How do they work and can they help or hurt your business?
You’ll see a Google review rating when you do a Google search for a service or product. A company name appears, and there is usually a review area in the right sidebar where Google provides a description, the website link, hours of service, and phone number. As you scroll down, It also provides a section called “Reviews.” Here you see ratings that range from one star to five stars.
Five stars is the highest ranking for a business. One star is the lowest. The overall rating, according to Google is:
- “the average of all star ratings submitted by users for a business
- the more positive reviews a business receives, the higher their overall rating will be on Google.”
How low rankings can hurt a business
Let’s suppose you want to help a business, and so you decide to give them “a star.” Giving a business one star actually hurts the business. The reason is: it brings down their overall rating, which is the average of the number of stars it has received.
For example, if the business had three, five star reviews and one four star review, its average would be 4.75 stars. Next, you give them one star—perhaps even believing that you’re helping them by saying positive things about the business and throwing in a star. However, their ranking now drops to 4 stars as the average. Even though you complimented their service or product in your comments, you lowered their overall rating. For viewers who do not bother to read the reviews and just look at the overall rating, they see four stars. They may click away to check out a competitor who ranks higher, closer to five stars.
Unless you plan to give the business a four or five star rating, they’re better off if you don’t rank them at all and don’t leave a review.
Get Business Marketing Can Help You Market Your Business
If you have some low rankings, we can advise you and tell you how to counteract the low average. Online marketing is our specialty, and we assist businesses through effective SEO, by building eye-catching websites, and creating engaging ads for social media marketing.
Find out how we can help you promote your business and drive more traffic through online marketing. Contact us at getbusinessmarketing.com.
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