Your relevant reviews on Google can help to build the credibility of a business and the trust of customers. The policies on Google’s feedback are based on real experiences to increase the results of each individual review. Off-topic reviews can weaken trust and also affect the quality of the information.
Here are three things to have – the relevance for the business, which shows that you had the experience itself, and keeping any commentary related to the service. These things matter for compliant reviews.
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What Is Off-Topic Content?
Your Google review should have what actually happened during your visit to a business. Like telling a friend about your experience, you’ll want to share the real events and the facts that matter.
People write off-topic reviews in different ways. You might see personal and angry rants about situations that have nothing to do with the business. Some reviewers even throw in their political views or random life stories.
These kinds of extra facts just make it harder for other customers to get the information they need. When you talk about the slow service, bitter coffee, or an unfriendly barista, it makes total sense. But bringing up your rough day at work or complaining about new parking laws doesn’t help anyone find out if they want to grab their morning coffee there or not.
Google wants to see real customers sharing real experiences in reviews. Your friend’s second-hand story about a location won’t cut it. Neither will those glowing reviews from employees’ relatives who haven’t actually been to the business themselves. A business’s online reputation is harmed by scattered or off-topic content in reviews.
Other customers won’t be able to find the feedback they need when the reviews are filled with irrelevant information. It might get tough to find out what is real feedback versus a person just reviewing things like it’s their personal blog.
Other customers want to hear about experiences that actually matter. They don’t need facts about your neighbor’s loud dog or your thoughts on who might make a better mayor.
Your review should include what happened while you were at the establishment. Did the mechanic get your car running okay? Was your hotel room spotless or maybe a bit untidy? How did the restaurant’s food taste? That kind of relevant feedback helps future customers know what they should expect.
Your actual experience matters the most when you’re writing a Google review about any business. Other customers need some real facts about the products and the service to help them choose where to spend their money. Random political opinions or social commentary will only get in the way of what matters.
Just imagine reading this pizza review – “Crispy pepperoni and cheese – but the owner needs to learn about climate change.” This kind of feedback won’t help you choose if you want to order pizza there.
Similar kinds of problems come up when reviewers include a store’s political beliefs or social positions that have no connection to the customer service. Strong feelings about causes deserve a good choice of venues for conversation. But business reviews aren’t the right place.
A review like “The coffee tasted good. But I wish they supported more causes I like” tells you nothing about the real drinks or the service quality. These kinds of unrelated comments usually start fights in the review section. Easy feedback about a restaurant often can become a heated political debate instead.
This frustrates the people who just want to learn about the actual business. Google also removes all reviews that have political or social disputes instead of giving real customer experiences. They want those reviews to have feedback about the products and services so users can actually find information about local businesses.
Reviews should have business experiences. When someone writes, “The haircut was nice. But this salon should help out more in the community,” they miss the point of reviews. You want to know if you’ll get a professional haircut, not if the salon volunteers in the neighborhood.
Avoid Personal Rants And Irrelevant Details
You want to know what helps when you read through a business review on Google. Personal stories and random rants about someone’s life have no place there – they just get in the way of information. Facts about the food and the service should help to lead your next restaurant choice – not someone’s unfortunate day.
These reviews can sometimes become more like personal diaries. They might ramble on and on about fights with their spouse or tough weeks at work. You just can’t find the information you need when the irrelevant bits and pieces clutter up the review.
Someone’s sad story about their cat passing away before dinner won’t help you choose if you want to eat there. Facts like the food quality, the friendly service, and fair prices tell you what you need to know. Those kinds of random personal facts just waste your time and everybody else’s time, too.
Reviews should follow what helps you make decisions. Google has rules against this type of behavior. They’re not interested in the personal drama or random life updates in their reviews (and nobody else is, either). Your review might even get taken down if it veers too far off-topic.
This helps to make it clear for other customers who need real information to make better decisions. Some people will use reviews as a way to get their revenge. Maybe they feel angry about something unrelated to the business itself.
Maybe they even used to work there but left on rough terms. These revenge reviews won’t help you get an honest picture of what to expect. They just make it harder to find out if a business is worth checking out.
Your time can help when reading reviews. You shouldn’t have to dig through a stranger’s personal diary to find out if the establishment is worth visiting. That’s why focusing on real business experiences makes reviews better. Skip over the emotional outbursts and the personal rants – they only get in the way of real, honest feedback.
Skip Promotion Or Mention Other Businesses
You’ll find that Google protects the authenticity of reviews by working to remove any promotional content from customer feedback. You can also see mentions of competitors and marketing plugs disappear faster as the platform focuses on the real customer experiences at each business.
You might find yourself scrolling through the restaurant reviews to try to find your next dinner destination. You probably want to read some real stories about what others ate and how they were treated. Direct recommendations can serve you better than comparisons to other restaurants.
