The Scoop on Anonymous Google Reviews

You may have noticed a slight drop in your total number of reviews on Google. Google is known for making changes that can greatly impact businesses, but doesn’t always make formal announcements or provide notice.

They seem to be in the process of removing reviews that do not have a name associated with them. While some businesses still have anonymous reviews, many have reported that their anonymous reviews are completely gone from both their business page and their star rating calculation.

These reviews look something like this:

We can only assume that Google is doing this to improve accountability among the reviewing public and protect consumers from fake reviews. Our hope is that this change will result in more honest reviews and fewer overly-critical reviews that often come from anonymous users.

While this doesn’t directly impact Listen360, we empathize with the businesses that are impacted by this change. Here are some suggestions to continue building a solid online reputation:

• Continue to gather Google reviews and diversify your presence on other review platforms, such as Facebook.
• Display customer feedback on your own testimonial page or add a testimonial widget to your website.
• Continue delivering a great customer experience so that you are building a strong reputation – both on and offline.

We hope this information helped shed some light on the recent Google changes. If you have any questions or need assistance, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us.

Listen360 Customers:

You may be wondering how Google’s change will impact Listen360 reports and other tools you may be using to gather analytics on your reviews. While anonymous reviews may have been removed from the web by Google, Listen360 will keep a record of these reviews and you’ll be able to see them in the reviews dashboard. If you are utilizing a Listen360 testimonial page, website widget, or AdStars, these features will not be affected by this Google change.