Customer Reviews
-
Is it OK to only get reviews on Google and not on other citation directories?
Should I focus on Google+ or Google Places?
-
Hi Bob,
I like Chris' answer, and will add to this. The naturalness of an overall review profile is important to think about. Additionally, a big reason I would not recommend getting only Google Places/+ reviews is that this product has been plagued time and again with massive review loss for years. The Google And Your Business Forum is swimming in reports of business owners having lost many or all of their reviews. If this happens and they don't happen to have any reviews any place else, then they are suddenly in a review-less state with absolutely no record of their good service.
So, while Google Places/+ Local is likely to be one of the most important sites to earn reviews on, it is definitely not the only site and a diverse review profile is good insurance against massive review loss. I recommend that businesses let their customers pick their own favorite review sites. You can steer some clients, if you like, but in the end, if a customer only likes to use Angie's List, by all means, thank her for reviewing the company there. Don't ever insist that she only use Google Places/+.
-
Bob,
Real reviews will happen as a result of people's interaction your company and they will inevitably put them where they think best. Note that, in order to write a review on a company's Google+ page, the reviewing customer must also have a G+ account - just having a gmail account isn't enough anymore. Those without a G+ account will have to writer their reviews elsewhere.
Reviews aren't the same as citations. Citations typically refer to your name, address, and phone number and those you really need to get from a wide variety of sources to strengthen your G+ Local business page visibility. You can started finding out about and populating those sources at getlisted.org.
Here's a good article by Mike Blumenthal on encouraging customer reviews and for good measure, here's what Google says about making sure your reviews on G+ are useful, honest, and written by real people.
-
Google Places is now Google+ Local, so the two are identical.
I don't know why you would only focus on reviews for G+, you should try to get good reviews on whatever prominent directories your site is featured on, such as Yelp.
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
-
Looking to hire an SEO for a Technical Review of my site
Hi I am new to SEO. I am the photographer and blogger behind the photography blog ShootTokyo. I am looking to make sure my site is optimized the best it can be for SEO. My site is a hobby for me but has really grown. I am looking make sure I have best practices implemented. I am not looking for quick fixes or try to cheat the system but to make sure I have a good solid foundation in place for SEO. I don't have a lot of experience nor a lot of free time so I want to make sure whatever free time I spend on this is really productive. I am looking to initially hire someone to do a technical assessment of my site and identify any fundamental issues I should address first. Once I have the assessment I am looking for advice on putting together a work plan on what I need to do and the best way to approach it. How can I best use the tools Moz is offering me? Which things are higher value that I should work on first, specific to my site? For more technical things I might hire this person to implement them or teach me how to implement them. If this is your business can you please let me know what your qualifications, experience, a link to your site and give me a range of what you might charge for something like this (you can email me details if you don't want to post here). If this isn't your business but have a recommendation I would love one. I am Tokyo based so ideally someone either in Asia, Europe or West Coast of US as it makes it easier to connect live if needed. Thanks Dave
Image & Video Optimization | | ShootTokyo0 -
Using Amazon Product Reviews on my Website
Does anyone know if I can use Amazon Reviews for products that I put on Amazon? I "own" the listing on Amazon because we are the exclusive manufacturers of this product so the review is only referring to products that were sold through our company. Thanks,
Image & Video Optimization | | EcomLkwd0 -
Google+ Local Reviews
Hi everyone, Is it against Google+ Local's guidelines to request one's customers to post reviews on their page? For example, asking my customers on my email list, or through Facebook if they can leave a review on the G+ Local page? Thanks
Image & Video Optimization | | FernwoodFitness0 -
Google maps places - 3rd party review site's link not showing up
An example: https://plus.google.com/103109773317419974914/about?gl=us&hl=en This doctors place shows up with reviews from yahoo.com, citysearch.com and local.com. Our business has reviews from yelp, citysearch.com and couple of other places. What am I missing and how I can make sure those links show up? Thanks RYWwZZk
Image & Video Optimization | | nashk0 -
Google+ Local Assistance (Listings being reviewed)
Hey guys, My client is having issues with his Google+ pages and I'm wondering if someone can shine some light on the issue for me... Basically the client has two businesses, both using the same residential address. The page was ranking well until a week ago, when it disappeared from search results and was listed in the dashboard as "Under Review." I've heard horror stories about this -- examples of Google taking months to review pages and make a decision, and I'm wondering if if might be better to just delete the under review pages and start over (hiding the address on the new listing to comply). Edward
Image & Video Optimization | | edwardrj0 -
Creating a custom google map with spreadsheet
Hi Hi, I recently saw the Seomoz Webinar "All About Google Places", and there was the advice to make a custom map with google spreadsheet. I tried it, but it hadn't worked. It seem, that this service is deprecated: http://gmaps-samples.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/spreadsheetsmapwizard/makecustommap.htm I can't find another way doing this with spreadsheets. Can anyone help? Thank you! André
Image & Video Optimization | | waynestock0 -
Google Places - Under Review
Working with a new company. In the Google places listing they have two listings...obvious duplications created under the same account. Both show as "Under Review" and have been for months. SHould I try and delete one listing (tried...has not worked so far), delete both and start over? This is one of several franchises in the same area with similar names and similar issues, as well as older companies that bought the franchise and still show in Google Places with old phone number and address. Any help appreciated.
Image & Video Optimization | | AgileInt0 -
Local EZE Reviews?
Is anyone here a channel partner with Localeze or has subscribed? Any thoughts? http://localeze.com They want a yearly fee and to me this doesn't make sense as all it is doing is sending information to the local listing sites and this should be a one-time deal.
Image & Video Optimization | | qlkasdjfw0