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Holy Crap! Google Local Change - They Just Removed All Reviews From 3rd Party Sites(Judysbook,etc)

by Web Junkie
31 replies
Check out your google places accts guys & girls. All reviews from sites other than google have been wiped clean- One of my clients dropped down to 3 reviews because I was working hard on getting diversity & citations. Now, I've got to word double hard..
#change #crap #google #holy #local #removed #reviews #sites
  • Profile picture of the author Dexx
    Just another reason why I structure my business solutions as independent from Google's whims as possible

    ~Dexx
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  • Profile picture of the author Voasi
    I wouldn't make any fast moves. Google seems to be having issues with Places accounts lately.
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  • Profile picture of the author thehypnoguy
    So much for the goose with the golden eggs. With Big G you can't expect any opportunity to last long Fortunately there are many other services to offer to offline businesses.

    Martin Blakley
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    • Profile picture of the author Web Junkie
      Originally Posted by thehypnoguy View Post

      So much for the goose with the golden eggs. With Big G you can't expect any opportunity to last long Fortunately there are many other services to offer to offline businesses.

      Martin Blakley

      I don't see an opportunity lost...actually probably one gained! I'm ramping up my review system to help out the offline business owners that received a smack down. I haven't seen a change in rankings for any of my local clients. Anyone see a change in ranking for their clients?
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      • Profile picture of the author rotten72
        Originally Posted by Web Junkie View Post

        I haven't seen a change in rankings for any of my local clients. Anyone see a change in ranking for their clients?
        This is the only factor that matters. The weight of reviews in the ranking algo is not important. If it was then how can you explain this listing with 14 reviews at #3 behind 2 listings with ZERO reviews?

        Contrived reviews are pointless. They are simply their to help consumers make a decision! Consumers know the difference between contrived and real reviews.

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        • Profile picture of the author Rob Richards
          The web is full of examples like this and I think they only prove that reviews are not the ONLY criteria used when ranking on GP.

          Obviously from the example given, there are other factors at work here, ie. an optimized GP Listing, Citations to the GP Listing and backlinks to the website associated with the GP Listing.

          I'm just sayin'

          Rob

          Originally Posted by rotten72 View Post

          This is the only factor that matters. The weight of reviews in the ranking algo is not important. If it was then how can you explain this listing with 14 reviews at #3 behind 2 listings with ZERO reviews?

          Contrived reviews are pointless. They are simply their to help consumers make a decision! Consumers know the difference between contrived and real reviews.

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        • Profile picture of the author rbrShorty
          Originally Posted by rotten72 View Post

          This is the only factor that matters. The weight of reviews in the ranking algo is not important. If it was then how can you explain this listing with 14 reviews at #3 behind 2 listings with ZERO reviews?
          Reviews ARE a ranking factor according to the patent. However, they are a rather minor one, especially in the example that you provide, which is featuring the blended search - merge between listing and website. However, reviews are significantly important when looking for conversions which each one has to do.

          And I can place a bet that the third result with 14 results, if not taking the same CTR, it is very similar to the listing on A, with much higher conversion rate.
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        • Profile picture of the author Catalyst eMarketing
          Originally Posted by rotten72 View Post

          This is the only factor that matters. The weight of reviews in the ranking algo is not important. If it was then how can you explain this listing with 14 reviews at #3 behind 2 listings with ZERO reviews?

          Contrived reviews are pointless. They are simply their to help consumers make a decision! Consumers know the difference between contrived and real reviews.

          Local SEO Renegade - FREE Local SEO Lessons
          That example is of the BLENDED search results which is 90% dependent on your web site and organic SEO.
          So even sites that had 500 reviews yesterday and now have only 5, still rank the same, due to their organic ranking.           (I did several blog posts about this recently that show exactly how the blended algo works, prove how big a part organic plays and gave free tools you can use to help you.)

          HOWEVER the old 7 pack algo still shows up - so optimizing # of reviews is still important. The old 7 pack algo is still ruled largely by # of reviews and more importantly # of citations. Lately it's even more frequent and even showing up for core KWs like City +Dentist.

          CITATIONS - Did you notice the entire "more about this place" section where citations use to be is gone? So is the more details section that lots of WSOs here on Warrior told people to KW stuff. That section is gone now too.

