Holy Crap - Google Kicks Out 3rd Party Reviews in Star Counts

Change once again is rocking the automotive digital marketing world as Google today drops the third party review counts from its yellow stars. ONLY reviews directly posted on Google Places are showing. This screen shot of BMW of Scherville showed all the DealerRater reviews last week in their star counts but not today.

This is what their Google Places account looked like last week:

In fact, all BMW dealers in Chicago are impacted:

In-Store Reputation Management & Google Places

I've been coaching dealers to start using the Google Places App on their iPhones and iPads to increase directly posted reviews. The benefit? The dealer can use Google Boost to spice up their PPC strategy.

I also warned dealers that if Google every dropped the review "counts" from the stars from 3rd parties, they would be better protected by having a direct Google Places posting strategy.

Now keep in mind, Google is still showing the counts from third parties in brackets, but the key metric is that the yellow stars are what always show and not always do the consolidated reviews show.

A Tsunami of Change

Acton Toyota has over 1,227 reviews posted on DealerRater but they only have 10 reviews directly posted on Google Places. A few weeks ago I saw their Google listing and it showed over 1,000 reviews with their stars. That is now history!

In fact, Google is not even showing all of their reviews from Dealerrater.com as shown below:

Dealers looking for direction on how to best adapt to these changes should start an in store reputation management process that include using 3G iPads and iPhone devices.

Dealers must set processes to identify consumers with Google accounts while they are in the dealership. 550,000 Android devices are activated a DAY and all have Google Accounts. Google empowered consumers can post reviews directly on Google Places, with their account, from a mobile device.

I told dealers this day would come and today is that day. If you need help with in store training, processes, and strategy on reputation management, give me a call. I'm here to help. We have the strategy and solutions.

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing

732-672-2356

1 member likes this

Comment

You need to be a member of DealerELITE.net to add comments!

Join DealerELITE.net

Comment by Brian Pasch on July 22, 2011 at 9:49am: The number of consumers that have Gmail accounts will be growing, since Android activations are at 550,000 a day. I estimate that 20-25% of dealership clients today will have a Gmail account or associated business account. Those numbers will be increasing.

Dealers can get a jump start on this recent change in Google Places by searching their DMS for Gmail accounts, and sending them a special email encouraging them to assist your dealership with this change in Places. It will not fix any large drop in reviews, but its an easy way to jump start things.

The best time to get a review is while two people are face to face in the dealership. So, implementing an in-store process is critical and most effective to collect authentic reviews. Once you have these reviews, you can syndicate them on your blogs and platforms like Prestoreviews.com also provide an SEO benefit.

Dealers should be considering adding banners and desktop tent cards throughout the dealership to increase the feedback about the customer experience at the store. The signage starts conversations that can turn into in-store review compliance.

Anyone who needs help in this area, can call.

Comment by Brian Pasch on July 22, 2011 at 9:49am: Here is a link to an article that confirm that this change is here to stay:

http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/21/google-places-stops-stealing-reviews/

Comment by Joe Webb on July 21, 2011 at 8:26pm: Brian - wasn't it just last week at dinner in Seattle I told you that this was inevitable? That is why I have my clients directing reviews to Google Hotpot, just to prepare for this.

Comment by Brian Pasch on July 21, 2011 at 4:57pm: I think that Google may take the stance that the review stars are their counts and that they are being democratic and fair by rolling up the review counts underneath the listing.

It is also consistent that they want more businesses to use Google Boost and thus the stars in Boost will match their Places stars.

It was odd to see a Boost PPC advertising on Page One with 11 stars and a Places Page with 300 stars on the same page.

Comment by David T. Gould on July 21, 2011 at 4:08pm: dealerrater's stock just dropped. every business needs a "google" strategy.

Comment by Jim Kristoff on July 21, 2011 at 3:20pm: Google is running the world........