That kind of feedback gives a clear input based on actual experiences. The FTC has now put some strict rules in place about truthful advertising and customer endorsements.
You’ll probably find it confusing when reviews include promotional messages to try to sway you. It can also become nearly impossible to separate real feedback from the deceptive plans used in marketing.
Some crafty business owners will try to slip in mentions of the other locations they have or the extra services they give you in their reviews. Even worse, these employees might leave fake and negative reviews about their competing businesses. These sketchy moves destroy the trust people have in review spaces and turn honest customer feedback into more of a marketing battlefield.
Google wants users to make decisions based on the real customer stories they read. Reviews work best when people share what actually happened to them during their visit. When promotional content or competitor talk gets added to reviews, it makes users doubt if any of the opinions are even real anymore.
Review sections work almost like a trusted friend giving you some honest advice. When people start pushing other businesses or dropping buzzwords from marketing, the entire system begins to fall apart. Users also like to stop trusting the review websites once they start filling up with promotional materials.
Why Remove Off-Topic Content?
Google harshly punishes off-topic content in reviews by deleting them from your business profiles. Your review count will suddenly drop without any heads-up – this leaves you thinking about what may have happened.
Your online reviews can affect the success of your business. When you miss some reviews, they knock down your star rating and can push potential customers away. Most people will scroll right past businesses with fewer reviews than their competitors.
Real customers feel cheated when their honest and real feedback seems to vanish into thin air. You might spend about 20 minutes writing up your dining experience, only for Google to delete it because you mentioned something they didn’t want to see. It makes people far less likely to bother looking over establishments in the future.
These deleted reviews can start a dangerous domino effect. Your business profile faces extra scrutiny from Google once the reviews get flagged as problematic. Some unlucky business owners have even seen their entire review section temporarily shut down when they face multiple challenges.
Google wants reviews to go well with actual customer experiences at your business. Their system blocks out political messages, personal fights, or stories about other establishments. While this seems basic, their automated filters sometimes remove valid reviews, too.
This strict strategy changes how everyone mixes with review places. People trust the reviews more when they can only see relevant and recent feedback about actual visits. But you lose something when customers can’t completely express their thoughts and experiences.
Small businesses suffer the most from these vanishing reviews. Local shops usually have just a handful of ratings, which makes each one count for their reputation. When they lose even a few legitimate reviews, it can harm their business website and make them much harder to find.
Encourage Relevant And Useful Reviews
You need to create the right environment for honest feedback. Businesses often struggle because they don’t know how to guide their customers.
The timing can help get quality reviews from your customers. You should wait a day or two after they buy so it gives them enough time to form opinions about their experience – this guarantees that their memory is still fresh while they’ve had enough of a chance to actually use what they bought from you.
A quick and friendly follow-up email works for quality reviews. Keep your message short and welcoming. Let your customers know where they can leave their feedback and what information would be useful.
Your customers will respond better when you make the review process easy to follow. Skip the overly tough terms or the industry language in your instructions. Clear questions allow your customers to share their real experiences. Your best bet is to focus completely on good service and letting real reviews come naturally.
Businesses sometimes fall into the trap of giving rewards or pushing hard for positive feedback – this usually backfires and might even break Google’s rules.
Reviews should match the real customer experiences with your business. Google doesn’t want to see political comments, personal rants, or unrelated topics in reviews. These off-topic reviews are in danger of being flagged and removed from your profile.
Your customers will like having multiple ways to share their thoughts. While some might like email surveys, others may want to leave quick reviews on your Google Business Profile. The more options you give them, the more feedback you’ll receive from your audience.
Your response to feedback will show customers that you care about what they think. When you take the time to acknowledge each review, it can welcome more customers to share their experiences as well.
Monitor and Manage Your Reputation
Your personal experience carries the real weight when you try to write reviews about local businesses. You’ll help the customers and the business owners the most when you share honest and firsthand facts about what happened during your visit. Real stories from real customers create a type of review community that everyone wants to use and trust.
Those reviews about the food quality, the friendly service, or how well the repairs held up probably made your choice easier when you needed help picking out a restaurant or finding someone to fix your car. You, too, can write reviews like these by focusing on the actual experiences that happened during your visit.
That’s how we can all build a type of community where honest feedback helps businesses grow. It helps the customers find what they need the most. Your observations about what happened can build trust and guide others to businesses that fit what they’re looking for. Take a minute to remember which information would have helped you the most before your own visit.
A big part of this is keeping businesses’ reputations healthy and honest. Businesses deserve to have helpful reviews on their profile and not fake or misleading ones dragging them down.
On the topic of handling business reputation online, we at Reputation.ca lead the way in dealing with reviews, social media, PR, and crisis response in Canada. Your business can use expert assistance to handle cancel culture and build a stronger kind of business website. We have personalized services that match your situation, so reach out to us today.
