Google Updated Their Content Policies and it’s Hardly a Big Deal

“Don’t discourage or prohibit reviews or selectively solicit positive reviews from customers.” — Google.

The meaning of the above sentence (which is part of Google’s new Prohibited Content Policies for reviews) could be heavily debated and easily confused. The tech giant has released their new guidelines for uploaded photos and videos, events, and text reviews.

While the photos and events portion is important, that is not what most business owners are going to be concerned about right off the bat. Instead, they’ll be losing sleep over that first line, especially “[Don’t] selectively solicit positive reviews from customers.”

Here is the other criteria for text reviews:

• Don’t include promotional or commercial content.
• Don’t offer or accept money in exchange for reviews.
• Don’t solicit reviews from customers in bulk.
• Don’t use reviews for advertising purposes. This includes, but is not limited to, posting email addresses, phone numbers, social media links, or links to other websites in your reviews.

Most of these points are fairly straight forward, but it’s fair to say a couple of these guidelines are up for interpretation (which I’m convinced was their goal), but experienced marketers should know the difference. The solicitation practice Google is likely referring to is a technique called “review gating”.

Review Gating is the two-step process of filtering through customers before asking them to leave a review — this should make you think of different types of automated software. This is usually how those work:

1. “Thanks for your business. Were you satisfied with your experience?”
2. Customers who respond negatively are filtered into an internal database where the business owner can then deal with the situation internally. If the customers responds positively they will receive a second email/text/communication asking them to leave a review on a platform of their choice.

I know what you’re thinking,

“Uh oh! That’s what everyone does right? How else do you get positive reviews? Positive reviews are the only things that matter…I can’t have negative reviews sitting on my rating!”

Wrong. All wrong.

First of all, yes, positive reviews are important. Reviews themselves are the new “word-of -mouth” marketing. In fact, 92 percent of consumers read online reviews. It’s important to understand that good and bad reviews are not black and white. I don’t know about you, but when I am online window shopping one 5-star review compared to one 2-star review has never made a difference.

It’s not enough to pay thousands of dollars to an agency to game the system and spam your customers with unwanted notifications. Consumers are getting smarter all the time and younger customers are able to recognize when businesses are putting on a false front. Good businesses get the good reviews they deserve and negative reviews create legitimacy in a way positive ones can’t.

Although Google will most-likely enforce these rules when they see fit (sources say they will take the reviews down — we’ll see), they are right to be doing what they’re doing.

Google’s updated policies don’t need to be intimidating or scary to business owners, but here are a few steps you can take to avoid stepping on Google’s toes when it comes to reviews:

1. Don’t be afraid of negative reviews. You have the power to control your image with reviews when you respond to them. That is when potential customers can read your responses and see that you are constantly aware of what your customers are feeling and where you can improve. That can be just as effective as a positive review. Especially when you can turn an unhappy customer into a loyal one!
2. The best way to get (positive) reviews is to ASK. My clients often ask me how they can get more reviews. My first answer is always to just ask. When a satisfied customer is standing in your store and is happy with their experience they WANT to help you. Here at Optimize Social Media we have our own review management app. That system starts with our clients asking their satisfied customers if they can text them a link to one of their review platforms. No database, no email list, no recurring messages — just one single text or email and they’re done.
3. Get rid of solicitation platforms, because you don’t need them. My clients with subscriptions to those agencies get as many bad reviews as they do positive. Plus, if you have exponentially more positive reviews than negative, savvy consumers will see that as disingenuous. Yes, with our app you have to physically ask your customers for a review and then send them a text or email yourself, but the experience begins by building a human relationship with your customer which is always more beneficial in the long run. My clients accept they can’t stop the negative reviews (which they are okay with), but they understand they can at least ask in a face-to-face conversation with their customers for more positive ones.
4. Always implement your best business practices. Yes, I know…who am I to tell you what best business practices are, right? Well, it’s the second week in May and I have responded to over 100 reviews since the first of the month. The positive reviews all say some variation of the following:

• The shop communicated with them openly and every step of the way
• The customer did not feel belittled are that they were being talked down to
• The employees delivered quality service
• Taking into account all of the above, the customer was happy with the prices (even if they were a little more on the expensive side, the customer experience was worth it)

So ask your customers next time you are talking to them for a review and don’t be afraid of the negative ones. Also, don’t worry about these updates because your store will still have the rating it deserves. Now, go back and read the events, and photo and video policies and you’ll be fine.

Optimize Social Media provides social media & reputation solutions that evolve with our clients. As social media experts we manage Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yelp, YouTube and Instagram accounts for our clients on a daily basis. We help the modern business owner implement a specialized social media strategy so that they can make more money in real life. Enjoy our blog.