3 Reasons Your Review Count Might Be Off

Where’s My Review?

The latest episode of Mark Sherwin’s Contractor Marketing Soapbox features Mark talking with Billy Coover, CEO & Co-Founder of Nearby Now, about common reasons that your review count might not match your expectations.

Enjoy the episode anywhere you get podcasts and get even more information below.

#1. New Reviews Might Still Be Processing

While Google does not make all of its screening criteria publicly available, there are safeguards in place. As such, it can take time to run all content through machine learning.

“One of the things we do at Nearby Now is go through the Google API each night to retrieve any reviews we can for our customers,” Billy says. “Normally, they come through on their own, but we double-check every night just to see if we can catch any the system processed but hasn’t yet posted.”

#2. A Review Counted As An Update, Not A New Review

“Even Google has limits,” adds Mark.

One of those limits is that a Google user can only review a business one time—even if they’ve received multiple services. When you review a business a second time, Google considers this an update and not a new review.

Nearby Now users can see this noted in their dashboard.

“You might even get an email telling you that a new review came in,” adds Billy, “but if it’s with an account that you’ve already heard from, it will be considered an update.”

Billy also says this is the most common reason for confusion between your total review count and the amount you expect to see. You could service one customer every day for a year and get a review from them each time, but your count will only increase the first time they post.

#3. The Review Was Deleted

“This can happen for two reasons,” offers Billy. “The first is that the user requested deletion. The other is that Google found the review violated their terms of service.”

Here are common ways a review can violate Google’s terms of service:

1. Posting fake reviews. Includes autogenerated reviews and paid reviews. The FTC is also actively working against fake reviews.
2. Conflict of interest. Reviewing your own business or asking friends, family, or employees to review.
3. Offensive content. Inappropriate, hateful, harassing, or threatening content.
4. Personal information. Posting phone numbers, addresses, or emails in the review.
5. Impersonation. Misrepresenting identity or connection to the business.
6. Irrelevant content. Reviews unrelated to the customer’s actual experience.
7. Promotional content. Ads, promotions, or external links in reviews.
8. Confidential information. Revealing non-public business information.
9. Rating manipulation. Posting multiple reviews to artificially skew ratings.

Asking ≠ Incentivizing

Asking for reviews is essential for your home service business. However, offering incentives, payments, or discounts in exchange for reviews is prohibited.

Improper review techniques can literally cost you thousands of dollars in fines and more. Supplement marketer The Bountiful Company was fined $600,000 by the FTC for “review hijacking” on Amazon.

“Remember that transparency is always the key with reviews,” cautions Billy. “Use that as your guide when making decisions and you can’t go wrong.”

If you are getting different guidance from your marketing company, contact LeadsNearby for a consultation on your marketing strategy.