Google Tips for Businesses on Reviews

We all know how important word of mouth and reviews are for businesses, especially service businesses and restaurants. And while online review systems like Yelp and Google make it easy to get and post reviews for consumers, they can be challenging for businesses when it comes to defending themselves from unfair reviews and getting happy customers to take the time post reviews. It’s much more likely an angry customer will take the time to post a review than a satisfied one. Another challenge for the review sites is making sure the reviews are legitimate, not spam or paid reviews, and fair.

Webpronews.com recently posted an article about Google updating spam detection and sending out some warnings and tips for Internet marketers and business owners. I thought I should post the article because it has very important information for small business owners. Specifically:

“Google advises business owners to be wary of SEO and reputation management services that promise to generate reviews, and Google says it will take down fake “glowing testimonies”. The company also notes that it does not take down negative reviews for just being negative for anyone, and instead advises business owners to respond themselves. Google also says not to trust anyone who says they know how to remove reviews from Google. ”

This is important. Just as you should ignore anyone who promises to get you the NUMBER 1 SPOT on Google or hundreds of followers on Facebook and Twitter, there are scams and illegitimate marketing companies that will promise to get you positive reviews. The search engines can find these faked reviews and penalize you.

The story continues, “Google tells SEOs specifically, ‘If a business accepts paper comment cards it might be tempting to collect them and “digitize” them by posting the reviews on Google+ Local. We ask that all reviews come from first hand experience and do not allow posting reviews on behalf of others.’”

This is worth taking the time to read if you own or manage a business. Click here to read it all.

Lerentech offers real search engine optimization services and Internet marketing that has yielded positive results for dozens of types of businesses. We can help you improve your presence online, improve your rankings through legitimate and safe Internet marketing tactics and help you put in place a social media plan to get reviews from real customers. For a free consultation, give us a call at 315.876.9607 or email us here..