Single 1 Star Rating on GMB
-
Hi all, We recently received a 1 star rating on GMB. It's just the rating, no review/comment with it. We don't recognise the name so we think it must have been made in error or is spam.
We discussed this internally, and it was decided that we should try to have it removed, although I personally didn't think our chances of getting it removed would be very good (because we wouldn't be able to prove it was spam). I flagged it as spam but didn't get a reply (would you even expect to get one?). I also sent GMB a DM on Twitter a couple of days ago, and again no reply.
Edit: Google have now replied as I tweeted them again and as expected they won't remove the rating as it doesn't violate their policies.
Normally, I wouldn't be so concerned about one individual poor rating (especially as it is just a rating), but we haven't had any reviews on Google before, so now our average is one star which just looks bad when someone googles our company. We use an external review provider for getting reviews from customers, so we don't actively encourage our customers to rate us on Google.
I was thinking we should reply to the rating, with a message saying something along the lines of "We can't find your name in our accounts, but if you get in touch with our customer service, we are confident they will be able to help you."
It would also help to get more ratings or reviews to even out the one bad one and improve our average.
Is there anything else we could do? How would you handle this? Thanks!
-
Thanks, that's a great tip! I've bookmarked that page, very handy to have that link. I'll bring it up with the team. I agree, it might be easiest for the sales team to share the link.
-
What generally works for us is we send an email with the direct link to the review box:
https://support.google.com/business/answer/7035772?hl=en-GBThe link takes them straight to the comment box, all they need to do is rate and write then press enter - we express that it only takes a minute to send a review but helps us out a lot, however, we find it easier if the sales team drop the link into an email after checking the product is received and installed!
Just a few tips from our experience with GMB reviews - hope it all goes well for you!
-
Thanks! I did respond to it (slightly different wording though), so we will see what happens.
I agree we should get some more reviews to improve our average but will have to see how we can encourage customers to rate us on Google as well as the other platform we use.
-
I think the best option is to respond to the rating, just to give the chance to change that 1* to 5* if it was a genuine rating. the response you have mentioned is straightforward enough, but I think you should definitely encourage other customers to review on GMB - just to even out the one star if your anonymous reviewer isn't willing to rectify the rating. In our case, it's definitely helped us stand out against our competitors on maps listings so maybe it can do the same for you?
I think the way you are handling it is fine - other than speaking to Google, I don't think there isn't really much else to do but try to rectify the issue with the customer (if genuine) and build ratings to receive 5* on GMB.
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
-
Any Success Getting Fake 5 Star Google My Business Reviews Removed From Competitors?
Hi, I am working on a competitor who is obviously building up fake reviews using a 3rd party service. I need to build more evidence. A majority of his reviews on Google My Business, they are done by reviewers with very few reviews (no profile pic), and that seem to review 3-4 companies in the Chicagoland area the exact same day. This happens again and again. It started about 1.5 years ago. Before that everything looks normal. Any idea how much proof I need to actually get those reviews and/or his company removed? I am working on getting access to a private group on Facebook where he talks about it. Thanks in advance!
Reviews and Ratings | | vetofunk1 -
Client has 2 locations across the street from each other, 1 of them doesn't show up in Google Maps anymore unless you type its specific branch name. Help
Client has 3 locations in NYC... 1 is on the east side
Reviews and Ratings | | jaimeurteaga
2 of them are a block apart on the west side (52nd & 51st street). When you search the business name, you only see 2 of the 3 listings - 1 on the East side and 1 of the 2 on the West side. On the West side only the one with more reviews shows up. The semi-hidden location still exists. You can find it if you type in the exact full name of the branch (it has the brand name + Midtown West vs its neighbor a block away that's brand name + Hell's Kitchen). Otherwise, it's invisible. The Hell's Kitchen location that appears has 3000+ reviews. The hidden one (Midtown West) has only 250+ reviews. In the past, all 3 would show up. How do we get all 3 to show up again, at the initial, zoomed out view?0 -
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 -
Enabling Rich Snippets for Reviews and Ratings
Hi everybody, Going to install schema AggregateRating code so our website will appear with 5 stars snippet in SERP. Researching other websites and see two main approaches: Site displays all its reviews on the page where the snippet is
Reviews and Ratings | | Ryan_V
http://www.meatheadmovers.com/movers/los-angeles.aspx Site displays only a few reviews on the targeted page, and the rest can be found on the other page, where they marked up with schema as well.
http://www.danielsmoving.com/areas-served/moving-from-arizona-to-los-angeles/
http://www.alexmoving.net/areas-served/los-angeles-movers/ Google shows rich snippet for both in SERP
http://prntscr.com/ak1vcs
http://prntscr.com/ak1vup Though it says here:
"Make sure the reviews and ratings you mark up are readily available to users from the marked-up page. It should be immediately obvious to users that the page has review or ratings content." Our site has over 300 reviews and I don't want all of them to be in targeted page (home page), of course I prefer to go with option #2 if it's within Google guidelines. is it? What do you guys think?1 -
Rich Snippets (Rating stars) not showing up on website in search results
Hello, I have All in One Schema.org Rich Snippets plugin installed on my WP websites for the star snippets to show up in google search results. I used the Item Review property in this plugin for the homepage and under Reviewer’s Name (added name of author), Item to be reviewed (added brand/business name) and Your Rating (of course 5 :)). Now, the problem occurring is that instead of stars showing up in search results, the date when the respective page was published is showing up in search results. This is happening with all the websites I added plugin in. Am I doing something wrong or what is happening. Please help as i want those stars to show up on the websites. Please help me with any plugin or useful info that can help me with this. Thanks!
Reviews and Ratings | | BrianBotts.0 -
Why does Google return 1 star reviews in local listings as the "most helpful"?
I have a client who has recently received two 1 star reviews on Google local (unhappy customer and unhappy customers boyfriend). This is affecting an otherwise flourishing business as these two 1 star reviews are displayed prominently when you search for the brand in Google. They have since received more positive reviews, however Google insists on displaying, what they term, the "most helpful" reviews first. Why are these 1 star reviews deemed "most helpful"? In all honesty, they aren't even really that helpful, with the latter verging on slanderous. We are in the process of reporting this one as it personally attacks a member of staff, however, whilst we tentatively wait weeks for a response, I wondered if anyone has any idea on how G decides which reviews are "most helpful"? When there is no option for other users to rate these reviews as helpful (such as on play store).
Reviews and Ratings | | Silkstream0 -
How to get star ratings from Google Places to show up for my site in the SERP
Hi my cottage has star ratings in Google places, is there a way to show them under my sites in the google results? Thanks for any advice UKAEds8
Reviews and Ratings | | PottyScotty0 -
Grade Us vs 5 Star Reviews?
We need to get some more reviews, so we're looking at either getting Grade Us or 5 Star Reviews' services. Does anyone have strong feelings about either one? Or another service? Thanks, Ruben
Reviews and Ratings | | KempRugeLawGroup0