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?
-
Intriguing question. In short yes there is a benefit - in so far as the three-panel reviews that appear are often manip[ulated by likes. So your liking a positive review may push a negative review off the SERP.
However, should your staff write false reviews, 100% not, that would not good from an objective perspective? In Australia it would be a disaster for staff and the business moral, effectively it is imposing your views on your staff on possibly private gmail assets and asking them to publish your views.
-
As far as I know, although aggregate review ratings themselves can be used by Google in terms of GMB / Google maps rankings, 'likes' don't factor at all and will make zero difference
It looks weird anyway, I would think that it would be very rare for people to take the time to 'like' reviews. Maybe if it was something they were passionate about (a book they read, then they saw someone's review and really vibed with it. Or a big brand with an extremely innovative product...)
- but to see liked reviews for drier SMB stuff, would seem a little contrived (just my 2pence)
-
Hi there, it certainly won't harm anything, unless you work in a large office & everyone does it around the same
-
Good Afternoon, Justine,
This is an excellent question. There is no documentation regarding SEO benefits from the presence of thumbs-up activity on Google reviews. They may have some impact on the order in which reviews are displayed, but I have never seen any study undertaken as to whether they have any impacts beyond that.
Because of this, I would treat the topic, in general, as one of low priority/low concern.
However, we've waded into something deeper here with this scenario of a client trying to pressure an agency to thumb up his positive reviews. I'm assuming he's doing so because he believes it will benefit him in some way, but your question deserves a thoughtful answer.
So far as I know, Google has never released formal guidelines for the use of the "like" function on reviews since they rolled it out in 2016. They don't specify who should use that function (owners, the public, etc.) or whether they would consider any particular use of it spammy. But what we do know is this: Google is very big on the concept of reviews being honest and transparent and sourced directly from customers. Anything that resembles manipulation is forbidden.
The "like" button isn't the review, of course, but it's associated with the review. Does it strike you that what this client is asking you do is to manipulate his review corpus? After all, you are his marketer ... not a customer. Google's position is weak here, because so far as I know, they haven't released specific guidelines. In that environment, I could certainly make a case for your client interpreting the "like" button as something he should use when he receives a review he's grateful for. He could respond to the review and hit the "like" button as a thank-you. But when the owner begins bringing in his marketers to do the same ... marketers who are not customers but are, in fact, paid contractors, does this not seem to be crossing a line from gratitude to manipulation?
Another way to look at this: how would the business owner feel if his competitor hired 100 people who did nothing all day but like his reviews? Would that feel fair or honest to him?
So, as I said at the outset, I would consider this a low-level priority given that I have no documentation indicating that likes impact rankings, and I can't even fully quantify the level of impact they have on review ordering because you will commonly see reviews with multiple likes being outranked by reviews with no likes. This isn't the biggest issue in local SEO, but your client's attitude could prove troubling if he is inclined toward manipulation. I've never had a client try to order me to do something, and that that seems odd, too.
If it were my agency, I would say "no" and talk with the client about the need to earn his reputation rather than try to fake it in any way. That kind of approach seldom pays off in the long run, and I'd hate to okay a client engaging in any practice that I was even remotely worried might be perceived by Google as spam. You'll need to make a decision on this at your agency, and then present it to the client. Good luck, and I hope my thoughts on this are helpful!
-
Hey Justine!
Great question, as far as I understand, Google does NOT actually use “liking” reviews or marking them as “helpful” as any ranking factor. However, I believe it does use them to rank which reviews to show. Similar to how Yelp shows reviews.
In regards to your team, they shouldn’t have any problems if they decide to Ike the reviews. That being said, liking the reviews is just patting your client on the head, but not actually majorly affecting his rankings.
I suggest sharing that with him, he may not find it as important if he knows. On the flip side, if it makes him happy, your team shouldn’t have anything to worry about. I wouldn’t suggest liking every review simply because not every review is ”helpful” some might be truly more helpful than others,
I hope that answers your question!
Here is an article that shares a little bit of info: https://contractorcalls.com/7-things-didnt-know-google-reviews/ see point 6.
