For years small business owners have had to contend with lost user reviews on Google. And as we all know, getting and keeping legitimate user reviews has become a significant problem for businesses, especially those among us who are not tech savvy. Understanding when and why user reviews disappear and taking a proactive approach to ‘get them back” can be time consuming and in many cases a waste of time because of the shifting requirements that Google has implemented. Today, Miriam Ellis from Solas Web Design posted about the problem of lost user reviews on Google, some history of the changing requirements, the effects and where w can report lost user reviews to Google.
User Review Tips
From my perspective there are a number of key take away’s that business owners should follow:
- Understand Google’s user review requirements
- Ask for user reviews from customers when you do business with them
- Reviews that come in waves are more likely to end up in Google’s spam filter
- User reviews from mobile devices may ‘stick’ more often
- Make sure that reviews are also made on other user review sites
- If you have lost user reviews let Google know
Only by understanding what Google or the other sites are looking at, being consistent and proactive in getting user review will you be able to develop a strong user review profile for your business. User reviews will enhance your business profile and increase the opportunity that searchers will find you. Lastly, if you have lost your user reviews from Google, or any other user review site, its important to remember that you are not alone, to keep soliciting reviews from your customers and let Google or the other user review site know.
As a final note, keep in mind that Google will continue to make changes to its algorithms in order to provide searchers with the best search results. They do this to ensure that those who are using black hat SEO strategies, which includes fake reviews, are discounted. In the end business owners need to take a longer view on getting user reviews and keep at it.
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