Mike Blumenthal blogged last month on the topic of becoming a Top Reviewer (as a business page) in Google Plus Local. Notably, there appears to be an opportunity for a business, as a Google+ page, to achieve this distinction. But how exactly do you (as a business) become a Google+ Top Reviewer?
As you may have noticed, Google Plus ranks review content based on who is leaving the review and what other users think of the review (most useful -> least useful). More or less, it’s an effort to weed out spammy or fake reviews and establish a hierarchy for everything in between. There’s also anecdotal evidence to suggest that reviews from...
By Dave Cosper · November 16 2012
reviews, top reviewer, google local
Two weeks ago The Consumerist put out an excellent article on how to spot fake online reviews. A week later, after enlisting the help of their shrewd reader base, they compiled a list of 30 additional symptoms of online review fakery. Both pieces are superb and deserve a full reading, but here are a few highlights that stood out to us:
By Jorge Cordova · April 19 2010
reviews, google, fake reviews
Here at EZlocal, we love Google. Everyone uses Google as their primary search engine and Gmail as their email client. Nearly the whole office is connected through Google Talk and most people use Chrome as their browser. A few of us even look forward to the day when we can pay our taxes directly to Google.
Since our specialty is local business search, it comes as no surprise that a fair amount of our time is spent nosing around Google Maps and Google’s Local Business Center, constantly searching for more ways to increase exposure to our members, small business owners. To this end, we find ourselves pondering questions like these:
What websites are cited on Google Maps?
Are they being cited for business info, reviews, user content?
What sites boast the most review citations in Google Maps?
On our quest to answer these questions, we started to count and analyze the reviews that appear in...
By James · March 24 2010
google maps, reviews, url hack, google hack
Last week we discussed which websites feed the most restaurant reviews into Google’s Local Business Center (LBC). While Citysearch impressively captured nearly 47% of the restaurant reviews appearing on Google Maps, it was Yelp’s complete lack of reviews that inspired the most curiosity here at EZlocal. Our crack SEO team has been helping small businesses get found on Google for a few years now, during which time we grew accustomed to seeing Yelp reviews in Google’s LBC. Now, finding a Yelp review in Google Maps is almost unheard of. Why?
As near as we can tell, the reviews disappeared from the LBC after acquisition talks between the two companies disintegrated back in December 2009. It is reported that Google offered
By Derek McKenzie · March 16 2010
yelp, google, lbc, reviews
As we discussed last week, encouraging customer reviews is a key component in getting your small business found on Google and other search engines. So if reviews affect your small business’ search placement so much, what are the very best sites to encourage reviews from? What sites are picked up by Google’s Local Business Center most frequently?
We found the answer differed from industry to industry. The top review sites for restaurants or hotels were not the same for plumbers and doctors, etc.
By James · March 09 2010
google, reviews, lbc, local
Update 02/01/2013: Google has since updated their review content guidelines to prohibit review stations and giving customers free gifts or discounts for leaving reviews. This article was written prior to the change and may provide information that is no longer relevant or considered a best practice.
Small businesses are in a unique position to truly benefit from customer reviews. Chains are pretty well locked into their branding and there tends to be very little differentiation city-to-city and state-to-state. They will build reputations for being consistent and predictable, but rarely break through to extraordinary. However, small businesses are unencumbered by these expectations; small businesses have the opportunity to make a name for themselves as some...
By Jorge Cordova · March 02 2010
reviews, yelp, google, ezlocal
Recently, Google added snippets from reviews into the Local Business Center in a way that only Google can do. On the profile, Google chooses amazingly helpful portions of reviews and posts them. Parallel to the moderately recent addition of rich snippets into search results with reviews and other information via microformats, Google has taken the rich review snippets to a new level. Reviews about certain aspects of a business are now grouped together and an overall rating per category is calculated. In the sushi example below, Google broke down reviews by the food and the service. As a user, this information is fantastically useful as most people care more about certain things than others, take a look.
By Derek McKenzie · January 15 2010
google, google maps, rich snippets, reviews
A majority of Americans have the same few resolutions when the new year rolls around: lose weight, eat healthy, spend more time with family and friends. If you are a small business owner, you NEED to have resolutions for your business as well. With high hopes for the economy in 2010, contribute to your small business' hard work for success this year by abiding these three resolutions.1. Push for ProgressA new year brings new beginnings, new policies, new goals and new habits. In 2010, push yourself and your employees for success and progress. For small business owners, this means clearly planning assignments, projects, and objectives. Communicate to your employees what you expect from them before pursuing any project. Also, small business owners should take control of progress by conducting multiple mini reviews throughout the course of the year. Reviews help small business owners communicate to their employees what they are doing right, what they sho...
By Cheryl Sowa · January 13 2010
small business, progress, prioritize, 2010
