a G+ account , all we have to do is ask for a review; how to do this?
Reviews and Ratings | | echo1
What are the latest strategies so that the review will stay there? have them log in, search for the business name and write the review? give them the direct link? is the searcher's path important? should we look for users who are engaged more in their circles? Thanks!0