The relationship between Google Reviews and SEO?
-
I have recently started working with a client with bad reviews on Google (2.1/5). Apart from the fact consumers are likely to see these reviews and decide against buying the service the company offers (causing a decrease in traffic), are there any other negative effects on the SEO?
-
I'm going to have to disagree with 411. According to Google's Search Raters Guidelines document that was released last year, they're taking into account your site/company's overall reputation. This means they're not only looking at Google Reviews, but third party review/reputation sites as well. It's part of their initiative to improve the quality of results. It doesn't matter how many links you have or how good your site structure and on-page SEO is if the service or product you provide is terrible and gets bad reviews everywhere you look.
For a summary of what's in these guidelines, check out this summary: https://moz.com/blog/google-search-quality-raters-guidelines. The whole guidelines document is worth reading, but be sure to check out the Reputation section and the 5 clues of what makes a page low quality in this post.
-
Very helpful. Thanks very much!
-
Direct negative effects - very unlikely. But have in mind that bad reviews lead to low click-through rate and lower traffic, which according to many sources has a negative impact on SEO.
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
-
Can I use two feeds for Products Reviews Stars
My client has two sources of reviews - productsreview.com.au and judgeme.com - both have about 30 reviews each and we would like to combine these to get to the required 50 (so that they both show on the product ratings feed). I cannot find any information on this so would be grateful for some guidance - thank you!
Reviews and Ratings | | E2E0 -
Should I publish Amazon reviews on my own site/products? Do I need to worry about duplicate content or anything else?
I'm redesigning my site expected launch early January. I'll be selling some products that are currently are only available on Amazon; and those listings have thousands of very positive reviews. I'm seeing apps that are available that will sync reviews from my Amazon seller account listings to my products on-site. I'd love to start my site off with the great validation these reviews are sure to provide customers, but I wonder how concerned I need to be about duplicate content or any other cons.
Reviews and Ratings | | VaporApparel2 -
Beware of Fishy 4-Star Reviews
Hello to all our folks who market local businesses! I came across something this week that I felt was important enough to share. Hopefully, if you're a Moz blog reader or a Moz Local customer, you're already well aware of the importance of monitoring your Google My Business reviews on an ongoing basis, responding to them as they come in, whether they're positive or negative. And, you know to be on the lookout for spam reviews. But a strange new form of spam seems to be emerging that might be really easy to overlook at first. We're all familiar with the spammer who leaves you fake 1-star reviews for the purpose of harming your brand. But you might not immediately be suspicious of a 4-star review, or even a string of 4-star reviews until you realize your former 5 star rating has been whittled down by a succession of less-than-perfect, fake reviews. The worst thing, I think, about this tactic, is that it can be overlooked. Jason Brown has captured this phenomenon in his recent post: http://reviewfraud.org/4-star-negative-review-attacks/ and I highly recommend reading it and paying extra attention to any 4-star reviews companies you market may be receiving. I'd suggest, if you find this going on with any of the GMB listings you manage, you report it to Jason so that he can continue to track this activity. He's a Google forum TC, and, perhaps, with enough evidence, he might eventually be able to make a case to Google about this practice.
Reviews and Ratings | | MiriamEllis5 -
Google's knowledge graph carousel
Hi all, my business is on Google's knowledge graph carousel but it hasn't sourced any of the images I've provided. I've set up a G+ & YouTube account. I've added images to our wiki page and added photos to Google for our business, but to no avail. Any ideas? Cheers all.
Reviews and Ratings | | SwanseaMedicine0 -
Fixing Google Review (it's technical, not about an unhappy client)
We have six 5 star reviews for our Tampa office...but for some reason, our rating is a 4.8. Why is that? And, more importantly, how do I get it fixed? https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=kemp+ruge+green+tampa+twiggs&lrd=0x88c2c48aec26ee65:0xaa2e3a3569ca3602,1 Thanks, Ruben
Reviews and Ratings | | KempRugeLawGroup0 -
Does advertising on Yelp help a business get more Yelp reviews?
I've gotten this question from a few clients. There seems to be a correlation in some cases between paying to advertise on Yelp, and the volume of reviews received. Of course, correlation does not necessarily equal causation. And I can attest to the fact that other clients who have at times advertised on Yelp did not even see a correlation. Has anyone else seen this correlation? And if so, can you speak to the possible causation or lack thereof?
Reviews and Ratings | | irapasternack0 -
Thoughts on google plus page
Looking for feedback on a client's g+ page https://plus.google.com/116480272521087321856/about
Reviews and Ratings | | Atomicx0 -
Google Places
Hi Guys, Looking for some advice on improving the visibility of my Google Local Page for non-brand local keyword terms. I want my listing to rank for local keyword terms “sydney cars” “cars in sydney” and related terms. I know reviews play a key role and citations. We have created many citations in multiple different directories (yelp, truelocal, etc) but still have not yet seen much movement or results. In this case should I be building links to the actual website BMW Sydney with various/high diversified anchor text around “sydney cars” “cars in sydney” "luxury cars" and variations and continue building authority to this website. Image of the search results:
Reviews and Ratings | | MBASydney
--> http://s17.postimg.org/u33sgl87j/screenshot_1482.jpg Is there anything further I can do to it’s Google Plus Profile to improve its local visibility for these keywords? (Besides Reviews) Google Plus Profile Is Here:
https://plus.google.com/104004861293...ut?hl=en&gl=au Any advice would be highly appreciated. Thanks,
Matt0