If you’re a small business in St. Louis, or any city for that matter, being found on Google is very important to gaining customers. This means you need to be found on Google, especially in local search results. Your business needs it’s Google+ Local Pages account to be indexed and come up as high as possible in the search results. One way to get your page to a higher search ranking is to have positive Google reviews. But, what in the world will you do when your Google reviews start to disappear? They are so important, so why would Google do this to you?
Why are your Google+ Local Reviews Disappearing?
Spam is one suspicion. If Google thinks your review is spam, then it will disappear. Another suspicion is that Google seems to have an issue with your Google+ Local Business page getting reviews in waves. This means getting a bunch of reviews at once, such as through a contest. This might alert Google and your reviews might disappear.
What is the Fix?
There is no magic fix from Google when it comes to spam, as it is very hard to know what Google considers spam. Google could even think a mention of your business name is too much spam and remove the review. The solution to getting reviews in waves is obviously to get reviews more slowly. Also be sure to create a document on your computer in order to save your Google+ Local reviews. That way if your reviews disappear, you can still get some use out of them. You can use the saved copy as a testimonial on your website.
You Have to Play the Google Game
The fist thing you need to realize is that you are not the only person this is happening to. There is a popular Google+ Local Reviews forum that has a lot of reading. However, it’s mostly upset business owners wondering why their reviews are disappearing. Google offers some advice, however nobody is 100% sure why the reviews are disappearing, per above. Google says to encourage customers to write reviews. There are many ways to do this. You can try asking your customers to review your business on Google+ Local. Try adding links to your website, or even ask customers from your other social networks such as Facebook. Remember bad reviews are inevitable; they aren't the end of the world. The best way to get rid of a bad review is to get more good reviews.
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