Google+ Local Reviews
-
Hi everyone,
Is it against Google+ Local's guidelines to request one's customers to post reviews on their page?
For example, asking my customers on my email list, or through Facebook if they can leave a review on the G+ Local page?
Thanks
-
Hi Diana,
As Jim has said, Google has no problem with you asking for reviews, by any means except for at a shop-based review station/kiosk. However, I would advise you against doing any type of mass request via email, Facebook or any other platform. The reason for this is that Google's review filters appear to target velocity. If you get too many reviews at once, they could be filtered out and permanently lost. Because of this, many in the Local SEO community are now recommending that you ask no more than a couple of customers for reviews each week. This may prevent review loss.
Also, as Jim says, always give the customer the option to use their favorite platform. Diversity is good insurance against review loss, in that if you lose reviews on one platform, you still have them on others.
Just remember, the one review platform you must exclude from your review acquisition efforts is Yelp. They expressly forbid local business owners from requesting customer reviews in any way. Very strict, but there it is.
Hope this helps!
-
No, that's perfectly fine to do.
With real estate agencies I work with in vacation rentals markets, I've set up automated emails asking for feedback. If the feedback has a positive rating, we automatically send another email asking them to review us where our local listings are.
Personally, I don't like pushing them to one review source (like Google+) because typically people have their own review preferences, and I haven't tested this but giving them options likely means a higher review rate.
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
-
Does Google automatically recognize pictures?
If yes, are there any methods to influence the image recognition?
Image & Video Optimization | | fduo0 -
Image results Bing vs Google
I have a website with a number of images and I have optimized all of the images on both a file name and ALT text level, relevant to content on the page they are published on. I haven't created a separate image sitemap, but the strange thing is that Google has all of my images indexed and they can be found for the right keywords, but when I look in BING! images, there is no image indexed available at all ...
Image & Video Optimization | | ConclusionDigital0 -
Shared location and phone number in Google Places...what now?
Interesting conundrum I've run into with a legal site we've recently started working on. The client didn't initially tell us that their law office shares an address and a phone number with another firm. It didn't take long for us to find this out, but interestingly, it didn't seem to be negatively impacting their rankings...at first. Then as we got into June we simply fell out of the map listings. We occasionally resurface back to a 1-3 position and then disappear again. My presumption is that Google is having trouble deciding if either of our separate listings are legitimate as there are a lot of citations for each and the on site and off site SEO/link factors are fairly similar (with our site having a bit better link profile). So my thought is get a unique phone number (if I can make the client agree) and add a unique suite number and try to reclaim/edit every existing citation we can get our hands on. Anyone else run into a similar problem and beat it?
Image & Video Optimization | | NetvantageMarketing0 -
Is city name really a no-no in Google+ Local description field?
I know that adding one's city name in the business name and category tags for Google+ Local is a no-no. And Google says so in its quality guidelines. But what about in the business description? I don't see that in Google's guidelines. Can anyone clarify?
Image & Video Optimization | | HammerandHand0 -
Best Tool For Local Rank Tracking
Hello Everyone, I have taken a few clients recently that i'm doing local SEO for; I'm curious of what the best tool is for keyword tracking with local intent? I have heard things about WhiteSpark and MicrositeMasters, but I have no idea what is the best, is SEOmoz's tracking good for local? Thanks Zach
Image & Video Optimization | | Zachary_Russell0 -
Google Places ranking not making sense
With regard to the proximity to the city centre if you google 'chartered accountants swansea' you will see that the 2nd google places listing 'drpaccountants' are located way out of the city centre and they have no photos, reviews etc Where as on my listing it has a 100% completed profile but am way down the results, when many of the top places results are very basic http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=chartered%2Baccountant%2Bswansea&source=web&cd=6&ved=0CGIQFjAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.harrisbassett.co.uk%2F&ei=sp-mTraQEoiz8QPBqMzVDw&usg=AFQjCNG1C-xsNxgM6vWj1geoxv_u4KbD0g What else needs to be done apart from getting reviews? I have added lots of local citations to the likes of Yelp, Qype, Hotfrog etc but none are showing under the listing on google places? Also is there a reason why the description field is not being populated in the google places account? As from some of the other top places listings it seems to be picking this up from their website? The other issue is under the dashboard it displays 0 impressions and 0 actions is this normal? What is my places listing missing or have I done everything I possibly can and just have to wait for Google to re-rank the places results? I
Image & Video Optimization | | idv0 -
Multiple Businesses in One Location + In One Google Places Account Under Review
HI, My Problem: Multiple businesses in one location, under one Google Places account, one being reviewed. My Question: see very bottom of this post Background: I am trying to help a client get both of his businesses ranking in Google Places. The problem is the office building has multiple doctors/practices in the same building and gave no business suite numbers to doctors that rent office space. Here is the list of the other businesses in the office: http://www.fullcirclefamilycare.com/health_care.htm. The problem escalates because the doctor I am trying to help has a chiropractic business & a spinal decompression business, both legal entities, both different registered company names, different phone numbers, and websites, but both located in this office building. He rents two offices (they should be suites) in the building. The problem escalates even more because the doctor has registered both locations (see below) in his Google Places account: Westchester Spinal Decompression Center
Image & Video Optimization | | WebBizIdeas
1241 Mamaroneck Avenue, White Plains, NY 10605 (914) 421-1502 Joint Effort Chiropractic
1241 Mamaroneck Ave., White Plains, NY 10605 (914) 368-7668
jointeffortchiro.com The first (spinal decompression) was registered a long time ago and ranks #1 for "spinal decompression white plains NY." The second he just confirmed the Google Post card a few weeks ago and has been under review since. More research so you can help me better: The "The Shop for Holistic Health / The Shop at Full Circle", a businesses location in the same office building has verified their account and ranks #1 for "women's health care white plains NY" and "midwife white plains NY." Another business,in the same office building "Keras-Donaghy Melissa S", has not claimed their listing and ranks #1 for "Women’s Health physical Therapist white plains NY" Another business, "Kuhl Josephine MD," has not claimed their listing ranks in the top 10 for "Adolescent Psychiatrist white plains NY." My Question: What do I do, wait it out and see if Google will remove the "under review" under his current Google Places account or do I add a suite number now and see if Google will send another post card? Or do I create a new account, add the business, add a suite number this time, and see if they will confirm it. I don't want to do this because the doctor already has 12 reviews on this Google Places account. If I do do this, what do I do with the Google Places account under review?0 -
Google Places Account Suspended
Hi- I was recently forced to migrate my Google account. After going through the process my Google Places profiles associated with this email was suspended. I've read the quality guidelines and I'm pretty certain that my account was suspended because: --
Image & Video Optimization | | lhc67
Account Email Address: Use a shared business email account, if multiple users will be updating your business listing. If possible, use an email account under your business domain. For example, if your business website is www.google.com, a matching email address would be [email protected]. There seems to be no way to change the email address associated with a Places account. I've pretty much resolved to obtaining emails at the business domain and setting the profiles up again from scratch. Before I do this does anyone have any other ideas? I've posted the question at Google webmaster forums and have only found other similar unanswered questions. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you! LHC0