          All 3rd party reviews and citations still count just as before. This change didn't change the rankings. It's more a cosmetic change as far as what details G is showing in the SERPs and on the Place, as opposed to a back end data or algo change that will affect rankings.

          Blumenthal, Nyag and I have all blogged extensively about all the other associated changes that are happening right now. I just wanted to pop in a do a quick update here. There is lots more going on than just the review change.
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    • Profile picture of the author John Durham
      Originally Posted by thehypnoguy View Post

      So much for the goose with the golden eggs. With Big G you can't expect any opportunity to last long Fortunately there are many other services to offer to offline businesses.

      Martin Blakley
      Woop, there it is. Offline is a way to take control for yourself and not be a slave to anyones whims. The sale is made in the mind of the sales in offline, not by the algorythms of Google.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rus Sells
    Personally I think the online reviews are over rated for their ranking power. They have so much spam and obviously fake reviews that they are worthless. They aren't as good for gauging social sentiment either.

    Remember the Russian dude selling knock off sun glasses who purposefully treated customer so bad they would leave negative reviews and then he'd rank #1 number one on Google? Talk about a Google ranking loophole!

    PS: Some one just posted this link to me in a skype group! http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives...er_reviews.php
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  • Profile picture of the author badboy703
    I have a listing with 30 reviews and it wasn't affected
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    • Profile picture of the author Rus Sells
      Deploying changes across several data centers doesn't happen all at once. :p

      Originally Posted by badboy703 View Post

      I have a listing with 30 reviews and it wasn't affected
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    • Profile picture of the author fitz10
      Originally Posted by badboy703 View Post

      I have a listing with 30 reviews and it wasn't affected
      Were they Google reviews? If they aren't Google reviews they will be erased from your Places account. Google stated today that they are eliminating all external reviews: Google LatLong: The Ongoing Evolution of Place Pages
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  • Profile picture of the author rbrShorty
    Originally Posted by Web Junkie View Post

    Check out your google places accts guys & girls. All reviews from sites other than google have been wiped clean- One of my clients dropped down to 3 reviews because I was working hard on getting diversity & citations. Now, I've got to word double hard..
    The reviews on third-parties were not lost. They are still associated with the Place page. You can see them via the snippets on the organic SERP and at the bottom of the new "Reviews" section. Furthermore, this was not an algorithm update, so basically nothing, except the count of reviews has changed. But it changed for everyone, so I think you should be too worried
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  • Profile picture of the author Dexx
    This might provide more explanation as to why Google was forced to make this change:

    Google Places Stops Stealing Reviews | TechCrunch

    ~Dexx
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    • Profile picture of the author archimet
      Thanks Dexx for the link to the Tech Crunch article. Interesting article. Fortunately my clients are in categories that don't require many reviews anyway (niche lawyers). Other factors are more important for their Places Ranking (including having a well-seo'd website)...
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  • Profile picture of the author k60mall
    Reviews are just one of the consideration when ranking places listings. Just because you have hundreds of reviews doesn't mean you will be ranked in the 7 box, you also need to factor in the rankings of the site used in the places listing.
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  • Profile picture of the author MastrGrdnr
    I understand why they quit "stealing" reviews but I don't understand why you can't even find the description about the business or any additional details. It is always supposed to be about user experience, but if the only thing they show are reviews we will have to post a review for the business telling everyone what the business is about or the customer will be left guessing!
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    • Profile picture of the author Catalyst eMarketing
      Originally Posted by MastrGrdnr View Post

      I understand why they quit "stealing" reviews but I don't understand why you can't even find the description about the business or any additional details. It is always supposed to be about user experience, but if the only thing they show are reviews we will have to post a review for the business telling everyone what the business is about or the customer will be left guessing!
      Descriptions are still part of the Place page. More details do not show any more.

      If you are missing descriptions, then it's the BUG I've been working with Google on for 2 weeks, not the update. So should be temporary.

      Google just confirmed to me that missing descriptions is not part of update, but part of that bug. They are aware and working on it but no ETA.
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  • Profile picture of the author KabanaSoft
    I have been examining the changes to the Places Page pretty thoroughly over the past 2 days with my upcoming local seo software program and can confirm that what Linda is saying is correct...Google is definitely still indexing the 3rd party review and citation sources.