If that didn’t answer your question, Mozzer Miriam Ellis might have more insight.
Best,
Alex Ratynski
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
-
1st party reviews
Hi, I would like to add 1st party reviews to a website that promotes a software application using schema code to display ratings in search results. I have not been able to find any examples of software app schema being on a single page. Wondering how others have applied this and displayed on the website. Thanks.
Reviews and Ratings | | SaddleOak0 -
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 -
Poor reviews and ratings
I have an interesting challenge for a new client. Basically, they collect payment from gym users whose monthly subscription payment has failed, and they charge the gym user a fee and not the gym. Their clients love them for this, but the end consumer hates them and as a consequence, every review or ratings site from Google Reviews to Trustpilot is universally filled with angry consumers who didn't read the Ts and Cs of their gym membership. Understandable, but it also means the client can't have a presence on any social channel as they simply become a gripe board for disgruntled consumers. My question is, how are the poor reviews impacting on rankings and domain authority and should I treat this like any other client in terms of fixing crawl issues and seeking quality backlinks or am I always going to be pushing water uphill? Cheers gang!
Reviews and Ratings | | Algorhythm_jT0 -
Respond to Google Review as Business or Individual?
Hello Moz World! My agency has never had a great strategy for reputation management, but have begun acquiring some Google reviews. We know it's best practice to respond – but I've never considered whether I should respond as an individual or with our company's GMB? The owner of our GMB is "Engenius" – a general admin account for our agency. I'm also a user on the account, as the "owner," but I'm technically not the owner of our company. Should the owner be added as a user and respond directly? Or is it okay to respond as "Engenius" (the brand)? Or can I respond as the "owner," though I'm not technically? I know ultimately it's probably not a huge deal, but any thoughts would be awesome! Thanks!
Reviews and Ratings | | brooksmanley0 -
Google Reviews & Third Party Reviews
Hi We have a third party review provider, but were also looking at increasing our Google reviews. However after more research, should Google reviews only be used on local listings? For organisations which don't have a physical location to buy from - is the solution to use organisation schema, which incorporates 'reviews on other sites' with the hope Google may show your Feefo review count? When checking similar companies - all seem to have the organisation knowledge card and not the local Google My Business listing. Is it worth pursuing extra reviews on Google My Business or not? Thanks!
Reviews and Ratings | | BeckyKey0 -
What types of businesses does Google display reviews in SERP for?
In just the last week, it seems like Google has removed reviews for businesses in our industry (staffing), which is unfortunate since we've been working hard for those reviews. The effect has been to be completely left off the local google business results. One week, we're at the top of the business reviews with our location prominently featured on the map and the next, we aren't even listed. It seems like there must be list of industries in which Google takes reviews into account (or if they do, then at least displays the reviews in the results). For us, up until last week, if you searched "temp agencies", these reviews were included in SERP. Now, nothing. Is this fairly normal behavior for Google?
Reviews and Ratings | | Parker8180 -
Does Google's 3rd Party Reviews Guideline Update make Review Aggregators Obsolete?
Good day!We are concerned about Google's updated Guidelines in ratings and reviews, specifically as quoted in the SEO Roundtable: "The new guidelines specifically disallows you from using 3rd party reviews, found on other sites, and marking those up on your site."https://www.seroundtable.com/google-updates-reviews-markup-guidelines-22608.htmlThe Guidelines are here https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/reviews#local-business-reviewsWe enlist the use of a 3rd party aggregate for one of our client's (service business). Since, in effect, it is a 3rd party review site, and what the shortcode does is copy reviews from that third party site and mark them up on the client website. What do you guys know about this update, and what are is your take on what the update says and how it relates to a 3rd party review aggregators? Thanks!
Reviews and Ratings | | LinkRightMedia0 -
Re Posting Reviews
I would like to re post a couple short client reviews on the home page of my site. The reviews are from avvo.com. What is the best way to accomplish this without getting flagged for duplicate content? Should I make an image containing the review text and then link it to the original review on avvo?
Reviews and Ratings | | eddiejsd0