Google has recently updated its Google Maps reviews guidelines to ban businesses from requesting modifications or removals of bad reviews by offering incentives such as free or discounted goods or services.
If you keep an eye out for any reviews on your Google Business Listing (which you should be doing), then you might have the urge to ask any customers who have given you bad reviews to modify or delete these on your Google Business Listing. This is now going against Google’s guidelines though, and going against them could mean that your business is removed from Google.
Will negative reviews on your listing will affect your visibility?
Far from it – in fact, in the past Google has said that having negative reviews on your listing shows that you are more creditable. That might sound unlikely, but if you imagine a listing that has nothing but five-star reviews this can look suspicious to Google’s algorithm and can result in your listing not being as visible as it should be. We have even written an article on this in the past.
Google has also said that any fake engagement within your Google Business Listing and Google Maps is not allowed and will be removed. For example, if you have encouraged or incentivised people to put positive reviews on your listing, this is also against Google’s guidelines and your reviews are likely to be removed by Google.
Are you looking to grow your business’s visibility online to help increase sales and leads? Get in touch with our friendly team at Engage Web and we can help create a bespoke digital marketing strategy to help you get better results from your online presence.
- Key takeaways from Google’s latest search reviews update - November 10, 2023
- Mobile-first indexing: what is it, and why has it taken so long? - November 3, 2023
- Google updates structured data understanding - October 31, 2023
