Google Reviews Naughty List?

Google Reviews for Auto Shop BusinessFor a business, one might think the more reviews, the better—WRONG! If you’re using a service provider to automate and exponentially grow your reviews, they may in actuality be creating an opportunity for your business to make a major mistake.

Google is constantly refocusing and developing its algorithm to serve up the best and most authentic search results possible. In response to companies that might be “manipulating” the system with floods of unauthentic reviews, Google has switched gears and is now looking at volume. In other words, Google is now penalizing you if you are generating too many reviews, too quickly.

If your auto shop marketing service provider is doing this to your reviews, you may actually end up with FEWER reviews because Google will hide them – and put you on the Google “Naughty List!”

This very painful lesson is all too common these days, and it could be your very well-intentioned service provider that is setting you up for this failure. The big problem is that once you are on the Google “Naughty List” there is no known way to get off the list, so the secret is not to get on the list in the first place.

The good news with Mitchell 1 LocalSearch third-party reviews is that we throttle your ability to create too many reviews. So if you notice that you’re not able to offer Google review solicitations, we allow you to ask your customer for a Facebook review instead. If your service provider is not wise to over-soliciting reviews, it might be time for a different provider?

Here are some suggestions for staying off of the Google Naughty List:

  1. Do not solicit reviews that are completed at your physical location. Google knows the IP address used to identify your physical location.
  2. Do not bulk solicit a list of customers for reviews. More than just a couple of reviews per day could put you on the naughty list
  3. Do not copy reviews that appear elsewhere on the internet. Duplicate review content on Google and on your website might put you on the naughty list.

For more detailed information click here.

https://www.webworksofkc.com/blog/missing-google-reviews/

 

Posted in:
About the Author

Brian Warfield

Brian Warfield is a Senior Product Manager for the Mitchell 1 SocialCRM product line. He has been in the automotive software business for over 20 years and has earned a degree in Marketing from the University of Cincinnati Business College.