One of my oldest clients asked me that question the other day. He had dozens and dozens of Google+ Local reviews that he earned over the months. 3-4 of them got filtered after living happily on his page for several weeks.
He then asked, “Should I just ask customers to repost their reviews on Google+?”
I said, “Take it easy, Rambo.”
Then I suggested an action plan:
It’s true that Google’s filters aren’t as tough as they used to be, but they still do filter reviews (as we’ve seen). If Google sees customers re-post the same reviews that got filtered, that looks weird.
It also looks weird if a customer isn’t a frequent reviewer on Google+, and posts one review, and that review gets filtered, and he/she posts another review of the same place.
Here’s all you can do: if those 3-4 reviewers have written reviews of other businesses besides yours, it’s probably OK to ask them to post another review on Google+, provided that they rewrite it rather than post the same thing. But if your business is the only one they’ve reviewed, don’t ask them to review you on Google+ again. Ask them to write a review elsewhere.
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What do you suggest asking customers to do if they’re still willing to write a review after their first one gets filtered? Leave a comment!
Hi Phil – do you have a ‘usual suspects’ list of what causes Google to remove reviews that had previously passed the filters?
You also don’t mention contacting Google Places support for this. Have you ever had any joy getting reviews restored by going through this channel?
Cheers Phil, Myles
Hey Myles.
1. Yup: https://www.localvisibilitysystem.com/2013/05/01/checklist-for-keeping-google-plusreviews-out-of-the-filter/
(Although by far the biggest factor – in my experience – is how frequently you ask for reviews.)
2. Nope!
Sometimes if the reviewer just makes a small edit, the review will show.
Thanks, Linda. But for how long? My concern there is it’ll still be an at-risk review.
Phil, do you find that reviews that are placed through a QR code get filtered more frequently? I just spent two days discussing marketing with others in my service industry. There were lots of examples of marketing materials with QR codes attached. A common complaint was the number of reviews that were filtered. After using your customized guide to placing a Google+ review for a short time I have had 100 percent success. Most of these reviews were first time for my customers.
Thanks for the feedback, Dan. Good question about QR codes. I don’t know the answer. But I can say that QR codes are clunky and present a few non-filter-related problems.
Hi, I agree with Linda. The customer or client can edit their reviews – they might now know this, so giving instruction is important.
1. Login to Google+
2, Click on Profile. If they have the Reviews Tab on their Profile page, they can click on that. If not, the Menu go to Local and they will see Your Places, click on that link and they will see all the the places they reviewed.
3. Find the review they want to edit and click on the Pencil
4. Edit it a little and click Publish
They should also look at Phil’s checklist and Google’s review guidelines.
We had some reviews on our original Google+ Local page, then Google took down our Local page saying we don’t service customers at their location, which we do along with online training, so they added a new listing instead of reactivating our old listing. I’m still trying to resolve this with them via the phone. They are so nice, send followup email, but we still don’t have our original Google Places (Google+ Local page). So we asked on our a clients to repost her review, she did, it was there and now gone again.
Thanks, Susan!