    And not only that, they are also still keeping review counts for all of these sites just like they did before the update (i have confirmed this using other techniques)...they just aren't showing all of them on the places page...all they have now is a select 3 or 4 top sites with just a review count and no more excerpts from these sites (probably due to lawsuit)

    So if you're panicking because these review sites and excerpts are no longer listed on the places page...don't sweat it...google is still keeping track behind the scenes...

    And from my analysis of ranking report data over the past month...I haven't seen much change in rank either that would warrant saying that google made a big change to their algorithm.

    I have data on 1000's of sites they used to list under the "More from around the web" section and am working on figuring out their indexing algorithm for all of this...google is definitely still keeping track of this data its just how and where they are displaying it.

    I guess the bottom line question here is how big of a factor is this data in the overall local ranking equation? And do you think that google will eventually place more emphasis on their own reviews over other sites?
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    • Profile picture of the author DH5
      Thanks so much for sharing your research!
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  • Profile picture of the author byte
    @Catalyst eMarketing, thanks for keeping us informed. I was getting a little worried seeing alot of descriptions missing.
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  • Profile picture of the author SubUrbanHype
    I don't really think the google places reviews matter as much as people play them out to be. I've yet to see a google places review affect a potential customers decision to choose one place over another. And if it did, it is RARE.

    And like someone mentioned, a lot of the reviews on there are fake, and people know this.
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    • Profile picture of the author ferriswannabe
      From what I have been reading I beleive this may in part be due to the fact of the problems G has with the FTC and antitrust investigations.

      Among bigger problems that they have, one issue is third party sites are saying that G is copying or "stealing" their content from their sites when it is display info such as hours, locations, etc and of course the reviews.

      So that may be causing all the recent changes in the places.
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    • Profile picture of the author Danielm
      Originally Posted by SubUrbanHype View Post

      I don't really think the google places reviews matter as much as people play them out to be. I've yet to see a google places review affect a potential customers decision to choose one place over another. And if it did, it is RARE.

      And like someone mentioned, a lot of the reviews on there are fake, and people know this.
      I know in my household it affects both my and my wife's decisions frequently. If I look up a local auto body place and one has 15 reviews, all positive and they look legit and one has 15 reviews, half very negative, I'm calling the one with the better reviews, whether they are in the A slot or the C slot.

      As for the reviews being fake, I'm sure a lot of them are, but I'd also think in the world OUTSIDE of what we see here on the WF, I'd think less people know that than you'd think. I talk to people frequently that make every internet mistake you can imagine, catch every virus, sign up to fake links in email, put their credit card number into places we wouldn't dream of doing, etc.
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    • Profile picture of the author Catalyst eMarketing
      Originally Posted by SubUrbanHype View Post

      I don't really think the google places reviews matter as much as people play them out to be. I've yet to see a google places review affect a potential customers decision to choose one place over another. And if it did, it is RARE.
      I just posted a MONSTER update at my blog and a small part of it related to the above comment, so I wanted to share.

      Regarding the impact the # of reviews and the star ratings in the SERPs have on CONVERSION and CLICK-THROUGH rates.

      I can probably dig up a good screenshot, but just imagine this example. Consumer quickly scans Google for a restaurant, spa, dentist, whatever. The BLENDED results are almost totally dependent on organic SEO factors, so he who has the most reviews was not on top necessarily before OR after this change.

      So a typical result BEFORE the update may have been
      #1 2 reviews
      #2 0 reviews
      #3 5 reviews
      #4 50 big bold 5 Star reviews.
      Consumers into reviews will likely skip over 1,2,3 and go right to #4.


      Results AFTER the update may have changed to
      #1 2 reviews
      #2 0 reviews
      #3 1 reviews
      #4 2 1 Star reviews.


      If NOW #4 only shows 2 reviews (with no star rating) instead of the 50 5 Star reviews that made them stand out from the pack yesterday, that can really impact not only click through rates, but "pick up the phone and CALL RIGHT NOW" rates.
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  • Profile picture of the author Voasi
    Great piece about the "update" here: More Detailed Thoughts on Google’s Place Page Shift | Mihmorandum

    Linda weighed in as well in the comments too, so don't forget to check out her remarks.
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