The Mayans were just a little off...

[ryan.leslie]

Maybe it's just a bug, but I think you are about to see Google fix a glaring omission in the enforcement of their TOS. There was a thread about fake review content here on DealerRefresh that went south and I said I would not post in it any longer, I'm standing by that, but this is potentially HUGE NEWS.

I've been searching for the last 15 minutes to find the place page of a dealer that I have been trying to warn about using Review Boost since July. I cannot find their page and believe they have been delisted.

I'm not happy about this. This isn't an "I told you so" post. For the dealer's that have been taken advantage of by unscrupulous vendors that capitalized on Google's lax enforcement of their TOS, I hope that the punishment from Google isn't too severe and they focus on blowing up the posters. I think Google is equally culpable for such lax enforcement of their own TOS.

 

[yagoparamo]

It is hard to stick to the truth when everyone around you tries to cheat... this year will be full of "I told you so" from you to the dealers that tried to scam the system.

 

[ed.brooks]

If you needed any more proof that an honest and diversified Review Strategy makes sense, here it is!

 

[ryan.leslie]

There is something crazy going on with Google Reviews right now.

I just emailed back and forth with Blumenthal and he is in agreement that some faked content is indeed coming down, but he's not sure if it is an algo change or a targeted removal. He did send me a link to a few Google forum posts of similar things going on in other industries too, pages and reviews disappearing.

What is concerning to me is that some stores that I don't believe were cheating have lost reviews as well. Hopefully there will be more on that front soon.

 

[bzweifel]

they got what they deserve. I worked hard for our 4.5 stars/ 32 google places reviews for the benefit of the dealership, I didn't get paid for doing the templates asking for the reviews, or monitoring gmail addresses on the delivery log. I knew it would pay off some how and it seemed worth it.

so frankly, I have no sympathy for dealers who got it the easy way by posting fake ones. I hear horror stories all day long from customers about how they were just at a competing Toyota and got put through the gamut , bait and switch, "my manager won't honor that", "I made a mistake", "everyone pays freight", "TrueCar doesn't own this dealership - I don't know why my dealer is listed as $1000 under invoice on there but here's what I can do", "that one was just sold".....just everything you can think of. Then I go to their google place-page and they have 29 reviews with 4 stars. You're kidding yourself if you think that a customer cares that I have 4.5 and they have 4. I don't understand why more customers don't post reviews. Or why more customers don't read reviews. I worked harder to get google reviews because I believed that it must affect the search rank since google took down all 3 party listed reviews from the place page. It was the only thing that made sense to me.

I wish I had tracked the changes that I've made but I honestly didnt' know the entire effect it would have. I'm no expert, but here's the scenerio. I'm a smallish dealership, mediocre SEO AND our website is in flash!!

about 6 months ago
a search in google maps for: "new toyota's for sale in maryland" did not show us at all in the 30+ results
a search in google maps for: "new cars for sale near waldorf md" showed us as #7
a search in google maps for: "used cars for sale near waldorf md" showed us as #13
we had 4 reviews, 3.5 stars , and a messy places page info wise.

I changed a few categories, matched our contact info up to other database's, got 32 reviews 4.5 stars.

right now
a search in google maps for: "new toyota's for sale in maryland" #4 and one of the 3 above me is CAT [distributor]
a search in google maps for: "new cars for sale near waldorf md" #1
a search in google maps for: "used cars for sale near waldorf md" #2


I'm assuming that Google is cracking down because they changed the algo to weigh heavily on reviews. We aren't big, we get outsold by many other dealers, and our site is still flash. I'm no Pash or Pistell, but I would say that my reviews paid off maybe? I haven't changed much else between now and then.


You can now see my lack of sympathy for forgers. to hell with them.

 

[Jerry Thibeau]

Per Google: Removals of Google Places reviews - Places Help

Check this out: 4 Social Media Pitfalls to Avoid - Article - F&I Magazine

 

[ryan.leslie]

WOW! Unscrupulous Vendors-Put your Goggles on 'cause it is about to hit the fan...

If you think you are pulling the wool over a consumer's eyes with bought content or content you loaded under a single reviewer on a Places page, the comment section of this article is a must read...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/27/t...-gets-5-star-reviews.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Here are some samples: