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!
-
Good topic! So, the guidelines currently state:
- Ratings must be sourced directly from users.
- Don’t rely on human editors to create, curate or compile ratings information for local businesses. These types of reviews are critic reviews.
- Sites must collect ratings information directly from users and not from other sites.
My question is, is the service you are using publishing your reviews anyplace else but on your website? In other words, are the reviews posted on your site appearing anywhere else?
-
Thanks for your response, Bernadette. This is Jen from Link Right Media actually : ). To clarify, I'm talking more about companies such as Nearby Now that collects reviews, marks them up, and adds them to the client's website.
-
Jason, thanks for posting this. We have been aware of this update, and have taken action accordingly. The reviews that are on certain client websites generally are unique reviews given directly the client, and not posted on third party review sites, so we don't generally have a problem.
The policy that we've taken, even before these guidelines were published, is that we don't duplicate reviews. So, if a review is on a third party site, we generally don't post it or copy it elsewhere. That's duplicate content, and we try to refrain from that.
If you are posting or copying reviews from other websites and putting them on your own site, I recommend refrain from doing that--not only because of Google's updated guidelines.
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
-
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 -
Any experiences with Reviews.io?
Hello, We have used Trustpilot.com for a few years in the past. Service was reasonable and they did what they were supposed to do. However, due to their price and requirement for a full-year payment upfront we stopped using their review collection service. Is someone using Reviews.io? They are included in Google Review Partners, which seems to be very encouraging:
Reviews and Ratings | | the-global-communicator
https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2375474?hl=en Also, they have a decent price for their intermediary package (about $ 89/month) and don't require a yearly contract like Trustpilot and some others. Any experiences you could share about Reviews.io will be appreciated. Luciano, The Translation Company Group0 -
Purchasing and rebranding practice with bad reviews
An optometrist is looking to buy a practice with really bad Google reviews. They want to rebrand it under their name. This practice has pretty bad SEO as well. What should they do? Should they just mark the GMB page as permanently closed then make a new one under the new business name? Or is that risky or considered spammy since the "new" practice is also an optometrist? Could Google think it is a duplicate or an attempt to trick them?
Reviews and Ratings | | Mike-i0 -
Business name change - Impact on reviews?
Hi I have a client who has created multiple GMB listings for his business using the same address, post code and phone number and I am trying to sort it all out. 2 of the listings have 1 review and 1 of them has 13 reviews. Obviously i want to keep the listing that has 13 reviews and delete the other 2. Keeping the listing with 13 reviews means I will have to update the business name in Google my business because it was originally entered wrongly. Will the profile need to be verified again? Will my client be able to keep those reviews or will they be deleted? Thanks
Reviews and Ratings | | coolhandluc1 -
Google Local Results - Incorrect Listing Url's
I have decided to re launch a small side project that I had to abandon a few years ago. I want to specifically target Google Local Results. I do need to overcome a proximity to centroid issue in a fairly competative niche. Unfortunately a number of my listings i.e. Facebook and Yelp have less than optimal URL's. For example: https://www.facebook.com/businessname.targetlocation.keyword/
Reviews and Ratings | | GrouchyKids
http://www.yelp.com/biz/business-name-key-phrase-and-keyword-location Well you get the idea. NB: None of these listings currently have reviews. Now I know that its best to keep the info consistent across the board, so I wonder if I would be better off scrapping these listings in favor of ones with URL's that match the business name. I can see that I can merge FB pages so am guessing that this would work for FB, has anyone any experience of this? Am assuming yelp will have to be deleted in some way. Any thoughts?0 -
New building ownership and NAP - strategies for removing old listings with bad reviews
I have a question based on this scenario: An apartment building changes ownership. Previous owners were terrible and online listings have had terrible reviews. Since the apartment building now has a new brand name, new office address and phone number, the new owners want to create new online listings instead of claiming the old listings with the bad reviews. Also they want to report the old listings as "closed". They would like to remove the old listings with bad reviews from the old management and old brand name and start fresh, since they plan many improvements. Has anyone tried this strategy? How much luck has anyone had rebranding an apartment building and reporting old business listings as closed?
Reviews and Ratings | | DragonSearch0 -
How to Google Product Reviews?
Hello, I have a client that sells only 1 item. What will be the best way to start getting reviews? I thought about opening a placess account, so the reviews will also start showing on his Adwords campaign. Or can I get products reviews on google+ ? Thanks
Reviews and Ratings | | ogdcorp0 -
Wondering best ways to optimize for google maps/local listing
I'm wondering if there is any strategy to optimize a client to show up in the local listings. I assume a lot of this is tied to Google + / Google Places for Business. Is it possible to have a company show up in the local listings over a certain geographic area even if they are not technically addressed in that area? Any help is much appreciated. Thanks, Dan H.
Reviews and Ratings | | higherimages0