• Stop being a LURKER - join our dealer community and get involved. Sign up and start a conversation.

Google Places Removes Third Party Reviews from Search Results

kevinfrye

Sr. Refresher
Apr 7, 2009
266
203
Awards
1
First Name
Kevin
This morning we showed almost 900 reviews for our Jeff Wyler Eastgate Auto Mall location when you did a search and saw their Google Places listing come up in the search results. This afternoon, it only shows 36 reviews in the SERP results. Why? Google has made a change to only show Google reviews in their SERP results, and not show third party reviews. This is incredibly disappointing as we had lots of reviews at DealerRater, JudysBook, Yahoo, Edmunds, Angies List, Merchant Circle, and many more sites. Between this change and the introduction of Google +1, Google is really flexing its muscles with its dominance in the search engine market, and forcing our hands to use their tools and play their way if you want to benefit...
 
So what now, do we abandon Dealer Rater and other third party sites and focus on Google Places reviews only. I am sure that is not the answer, as Dealer Rater will still help with SEO I am sure. I worked hard the last 2 months getting reviews and starting a good review policy in our store asking the customers to review us at Dealer Rater, trying to get my Google Places page optimized with Dealer Rater, yp.com, and others and it was just starting to click. And the list goes on with reputation management all because I hear “you better have your Google Places page optimized with 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] party reviews to rank high in organic search and be relevant to Google”. Now WTF!
 
I am trying to look at this from the consumers' perspective. If Google is trying to deliver the most relevant result to a consumer, why would they not want to show ALL reviews attached to a dealer, including DealerRater, Edmunds, Yelp, Merchant Circle, Judys Book, Angies List, etc? I believe that Google is upset about being passed up in traffic by Facebook, and they are exercising their muscle with the launch of Google +1, Google Plus, and changing the search engine results to only show Google reviews with the Google Places results (as well as build up demand for their Google Boost). Google's message is "Do it our way, with our tools, and with our processes!". Of course we will adapt, but this is a move made in Google's best business interests, NOT in the best interest of the consumer who wants the best result...
 
Just checked our dealerships Google Places pages and YUP. All 3rd Party Reviews are GONE!

This truly sucks!!

I see they made a few changes to the Places Page to go after the reviews. Just got off the phone with Brice over at AutoRevenue / Dominion and they are seeing this has only currently affected about 40% of dealerships.

2011-07-21_1730.jpg


Think about this...Google sees and knows that small business on average are focusing on one or maybe two review sites. Most dealerships focus on DealerRater. Google knows this and I bet they also know that in order to get exclusive reviews on Google places page, they will need to cut the other reviews sites off at the knees.


What are your thoughts?
 
Most dealerships focus on DealerRater. Google knows this and I bet they also know that in order to get exclusive reviews on Google places page, they will need to cut the other reviews sites off at the knees.

Jeff, maybe I am reading into it too much, but are you thinking that Google has cut everyone off to dump certain review sites, perhaps those that are less popular/credible, and could bring back only certain 3rd party sites that it might see as the most credible?