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Potential Penalty for Google Reviews from Remote Locations?

by fabyoga
5 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hi,

I am a yoga teacher and teach yoga programs in various cities across Germany and Switzerland and sometimes even abroad.

I was wondering if it could pose a problem if a significant portion of the reviews for my local business come from people at varying distances (100km or even 1000km away)? Is there any reason to believe the Google could put some sort of penalty on these kind of reviews?

Thanks,
Fabian
#business #google #local #people #remote #review
  • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
    As long as they are legit, you have nothing to worry about.
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    • Profile picture of the author fabyoga
      Thanks, but how can we be sure? Google has no way to determine if a review is "legit" or not except by using some proxies. One proxy could be "distance to local business". If their system says, this person was never in that location, then they might conclude it is not legit.
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      • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
        Originally Posted by fabyoga View Post

        Thanks, but how can we be sure? Google has no way to determine if a review is "legit" or not except by using some proxies. One proxy could be "distance to local business". If their system says, this person was never in that location, then they might conclude it is not legit.

        They don't know if a person was ever in your business or not, but they do monitor account activity. If you get 10 reviews, and all 10 are from nowhere near your area, and those 10 reviewers happen to be leaving a bunch of reviews at other businesses that are nowhere near them, that could look suspicious and probably get flagged.

        There is nothing wrong with a company having most of its reviews from outside of its immediate area.

        I just had something shipped to me from California. I live in Pennsylvania. I can leave them a review and there would be nothing wrong with that.

        Unless you are trying something sneaky, you are overthinking it. Don't worry about it.
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  • Profile picture of the author ramonchek
    Have same expirience, after 30 reviews from fiverr, my positions decrease from 3 to5, and 2 to 7 by main keyword.
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    • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
      Originally Posted by ramonchek View Post

      Have same expirience, after 30 reviews from fiverr, my positions decrease from 3 to5, and 2 to 7 by main keyword.

      Well good. That is what is supposed to happen when you order a bunch of fake reviews from Fiverr.
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