An example business I was looking up just now... In Google Maps and the first page of Google Search etc it shows then as having 4.5 star review average over 693 reviews.... But if you click and get the sidebar pop up, it shows reviews from the web which are far less flattering.
This seems to be super common. Google reviews are always glowing, but other sites are far less favourable. What's the most likely reason for this?
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Google results are more realistic because Google prompts for reviews more frequently and thus more people are likely to leave a review which gives a more realistic result? Whereas the only people going to TrueLocal and Product Review are the very unhappy customers?
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Or that Google is completely gamed by SEO "experts" who spam fake reviews for cents and thus make Google Reviews completely bollocks by overpowering any genuine reviews with paid glowing testimonials?
If its the latter, I feel Google needs to solve this cause at the moment I have zero faith in their review system.
(I've blanked the name just because that's not really the point of this post.)
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I take reviews on any site (especially Google/maps) with a huge grain of salt. I mostly only go straight to the negative reviews though. If they're all petty shit, then it's usually a good sign. I also like to see if the business/owner has responded. If they're posting snarky responses to negative reviews, then I'm inclined to think that this isn't a business that I want to deal with.