Category: Online Reviews

See Betteridge’s Law of Headlines for the answer. For those looking to procrastinate, feel free to read on. Yesterday’s Google announcement about it’s new “algorithmic updates” review mark-up caused a fair amount of Local SEO Twittering and Slacking. Today, we’re introducing an algorithmic update to review snippets to ease implementation:– Clear set of schema types for review snippets– Self-serving reviews aren’t allowed– Name of the thing you’re reviewing is requiredMore details: https://t.co/NwZ4unzoOF — Google Webmasters (@googlewmc) September 16, 2019 My…

Mike Blumenthal just posed a question about this on G+ and I thought it was worthy of posting here.  The TL;DR answer is: On G+, Yelp and most other review sites, the reviewer typically owns the content of the review (this is to shield the review sites from liability) while the review sites own the right to do whatever they want with the content. Third parties typically cannot use the reviews on their own services without consent from either the…

Source: The Internet Client Information Intake Research > Strategy Recommendations Site Audit > Upgrade NAP/Citation Audit > Fix Issues On Site Content Creation Off Site Content Creation Review Generation Link Research > Link Outreach Clean Up Link SPAM From Previous SEO Firms Rinse Repeat  

NEW YORK — Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today announced that 19 companies had agreed to cease their practice of writing fake online reviews for businesses and to pay more than $350,000 in penalties. “Operation Clean Turf,” a year-long undercover investigation into the reputation management industry, the manipulation of consumer-review websites, and the practice of astroturfing, found that companies had flooded the Internet with fake consumer reviews on websites such as Yelp, Google Local, and CitySearch.  This operation also uncovered…

My post on Bizible’s new local search ranking factors study is now up at SearchEngineLand. You can also get more detail on the study and the results on Bizible’s blog. As mentioned in my SEL post, Bizible claims the study is scientifically valid and while in general I liked their approach, I can think of a number of flaws in the methodology – the #1 flaw being that they are not Google 🙂  And of course CORRELATION DOES NOT EQUAL…

My latest post, 5 Tips For Responding To Negative Customer Reviews Online is now online at Search Engine Land.  I made this little chart for the post outlining some of the different types of review management tools offered by some of the top local review sites:

Al Hanzal of Local Search Marketing-St. Paul pinged me with Do Incentives Hurt or Help in Getting Online Customer Reviews, a response to some of my posts on the subject. “If the customer or the public online sees your incentive as a direct payoff for completing a customer review, negative consequences can follow. Break the link so that it is not seen as a  “quid pro quo” transaction between you and the customer.”  Among his suggestions for breaking the link:…

Since my customer reviews post on SEL seemed to be of interest, thought I would post this textbook example of how to respond to a negative review: Click on the image to enlarge or check out R.J. Hidson Photography’s Place Page: Remember, when responding to negative reviews your prospects are the real audience. Thanks to Dana Ditomaso for sharing.  Check out RJ Hidson‘s Twitter stream for some more background on the wedding photos.

My latest Locals Only post is up on SearchEngineLand: 5 Tips to Get More Customer Reviews: An excerpt: Some tips for asking customer reviews: Don’t offer incentives. A percentage of your customers will do it for free. If you offer to pay your top brand ambassadors, it’s possible they will get turned off, which could hurt your business by dampening the enthusiasm of these mavens. Make it easy for customers. Don’t send them a link to review you on Google…

Mike Blumenthal dissects Google Places’ latest redesign: According to Mike: “They include a strong call to action (review, upload photos) and clear sense of priorities as to what is important going forward – even coupons now have a higher visibility – more user generated content, more understanding of your social circles intent and a greater desire, at least in the hotel industry, to use Places to “close” the sale.” While reviews are still a big part of Places, my initial impression…