Google just turned up the heat on fake reviews and not in a subtle way. They’re now using their AI system, Gemini, to sniff out and remove fake and policy-violating reviews (read Google's post). And if you get caught? Google might slap a warning label right on your profile telling the world that your reviews look suspicious. So if you’ve been tempted to take a shady approach to reviews… don’t. Google is strict on reviews because they matter a lot, which we’ve learned a lot about from the ranking data we’ve been studying from Paige, our GBP optimization AI. Here’s our top 3 findings about reviews so you know what really matters according to the data!
Interesting Findings
We recently analyzed millions of datapoints to see what helps businesses rank higher on Google Maps, and this is what we found from the data regarding reviews:
- Recent Reviews are Everything: Google only cares about reviews from the past 90 days when it comes to ranking, not the old reviews from years ago. It’s crucial to have new reviews flowing in consistently to stay relevant in Google’s eyes!
- You Don’t Need to Be Perfect: To our surprise, profiles that had a rating of 4.9/5 actually ranked better than profiles with a rating of 5/5. So don’t get discouraged if you receive a negative review, it seems Google thinks that makes your profile look more authentic compared to a profile with only perfect reviews.
- Keywords in Reviews are a Must: If your reviews mention the keyword you’re trying to rank for, your business is much more likely to appear in the top 3. Encourage your customers to leave detailed reviews that include your target keywords if possible! (Join our upcoming webinar to see how we help with this)
At the end of the day, reviews are one of the most powerful tools in your Google Business Profile arsenal, but only if they’re real. So don’t buy fake reviews, just deliver a great experience and regularly ask your real customers to share what they think. The easiest way to get more 5 star SEO optimized reviews and manage them is with Paige, our fully automated GBP optimization AI. You can start your trial today for just $1!
