Local reviews guidelines - Google Update

Cristian Level X³

August 30, 2016, 12:44 am

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Google have just updated their local reviews guidelines for markup, Mike Blumenthal announced on its Twitter 3 days ago.

What are the reviews markups?
They look like these and they can be placed with schema.org:
Local reviews guidelines - Google Update

Local reviews guidelines - Google Update

What is the exact change?
Well from now on Google disallows marking up 3rd party reviews from other websites.
So in essence, you will have to include only reviews from your website, that were produced by products bought directly from your site you are also obligated to have both negative and positive reviews. They also need to be real, unique and no duplicates.

Anyone here using review markups? If yes, makes sure you read all the new changes so you are in the clear.

Comments

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Lynne

Oh nice thanks Cristian that is really interesting and thanks for the link. Call me dumb but I thought schema data was the little stars? How is this different? Is it because there are full on reviews and there is also the votes showing now?

10 years ago

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TommyCarey

How would Google be able to tell if the reviews were real?

I can make 98 positive reviews and 2 negative reviews just so it still looks natural since people are pissed off but the majority are happy lol Local reviews guidelines - Google Update

I never really trust reviews because I would always do my own under different profiles just so my sales would increase. I've never sold here on seocheckout, so don't accuse me of boosting my positive rating lol. I would post positive reviews on websites like alexa.com so that people who used it to check my website would see the 5 star positive rating and be more willing to pay me for my services. Now I understand that alexa.com isn't the best place to evaluate a website, but not all webmasters and website owners know that. Also, back in the day it was easier to check a website and it's rating on alexa.com than it is now. They totally remade their system and user interface and it's more difficult to check everything. They also have a paid system and you can't really check everything now Local reviews guidelines - Google Update

Showing a positive review in the search engines is definitely a good thing to do because it will basically make you a sale before they are even on your website Local reviews guidelines - Google Update

I need to look into this more for my websites Local reviews guidelines - Google Update

So basically the reviews are coming in from "previous buyers" who leave reviews on your product and/or service? This can be exploited pretty easily lol Local reviews guidelines - Google Update

10 years ago

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Cristian

I don't know how they're going to tell if you have fake or real reviews but I guess if they have any doubts they just won't list your review snippet.
I know it can still be exploited but I think it this update takes to show that Google is constantly improving and cracking down on people that are trying to exploit the system. Their final goal is real user experience and our goal is to find cracks and holes in their system. lol.

10 years ago

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jaymish2

I write this in 2018 and this is not surprising. I think that as much as I disagree with the google on its monopoly power and how it uses it.However I think it tries to provide the best customer service to its users. Its good to have true reviews of products, because more and more people are relying on this to make purchasing decision.I see that the same thing has happened to Amazon and this in my opinion is a good thing.

8 years ago

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