Customer Reviews inputted by a single person

[jwanner]

We send out a product review survey through an email after a purchase has been made.  It is okay that we input those in manually ourselves when they are returned?  They are legitimate reviews.  I want to make sure it doesn't send a red flag to search engines since the same person inputs them from the same computer and IP address.

Thanks in advance for your inputs.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Rob,

This is one of those issues where I have mixed feelings. Google's John Mu definitely stated that Google views testimonials and reviews as different, and here is some discussion surrounding his comments about this:

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/webmasters/wY1vF2RRos4/discussion

http://www.localsearchforum.com/google-local/26385-say-what-google-says-dont-add-review-markup-your-customer-reviews.html

https://plus.google.com/+JoyHawkins/posts/J6772rFU1VG

So, where do I personally fall in on this? Seeing John Mu recommend removal of markup is a pretty strong recommendation and as I always advise complying with Google's guidelines, I would typically agree with this, but at this point, the grey area for me is that I've not seen this become an official guideline, so there's some uncertainty on this. I know I am still seeing local business sites with testimonial markup and I would be surprised if they are actually being penalized for this, but, at the same time, John's comment has mostly called into question whether there is any value at all in making this effort to markup testimonials. It simply may not be worth it, but I say that with the proviso that it will not surprise me one little bit to see Google change their stance again on this next week, next month, next year.  So, that's pretty much where I am with this. Hopefully reading the above discussions will help you form an educated opinion.

[RobM416]

Thanks Miriam. A clarifying question: On your own page, would you mark up a testimonial with schema.org "review" and/or "rating" metadata, or  in your opinion is this also a mistake? (i.e., do you take the stance that Google distinguishes between testimonials and reviews, and that you could be penalized for using the markup?)

Thanks.

[MiriamEllis]

Hey There!

So glad you've asked this, as it is definitely not the right strategy to do this. If you wish to send your customers a survey and publish their responses yourself, do so as testimonials on your website. Reviews on third party sites (Google, Yelp, Facebook, etc.) should always be left directly by the customer - never by the business owner, and never via a review station/kiosk at the place of business.

Search engines can absolutely detect the source of a review, and were you to post reviews on behalf of your customers, the possible outcomes would range from the reviews being taken down to the listing being penalized or removed entirely.

So, just keep in mind this difference: reviews are something customers post directly, but you can publish testimonials on behalf of customers, so long as it is only on your own website.

You might want to do some further research on topics like Google review kiosks, Yelp review takedowns, etc. and read the review guidelines of each platform where you're hoping to earn reviews. Good question you've asked!

[CleverPhD]

I agree with all of the above, just to add another layer, if you take this from a Yelp perspective, they actually specify that you are not supposed to solicit reviews to start with so that the reviews you get are more objective and less biased.

http://www.yelp.com/guidelines

• Don't ask customers for reviews: Don't ask your customers to review your business on Yelp. Over time, solicited reviews create bias in your business listing — a bias that savvy consumers can smell from a mile away. Learn why you shouldn't ask for reviews.

I really like the option that Tim mentioned to put the reviews on your own site and mark up with schema so you get the chance at the rich snippet.  We have seen some nice increases in CTR when we have done this.

[aarongray]

Hey,

It's best to send the customer a link to your google maps listing asking them to put the review there themselfs. As you pointed out above if you had 10 reviews all from the same google ID and IP address it will get flagged by google.

The below link is for google guidelines on reviews. One of the points they have is impersonation.

• Impersonation: Don’t post reviews on behalf of others or misrepresent your identity or connection with the place you’re reviewing.

https://support.google.com/business/answer/2622994?hl=en

[TimHolmes]

Hmmm, this is probably a devisive question. For me if they are genuine legitimate reviews then it should not be too much of an issue although some sites were recently hit for manipulative fake reviews etc. Rather than using an external review site I for your emailed in survey results I would suggest hosting them on your own site. maybe www.yourdomain.com/reviews or on any particular product pages. You can still use schema mark up on these to gain an organic star rating in the serps.

If you want to get a CTR boost to your adwords content, again with a star rating, then I would suggest re-soliciting your old reviewers with a link and kindly ask them to resubmit their review on your chosen review site. Google has a list of preferred third party partner sites. See below...  More can also be found on google seller ratings / review here 

You could also try using Google consumer surveys.

Ausgezeichnet.org
Avis-Verifies
Bazaarvoice
Bizrate
eKomi
E-Komerco
ECナビ
The Feedback Company
Feefo
FIA-NET
Hardware.info
KiyOh
Klantenvertellen
Poulpeo
PriceGrabber
ResellerRatings
Reviews.co.uk
Reevoo
Shopper Approved
ShopVote.de
ShopAuskunft
StellaService
Trusted Shops
TrustPilot
Viewpoints.com
Yopi.de
Yotpo
お財布.com
クチコミの王様
Zoorate

Hope this helps.