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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My first guess is that due to googles prompting for a review when you visit somewhere, more people leave reviews on google than other websites which are an intentional effort to seek out
Additionally, it's possible the business was really well liked for a while, but then sold, and because more people leave negative reviews than positive ones, only google had lots of positives (for the above reason) and all the negatives are being posted in more places?
Sounds like a long shot, but I've actually seen that happen. A fish and chippy local to me before I moved was absolutely loved by everyone and had 4.8 stars out of something like 500 reviews on google, but barely any reviews elsewhere. Then the lady who ran it sold to people who screwed it up in the pursuit of profit, and all of a sudden, every single new review being posted on google is negative, and reviews are popping up on other sites absolutely dissing the shop. Dozens of angry facebook posts, the whole works.
But there's of course the possibility that they're mostly fake reviews on Google. I actually had a 1 star review I left at a hotel be taken down last week, apparently the owner didnt like my 1 star and reported it. It was reinstated after an appeal though, so take that for what you will.